Chapter 2: The Short Weekend Begins With A Longing Pt.2

I'll reply to you guys one by one next time!

And just like that

We'll snap our hands

And all will turn to white on white

Does everything have to be such a tragedy

Let's sell the world with one clever line

And sell it back at double the asking price

Or triple

It's a crazy world, someone should sell some tickets

Remy placed the ice pack to his eye," You know what, this is sick, some strange conspiracy of some sort, I know you had all of this arranged somehow"

Jake smirked at him," Maybe I did. You'll never know, ohh…the eye seems to hurt a lot"

Remy glared at him," Is it me or do you take joy in other people's pain?"

Jake flinched. "Does my pain turn you on?" Michael asked, his pale eyes scanning Jake with interest

"Jake?" Remy asked, waving his hands in front of his eyes. Jake snapped back," Don't do that. And yeah, I'm a machinist for pain. And get off my bed, your bed is on the other side of the room. Oh and some ground rules, around 11:30 at night…don't be awake."

"Why-?"

"Just don't" Jake said, icily. " Now move, I want to get ready for the meeting that going to happen in a few minutes"

"What meeting?"

"All the older kids and head leaders meet in here and chat things out. What needs to be fixed and so on and so forth" Jake smiled," Besides, the head kid is gonna be here too, you need to make a good impression. I heard he's a real pain"

Just as Jake finished that sentence someone knocked on the door. Jake moved over, adjusting his tie and smiled as he opened the door. 6 boys came into the room, taking places anywhere a seat would be available and started minor chit chat.

"So…" Remy leaned in," Which one's the asshole I'm going to have to kiss up to?"

Jake smirked as he clapped his hands," Okay, let's begin this session"

"Sir?" One of the boys asked.

"Yeah" Jake asked.

"Sir?" Remy asked, squinting in confusion.

"When we start the meetings from now on will we always have to bow down to you?"

Jake smiled again," No-"

"Don't be stupid" Another boy said," We all know that was last years' thing"

"Very good Alex"

"Please, Jake" Alex rolled his eyes," We all know what you're trying to pull here"

Jake coughed a little," Ahem"

"Sir"

"Good boy"

"Why is everybody calling you sir?' Remy asked, still confused.

"I'm the person you have to impress" Jake smiled," Meet the head kid"

"You've got to be kidding me" Remy sighed out.

"Sir" Jake added.

"What?"

"You have to say sir"

"Hell no"

"I'm telling you it's better if you didn't resist-" Jake began but stopped short." You know what? Forget it, I tried being nice, you can have things the hard way then"

Saw you walk out last night

side walking junkies filled with hazy thoughts

Oh yeah

Beginning of my snow storm day dreams

You're a drug hit to my sanity

An acid trip to my well being

Yeah, yeah yeah

As the doctors prescribed a well mannered lad

In the ever growing well mannered fad

"Michael, did you finish your homework?" Marco called from downstairs. He was trying to help his mother with the dinner before going upstairs to finish the rest of his report for the month of October. " Ex-Boyfriends: Past Lost or Future Gained?". And so far he only had 2 sentences typed up.

But then he remembered that Michael didn't talk.

"Ma, will he ever talk?"

"Marco…you have to give him time, he's experiencing a great loss…" His mother trailed off," 3 great losses. Give him time to cope"

"He's had 2 months!"

"Were you like that when your father left?" She snapped.

Marco remained silent," That was different then…he was family"

"Marco, Trent and Adrian were family to him…and Jake, well he was something entirely worldly."

"I don't understand why we're still paying for his tuition since he doesn't live with us anymore" Marco said, running a hand through his hair.

"Because you love him"

"He was my son"

"He is your son"

"Tell that to him"

"No…"

"You know we still have his number in the corner of my drawer upstairs"

"And it will stay there" Marco said, dropping a bit of parsley into the sauce," Let it simmer mom. Then take it out. I'll be back in 5 minutes" Before she could make out another word he went up stairs, grabbing his book bag on the way up.

Before he went into his room he stopped at Michael's and knocked on the door.

But then he remembered again and went inside and sat down next to the shaken boy. " Hey…" Marco said softly as Michael looked up, snapping his book shut and squinting a little bit.

"I was just won- ahh the what the hell happened to your hair?" Marco asked, looking at Michael's now dark blueish black hair.

Michael gave him another look. He moved his lips slowly so Marco could understand what he was mouthing. 'My hair was never red'

"It wasn't?" Marco asked, confused," But it looked so…real"

'I give a good dye job' Michael replied as Marco looked away for the snide remark. He still didn't understand why he wouldn't talk to him, but this was probably as good as it was going to get for a while. Marco reached up and touched the frosted blue tips, the hair style looked familiar…

As the casket was placed into the ground Marco observed the boy, Adrian, who Michael was completely in distress over. They did a good job for the 'funeral' actually, his skin had a wonderful glassy look to it, his black eyes were turned back to their normal blue and his hair, which was swept back away from his face, held a hint of winter in Marco's opinion. It was a light blue with streaks of black in it, almost like a winter sky in the evening.

"Adrian" he murmured as Michael's eyes lit up.

"What?"

Marco blinked at him," Did you just talk…?"

"What did you say about Adrian?" Michael insisted.

"Noth-"

Michael shot him a sharp look.

"I was just thinking about how that was the same hair color of…Adrian, before he died and all…" Marco trailed off.

Michael looked back down to his notebook and touched his hair. Yeah, he knew it was the same color hair style, he did it purposely, to show that he still had a little bit of spunk left in him. Plus, he was getting tired of the fire red that he had in his hair before. Hair dying was a trait that he picked up from Adrian to trick people into thinking they never met you before. The less they knew, the better, and that normally meant double the money.

"So are you…okay?" Marco asked, his was uneasy about talking to Michael now.

Michael looked at him and then went back to writing in his notebook.

Okay…guess he wasn't talking again.

Marco sighed and patted his leg before getting up and leaving the room," Whenever you happen to decide to talk, you know where I'll be at"

Ryan sat inside the chair with the speaker phone on, it was a 2 way actually since Andy and Pete were over at Brian's house at the moment. " Okay, okay fine…all superheroes do not need to wear spandex" Andy sighed.

"Okay then" Pete smirked on the other line," Thank you"

"Look, all I wanted to know was why the hell exactly you're not over at my house instead of being over there with your husband?" Brian teased." There's plenty of room"

"Of course there is" Ryan rolled his eyes," But I want to stay here with Marco, besides, he sort of…I dunno…needs me to help balance out the house"

"Right…" Brian trailed off.

"Hey, I thought we agreed that I'd have a shot at him first" Andy complained.

"Who likes Marco?" Pete asked, suspiciously.

"You know…I'm not like…completely out over here" Ryan whispered.

"You haven't told!" The three of them yelled at Ryan at the same time.

"It slipped my mind…I guess"

"Right…" Brian said again. "Just like it slipped your mind that you didn't tell him what amazing of a time you had in that hotel ro-"

"What?" Pete asked, knocking over his plate over at Brian's house.

"Hey, watch the fur!" Brian snapped.

"You didn't tell Pete?" Andy asked, smiling a little bit. It hurt to see that Ryan was getting messed up, but this was all far too amusing.

"No, no one told Pete anything" Pete said angrily.

"Now Pete" Brian said, petting Pete's head," What did I tell you about talking in the third person?"

"That Ryan kinda sorta…I dunno how to put this" Andy trialed off.

"Someone better fucking tell me something" Pete snapped.

"You know, for a poet, your such an impatient person" Brian said teasingly.

In the background you could hear someone cursing and then a glass shattering," Ahhh fuck, my carpet" Brian yelled out.

"I'll tell you…" Ryan said. Marco walked into the room," In an hour. Okay? Anyone up for a little boys night out?"

"Hell yes" Andy cheered," Can we play that fabulous game again?"

Ryan hung up the phone. He got up off of the bed and smiled up and Marco, who was falling onto his bed on the other side of the room. He pulled his shirt over his shoulders and threw it to the floor, pulled out a chocolate from under his pillow, stuffed it into his mouth and closed his eyes while falling back and hitting the pillow," I hate Monday, Rye"

"I can tell" Ryan smiled, sliding out of the bed and onto his feet, "Look, I'm going to spend the night over at Brian's"

"Why?" Marco asked, a little dispointed," You said we had business to attend to"

"We can settle it another time" Ryan said as he crossed the room and closed the door," Night"

Marco sighed," Yeah…night"

"I—" Adrian stopped and swallowed. That heart stopping jaw dropping tear jerking silence rolled over the two of them, him with pale cheeks and lowered eyes, the other with disgust and hatred.

"I love you-" Adrian was cut short when the person held up a hand.

"Stop…Adrian, right there. No, you don't love me. You don't fucking know what love is" They said it harshly, sweeping the hair back from their face and throwing their cigarette down to the floor. They held a demeaning stature, their hands on their hips, eyes burning into Adrian's soul and shoulders squared back. " Love is a silly catch phrase that people use to get other's attention, it's just a word. A noun. A specific little thing that America perceives today as the answer to all your problems and needs"

Adrian's face fell to the floor," But you said—"

"I say a lot of things. When I came here…to you, before any of this" They gestured around the room," Happened, all this chaos and destruction I didn't think that this-" They stopped, pointing to the ring on their finger," Would be the outcome. Adrian, I don't need a marriage right now, possibly not ever. And if it wasn't for you and your fucking petty attempt to wed me, and get me into the perfect frame of what you consider that all American family, with white picket fences and tanning beds and trophy wives and block parties, you have another fucking thing coming"

Adrian took a deep breath, pushed himself away and looked around the room. People were scrambling in ever direction, people were crying, some were singing, others were laughing. And there he stood, in the middle of everything." I don-"

"I know you didn't want to make things complicated" They whispered, suddenly inches away from his face. They took a hand and placed it under Adrian's chin and pulled it up wards so he could look them straight in the eyes," It's not your fault if a myriad of what is and seems to be has corrupted your little icy black hair. You learn as you live—" They paused, a teasing soft smirk played on their lips as they used their other arm and pulled Adrian up, closer to them," It drives me absolutely mad when you pout like that"

Adrian pushed him away," No…just don't…touch me…or …anything, matter of fact…" He stuttered his words out, his eyes hitting the floor again and his lips drying quickly," I wanted to be relieved of all the pains of 'Oh do they like me' …" He stopped," I wanted to be with you"

"I know" They said, confidently.

"So if you know why don't you do something?" Adrian snapped. "I love yo-"

"Ahhh" They stopped him short, placing a finger to his lips and smirking a little at the involuntary flinch that his body gives off," I don't have to do anything to you, Adrian. Because I've told you…time and time again…that I don't think that love is possible, that what we happen to share…what ever that may be, is the reason that we're here now, at your brother's wedding."

His breath hitched a little as they slung an arm around his shoulders a pulled him close," Adrian, you're destined for better things, bigger brighter wonderful things. You don't need me tagging along for the ride, now do you?"

Adrian peeked up." Yes, every second of it"

"Then go find yourself someone to bride" They said, harshly pushing away.

Just as he did the bride's mate threw the bouquet of flowers in the air and landed into Adrian's hands.

Michael sat inside his room alone, is pale fingers skating lightly over his arm, gently fingering the small gashes and cuts that were rowed neatly up and down it. It had been such a long time in his mind since everything changed.

His mind was in a whirlwind

First Trent's death.

Then Adrian's.

Then moving into the house.

Then taking care of Tilly.

Then Jake and his final good-bye

Then the note.

Then school.

His grades were suffering.

His mind was melting.

And all of this was Jake's fault.

He knew it, and so did everybody else. He knew that Jake couldn't help it, that it was the way that he was, how he thought before he did something. He wished Rory was still alive so they could sort things out. He wished that he was able to stand up for himself. He wished that he could just get over this fucking crush.

But everybody knew it wasn't a crush.

"STOP MAKING IT ALL ABOUT FUCKING YOU! I can't! Don't you think I've tried…I've tried…I've tried so fucking hard…but I can't, you have me wrapped around your fingers ever so well…"

Michael flinched and rolled around in the covers a bit, he wasn't getting any better.

In fact, by the fever that was brewing inside of him and the sudden tremors every now and then, he was getting worse.