Chapter 1: A split second decision that changes everything

Anger and frustration flashing over his face after that awful scene Jimmy had caused, Kyle rushed home and began to shove Jimmy's things into a duffel bag. Blake had left him a voicemail; dumping him cold before he'd even got home or tried to explain. When the brightness of his anger had faded a little, Kyle ended up staring at a photo strip of Jimmy and himself, pulling silly faces and having fun together. He froze for a split second, pressing his lips tightly together as he wondered to himself what the hell he was doing. Was this a good idea? He'd tried everything else to fix Jimmy, so kicking him out might be a good idea, yet his initial instinct had been to wait until morning. That way Kyle would have a chance to calm down and Jimmy would have sobered up and come down from whatever he'd taken. But, Ana and Karen had seemed convinced he should talk to Jimmy tonight, so he wasn't sure what he should do. He was used to dealing with Jimmy when he was strung out, used to chasing after him and cleaning up his messes. And Kyle knew that you couldn't get a word through Jimmy's skull when he was high. He would just lash out at you, make you feel even worse and not listen at all. It was usually better to wait until he'd come down, much easier to reason with him after that.

Sighing, Kyle decided to take a break from packing to think about it. He should really call Tom anyway. They'd been supposed to meet up tonight and since he didn't feel like seeing anyone, it would only be polite to call and cancel.

Tom picked up his phone quickly, saying cheerily "Hi Kyle. Not that I'm not pleased to hear from you but aren't we supposed to be meeting up in a couple of hours?"

Kyle winced and replied "Hi Tom. About that, I'm not feeling up to doing anything tonight."

Frowning, Tom responded "Hey, that's fine Kyle, but is something wrong? You sound off somehow." He paused, twitching his mouth to the right in thought before deciding to continue. "Plus, you seemed excited when we made plans yesterday. I mean, if you don't want to keep seeing me, that's fine, just let me know. You don't even have to explain. But if that's not why you're cancelling, if something's wrong, I'd like to know that too. So, is everything alright?"

Closing his eyes in resignation, Kyle returned "Yeah, I'm fine. It's not you, you're pretty great, Tom, and I'd like to reschedule. It's just..."

He trailed off and took a deep breath as Tom gently prompted him with "It's just what, Kyle?"

"Jimmy. It's Jimmy" Kyle said firmly as he wondered to himself if maybe Tom could help. He'd been in the industry long enough that he'd probably run into someone with drug problems before and he might be able to offer some advice.

Decision made, Kyle started rambling, gripping tightly to his phone "He's a mess and I just don't know what to do any more. I was planning on kicking him out tonight, I was halfway through packing his stuff and Ana and Karen said I should confront him tonight. That I should do it before I lose my nerve, but I don't know. He's high and he screwed everything up tonight, the show and Blake and Karen and me. I'm upset and I want to kick him out but I think I should wait until he's sobered up." Frustrated tears rising to his eyes, Kyle continued "I don't know. I've tried everything. I've yelled at him about his drug use. I've flushed his stash down the toilet. When that didn't work, I tried a gentler approach, trying to be supportive and get him to cut down on his drug use gradually. I've tried to reason with him, appeal to him intellectually. I know he's smart enough to understand that he can't keep doing this! I've patted his back when he's throwing up at all hours and told him he's going to be fine and let him scream at me at 4AM in the morning. I've run around the city all night trying to find him when he didn't come home after his latest bender. I have dragged his sorry ass out of the gutter, cleaned him up, given him a place to stay and made sure he kept a job. I've tried everything!" he yelled. Voice lowering a little, he cried out helplessly with pain swimming through his eyes "And nothing seems to work. Nothing! He gets better for a while, and he apologises and promises that things will change, but they never do. It's just the same thing over and over again and I can't take it any more! I want my best friend back, not to deal with this, this shell that blames the world for everything and lashes out at everyone but won't grow up and do a damn thing to help himself." Kyle cut his rant off abruptly, staring down at the floor with pursed lips and adding in a defeated tone "Oh God, I'm sorry Tom. I just called to cancel tonight, not to yell at you. As you can hear, I'm not really fit for company at the moment. But then I thought you might be able to help and I just started rambling. I didn't mean to go off on you like that. So, sorry again, and um, rain check?"

Tom waited a moment, eyebrows raised and mouth still parted in shock as he waited to see if Kyle had finished talking. Quickly composing his expression, he spoke gently "Hey, it's fine Kyle. I wasn't expecting that, but you obviously needed to talk to someone. I'm glad you called me. I definitely agree that you should wait to confront Jimmy until he's come down from whatever he took. Kyle, Ana and Karen mean well, but it's generally not a good idea to try to reason with an addict if you have the option of waiting until they've cleaned and sobered up. He'll just lash out at you and it sounds like you already know that. It won't hurt to wait until tomorrow and it will give you a chance to calm down too. So, I think you did the right thing by stopping to think about it. I'm also glad that you feel comfortable enough with me to talk about this. Uh, can I ask what happened tonight to precipitate that little speech though? I'd like to help you, but I need to catch up first. I know he's your best friend and this has obviously been brewing for some time, but I'm assuming something in particular happened tonight?" Tom frowned as he waited for a response.

Kyle clenched his hands and declared, "Yeah, he was a complete jerk." Rolling his eyes, Kyle continued sarcastically "Classic Jimmy, when something doesn't go his way it's always somebody else's fault. It's not like he might have been fired for something he actually did, like going on a week long bender, turning up late constantly, costing us the cover of that magazine and topping it off tonight being high on stage and dropping Karen. She's fine but she was bleeding for God's sake!" Kyle stopped to take several deep breaths to cool his temper, forcing his hands open gradually and relaxing his death grip on his phone. "It was messed up. When I told him that he'd been fired and that I'd agreed it was the right thing to do, he got up on the bar in a room full of Broadway fans and Blake. Jimmy then started ranting that I'd screwed him over the second I'd had the chance. He decided it was a good idea to stand there and tell Blake that by the way, I'd been screwing you last week. He made it sound so sordid. I told him that in confidence and he decided to break my trust and tell the whole world!" Kyle finished breathing heavily as anger, frustration, embarrassment and pain coursed through him in equal measure.

Tom sighed, crossing his arms and commenting "Well, it's not ideal, but I can live with my name being dragged through the gossip pages for a few days. It won't be the first time and I'm not ashamed of being linked to you." Face twisting in hesitation, he stuttered slightly as he continued "Umm, Blake though, I thought you were going to break up with him. I know that we aren't exclusive, so I'm not mad. But I thought you said were going to break up with him after last time. Uh, I really like you and I was hoping when I saw you tonight that you'd be single and I could ask you on a date. Officially, I mean."

Giving a huff of surprised laughter, Kyle enquired "Tom Levitt, are you seriously asking me to be your boyfriend now? After I just yelled at you for five minutes straight about my screwed-up best friend? You're a strange man, Levitt." Kyle spoke as he shook his head in amused disbelief.

Tom's eyebrows were still furrowed uncertainly as he shrugged slightly and replied. "I like you. I'd hoped I'd made that obvious when I decided to serenade you in the middle of the night. But, it's fine if you don't want to. I'd still like to help. So, about Jimmy..."

"Tom, wait a minute" Kyle interrupted with a slightly-crazed grin, mind unsure how to deal with the surprising joy of Tom's declaration after the night he'd had. "I didn't mean that I was saying no. Your timing is odd, but yes. I like you too and I'd like to try dating you. Apparently I like strange." Tom laughed softly before Kyle blushed slightly and continued "Ah, given the circumstances I think I'd better be clear that I mean yes to dating you exclusively." Nodding decisively, Kyle raised his voice in question, requesting "Now, can we get back to my unstable best friend, please?"

Tom's lips swept up into a soft grin as he murmured warmly "Sure. Sure, we can do that. Kyle, I'm really happy you said yes."

They both stood still and quiet for a minute, just breathing and absorbing the moment with closed eyes as Kyle's lips moved into a small smile too. Taking a deep breath and snapping his eyes open and his mind back to the situation at hand, Tom asked softly "Actually, Kyle, why don't I come over and we can talk about Jimmy face-to-face? I know you said you weren't in the mood to meet up tonight, but it might take a while to talk this situation with Jimmy through. I'd prefer to see you rather than keep talking over the phone." He gave Kyle a moment to respond and then offered in an alluring tone "I could bring a bottle of wine. We could talk this whole thing over and discuss what you want to do next. Besides, I'd really like to kiss my brand new boyfriend tonight." He bit his bottom lip and continued "But, it's up to you. If you'd prefer to be alone tonight and just talk over the phone, that's fine. I'm good right here if that's what you want to do." Stretching the words out, he added carefully "Or, I can come over. So, what do you want?"

Bringing his hand up to skim tiredly through his hair, Kyle declared "Come over. Please. Red wine and a kiss from my new boyfriend sounds perfect after the night I've had. His name's Tom, you know. Nice guy" he joked, voice still a little strained but his eyes much brighter.

Tom softly said with a grin, voice lilting up over the words "Is he now? That's good to know. Kyle, I'm going to head out now. Okay?" Grabbing his keys and swiftly choosing a bottle of wine from his cupboard, Tom's eyes widened in mild shock before he dropped his head into his hand briefly in resignation. "Um, after you give me directions, that is. You've always come here because I don't have a roommate to worry about and I've only just realised that I don't actually know your address." Smiling self-deprecatingly he observed "Which would absolutely come in handy when I try to find your place. Sorry, I'm such an idiot sometimes."

Exhaling out a soft chuckle, Kyle remarked "Hey, don't worry about it Tom. I'll just give you the directions." Face slipping into a frown, he continued "After all, there's no need for me to go to your place this time to avoid Jimmy."

With a wry smile, Tom said quietly "Yeah, I guess that won't be a problem tonight." After they'd exchanged directions, Tom said "I'll be there as soon as I can, okay Kyle? Just sit tight. And Kyle," he finished tenderly, "Thanks for calling me tonight. And for saying yes."

Author's note: So, I got distracted this week while writing the next chapter of Hospitals and Hope, and this happened. Obviously I couldn't use it for H&H since the premise was completely different, but the idea was pretty clear in my head so I ended up writing it anyway. I haven't got anything else planned for this one at the moment but I'm considering returning to this after H&H is done. Until then, it will have to stand as a one-shot. I hope you enjoyed it and I'd love to hear from you! Cheers, Rose.