Jayden blinked. "...I never said you were?"
"Don't play dumb with me, Norman. I know you remember what you said."
"Well, I'm glad you remember whatever it was. Maybe you could enlighten me?" Jayden drawled sarcastically. Carter looked at him out of the corner of his eye.
Shit, what if he was telling the truth? Well he certainly wasn't going to talk about it any more, else Norman might think he was prolonging the subject... He'd just better check though...
"So you don't remember?"
"Carter, I think it's pretty obvious that I don't remember whatever you're going on about. I was in a pain-killer induced happy stupor, remember? Well... happy except when those sharks kept swimming about on the ward." He shuddered slightly. "Anyway, whatever you've got to say, will you just hurry up and say it? If you have a problem with my sexuality, that's fine, I just wish you'd decide so I know whether I have to get out and walk or not." Carter nodded.
"Fine. As long as you didn't... just... fine. It's okay. I don't... don't have a problem with you being a...being..."
"A queer?" Jayden interrupted with the hint of a sardonic smile.
"Shut up Jayden. You know what I mean."
There was silence for a while, in which Norman contemplated what Carter had just said. I love you Carter? Shit... had he really said that? Shit... Jayden decided to say something before the silence could get any more awkward.
"Carter, why do you work at the soup kitchen anyway? I mean, I never saw you as the type to be... well... charitable. Or friendly, now I come to think of it..." Norman slyly added in to the end of his statement, which earned him a glare from Carter.
"It's a long story. Maybe I'll tell you someday."
That basically means he won't then... Norman thought.
"Hey. Where are we going anyway? I mean, we're just around the corner, but whose house is it?"
"Hmm? Oh, it's my parents. They said they'd accept me back if I stopped being gay." Carter blinked, unsure he'd heard him correctly, and turned to look at him as he got out of the car.
"Last I heard, people couldn't just 'stop' being whatever sexual orientation they are... It's like asking Ash not to be a nosey dickweed..." Jayden smiled at him and laughed, and Carter was startled to get a squirming feeling in his stomach.
Shit, what was that... no. I'm just hungry, that's it...
"Yea, well." Norman replied, still grinning, "That's true. But Mom and Dad don't know that."
Carter got out, and stood on the sidewalk, hands on his hips.
"So what, you're just going to lie? Just going to take the easy way out, tell 'em you're a good straight boy, like your ex was?" Carter sneered. Norman turned red with anger, and glared daggers at Carter.
"Why the Hell do you care?" he yelled. "You don't know me, you don't know or care what I've been through! All you want to do is judge!"
"Yeah? Well it's fucking easy to judge a little prick like you!"
"You can talk, Mr. On-The-Front-Page-Of-The-Tabloids-For-Police-Assault!" Carter winced.
Shit, that was low. Must've hit a nerve.
"At least we got the right guy eventually!"
"Eventually?" Jayden laughed. "That's about right. And from what I heard, one of the boys' mothers shot him! A woman! The whole of the police force out looking for him, and the one to catch him isn't the local police, or the FBI, or the magnificent Carter Blake! It's one woman. On her own, with a hand pistol. Yeah. Great going there, Carter."
"Fuck you, Jayden! You accused the wrong person too, remember?"
"I remember. But I didn't beat the guy I accused up. And I was being screwed over by the FBI at the time, rather than just being plain incompetent!"
They were interrupted by a polite cough, and they turned round to see a man of about seventy staring pointedly at them.
"Keep the noise down, this is a respectable community here." Jayden coughed, and looked down at his boots.
"Yea, I er... yea. Sorry Dad."