Page 80 of Give Me Honesty

“What happened to your back?” I blurted out the moment I stepped inside his room. Solomon jumped up from his push-up position and turned to me with a glare.

“What the fuck is your problem?” he sneered. His tone caught me off guard because over the last six months we had known each other, he never showed any signs of anger.

“I-I was just coming to say hi and bring you some cookies from my Aunt’s bakery.” I stuttered, holding up the bag filled with sweet treats.

“I see being rich and privileged doesn’t come with manners. How many times do I have to tell you to stop walking in my shit without knocking? I could be in here jacking my dick or something. You gotta chill,” he scoffed as he reached for the T-shirt on his bed. It seemed like he was trying to deflect from the original topic, and I wasn’t going to let it happen.

I walked over to him and snatched the T-shirt from his hands and put it behind my back.

“What the fuck? Gimme my shirt back. What are you going?” He fumed, his nostrils flared in irritation, but it did nothing to deter me.

“I’ll give it back when you tell me what happened to your back. You always wear a tank whenever we go swimming, but I always assumed you did it to be cool or something. Who did that to you?” I stepped closer to him, but he stepped back.

“It’s none of your business. I think it’s time for you to leave.” Solomon spoke through gritted teeth. I grew up with brothers and sisters, so I wasn’t easily affected by warnings or empty threats. I may not have known everything there was to know about him, but I knew enough to know he wouldn’t hurt me.

“I’ll leave after you tell me the truth. I promise I’m not here to judge you or anything. We’re friends and friends are supposed to tell each other things.” I reasoned.

“Who said I wanted to be your friend, Honesty? You’re acting as if you gave me a choice?” he chuckled in frustration, but I could tell his anger wasn’t directed towards me.

“Well, it’s the same thing. I decided that we’re going to be besties, so it’s about time you fall in line and get with the program.” I shrugged. I set the bag of cookies on his bed, then tossed his shirt across the room.

Solomon watched the shirt fall to the floor, then shook his head. His eyes were fixed on me as I inched closer. We were almost chest to chest, and the sound of his breathing grew louder. His face held a stoic expression, but when I placed my hand on his chest where his heart was, I could feel it beat wildly.

My eyes shot up to his, but his face remained emotionless. My hands roamed his body as I examined him like a patient. I paid attention to every detail on his body, every scar, every gash, every dent, and every tattoo. He had a mole on his right wrist and a cloud-shaped birthmark on the left side of his stomach, beneath his belly button.

Solomon stood there frozen as I copied his body to my memory. When I made it to his back, he shifted. When my eyes landed on the various marks on his back, my stomach twisted. His cocoa-brown skin was marred by scars of many shapes and sizes. I ran my fingertips over the bumps and ridges of scar tissue, and tears pricked my eyes.

I had always been an empath when it came to the pain of others. The emotions ran deep, and I always wanted to fix whatever was broken. My momma would tell me I couldn’t save everyone, but I refused to believe her. As I stared at Solomon’s back, I thought about how closed off he was and how he kept to himself. It angered me to think someone had played a hand in dimming his light. He didn’t deserve that. Nobody did.

“Who hurt you?” I whispered.

His shoulders dropped, but he didn’t turn around.

“Life. You and I aren’t from the same world. It’s a lot of shit you’ll probably never experience or understand. You see the world from a different view, but I know the real.”

“And what’s the real?”

“The world is a dark and dangerous place. There are no Egyptian cotton sheets, shopping sprees, or forehead kisses where I’m from. Only the strong survive.” He replied in a cold, hollow tone.

“Then you must be one of the strongest.”

“Something like that.”

I hugged him from behind and allowed my silent tears to fall. I hated that I hadn’t known him sooner. Before the world broke and took away his faith in people. My arms were wrapped around his waist as we stood there in silence. That night, I vowed to always show up for him and give him the love he thought didn’t exist.

As we stood in silence, in the shower, I couldn’t help but reflect on that night. It took a while for Solomon to open up to me, but I was determined to be a part of his world. I couldn’t even explain why it mattered so much to me; it just did. The mural of colors and themes covered his scars and marks, but they were still there. The evidence of his strength and the root of his pain.

Once I finished washing his back, I pulled his arm to signal for him to turn around. Reluctantly, he faced me, and I saw the familiar stoic expression. No words were spoken, as I continued to wash him up. His eyes raked over my body, but I focused on washing him up.

His dick stood at attention as I ran the washcloth over his shaft. It still didn’t make any sense how someone so skinny could possess such a large and thick dick. He laughed whenever I referred to it as an elephant trunk, but that’s what it was. A damn safety hazard if you asked me.

I heard a light chuckle escape him as I stood there with wonder in my eyes. There was no shame in my game as I stroked it in my hands. Then I remembered I wasn’t there for that, and I pushed his back so the water could rinse off his soap-covered body.

Once I was satisfied with the work I had done, I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around his body. Things were different than they were when we were teens because he towered over me much more now. The water from the showerhead soaked my hair as I squeezed him tighter, but I didn’t care. Together, we stood there as I hugged my protector and prayed over him. His arms wrapped around me, but he still didn’t say anything. Instead, he kissed the top of my head.

I hated that I couldn’t take his pain away. It broke my heart to know how much he carried inside of him that he refused to let out. The outburst at the party made me realize his pain ran far deeper than I ever imagined, and I hated that there was nothing I could do to fix it.

We both washed up in the shower before we finally got out. We headed into the bedroom where we both dried off and put on our respective night clothes. Solomon hadn’t said much, and it bothered me more than I cared to admit. It was like waiting for a volcano to erupt. There was no way he could sweep everything back under the rug and continue on as if it hadn’t happened. Or at least that’s what I thought.