Ted and Mikey had been dropped off at their perspective houses as Brian sighed tiredly from the night's events. Mikey's mouth had almost landed them all in jail, but after some sweet talking, the officer was persuaded to let them off with a few hundred dollars in tickets.
He stopped at a traffic light starring off distractedly as he waited for the light to turn green. His eyes scanned the street before settling on a sheet of paper on his dashboard. It was Justin's directions to the party he had gone to entertain. Brian scowled at the thought as he reached over and snatched the sheet of paper off the dash crumpling it up and tossing it on the seat.
The light turned green, and he sped off towards his loft. It didn't take long before he had parked his car and was leaning his head back to light a smoke. As he smoked, he contemplated Justin dancing and being ogled by old, lecherous losers. A slight twang of jealousy followed these thoughts before he laughed at himself thinking of the age difference between the two. Was he much different being twelve years older? Hell, a few more years and he could be the boy's father. These thoughts circled his train of thought back to their earlier conversation about Justin taking his studies more seriously. He hated the notion that this moonlighting job might cost Justin his chance to succeed.
Brian glanced at his watch, 11:54PM, it was still early. He reached over grabbing the crumpled paper from the seat unfolding it and reading the directions. Brian fired up the car and pulled back out onto the street deciding that he was going to go to Gary's party invited or not, he had cash, and could toss a little Gary's way to get Justin out of his contract a little early. He smiled thinking about how he would tell Justin that he wanted a private lap dance from him before they retired home for the night. It would work out well for the both of them, Brian would get laid, and Justin would get much needed sleep.
His smile dropped as he got less than a block from where the party was taking place; there was Justin, he was staggering down the street with his shoulder dragging across the brick wall he was using to keep himself upright. Two men had exited the house and were speed walking towards Justin. Brian's eyes followed them warily as he pulled over next to Justin and shouted his name. Justin glanced over at him in confusion before recognition dawned across his face and the boy gave a small smile before turning back towards the wall to cling to its cold surface and settle his disorientation.
Brian put the car in park and stepped out quickly to stride over to Justin never taking his eyes off of the approaching men. Brian's adrenaline peeked in anticipation of what was to come from the disgruntled looking men, but by the time he'd reached Justin the men had slowed their pace finally stopping and turning to go back to the house deciding Brian obviously knew Justin and the conflict wasn't worth having. As they left, Brian turned Justin away from the wall, and Justin's eyes lulled back in his head. Brian's lips pursed in anger as understanding of what could have happened to Justin overtook him. He glared at the house muttering, "Fucking pricks," before grabbing Justin away from the wall and wrapping an arm around his shoulder.
Justin bobbed his head up to look at him smiling once more as he said, "Hey…"
Brian gave him a small smile asking, "Need a ride?"
Justin smiled again but didn't respond letting Brian lead him back to the car to help him climb in. Justin was pretty out of it for the majority of the car ride home before the drug had finally started to wear off.
This silence of course just gave Brian time to think about everything that had just happened and the thought of what could have happened to him tonight if he hadn't shown up. Brian made up his mind that that wasn't going to be an issue again because he planned to have a long talk with Justin when he was sober enough to comprehend what he had to say.
Noticing Justin was starting to come out of his stupor, he casually asked, "Am I going to have to drag your ass up to the loft, or can you walk?"
Justin felt the Jeep parking and looked out the window. They were home at the loft. He had been relaxing against the seat and letting his mind wander as they passed street after street. But now he was slightly confused, trying to remember where they had been before the car. Then it came to him, and he realized whatever Gary had slipped him had really messed him up for a while.
Justin looked over at Brian who asked him if he could walk. His eyebrows drew together as he tried to remember why he was in the Jeep at all. Brian wasn't at the party. He couldn't remember calling Brian and asking him to pick him up. Brian had just showed up. Justin frowned as he decided Brian had been checking up on him. Justin said with annoyance, "I can walk."
As Justin opened the car door he thought about Brian checking up on him, and the way Brian had been behaving since Justin found out his father wasn't going to pay for tuition. Justin stepped out and slammed the Jeep door behind him, thinking that Brian needed to back off and stop trying to govern his decision making. He was embarrassed with himself for letting Gary slip him something, and he was annoyed that Brian had been there to see how fucked up he'd been. He took a step and fell. He pushed himself up, angry that he was obviously still affected by the drugs, and concentrated on walking towards the elevator.
Brian raised an eyebrow at Justin's behavior but said nothing. He had already decided any words he had to say would be better left said in the morning when the drugs would have finished running their course through Justin's system. He came up behind Justin and teased, "You call that walking?"
Justin muttered, "Fuck off." and leaned against the elevator wall once he made it in. He watched Brian close the doors and push the buttons to go up. Once they made it to the loft, Justin headed right for the bed and flopped face down, not even bothering to take off his shoes.
Brian followed Justin into the loft his eyes cutting over to watch Justin flop onto the bed as he strode into the kitchen to fix himself a drink. It hadn't taken Brian more than ten minutes to fix and finish his drink, but by the time he had finished it, Justin was out cold. Brian was tired as well and laid his empty glass down on the table, kicked his shoes off, and stripped his clothes off before climbing onto the bed. He moved over to Justin pulling both of his shoes off and proceeded to fully undress his limp body and pull the covers up over him before laying down himself.
He was tired, but his mind was racing as he thought of the possible consequences this night could have held if he had just gone up to the loft instead of out to get Justin. He looked over at Justin sleeping so peacefully, his blonde strands had matted themselves to his forehead from earlier perspiration of sweating out whatever drug he'd been slipped. Brian reached over gently pushing the hairs off his forehead before turning over, turning the light out, and falling to sleep himself.
The next morning he'd awaken before Justin and ripped the covers off giving his ass a quick slap as he stated loudly enough to wake the dead, "Rise and shine sunshine!" He didn't wait for Justin to snatch the covers back tossing them on the floor as he stated, "Get up; you stink and need a shower, and that project of yours isn't going to finish itself."
Jerking awake from the lack of warmth and Brian's shouting, Justin groaned. His head hurt, and his mouth felt like he'd eaten some sand. He knew falling back to sleep wasn't an option, because the pain in his head wouldn't let him. He got up and headed for the bathroom muttering, "Don't shout. Too fucking cheerful."
Once in the bathroom he took some painkillers with a huge glass of water, and then took a long hot shower. As he was letting the warm water go down his back he thought about the night before.
The party had gone horribly wrong, and Gary had slipped him something. Then Brian was there. He'd been angry at Brian last night for showing up, but now that he was thinking more clearly, he knew he should thank him for showing up when he did. It would have been a bitch trying to figure out how to get home in his drugged up state. And it was kind of sweet to know that Brian was looking out for him. He also thought about his tuition. Gary had basically fired him, and that didn't leave him with very many options. Either drop out, or accept Brian's offer.
Justin sighed, still not sure what the better choice was, and turned the water off. He dried himself off, and went into the bedroom to find some clothes and talk to Brian.
Brian had ripped the rest of the sheets off the bed and changed the linen and had almost finished cooking up a quick plate of scrambled eggs for the two of them by the time Justin had exited the bathroom. Brian wasn't exactly a chef, but figured Justin would likely be hungry after not eating anything the night before. When he saw Justin he remarked, "Come sit down, I'm making you some breakfast."
Justin had put on some clean pants and was pulling on a shirt when Brian called him. He walked into the kitchen area and saw Brian was in fact cooking something, and not just pouring cold cereal. He walked up behind Brian who was at the stove, and wrapped his arms around Brian's middle. He kissed Brian's shoulder and said, "A real breakfast? What's the occasion?"
Brian turned smiling at Justin responding, "You are. Now eat up, I'm going to shovel these down and grab a quick shower, and when I come back, I want us to have a little chat." Brian picked up a plate of eggs for himself and handed one to Justin grabbing them each a fork and stabbing one into Justin's eggs before commencing to eat his own.
The eggs smelled great, and Justin decided he was starving. He ate his eggs, and when Brian went in to take a shower Justin made himself a slice toast too. While he ate his toast and waited for Brian to get out, he went over the expected chat in his head. Brian would tell him he was being a twat, and then tell him to take his money, and stop working for Gary. Justin made a sour face. Working for Gary wouldn't be an issue anymore. But taking Brian's money seemed like giving up, even if it was a loan. He sighed, and waited to see what Brian would say.
Brian didn't take long to shower coming out with his towel wrapped around his neck. Justin was rinsing their plates off and setting the egg pan in the sink to soak. He tossed the towel into the laundry bin and slipped a pair of sweats on before coming into the living room. He watched Justin curiously as he went about the simple tasks of cleaning up. He really cared for the boy, and it wasn't until Justin had gotten bashed that he'd really let himself realize just how much he'd cared. Now he felt like his feelings were betraying him because they made him feel helpless to stop Justin from doing things that might get himself hurt, or worse killed.
It wasn't until Justin had turned to face him that he was taken back out of his silent reverie. He gave the boy a quick smirk before walking over to the couch and sitting down to wait for Justin to finish up and come to join him.