Sandy pushed the door open. "I thought you were coming to my roo…" he stopped speaking mid-sentence, completely shocked and appalled by the sight in front of him. Jeffrey lie there naked next to Dinah. His arm around her. Their bodies still covered in sweat. He wanted to get out of there, but he felt stuck to the ground. His eyes glued to the sight as if it were some horrific train wreck.

Jeffrey stirred awake, but it took a few moments for him to realize that Sandy was in the room. And that Dinah was still there too.

"DAMN YOU!" Sandy shouted. "DAMN YOU, JEFFREY O'NEILL!"

Jeffrey looked up from the bed. "Jonathan… I…" he started, trying to think up some logical explanation, but finding himself unable to finish his words before being cut off.

"I have had it!" Sandy shouted. "I'm leaving! I'm done with this charade! You can just find yourself a new son!"

"Jonathan… Wait…" Jeffrey said, getting up out of bed and pulling on his boxers and pants as quickly as he could.

"I'm not gonna wait!" Sandy said. "I'm leaving! I'm done!"

"Jonathan… I… I can explain…"

"Stop calling me that!" Sandy snapped.

"Sandy, please…" Jeffrey said. "Please… Just… Don't leave…"

Sandy walked out of the room, and headed for his own, slamming the door shut behind him.

Jeffrey followed him inside.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" Sandy shouted.

"I am not going to just let you leave!"

"What are you gonna do, huh? You gonna blackmail me because I fled the scene of a crime, or whatever the hell you wanna call it? Fine! Go right on ahead. Arrest me, Jeffrey. Put me in jail. At least the guys there won't have a problem telling me what exactly I'm worth to them…"

"I am not going to blackmail you…"

"Good… Then… I'm leaving…"

Jeffrey grabbed Sandy by the wrist and pulled him close. "I said you're not going anywhere!" he growled.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Sandy spat, pulling away from him.

"And just where exactly do you plan on going? Huh? Back to your wonderful little family?"

"At least there I knew I was unwanted!"

"You're not unwanted here…"

"No? Why? You plan on coming back to me after you get bored with her?"

"I want you! Not her!"

"Really… That's not what it looked like…"

"Sandy! I love you!"

"Don't say that to me!"

"Why not, it's true!"

"NO! NO! NO! If it was true I wouldn't've had to walk in and see the two of you…"

"I'm sorry! All right! I made a mistake! What more do you want me to say?"

"I want you to tell me why!"

"I just… I got too far into it…"

"Too far into it? What in the fuck is that even supposed to mean?"

"It was like… I just lost control… Like I wasn't even myself anymore…"

"Of course you weren't yourself… You were Richard, right?"

"Yes, I…"

"THAT IS THE MOST PATHETIC EXCUSE I HAVE EVER HEARD! WHY CAN'T YOU JUST TELL ME THE TRUTH?"

"What do you want me to say, Sandy? Tell me what you want me to say and I will say it!!!"

"I want… I wanna hear the truth! The real truth! That you don't love me. That you never loved me. That I was just a fuck. What we shared was nothing more than a kinky game…"

"You know that none of that is true! Sandy, I love you!"

"You don't love Sandy… You weren't even fucking Sandy… You were fucking Jonathan…"

"NO!"

"Yes! And in there right now, was that Dinah you were fucking, or Princess Cassie?? That's who you really want, isn't it? That's who you've wanted all along!"
"You have no idea what you are talking about!"

"You know, I don't even know you, Jeffrey O'Neill…"

"You don't even know me?" Jeffrey spat, grabbing Sandy's arm again. "Then look me in the eye and tell me you don't love me!"

"I HATE YOU!" Sandy yelled.

"That's not what I asked you!"

"How can I love a man that I don't even know? Maybe I was just in love with Richard Winslow…"

"That's bullshit and you know it!"

"No more bullshit than that crap you were feeding me about not being able to control yourself! If you ever gave a damn about me then you will just let me leave! Please! I can't stand to look at you. I can't stand to hear your voice…" Sandy pulled his arm away from him. "I can't stand you touching me… You don't need me here. You're the prince. You have your princess. You don't need me. I'm completely immaterial. Jonathan is dead. So why won't you just let him die?"

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Jonathan awoke to find the woman gone. Not that he really cared. Looking over at the nightstand by the bed he saw a piece of a paper. He picked it up and read it under his breath. "Wanna know more? Call me… I think that we could be good together. Really, really good together." He turned it over to see the picture on the other side. It was Sandy. His Sandy. And… Was that his father? No. Couldn't be. They'd told him his father was dead. But… He certainly didn't look dead in the picture…

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"There's… No way I'm gonna talk you out of this… Is there?" Jeffrey said, the realization of the magnitude of the mistake he'd just made finally hitting him full force.

"No." Sandy said. His eyes burned, the finality of the situation cutting even deeper than the betrayal. But his resolve was iron. He was not going to cry. Not in front of Jeffrey. Not going to give him the satisfaction of knowing just how deep the hurt went.

"I'm not going to stop you." Jeffrey said, sullenly. "But… You have to know… I never meant for this to happen… I never set out to hurt you…"

"Just go, Jeffrey! Please!" Sandy snapped, knowing that he wouldn't be able to hold in the tears much longer.

"I'm sorry…" Jeffrey said. "And you'll never understand just how much…" He turned away from Sandy and walked out the door.

"I understand…" Sandy said softly, the memory just as piercing as it had been the day he'd formed it. "I understand just how much…"