Zenith Fulfilled Read Online Free Page A

it a bit sad that she seemed so positive she needed his help.
    Then, with a sneer, he dropped the stack of papers back onto the picnic table. He couldn’t help anyone during the last decade of his life, and he wasn’t interested in doing it now.
    ****
    Rob clapped Spencer on his back when he approached him. They stood together, watching the wedding reception happening around them while Erica danced with Nick. Despite Rob’s incessant frustration and denial, Spencer genuinely liked Nick and wasn’t the slightest bit jealous that Nick once dated his wife.
    “So how does it feel, man? To be Mr. Dr. Erica Heathersby? ”
    Spencer scowled , then turned and punched Rob in the stomach. Rob let out a grunt, but grinned up at Spencer as Spencer smiled back at him. “You’re a real dickhead, you know that, Rob? It’s Mr. Dr. Erica Mattox . And good. That’s how it feels… really good.”
    Rob let out a laugh at seeing Spencer so mushy, and open, and full of joyous feelings that he was sharing them, for once. “You know, don’t you? That I’m really happy for you?”
    Spencer glanced down at him, his expression sobering. “I know, man.”
    Rob nodded at him before they both looked away. They knew. They’d been through hell and back together. It began when Spencer first came to Rob at the age of thirteen and asked Rob to run away with him. Spencer was fleeing his abusive stepbrother. Rob, then seventeen, was still living with his alcoholic parents, and his father beat him often enough that he thought running away sounded like a fantastic idea. Rob and Spencer hightailed it out of their small, suburban neighborhood in Edmonds and relocated only twenty miles away in Seattle. They had to live on the streets for awhile; as well as in shelters, halfway houses, and other unseemly places. There were a few compassionate adults who tried to help them. But they never stayed too long in any one place. They only stuck by each other. It became Rob and Spencer versus the world.
    The only thing they both could do, and which meant the most to them, was make music. It was their only asset, something they both thought mattered. So they did that. They spent their shared years making music together; on street corners, at Pike Place Market, or the Seattle Center.  They became street musicians, and soon earned enough to keep from starving. It was their favorite way to survive, and finally allowed them the means to afford their first apartment together.
    Eventually, they created Zenith : the band they believed would take them to stardom. They wanted to be the next Rolling Stones , or Beatles , or even the next Bon Jovi. They dreamt of becoming the next big whatever, and that’s all that mattered.
    Rob met Joelle, who fell for Rob and dropped out of college . They brought her along for the ride. She got to experience firsthand the parties, the music, the gigs, the groupies, the alcohol, and all the street drugs. But now, instead of seeking fame and fortune with his wife and best friend at his side, Rob found himself all alone and broke, but sober .
    And now , here, together they stood, watching Spencer’s doctor bride dancing. His pretty, normal, beautiful, kind bride who offered Spencer a home, support, love, and normalcy. Erica virtually gave Spencer back his very soul. She saw in Spencer what no one else but Rob knew. Rob managed to learn everything about Spencer after living half his life alongside him.
    So letting Spencer go was the right thing to do, and Rob realized that. But it turned out to be one of the hardest things he ever did. Harder, even, than letting Joelle go.
    Spencer, however, didn’t need to know that. He deserved to move on and quit worrying about Rob. He needed to pursue his new life, and not cling to the low-class drudgery they became accustomed to before Erica showed up. Spencer’s good fortune was welcomed and applauded by Rob, even though it took everything in him to do it. He had to be selfless, and intended to do