The Writer and the Ghosts - 15

“Want me to cold-cock him?” Giorgio growled.

“No. I’m about to do it myself.” Linc paced two steps closer to Tom. “First off those sites are unreal because they’re just made to titillate. There’s not an ounce of caring in them. Secondly, just for your information mister whatever your last name is, I’m not straight and I’m not perverted. There’s not a damned thing wrong with being gay. Now, will you get your ass out of here.”

“It’s Rider. And I know.”

“Then why were you putting me down?”

“Because I didn’t know.”

Linc scrubbed a hand through his hair. “That’s a bit of a contradiction, you know and you didn’t know.”

“I know there’s nothing wrong with being gay, and I didn’t know you were. If I had I wouldn’t have said what I did.”

“Says the ‘I’m soooo tolerant’ straight guy,” Damian muttered.

“Shut up, both of you, I can’t deal with this and the two of you making comments in the back ground at the same time,” Linc said desperately. “Just…go play somewhere else for a while.”

Tom pushed off the door frame, coming back into the room. “Who are you talking to?” he asked, a puzzled look on his face. “Because this time I know you weren’t talking to yourself. Invisible friends, maybe, but not the big bunny kind I don’t think.”

“Well, no, they’re definitely not bunnies.”

Giorgio snorted. “Not bears either, thank goodness.”

“He hates hairy men,” Damian told Linc. “I think we’re closer to stallions.”

“Naw, tigers, all growls and purrs.”

Linc snorted.

“They’re talking to you again aren’t they?” Tom sat down on the edge of the bed. “The ghosts. The ones who’re supposed to haunt this place.”

“Maybe. Or maybe I’m just stark raving mad,” Linc replied tightly.

Tom ignored his tone of voice to ask with interest, “Do they appear or just babble?”

“I do not ‘babble’,” Giorgio said petulantly.

“From the amount of time Linc’s spent trying to cover up that he’s answering you I have the feeling you babble a lot,” Tom told him with a laugh before he looked at Linc, shock written on his face.

Linc was just as shocked as he looked back at him. “Wait a minute, you heard him?”

“Yes,” Tom said hesitantly. “Didn’t you?”

“Sure but I thought I was the only one who could.”

“Neither one of you is supposed to,” Damian told them. “Something’s more than weird here.”

“You mean other than the fact we’re talking to two ghosts?” Tom replied as he focused in on where Damian’s voice had come from. “Any chance I can see you as well as hear you?”