Epilogue
“Hey, man,” Jamie said, a large grin stretching his entire face, as soon as he noticed the guy walking straight toward him, his arms wide open. “Long time no see, right? How long has it been? Three years?”
“Yep.” Rusty smirked as he shamelessly checked out Jamie’s biceps by squeezing them hard. “I saw the flashy poster, and bang! There was your name. I had to see you. You so disappeared on us after we finished college. I thought you’d be wandering the world, breaking hearts left and right.”
Yet another person who thought he’d continue to get guys into bed with him with no interest to commit. It was a clear sign that he and Rusty hadn’t seen each other in a long time. These days, he was all about being a family man.
“And it’s a small world, after all.” Jamie felt a tad guilty about not keeping in touch, although Rusty had called a few times over the years. But he had been swept up in his life happening, truly happening, and he had forgotten about contacting his old friend from those crazy Sunny Hill days. “Although I have to correct you about my wandering. I’ve pretty much settled down now.”
“For real?” Rusty wiggled his eyebrows. “Don’t tell me you managed to fool a guy into thinking he could have you all to himself. I did,” he added with a goofy smile.
“Shut up. I know all about your lovely ball and chain,” Jamie replied, swatting Rusty playfully on one shoulder. “Come on, let’s have a drink. For old times’ sake.”
“Geez, you sound like we’re a hundred and one. Are you sure you don’t want to hang out with your brothers and sisters?” Rusty gestured at the raucous group hanging at the entrance, even if the show had been over for about half an hour.
Jamie looked over his shoulder at Melinda. He only needed to make a little sign at her; she nodded and waved at him to go with a small smile.
“I see them almost every week,” Jamie said. “Let’s have that drink and catch up.”
***
“Yeah, like Matty’s totally amazing,” Rusty continued to talk about his awesome family life. “I mean, my in-laws are so stoked about me, and I’m not even that big yet. They encourage me so much I even blush. Can you imagine me blushing?” Jamie couldn’t say that he could imagine that. “Although, I’ll be big one day. I’ll nail all the big roles. Then Matty can say that he’s screwing a top opera singer. It’s pretty much my goal in life.”
Jamie chuckled, leaning back into the comfortable seat. It was one of the places where he hung out with the other musicians in Melinda’s experimental band, and he felt proud to show it to Rusty. He had turned into a creature of habit, after all.
“Is Matty still as pretty as I remember him?” Jamie asked with a knowing smirk.
“Shut up. That’s my husband you’re talking about,” Rusty replied, grinning ear to ear. “He’s prettier than you remember him. I mean, handsomer. He has that professor look now that works so good for him. I’m still trying to convince him to discipline me properly when I’m out of line, but I suspect that I’m the teacher’s pet, no matter what I do.”
“So he’s teaching now?”
“Yeah. He still does freelance work, but since he’s so studious and calm, a career in education eventually felt natural to him. What about you? I keep babbling about me and Matty, and I bet you’re stoked about telling me how you settled down.”
“Well,” Jamie started, “the thing is you’re not the only one who got himself a cute cosplayer.”
Rusty’s eyes grew wide. “Don’t tell me.” He straightened in his seat and snapped his fingers. “That weird-ass rabbit? It was all over Xpress at one point.”
“Hey, don’t call him weird,” Jamie protested.
“I meant no disrespect, man,” Rusty said in a goofy voice. “But you do know who you’re talking to, right? In my vocabulary, weird is the same as, like, fantastic.”
Jamie chuckled. “Well, if you put it like that, you do have a point. Actually, he was pretty weird. Only that I discovered, even as he was stalking me in that pink monstrosity that I didn’t mind a bit of weird in my sandwich. Actually, plenty of it.”
Rusty snickered. “So, you’re eating a weird-ass rabbit every day? Or are you eating him out?”
It took Jamie a good moment to realize what Rusty was saying. He shook his head. “Rusty Parker, you’re one hell of a dude. They don’t make them like you anymore.”
Rusty puffed his chest out. “They’ve never made them like me. I’m unique.”
“So true.” Jamie lifted his beer. “Cheers, man.”
“And how is life with your rabbit? Wait, who was he, anyway?”
Jamie pondered a little over his reply. Would he betray his partner by disclosing that detail to Rusty?
His phone rang, putting a temporary stop to his dilemma. “I’ll take this, only for a moment,” he promised Rusty. “Hey, babe,” he replied, as soon as he heard Hearst’s voice at the other end. “I’m hanging out with Rusty if you remember him. Yes, Rusty Parker. What, for real? Okay, if you say so. I won’t be too late, I promise.”
Rusty seemed to have forgotten his line of inquiry from earlier. “That was him, right? It’s so strange to see you committed, but I suppose no one would have seen me tying the knot, either.”
“You did surprise a few people with that,” Jamie agreed. “Although you’ve always been loyal to your closest friends. So you did have it in you.”
“Ah, friends. Those were the days,” Rusty said with a long sigh. “We still hang out as often as we can, but college is far behind us now. By the way, do you know what also seemed so weird after we left Sunny Hill?”
“Tell me,” Jamie encouraged his old friend.
“Do you know that gossip rag, Xpress? It went completely silent. And it had been around since before we were students there. So we always thought it was a teacher or maybe someone who worked at Sunny Hill. They must have been students, like us, after all.”
Jamie pressed his lips together, holding back a grin. Since he had Hearst’s blessing, he could at least solve that mystery for Rusty.
“You’re right on the money with that.”
“What?” Rusty was about to drain his beer and stopped mid-way. His eyes narrowed. “Jamie, you know something. Did your rabbit unmask Xpress? For real?”
Jamie shrugged. “He didn’t have to. He was that guy. Well, one of the two guys writing Xpress.”
“Get out of here!” Rusty exclaimed. “Nah, you’re pulling my leg because you want to look cool. As if it’s not enough that you’re a famous musician, now.”
“Famous, my ass,” Jamie said, smirking. “If you didn’t see my name on that poster, you wouldn’t have figured out some people actually listen to my music.”
“That’s because you play the modest and don’t let your old pals know you’ve made it.”
“Eh, you’re right. My bad for not having called in so long.”
“No sweat,” Rusty said with a magnanimous smile. “So, what the hell are you telling me? Your furry friend was Xpress? Was he writing all those shitty rumors?”
“Yeah, I’m afraid so,” Jamie said. “And he was your Matty’s roommate, too.”
“That guy? What was his name?” Rusty looked at the ceiling, trying to conjure a memory from long ago. “John Smith?”
“John Hearst Smith, actually,” Jamie corrected him.
“For real? That’s one… okay, awesome name. So he aspired to be a big-ass journalist and was writing silly gossip to train for it? ‘Cause with a name like that--”
“That was pretty much his folks’ fault,” Jamie explained.
“True. So, where is he now? Writing for TMZ, EW, or something else?”
“No. Those days are behind him. And it was his older brother’s baby, anyway. I mean, Xpress.”
“That guy also went to Sunny Hill?”
“Yep.”
“That explains it, then. By the way, are you sure you’re supposed to be telling me about it? I wouldn’t want to get you in hot water with your better half.”
Jamie gave his old friend a big grin.
“Nah, no problem. He gave me the green light and told me to apologize in his name to you. Also, apparently, I’m not supposed to lie anymore.”
THE END
Thank you for reading! This was all, good people :) I'm glad you've stuck with these guys until the very end!
@Derek - I leave you now with the end to the story, and the entire Sunny Hill universe. And I left the door open for them to have a long and fulfilling life in all aspects :)
@DavidB - thank you for all the support, and I believe these guys deserved their happy end, at last.
@Marypiano - I love having humor sprinkled through my stories! I love it when my jokes land!
If you enjoyed this story, consider supporting the author on Patreon.
To get in touch with the author, send them an email.
