“Your neighbour is the man who needs you” (E. Hubbard 1856-1915)

by Nemo

The sound of the door-bell interrupted the two young lovers, just as things were beginning to get interesting. Their quiet Friday night in was proving more exciting than they'd originally anticipated and it was with a small sigh of disappointment, that Matt drew back from Drew and began to sit up. His progress was arrested by Drew's quick reactions. He stretched out his hand and grabbed Matt by his T-shirt drawing him back down for a passionate kiss, before the doorbell rang again and the two men reluctantly parted.

"Coming" Matt yelled as he disentangled himself from Drew, who was making half-hearted playful attempts to keep Matt with him on the sofa, grabbing at Matt's shirt. He extracted himself from his boyfriend's clutches and headed for the door. He stopped a second to check his fly was closed and then opened the door.

He was greeted by the familiar but far from welcoming face of his neighbour, Janice Roberts. Janice had never made any secret of her dislike of having a faggot for a next door neighbour, but had never been blunt enough to say so to Matt's face. Instead she relied on a lifetime's carefully honed skills of put-down's and backstabbing to make her feelings known to the neighbourhood.

"Well hello Mrs. Roberts. How can I help?" Asked Matt. She sniffed audibly and made a small grimace. In her mid-40s but trying to look 10 years younger, she hated anyone suggesting she was getting old, which was why Matt took every opportunity to rub in the fact that he was a good twenty years younger. Since he was only being polite there was no way she could overtly take offence, but they both knew the point Matt was making.

Janice glanced over Matt's shoulder to where Drew was stretched out on the sofa, his shirt half undone, with his washboard abs on display. "I hope I'm not interrupting you and your... friend?" She asked Matt, managing to make the word friend somehow sound synonymous with 'whore'.

Matt forced a smile. "Not at all," he replied "we were just having a quiet night in. But what can I do for you?" he asked.

Janice drew a set of house keys from her clutch bag. "I'm away this weekend to visit my mother. And my husband," again Janice managed to use one word to convey another, this time the word husband sounded like moron "has forgotten his keys and isn't home from work yet. Could you hang on to these until he gets home?" she finished. "If I hang on any longer I'll miss my flight."

"Why sure, Mrs Roberts." said Matt, once again gently stressing the Mrs. "Anything to help a neighbour. Just tell him to call by, when he gets home."

"I'll send him a message to that effect. Now if you don't mind, I really must be going." said Janice as she turned to leave.

"Bye now." said Matt, closing the door on her departing back. He watched her head back inside her own house, lost in thought for a few seconds until he realises Drew had come to  stand beside him and was running his hands over Matt's shoulders. "God she is such a Bitch, I don't understand what her husband sees in her." said Matt as he watched her load her car with her bags.

"Don't be too hard on the guy." said Drew "I hear she's got all the money and has him tied up in some watertight pre-nup." He began to massage Matt's shoulders, digging his fingers firmly into Matt. Matt made small noises of pleasure as Drew's hands worked their way down his back. As his hands moved towards Matt's butt, Drew leant forward and began to nuzzle Matt's neck.

Matt watched as Janice locked up and got in her car. As she pulled the car out, she had a clear view of the two men standing in the window and the look of disgust on her face was barely disguised. Matt raised an arm and waved goodbye, a wide smile on his face. He waited until she was out of sight and then turned to Drew and led him back to the sofa.

"So where were we?" Asked Drew as he laid down on the sofa.

"Wondering why Mike Roberts is still married to that Bitch." replied Matt.

Drew sighed "I told you, it's not as straight forward as it seems. Now can we forget about Mike for now and just concentrate on the two of us?"

Matt sat back and laughed slightly bitterly "Now who's trying to make out things are simpler than they really are?"

Drew sat up. "You really want to do this? Now."

Matt nodded "Yes, now. Janice is away all weekend, if we can't talk about it now, when can we?"

Drew looked like he was going to argue and then he deflated slightly and nodded. "OK, you win."

Drew sat up straight and dug his fingers forcefully into his neck, he pinched and tugged hard for a few seconds before finding the edge he was looking for. He pulled it sharply away from himself and with a gelatinous sound, Drew's entire head and neck came away in his hands.

In it's place was revealed a more mature but no less good looking face. Now with a slight touch of salt and pepper at the temples of his cropped hair and a extra few laughter lines at the corner of his eyes, it was the face of Mike Roberts. Mike sighed and looked down at Drew's empty eyed face in his hands.

Matt reached out and gently took Drew's face out of Mike's hands. He held it up so Mike could see it, "This is not the man I fell in love with." Matt said "You are, Mike." He paused a second and then continued. "Drew was just a shell I made for you to hide inside, so we could be together without fear, but he was never who I wanted to spend my life with, that was you." As he spoke, Matt reached and and stroked Mike's face. It still slightly sticky from the adhesive and sweat and Mike's hair was matted flat, but that didn't bother Matt, as he leant over and kissed Mike. The slight smell of latex might have put another man off, but Matt was used to it from his job as a make-up artist. Truth be told, it got him kind of turned on.

Mike closed his eyes for a few seconds and then as Matt pulled away he opened them with a sigh. "Baby I understand, I really do, but we've been over this. She'll take me for every cent I've got if I ask for a divorce. I know money's not everything, but I've spent the last decade building my business up and she'll destroy it just for the hell of it. You know what she's like. What do you expect me to do?"

Matt looked at Mike for a second and then without saying anything, he reached behind the sofa and pulled out a box about a foot high, wide and deep. He passed it to Mike without saying anything. Mike took the box, a slightly puzzled look in his face. He set the box down on the sofa and opened it. Inside was another mask, but this one was of a face that was horribly familiar. Mike looked with a stunned expression at a perfect replica of Janice's face and looked over at Matt. Matt smiled at him, "You know, I think there might be a way I could get Janice to instruct her attorney to give you a 50:50 split in a divorce". A slow smile, spead across Mike's face as he contemplated a future free from the mistakes of his youth, with the man he loved, the neighbour he needed.