Chapter Three

Brian's POV Ten years later…

"Mikey, you're going to have to either slow your talking or shut up because I'm this close to stuffing you into a locker." I informed my friend walking beside me clutching the latest Captain Astro comic and talking my ear off about it.

"But Brian, this is good stuff here." He had a slight whine to his voice as he flipped open that stupid comic book for the umpteenth time. "And you know how I get claustrophobic when people shove me into lockers."

I rolled my eyes, wondering why it was that I did know that. Everything had been going good for me, everyone saw me as the tall brooding guy and generally left me alone. Then one day I just have to walk by the locker with someone banging and yelling inside it, and of course an annoying ray of sunshine made me open it. Now I was stuck with a geek firmly attached to my hip.

I felt my shoulder back start to bounce a bit impatiently and made sure Mikey was still talking before opening it a tad so Fluffy could stick his head out. I had not idea how long a normal rabbit lived but Fluffy was as bright and chipper as the day I got him, just bigger with floppier ears. The best thing about the rabbit though was that whenever someone was around who I didn't want to see him, didn't. I could bring him to school and plop him on my desk and no one would notice. The only way I knew I wasn't crazy was that one time a little girl had come up to me at the library and asked if she could pet him.

"Brian? Hello?" Mikey's voice snapped my eyes away from the contently sleeping rabbit in my bag back to him. "I swear, sometimes you seem more interested in that bag than me." he huffed.

"Sometimes that isn't very hard Mikey." I bluntly replied.

"Gee thanks. Now back to what I was saying…"

I was only half listening to him when we passed by the open doors to the school's auditorium and I stopped short. Michael looked back at me confused before looking at the poster on the door announcing the school's production of Romeo and Juliet. The poster however was not what had caught my attention.

"I'll see you later Mikey." I told him before going in, hoping that he wouldn't follow.

"Oh Romeo, Romeo, where for art thou Romeo?" there was a very dramatic sounding blonde standing on the newly built balcony sighing out the lines.

"If you're talking about me I'm sorry to disappoint but I'm not going to be spouting poetry anytime soon." I informed the blonde with a grin as I jumped onstage and set my bag down as Fluffy hopped out.

"Wouldn't really expect it Bri," the blonde smiled down as he leaned on the balcony edge.

"What are you doing here? I could have used you quite a few times today when dealing with Captain Geekstro." I stood below the balcony and looked up at him.

"Aw, he liked you Bri. You're the only guy who won't beat him up." He teased. "Now catch me," he commanded as he lifted himself onto the balcony railing.

"What are you crazy?" I balked a bit. Sure I was tall for my age but having to catch him from a balcony…

"Oh come on, I'm practically weightless remember? Besides, I don't think you'd want to attempt climbing up, do you?" he gave me that stupid grin of his that would usually make me agree to anything.

"Fine. Jump on down Juliet," I sighed and held out my arms like it was a chore.

Justin giggled before pushing off and practically floating down to land lightly in my outstretched arms with one of his around my neck. "My hero," he sighed while batting his eyelashes at me.

"Keep on dreaming," I advised before promptly dropping him, not that he actually plopped on the stage, or fell for that matter. "I hate it when you do that, it's creepy." I stepped back to watch him floating where I had left him.

"Fin," he laughed before righting himself and sitting down on the stage. Fluffy decided to plop into his lap and get comfortable as I joined him on the stage floor. "So, how're things?" he asked conversationally.

"Well, my father is an abusive drunk, my mother is a clueless Christian, my sister is the spawn of Satan, my algebra teacher is Satan, I have a geek permanently glued to my side, and the only person who knows any of this is…" I paused as I looked him over, trying to find the right word to describe him. "Dead."

"Ever the sensitive one," Justin rolled his eyes and the caramel colored ball of fluff in his lap huffed out a breath.

"That meadow is the only place where I actually like my life." I sighed, thinking of that hidden sunlit meadow that I went to everyday to get away from everything.

"That's why it's there." Justin assured me as he pulled me into a hug, letting me relax into him.

"If anyone walking in right now they'd think I was insane." I remarked, wondering how I looked leaning into seemingly nothing.

"Story of your existence." Justin laughed as he gently kissed my forehead.

I spent as much time in the meadow as I could that afternoon, dragging on my homework process for as long as possible. I knew what would be waiting for me back home, and I was in no hurry to see it. Since the first time Justin brought me here where no one could find me it turned into my safe haven I could run to. No matter what the weather was in the real world, the meadow was always the same.

Fluffy's ears suddenly pricked up from the middle of a clover patch and his nose soon followed. I had learned several years before that it was his way of warning me that if we didn't get home soon, the beating that I received almost daily would be worse.

I quickly put my books back into my bag and scooped the rabbit up before heading back to the cemetery gates. Even in my frequent haste to get home, I never forgot to gently brush my fingers over Justin's tombstone.

An hour and a half later I half dragged, half limped my sore body into my room and slammed the door before locking it. I threw my bag onto the floor, ignoring the squeak as Fluffy bounced in it, and collapsed onto my bed while ignoring my growling stomach. No way was I going back down there.

I watched Fluffy wiggle himself free of the bag as night darkened the room and he jumped onto the bed to curl into my aching stomach. As the achiness in my body set in I felt tears well up even though I willed them away with everything I had. This happened every night, I should be used to it by now.

"Shh…it's okay to cry, don't hold it all in." a soft voice whispered into my ear as arms wrapped around me and started making slow, soothing circles over my abdomen with gently hands.

He was there. He was always there. Even when I felt most alone he was still there if I needed him. From the first time the beating became frequent he'd been there to hold me while I hurt.

With Fluffy in front and Justin behind protecting me, I let myself cry for the loving family every kid should have that I would never know. But some of those tears were also thankful tears that even though I didn't have a family, I had someone who cared about me just as much as one and sometimes even more.

Justin continued soothing me even after the sobs stopped until I was completely calm again. Fluffy had fallen asleep as I blinked out into the darkness and Justin rested his head on my neck, hands now making calming paths up and down my arms.

"Jus," I whispered. His nose nudged my ear. "How old were you?" For as long as I'd known him he'd been the same age as me, growing up right along with me. But I never knew how old he had been when he died, or how he died.

"I was seventeen and got hit by a car." He replied emotionlessly, making me wonder if there was more to it. "My family didn't know I was dead until after I was buried, and even then they didn't even want to bother with trying to find my body."

"Why not?" I turned in his arms to face him, shocked that his family wouldn't want to find him. I had thought it was only mine.

"Because I was gay." Justin shrugged, his blue eyes looking older than I'd ever seen them and it hit me that although his 'body' was fourteen he'd lived seventeen years before that.

"Is being gay a bad thing?" I asked, hoping the answer was no as I was starting to notice the guys around me a lot more than the girls.

"No, it's not a bad thing at all." He assured me, still holding me in his arms. Silence fell over us as we were lost in our own thoughts and a light snoring came from the furry pillow at my back.

"Will you have to leave someday? To go to your next life?" I asked quietly, knowing that he wouldn't be able to stay with me forever and dreading the day when he would have to leave.

He hesitated for a moment, looking like he was about to say something but then changing his mind. "I will." He finally conceded with sadness in his normally carefree eyes. "But I'm going to stay here for as long as I can." He hugged me tight and I wrapped his ethereal body in my arms as well, wishing that if I just held on tight enough my angel would never leave.

A/N: Just as a forewarning I'm turning up the fiction rating for the next chapter, which is going to turn a little angsty when we learn how Brian got into all of his bad addictions.