-- I ain't got many friends let to talk to
Nowhere to run when I'm in trouble
You know I'd do anything for you
Stay the night but keep it under cover. --
Chapter 2- Nowhere To Run
"Fucking shit!" Justin yelled, ripping his hand away from Daphne. "Are you trying to cause me pain?" he blew on his hand a little, waving it in an attempt to stop the pain in his hand. Daphne sighed, putting down the tweezers she had been using. "No, I'm not trying to hurt you. What I'm trying to do, if you would stop being a drama princess about it, is get all those lovely little shards of glass out of your hand so that they don't infect the cuts. Would you rather get sick from whatever heinous disease was on that glass?" Justin just stuck his tongue out at her. "Well, even though you're only trying to save my life, you could be a little gentler about it. That really hurt," he pouted at her. He grudgingly sat back down in front of her and held his hand back out so that she could resume painfully extracting each and every little piece of glass.
"So, I can't believe Michael really said that to you," Daphne said, trying to distract Justin from the task at hand. From the look on his face, it really did hurt, and maybe she could have been a little nicer to him. They had been sitting here doing this for the better part of an hour, and Justin's whining about it was really starting to grate on her nerves. It was understandable though. If she was in his place she knew that she would be doing her fair share of whining as well.
Justin's face clouded over at the mention of Michael's remark. "Yeah, I couldn't believe he said that either. I mean, I've always known that he didn't like me, he thought that I was stealing Brian away from him. That and he wants to be with Brian, as in really together with him. I knew he was jealous… but I never thought he hated me enough to wish me dead." As Daphne listened to him, she kept thinking of the different ways that she could kill Michael and cause him the most amount of pain possible. Justin had never done anything to Michael to deserve that kind of treatment. From what Justin had told her, Michael had Justin to thank for patching up their, Michael and Brian's, friendship. Hadn't he gone out of his way to give Michael that comic book way back when? Yeah, it had been for Brian; Justin had wanted to make Brian happy, but his actions also had a positive outcome for Michael as well. Justin had never done anything to hurt Michael, so why did Michael hate him so much?
She pulled the last piece of glass out of his hand and then wrapped it up in gauze. His hand was yet another reason to kill Michael. Of course, the hand that he had cut up in his shock had been his right hand, aka: his drawing hand. There wouldn't be any sketches in Justin's immediate future. Justin looked up and smiled at her, "Thanks Daph," he told her. "No problem. I mean, what are friends for? Picking tiny slivers of glass out of your hand for an hour after you get into a tiff with your ex-lover's best friend comes in the job description." she told him matter of factly. Her statement had the desired result as Justin burst into fits of laughter afterward. "Daph, you are such a freak," he told her when he was done. "Ah yes," she said, "but I'm your freak." Justin draped his arm over her shoulder, "That you are."
------
"The things I do for you Justin," Daphne stated as she and Justin walked into Woody's later that evening. "Ah come on Daph. You know you like to sit here and drool with me over all the hot gay guys. Hmmm… maybe I should take you to the backroom one of these days. You know you'd love to see some hot gay action." Justin said as he wagged his eyebrows suggestively at her. She laughed and gave him a playful push. "Oh you know it."
They each grabbed a seat at the bar and Justin waved to the bar tender. "You want anything?" he asked Daphne. 'Oh no, just water. I've class first thing tomorrow. You go ahead though. I'll be more than happy to throw you over my shoulder and drag you home when you're too wasted to remember your own name." Justin glared at her. "Like I would get that drunk." he stated. "Double," Justin told the bartender as he came over. "Just a water," Daphne said when he looked at her. "Well," Daphne started as the bartender set their drinks in front of them. "You are on the rebound. Now me, being a girl, after a breakup like yours, I would sit at home and eat an entire gallon of ice-cream and then moan and bitch about all the fat calories later. You however," she continued, "are a young, gay man. You have to watch your figure so that all those other hot gay men out there will want a piece of your nice, shapely ass. So, instead of ice-cream, you should opt for getting drunk off your ass to celebrate being on the market again."
Justin just stared. "Wow," he finally said. "We haven't been spending much time together lately have we? I had almost forgotten just how much you talk. Without pausing for air." Daphne giggled. "Yeah well, that's why we make such a grrreat team. We could both power the entire country, if they could only tap into the energy it takes to talk so much," she said solemnly. Justin snorted, "Yeah right. There's no way I talk as much as you. No one could ever achieve that," she glared at him and Justin decided to change the subject. "So, what class do you have tomorrow morning?" he asked her. "Oh, just Bio. I. It's a dumb class. I already know all of that stuff from high school. But I have to take it. If you ask me, it's just a waste of my time and my parents money."
"Oh shit. That reminds me. I have to go by the IFA tomorrow and see if my tuition has been paid. I have a feeling that it has been," Justin said. "Oh. Who do you think paid it?" Daphne asked. "Brian. He and I had a written agreement. He would pay tuition and then when I have the money I pay him back with interest." Daphne nodded and started to say something but was cut off by another voice- "Why the hell would Brian do anything for you!" Came Michael's angry voice. Justin let out a large sigh and dropped his head onto the table. He so did not have the patience for this right now. "Because, Michael, he and I had an agreement, a promise, and Brian Kinney doesn't break promises, let alone written contracts." Michael just sneered at him. "Yeah? Well that was before he knew what an insensitive little twat you are-" Justin cut him off, "Michael! Shut the fuck up!" Justin yelled, turning around in his seat to face Michael. "You are going to listen to me because I am NOT going to say this again. You are an insensitive little asshole who needs to get the fuck out of everyone else's business. What goes on between Brian and I has nothing to do with you or anyone else. I had every right to leave. There were no locks on our door. I was free to leave and so was he. I wasn't happy with the way things were going and so I left, same as he would have done. Or no, he just would have kicked my ass out on the street. Now if you'll excuse me, I have things to do which, once again, have absolutely nothing to do with you."
And with that Justin grabbed his jacket and stormed past Michael. He saw Ted standing there glaring at him, probably because he had insulted Michael, and Emmett standing behind Ted, the look on his face unsure, like he didn't know whether or not he should still be friends with Justin. 'Fine,' Justin thought. 'Be a coward. That's all you all are anyway.' And Justin rushed out of Woody's not even noticing who he bumped into in his rush.
Daphne got up to follow her friend, but first stopped in front of Michael. Before anyone knew what was happening, Michael had a red spot in the shape of Daphne's hand on his face. "You are such a little shit," she hissed at him. "And if you ever, ever say anything to him again like you did at the diner, I will hunt you down and you can be sure that you won't be saying anything to anyone ever again." She turned to leave, but then paused and turned back around. "What I want to know, though, is what he ever did to you to inspire such hatred? Is it because you're jealous? Because he's more of a man than you'll ever be? Is it because, unlike you, he doesn't hide who he is? Or is it because he had what you'll never have? Because you know you won't. And Michael, because I don't plan on ever seeing you again, I hope you have a miserable life." As she left, she saw Brian standing near the front, watching the events unfold. She just glared at him and continued out the door.
After she was gone Brian came up to where Mikey was and grabbed a seat at the bar. "So, what was that all about?" he asked, gingerly touching the hand print on Michael's cheek. "You should know better than to piss off an already angry female, Mikey. Has living with your mother taught you nothing?" Michael snorted and collapsed in the seat next to Brian. "So, what was that all about, Michael?" Brian asked him again. Michael just averted his eyes. "It was… nothing."
-----
The next day Justin found himself sitting in an office at PIFA. The woman in front of him was checking her files, seeing if his tuition had been paid for yet. "I'm sorry, Mr. Taylor, but it would seem that this semester's tuition has yet to be paid," she told him was she done looking at his files. Justin sighed, "Okay. That you ma'am." He left the office and leaned against the wall. He had hoped that Brian would stick to their agreement and continue paying for his school, contingent on the fact that Justin would eventually pay him back with interest. He thought about calling Brian but decided that it would be better to talk to him in person. He started out for the infamous loft, a bad feeling hanging over him the entire way.
When he got there he thought about buzzing up, but decided that even if Brian was there he might not left him in. So instead he punched in the access code, which was thankfully still the same, and headed up to the loft. He slowly trudged up the stairs, not wanting to alert Brian to his presence by using the loud elevator. He finally got to Brian's floor and braced himself, then knocked. He heard the sound of someone walking across the floor of the loft and briefly thought about running. But before he would've even had a chance the door was sliding open, and there stood Brian, slightly shocked at seeing him, but he covered it quickly. He stood back and allowed Justin in.
They stood there for a minute awkwardly before Brian cleared his throat and walked back to the couch. "I-uh- I got all your stuff together for you. It's -uh- over there," he pointed somewhere behind him and Justin turned to look. Sure enough, all his stuff was there, all piled up and ready to go. "Oh. Well, I don't have a car or anything-" Brian cut him off. "That's fine. Come and get it when you need it. So… was there something you wanted?" He picked up the joint he had put down to answer the door and turned to face Justin. His eyes flickered briefly to Justin's gauze covered hand and then back to his face. "I-uh-" Justin put his hand behind his head as he thought of the right way to phrase his question. "I was just wondering if you would- um..." He heard Brian sigh, "Would what Justin?" Justin bit his lip, "If you would stick to the arrangement we had." He blurt out. He heard Brian ask: "Which would be...?" It was Justin's turn to sigh. "The one where you agreed to pay for my schooling and I would pay you back with interest when I got the money." Justin chanced a look at Brian in time to see him run a hand over his face. "I wasn't planning on it," he stated.
"What?" Justin asked, kind of shocked. "We had an agreement. We both signed a piece of fucking paper about it. You know that I have no other way of paying tuition or else I would. You're the only person I know, other than my fucking lame ass shit of a father, who has the kind of money to pay for it. And it's not like I'm just taking it from you. I will pay you back as soon as I have a real job- after college." Brian sighed again. "Yeah, well, I was planning on paying for it when we were together-" Justin cut him off. "Whoa, whoa, whoa," he said, holding his hands up. "Tell me I did not just hear you say 'when we were together.' I have tried, ever since we were together, to get you to admit to being in some semblance of a relationship with me and I could never do it. And now that we are apart you readily admit that we were? What kind of fucked up shit is that!" Justin was angry. "Justin..." Brian began.
"No! Don't 'Justin' me. Why is it that you only say that when we are not together. This is fucked up. I fucking left because you wouldn't say something like that. I fucking left you, Brian. Well, it was that and the tricking." he held up a hand to stop Brian from speaking. "Yes, I'm fully aware that we had an 'open' relationship. But Brian, I'm not you. Nor will I ever be you. I don't like tricking every night. And there are some nights when I would just like to stay in. But then I get home and you're fucking some random guy on the couch, or worse, our bed. And then I couldn't sleep at night. Just thinking about the fact that you were with some other guy there, in the very spot where I had to lay at night. It fucking sucked to see you doing that, Brian! But you didn't care. You never cared about how I felt when it came to that. It was always about you. You being Brian-fucking-Kinney, being able to do whatever and whoever you want, with nothing to tie you down. Well guess what, Brian? You don't have to worry about that anymore. Because I'm leaving. For good this time. I made the mistake of thinking that we could act like adults about this, but I was wrong. And could you thank Mikey for me? I mean, he did play a monumental part in all of this. And he got what he wanted. I'm gone."
Justin turned around and went to grab his stuff, not caring that he had nowhere to put it. Brian ran a hand over his face again, trying to digest all that Justin had told him. He was right. He hadn't talked to Justin about it, well, anything really. They didn't communicate enough. And that had been mostly his fault. He saw Justin struggling with all his stuff, tears pouring down his face, and Brian felt a little piece of his heart break. 'It's for the best,' he told himself. "Justin... let me help you with this stuff." he said. "No!" Justin yelled. "Just leave me the fuck alone Brian. I don't need your help. So just get the fuck away from me." Brian sighed and went back and dropped onto the couch. He heard Justin finally get all of his stuff together and then leave, slamming the door behind him. He felt the lone tear make it's way down his face and felt another piece of his heart break as he heard the elevator go down, taking Justin out of his life again. "It's for the best," he whispered to himself. "He's better off without me."
Down on the street Justin made up his mind. He pulled out his cell phone and quickly dialed a number. "Hey dad? It's me, Justin. Listen, could you come and get me? I need to talk to you. Thanks."