So here’s the deal folks, the next couple of chapters are going to go in sort of a time-warped state. Meaning they are going to fast forward pretty quickly, so please pay attention to the time lines I give when I put the fast forward into affect. Thanks. I also have to thank Blasek5 yet again, she really is amazing at getting these back to me quickly so you all have them as soon as possible.
6 months later,
Brian’s POV:
It’s been six months since I’ve seen or heard from Justin. It’s been weird cause no one ever mentions him in front of me. He never shows up anywhere, and when I say anywhere I mean anywhere. Not the diner, Babylon, Woody’s, not even Deb’s for her Sunday dinners, no Liberty Avenue, no nothing from him. Though, it’s not like he’s disappeared from the family, cause they still talk about him, and the only reason I know that is from the bits I pick up when I am about to walk in a room. But even those bits haven’t told me anything of any use on him. I don’t know where he’s living now, where he works, how he’s paying for school, or even if he’s going to school for that matter. It’s driving me crazy not knowing. I don’t know why he’s avoiding me as badly as he is. I mean shit, I know that if I’m going out of my mind than he must be going through the same thing, since I know how much he always said he loved me, and to a certain extent I believed him. So I know he must want to see me. So why hasn’t he tried?
“Hey you ok Bri?” Emmett asks me, effectively knocking me out of my all too familiar musings as of late.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” I ask sarcastically.
“Well you had that look again,” he says strangely.
“Oh and what a tragedy that must be,” I say in disbelief. Gotta keep up appearances after all.
“Fine whatever, keep it to yourself.” I just let that conversation end there. I can’t talk about it with him or anyone else.
“So are we ready?” Theodore asks us.
“Yep, I’d say so.” Ben replies. All of us are heading to Babylon for our Saturday night ritual.
“Ma could we get our checks please?” Mikey yells towards the back.
“Yeah I’m comin’, hold your fucking horses,” she yells back as she flings out our checks. “And you,” she says pointing directly at Mikey. “Remember what I told you, and if your fucking smart like I would hope you are, you’ll make that phone call.” Then she turns and leaves. I am more than a little confused, but then again it’s not like that’s uncommon when it comes to them. We all pull out our wallets, pay our bills, and then start the walk to Babylon.
“You know your mom’s right you should call him,” Ben says and now I am thinking him who?
“We’re not going to talk about this right now.” Mikey says with such force that it tells me right then who it is, it’s Justin, which automatically makes my ears perk up.
“Why?” Emmett asks, and he sounds a bit angry.
“Because I said so,” Mikey says.
“Well that’s just bull shit.” Ted says angrily and I swear we all just stop dead in our tracks. “What? It’s true, this is all bull shit. We can’t talk about Justin just because you come into a room,” he says pointing at me and I feel my eyebrows shoot up. “Or because Mikey says so?” He says in disbelief and I must say I am quite impressed. “He’s a good kid and he happens to still be good friends with some of us, so I don’t see why it is that we can’t talk about him when ever we want. It’s a free fucking country after all.” He says and starts walking again.
“You tell ‘em Teddy!” Emmett says taking off after the mighty Theodore. I look to see what expression must be gracing Mikey’s face at this outburst, and oh yes there it is complete shock and utter dismay. I kinda like that look.
“I can’t believe...” Mikey stutters out.
“Well it’s the truth,” I say and if it’s possible he looks even more shocked, and a bit pissed as well.
“How can you say that after everything...” But I cut him off again.
“Look Mikey, no matter what happened between Justin and I that doesn’t mean that they or even you shouldn’t be friends with him if that’s what you all want.”
“I don’t want that! How could you even think I’d want that?” He asks indigently.
“Well that’s your choice, even though I think that it’s nuts.” I turn and start walking again.
“What the fuck do you mean that it’s nuts?” He asks catching up with me.
“What about Rage?”
“Fuck Rage, and fuck him for everything he’s put you through.” He yells.
“You have nothing to do with that,” I say as calmly as I can at this point because he is seriously starting to piss me off with this whole valiant thing.
“Of course it does, I’m your best friend Brian,”
“So the fuck what Mikey! What happened between Justin and I stays between Justin and I. You have no idea all the things I did.”
“You never lied to him about the way you were. He knew going in what you were all about!” He is still yelling.
“Mikey I am telling you right now, you have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Of course I do.”
“Look,” Ben says calmly putting his arm around Mikey. “I think we need to take a step back from this talk.”
“Why? Obviously everybody wants to talk about him,” Mikey says stepping away from Ben.
“All I’m saying is that I don’t care if you all talk about him and stay friends with him, and most of all keep your business agreements with him.” I say then turn and walk away because I am going to lose my temper soon and say something I know I will regret.
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2 weeks later
Justin’s POV:
‘Ring... ring’
“Yeah?” I answer my cell phone.
“Justin?”
“Michael?!” What the fuck?
“My mom gave me your number,” he says evenly.
“Ok? Still not getting it.” Because seriously I don’t.
“I’m only calling because…” Then there is a pause, but since I’m not the one who made the call I just wait for him to fill in the blanks. “Look Justin we have an arrangement.”
“What arrangement?” What the fuck is going on.
“Rage,” he says simply as if that should answer everything.
“So after six and a half months, of not even talking or seeing each other you want me to continue with your comic book?” Is he serious?
“I think the comic book means as much to you as it does to me,” he says angrily.
“Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong. It was never as important to me as it was to you.” And it’s the truth, just not the whole truth, but whatever.
“I know it meant something to you,” he says quite a bit calmer. Which I have decided I like much better.
“Fine Michael, what is it that you want?” I ask because I figure he isn’t going to let me off the phone until he gets this off his chest.
“I want to continue with the comic.”
“Ok so what you want me to sign over my rights to it?”
“I actually think it would be better if we, you and I both continue to do it together.” He sounds a little rushed, and I’m not to sure how to take this.
“You’re serious?”
“Look I don’t think that anybody else could get Rage the way you and I do, and so yeah I’m serious.”
“You do know that I’m in New Hampshire right?”
“Yeah, but there’s e-mail and things like that.” He seems to have thought this out, and I must admit even if it is only to myself that I liked doing the comic book, not to mention that it has so much of myself in it.
“Alright, I guess we could keep it up.”
“Good,” still very even. I guess this is the way it’ll be with us.
“But you do realize that I am on a very tight schedule already so the deadlines are going to have to be a bit more flexible than they were before.”
“I understand. When do you want to talk about the next story line?”
“Well I guess you’re in luck cause I’m free right now.”
We ended up talking for three hours and we came up with a great story for the next issue. It was weird though; I mean at the end there it was almost like we were back at the very start of the comic book, back when I thought we were becoming friends. So yeah a little weird.
‘Knock... knock, knock.’ I jump up off my little bed and grab my door knowing that it’s Trent at the door. We made plans to go out to the clubs tonight. See I was right when I decided to just be friends with him; he is one of the best people I have ever met. To explain his personality, he is a split between Daphne and Emmett, if you can believe that. He isn’t as flamboyant as Emmett, but he is a big queeny bottom like Emmett is and then he has the bonus of Daphne’s calmness and sensibility. Anyways it’s hard to explain, but it is what it is. I swing the door open and there he stands.
“You’re not even ready yet?” He says, and he looks completely put out as he walks past me and flops onto my bed.
“No not yet, something came up.” I say and move to my closet. I quickly pick out my black Levi’s, black wife beater, and light blue button up, and dark brown leather jacket. As I’m getting dressed I can hear him from the bathroom.
“Something always comes up with you.” I have to chuckle at that because I have had a lot of things come up in the last few months. As I come out of the bathroom Trent looks me over.
“Well what do you think?” I ask throwing my jacket on.
“Hot, as always,” he says getting up. “Now, can we go?” He moves to the door not even waiting for my answer as usual, and opens it up.
“Yeah, let’s go.” I say moving past him, and as I lock it up and start to head down the hall I turn to him, “You’re always in such a rush, why is that?”
“Oh please like you don’t know my reasons for rushing?” I fain ignorance. “I want… To. Get. Laid!” He says with emphasis on the laid part.
“Is that all?” I’m such a shit.
“Keep it up Taylor, keep it up.”
When we get to Fly it’s like coming home. It’s an exact replica of Babylon. That’s probably why I love it here so much. We make our first stop at the bar, throwing back a couple of shots before we move off to the dance floor. We move very well with the music, and even better together. We always seem to get so much attention while we do it. I love it personally, especially when the guy thinks he’s going to have the control and then I get to take it from him. I learned a lot of tricks from Brian Kinney and I use them all.
When I feel a firm body pushed up against me I open my eyes and look into Trent’s eyes to see what he thinks of him, and when I see the smirk appear I know I am in for a treat. So when Trent turns away from me grabbing a firm body of his own I turn in the arms of a very handsome 6'0, dirty blonde, brown eyed, pale skinned, a bit on the muscle side but not to much, and about 28 or so man. Yeah he’ll do just fine for starters. So I dance with him for a while letting him lick up and down my neck, nibble on my ear, but when he tries for my mouth I shake my head to indicate ‘no way in hell’ but do it with a sweet smile attached to soften the blow. Which he seems to like and goes back to my neck. I haven’t been able to kiss a guy since, the last kiss I had with Brian. I don’t know why… Actually I guess I feel like I may lose that part of him if I let someone else kiss me there. I know how ridiculous it sounds but until that feeling goes away, which I’m not to sure it will, that’s how it will stay.
When I feel like I may cum in my pants from this guy rubbing against me, I grab him by his belt loops and lead him to the back room, shoving him against a vacant wall, and turning him around just as quickly.
“I’m going to make you feel so good,” I whisper hotly in his ear, and when I feel him shiver under me I know I have him. I quickly prepare him and done a condom before I slide into him, hearing him grunt and moan from the size of my cock. When I am all the way in I stop for a second, then I twist my hips, and pump just a little so he can feel me against his prostate.
“Oh God,” he breaths out and I can feel his hole quivering around my dick.
“Mmm.” I love a nice tight ass.
“I wanna fuck you hard,” I say pulling out and slam back in.
“Oh yes.” I love it when they are so agreeable. So I grab his hips roughly and keeping him in just the right place as I start to fuck him hard and fast, and it feels damn good. While he’s busy mumbling incoherent nonsense and the occasional fuck, and oh God, I concentrate on the feel and friction I am creating. I love the fast pace of fucking lately. It’s been seemingly impossible for me to have a nice calm fuck. I’m not sure why and I am pretty sure I don’t want to know the answer to that question quite yet, if ever. So when I feel myself getting closer to the edge I switch my hips and reach around for his cock, pumping him in rhythm to my thrust, and so soon after that I feel him squeezing around my cock now pumping my cock for it’s cum, and I fall immediately over the edge. I lean my head against his back for a minute before I take a deep breath and pull out throwing my condom away and straightening out my clothes, before I walk out of the back room. I walk over to the bar and order two beers and wait for Trent to make his way out of the back room as well. When he does emerge he’s attached to a very fine looking man, tall, light, and handsome. Very nice choice I must say. They stop over to me, but I know just by the look in his eyes that he’s going home with this guy.
“So talk to you tomorrow?” I ask sweetly.
“Yeah, I think so,” he says shyly.
“Have fun boys.” I say as I tip my beer to them, as they walk away. I start to check out the men on the dance floor again, but when I don’t see anything good I decide to try something a bit different. So I get my coat make a quick call, and hail a cab. Hell I wanna have fun too.
When I get to my destination I am quite impressed with what I find. It’s a huge house with a nicely kept lawn and high bushes guarding the windows, and a huge archway leading to the door.
‘Knock... knock,’ I wait a minute for the door to open and a very nervous looking Derek to answer. Oh yes fun!
“Hi.” He says with a smile, and I must say he has a very nice smile.
“Hey,” I say and then there’s nothing.
“So…”
“So do you think I could come in, or should I just stay out here all night?” I ask sweetly, and watch as he closes his eyes and shakes his head.
“Yes, yes of course,” he steps aside and I walk past him and he smells really good. “I’m sorry.”
“No need for apologies, I did kinda call out of the blue.” I say hoping for him to relax a little bit. I mean shit if he’s this wound up it won’t be fun at all, and we wouldn’t want that.
“Yeah, you did.” He says, and I’m not sure if he means that it was a bad idea or what. So I turn to him and wait for him to elaborate. “Not that, that’s a bad thing.” I watch him close and lock the door, and then he walks to me, and gestures towards his living room. “It’s just that it’s been so long, I was actually thinking you were never going to. Have a seat,” he says pointing to the couch. So I sit down on the warm cozy black suede couch.
“Would you like a drink?” He asks standing next to a little bar he has at in the corner of the room.
“Yeah, sure. Beam if you have it.”
“You like Beam?” He asks in disbelief.
“Yes, why?”
“Well it’s just an acquired taste that’s all,” he says as he hands me my drink. He has a fire going, and it all feels so nice and cozy. Which makes me feel a little awkward actually. I’m not sure why but it does none the less. I came here to play with Derek a little bit and to have a nice fuck, but now I find myself getting lost in the flames, watching them crackle and burst into little sparks. That’s the way it used to feel with Brian.
“So, what made you call?” he asks bringing me out of my thoughts.
“I just thought it was about time I took you up on your offer,” I say bringing myself back into the situation I am in now, instead of the past I shared with Brian.
“You know,” he looks at me with a blush spreading across his face. “I was hoping you would.”
“Really?” I ask getting a bit closer to him as I sit my drink down on the coffee table.
“Uh hunh,” he says quietly leaning back as I lean over him.
“Well then it’s a good thing I called.” I smile as I lean in and down kissing him on his neck then jaw. I hear and feel his moan as it escapes through his throat and I must say I like the way it sounds. I feel his hand against my cheek guiding me up and away from his neck and when we are eye level I look into his eyes that are glazed over, but as he brings his mouth to mine I turn away. I still can’t do it.
“Not there,” I say quietly and look him in the eye with a determined stare showing him just how serious I am about that statement. He looks deeply into my eyes trying to find I guess the truth of why I said it, but I know he won’t find anything but defiance there.
“Ok, not there.” He says softly accepting my limits. He leans in and starts to lick across my chest, and God does it feel good. I haven’t had anyone take their time with me in a very long time it seems, so I try my best to enjoy it. That is until I get to impatient and turn him so he’s laying flat on his back.
A couple of hours later.
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I have found myself lying awake after a few rounds with the Dean, just looking at the ceiling of his bedroom. He was a really great fuck, not as good as Brian but than again I don’t think anyone can be as good as Brian. For one I love him, which just seemed to make everything so much more intense. I can’t see that ever happening with anyone else in the future. Doesn’t matter anyways, I am still hoping that one day our paths will cross again, and maybe we can have another chance at being together. At least I still have that part of me.
I’m suddenly feeling a bit claustrophobic, so I slide out of the bed and go down stairs and get dressed in the living room. When I’m done I go out the front door making sure to lock it on my way out. I decide to walk back to the dorms; he doesn’t live that far from them anyways, so I figure I might as well. I wouldn’t mind getting the fresh air. I have been thinking about Brian a lot these past few weeks. Ever since things started to slow down with school and I got caught up. So it’s been hard, and I only let myself indulge in thinking about Brian when I can’t get the memories to stop, when I don’t have anything to keep me busy, when I can’t sleep which is more often than not unfortunately. But I am trying. I guess that’s all I can do is keep trying, until it gets easier, cause it has to get easier.
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Six Months Later
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brian’s POV:
It’s been a year now since I’ve seen or heard from Justin, and to tell you the truth it’s hard to believe. I never thought he would be able to stay away for so long. I mean shit, he’s either really good at avoiding me in the hang outs or he has managed to not go to any of them for a year. I can’t imagine that though, shit he loves to dance and play pool and hang out with us, or at least he likes to hang out with Ted and Emmett. From whom I still haven’t managed to get any piece of information from on where he is. See even though they made those big huge statements of wanting to be able to talk about Justin whenever they wanted to, they have still managed to keep it out of my face. Which I am sure they are doing just because they are my friends, and don’t want to hurt my feelings or whatever the fuck. But unfortunately I would much rather know what’s going on with him. To know for sure that he’s ok.
‘Knock... knock,’ I knock on the front door and wait for someone to answer. Finally the door opens.
“Hey sweetheart,” Deb says but I know that the look on my face must show just how, I guess you could say, sad I am and she automatically goes into mother gear. “You ok Bri?”
“I need to talk to you if you have some free time,” I ask her trying my best to hide my feelings, but lately it’s been really hard, because I have been really worried about Justin, wondering where he is, and I finally just couldn’t take it anymore. So that’s why I’m here.
“Well sure baby, I always have time for you. Come on in,” she says taking my arm and leading me to her couch. As she sits me down she asks if I want anything to drink, but I decline her offer.
“So what did you want to talk about Brian?”
“I wanted to ask you... I wondered if you could tell me,” I try but I can’t seem to get the questions past my throat. I have spent a year trying to hide all my questions and feeling about Justin and now here I am coming to Deb to ask the very things I was hiding from, it just doesn’t seem right.
“What Bri? You know you can ask me anything.” She’s rubbing my back trying to make me feel more at ease, but right now I don’t think that’s even a possibility.
“I was, you know never mind... it’s not important,” I say standing up and making my way back to the door.
“He’s in New Hampshire.” She suddenly says, which effectively stops me in my tracks. “He left the day after the Rage party.” I turn back towards her, walking back and sitting back in the spot I just vacated. However I can’t bring myself to look at her so I just put my elbows against my knees and my chin on my fist.
“He’s been going to Dartmouth.” That however catches my attention and breaks me from my stupor, as I look at her completely perplexed.
“Dartmouth? What the fuck is he doing at Dartmouth? He swore he would never go there not to mention his art? What about his art?” This is unbelievable. I can’t believe nobody told me about this.
“He is still taking art classes as well as his business classes. He hasn’t left his art behind.” She says calmly obviously trying to calm me down as well. Which now I can guarantee isn’t going to happen.
“Wait a minute, how the fuck is he paying for Dartmouth?” I ask looking her in the face and I can see the cringe that she is trying her best to hide and just from that I know how, shit I knew before I even asked. There was only one way he could ever pay for a school like that. “I can’t believe this.” I run my hands down my face trying to calm myself from everything I’ve learned. So this is why he’s never around. He’s not even in the same state!
“He’s reassured me time and again that this is what he wants, Sweetie.”
“I can’t possibly believe that he would just all the sudden change his mind over something like this.” I have to move, I can’t sit still any longer, so I get up from the couch and start to pace in front of the couch.
“PIFA was his dream Deb. Why would he give that up?” I ask stopping in front of her. The look on her face tells me what she thinks his reasons are.
“He said it was because it’ll take a long time to become an established artist.” She tells me but I know she thinks it’s as much bullshit as I do. “So this way he’ll get a good education in business, as well as in art...”
“Wait, Craig agreed to him taking art classes?”
“Yeah, Justin thinks he was just to happy about him going to Dartmouth to argue over it anymore,” she says a bit amused. “However he has to keep up in all his classes with high grades in order to keep going to those classes.”
“Mother fucker,” I can’t believe this. I sit back down, and turn to face Deb.
“Don’t worry he is extremely smart and has been able to keep up in his classes with no problems what so ever. Even with the double class load,”
“Double class load?” I hope he isn’t over doing it.
“Well yeah he is taking quite a few art classes on top of his regular business classes.” She explains. “And then of course there is the comic book.”
“You mean to tell me he’s doing all of this, at one time? That’s too much.”
“I talk to him at least twice a week, and he says he’s fine,”
“Of course he’s going to say that,” I say with frustration. “I still can’t believe that he went to his father. Shit I would’ve paid for him to go to PIFA. We made a deal after all, but I just figured he had found some other way to pay.” Yeah Kinney think about that, who the hell else would have the money to pay for tuition for him? “Fuck!”
“Are you alright sweetie?” She asks trying to look into my eyes to see the truth.
“I’m fine! Why wouldn’t I be?” I ask her. God I am so angry. “Justin is just in another state going to a school he hates, he went to his father for help, for God sake! What was he thinking?” This is all a little too much for me. Why did I wait so long to ask? Why didn’t anyone tell me? “Am I missing anything else?” I ask her sarcastically. I know I should watch my temper but I just can’t seem to help it.
“Well you know from Michael how well the comic is doing,” and she’s right. The comic has been doing wonderful for them. Some guy named Brett is even asking about turning it into a movie. “What else? Oh he had a show about three months ago, he said it went really well,” and she’s got this huge smile on her face. She is so full of pride for him. “But that’s really all I know, actually,” she looks a little puzzled. “When he calls he likes to find out how everyone is doing, and what every body is up to.”
“Really?” I ask looking away. Does he ask about me?
“When I told him you were starting your own business, you should have heard him. He is so proud of you Brian.” So he does ask about me. Unlike me who is just so stubborn, that I wait a year to ask about him.
“Has anyone seen him?”
“No, he hasn’t been back since he left, and he’s not sure when he’s going to be coming back for a visit.” She says sadly. I know she must miss him. Even with the phone calls, it’s just not the same.
“I see.” I say, because really what else is there to say. He’s not here anymore, and he won’t be back anytime soon. “Do you think you could, um, you know keep me up to speed on what’s going on?” I just want to make sure he’s ok.
“Sure sweetie, anything you want.” I give her a kiss on the cheek telling her thank you on my way out. I was going to go to Woody’s for a drink with the boys, but I think I would like to have a little one on one time with my son so I head over to the munchers house. I haven’t seen him much lately; Kinnetics has been extremely busy lately with the summer coming up and new campaigns going out. It’s been exciting though. It’s just been a little hard for me. Because regardless of what I say I really did like going home to Justin and telling him about my days and what’s been going on. He was always so excited for me, it made it that much more exciting for me, that is until the end there. At the end he was just so sad, and I just didn’t know what to do to fix it. So I just pretended that everything was fine, that there were no problems. But that didn’t work either. Now he’s gone. I just can’t believe he would go to his father just to get away from me, I know that’s the reason he went to Dartmouth, because I can’t think of any other reason he would leave. I mean he has everyone here. All his friends and family, not to mention Gus, I think to myself as I pull up to Lindsay’s’. He loves Gus as much as I do.
‘Knock... knock’ he must miss him. Oh god Melanie’s answering the door. Why couldn’t it have been Lindsay? I don’t feel up to dealing with smelly Melly.
“They’re not here.” She says quickly and tries to close the door, which I stop with my foot.
“Well when will they be back?” I ask with fake sweetness.
“Lindsay will be home tomorrow, Gus will be home in a couple of weeks.” She says exasperated. What the fuck? That makes no sense.
“And where the fuck is Gus going to be for two weeks?”
“You really want to know?”
“Of course I want to know where the hell my son is.” She is seriously starting to piss me off.
“He’s going to be staying at Justin’s. There happy?” She is looking really pleased with herself right now.
“With Justin?”
“Yes, we have been planning it for almost a year,” she says as if I should have just known this.
“No shit.” God I knew he would be missing him but truth be told I was hoping that would be something that would bring him back here, at least for a visit. Now that’s out of the question.
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Justin’s POV:
Justin’s apartment
~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Ok he’s a sleep,” Lindsay says as she comes back to the living room from the guest bedroom, and sits down on the couch. “He is so excited to see you Justin, I didn’t think he would ever go to sleep.”
“I told you I’d put him to sleep,” I say with a laugh.
“Nah he’s going to be here for two weeks I wanted to do it.”
“Thank you for letting me have him, I really have missed him.”
“Of course I’d let you have him.”
“It just means a lot that you trust me enough to have him for two weeks.”
“Justin, I know you would never let anything happen to him,” she takes my hand giving it a squeeze. “Plus he thinks of you as his second daddy, so I couldn’t very well keep you two apart now could I?”
“No I guess you couldn’t,” I say with a sunshine smile. I can’t believe he thinks of me as his other daddy. I’m sure that would make Brian just shit, if he knew. But in all honesty, I love him just as much as if he was my own.
“So tell me what’s going on in this life of yours, I mean look at this apartment.” She looks at all the things around her. “It’s amazing.”
“Yeah well I was really tired of living in the dorms, plus it’s summer and where was I going to live with the dorms all closed up?”
“Very funny, Justin. But seriously where did you get the money for all this?” She’s right just by sitting here you can tell it cost a lot of money. It’s on the upper side of town with designer furniture, and two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a studio for myself.
“Well, my paintings are doing well, and I started that computer graphics company, which is doing more than well just on it’s own, then there is the comic and the fact that we got a major payment for the movie rights. So I would say everything is going more than well.” I have a smile on my face that must be huge, because I am very proud of what I have been able to do in such a short time.
“So, Jus you are on your way.”
“Yeah.” I can’t help myself here. I always end up asking. “So how’s Brian?”
“Brian’s doing good actually. Business is really picking up, all of his old clients have now transferred over to Kinnetics.”
“I’m glad he decided to use the name.” I cut in.
“Yeah, well it was a brilliant name you came up with.”
“Don’t you mean that you came up with?” I say with a laugh.
“Well that’s just for his benefit, but everyone else knows where the name came from.” I just nod my head. Doesn’t really matter in the end now does it? “So anyway he’s been good, busy but good.” That will most likely be all I get. I know Brian doesn’t let anyone into his personal business so I know I won’t ever get much, and I can only hope that if something bad happened they would tell me, what am I talking about of course they’d tell me.
“He misses you,” she says softly, and I scoff at the statement.
“He say that,” I ask because I know he wouldn’t so how would she know.
“Well no, you know he never would.” I just nod my head agreeing. “But I can tell.”
“Oh really Linds, and how’s that?” I only wish I could believe all of them when they say he misses me. But I just can’t see it.
“Justin you know deep down he really cared for you.”
“Yeah I know,” and I do know, somewhere in there he did care for me. I am just hoping that it wasn’t the right time for us, and that in the future we can have a real chance. That is if he ever grows the fuck up.
“So moving on, what do you have planned for the summer?”
“Work actually. I have a ton to do to get everything going before the next semester starts.” And it’s true; there is so much I want to get caught up on. Not to mention the accounts that I have got going on for the graphics company. There is just a ton that has to be done. “However, everything can wait for a couple of weeks while I spend some much needed time with Gus.”
“What about fun? You can’t tell me that a handsome man like yourself hasn’t got some one in the wings,” she says with a suggestive smile. That I have to say, weirds me out just a bit.
“Lindsay, the only special man that I have in my life is that little man sleeping in that room over there,” I say pointing to the guest bedroom door.
Two weeks later
~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Mommy, Momma!” Gus yells when he see’s them standing off to the side, waiting for us to come off the plane. I had decided to bring him back myself after hearing that Brian would be gone on a business trip for another week. I figured it was the perfect time to come and see everyone for a quick two-day visit. I let Gus’ hand go and tell him to go to his mom’s. I watch him run and fling himself into Lindsay’s arms. They are such a happy family.
“Hey baby,” Melanie says while giving me a hug. “How was your flight?”
“It was good actually. I was amazed at how well behaved Gus was,” I say pulling back.
“Well good I’m glad,” Lindsay says giving me a quick hug. We pull apart and grab Gus and my bags, and head for the car. When we get all situated and on our way to the house Gus starts talking about all that we did on our adventure together. By the time we pull up to their house he has successfully gone through everything we have done and is now falling asleep. So I grab him and cradle him in my arms as we go into the house.
“Surprise!!!” I hear from the living room right before I hit the first stair, and I look over to see everyone standing there with huge smiles on their faces. Gus is wide-awake now and sits up in my arms looking at all the people standing in his living room.
“Hey,” I say with a huge smile. They all came here to surprise me. I stand Gus up on the floor and he runs to his Grammy Deb who picks him up and puts him on her hip.
“Oh sweetie!” Emmett calls as he prances his way over to me and takes me in a hug, and then it just follows with everyone else. Minus Brian and Michael. But everyone else showed up, even Ben.
“Welcome home Justin,” Ben says with a hug. “Michael said to say he’s sorry but he had to run the store.” I just wave him off.
“Don’t worry about it Ben. I wouldn’t of excepted him to come anyways.” It’s true I wouldn’t of and it is actually better that he didn’t, cause now I don’t have to pretend we like each other for the sake of anyone.
“I’d like you to meet Hunter,” he says pulling a young man from behind him. He’s not bad, but I do believe this is the one that has the crush on Brian. But from what I hear and from the fact that he’s a little to young for Brian he’s not getting anywhere near his dick. So it’s ok to like him.
“It’s nice to meet you Hunter, I’ve heard a lot about you,” I say shaking his hand.
“Yeah whatever,” he says with what I know is just teenage bravado. I look to Ben as little Hunter walks off to the kitchen.
“He’s something else.” I say.
“Yeah, he is. But he’s a good kid underneath it all.”
“I’m sure he is, after all he’s got a couple of good dad’s to make sure.” I say with a smile, which he returns.
“So Sunshine, you hungry?” Deb yells from the dining room.
“I’m always hungry Deb, you know that,” I yell back.
“Well than get your ass in here already!” Ben and I laugh as we make our way to the dining room. We all sat down and started to eat and catch up on what everyone is doing, and laughing about stupid stuff that happened through the last couple of years. I love being here, around all these people that have become my family. I love them so much. Not to mention miss hanging out with them like this more than I ever thought possible. When dinner is done, Emmett decides that we should all head out to Babylon. Which I have to say sounds so good right now. So we all head off.
When we get inside my mind fills with every single memory imaginable from my time with Brian. Everything from that first dance we had here, when I stole his tricks. That I have to say was extremely fun. Just knowing I had the power for the first time was completely wonderful. But I am also remembering every sad moment with him, every angry moment, every dance, every fuck in the backroom, even the ones that weren’t of him and me. Especially the last one I saw, with him fucking Rage. God why do I have to think of these things right now? I just wanted to have fun with my friends. So I try my best to shake everything off, as we get to the bar and order the first round of drinks.
“So Baby how does it feel to be back?” Emmett asks.
“Yeah it must be weird walking in here after a year,” Ted joins.
“Not really, it almost feels like I never left.” I say and when they look at me like I’m crazy I elaborate. “Remember, I told you guys that there is a club just like this in New Hampshire.”
“Oh well yeah, but they don’t have us now do they?” He says making me chuckle.
“No they definitely don’t, Em.” I say throwing my arm around his waist. “What do you say we dance?” I ask moving him towards the dance floor.
“Teddy hold my drink,” he says as I drag him off into the dizzying whirlwind of men. We lose ourselves in the rhythm and I have to say I miss being with him, dancing like this.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brian’s POV:
As I walk into Babylon I see a couple of prospects heading in as well. They are very nice looking. Don’t remember seeing them before. Must be new in town, or maybe just visiting. Doesn’t really matter either way. I make my way to the bar and see Theodore standing there so I make my way to him.
“So Theodore,” I say and watch as he spits his drink all over himself and the floor. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” I yell over the music, he looks like he’s going to be sick or something.
“Brian, what are you doing here?” He asks nervously with a fake smile.
“What the fuck is it to you? What am I all the sudden not allowed in Babylon?” I ask sarcastically while signaling the bartender for my usual.
“No, not at all.” He says nervously and I am beginning to wonder what the hell is going on. “It’s just that you weren’t supposed to be back for another week.”
“So, I got home early, what’s the big deal?” I’m getting angry now. So I start to look for a trick to help cool me off, but what I see in front of me, well let’s just say I’m not to sure what the fuck is going on.
“Hey why don’t we head off to Woody’s and see if the guys are there?” Ted says trying to turn me away from the dance floor, I yank my arm from him and with out another word or thought I make my way towards Justin. I stand behind him and when Emmett looks up to meet my eyes I know that he can see the danger he is in right now,
“Emmett,” I say curtly and Justin spins around to face me. He’s looks confused and maybe even a little scared right now. I don’t know why he would be; I’d never hurt him. At least not physically I think in the back of my head. “Could you excuse us? We have a few things to discuss,” I say, not even paying him any more attention.
“Um you know Brian,” Emmett tries to cut in, in a very sweet way.
“Come on Sunshine,” I say grabbing his hand and heading straight for the door, and the Jeep. I quickly unlock the door and practically sit him in the passenger seat myself, before I run around to the other side, and get myself in. We don’t say a word to each other on the way to the loft, shit we don’t even look in the others direction. When I park the Jeep it takes a minute for either of us to make the first move to get out and go up, but I eventually get out and do just that. However when I don’t see him by my side I look towards the Jeep and see him standing by the passenger’s door.
“You know I don’t care if I have to throw you over my shoulder kicking and screaming, you are going up!” I say with a tint of anger that I can’t help but show. I watch him take a deep breath practically sighing his resignation, as he comes to the door and then up the stairs, then into the loft. I wait for him to walk ahead of me, before I close the door behind us, locking and setting the alarm as well.