The New Bus Boy – Chapter 12 – Trouble is a Friend

Trouble will find you no matter where you go. You fight for a while but you start to lose control. Now, trouble is a friend of mine.

Dean's P.O.V.

Right as I'm about to push inside the first trick of the night, I feel my cellphone start vibrating in the pocket of my jeans. I briefly think about letting it roll to the voice mail, but something inside me tells me to answer.

"Sorry, it will only take a minute," I tell the blond boy in front of me. I take my phone out and flip it open. "What?" I ask irritated.

"Dean, it's me." Oh...

I cover the speaker with my hand and look at my trick. "Sorry, we'll do this another time." He starts to tell me all sorts of things, but I ignore him, quickly pulling up my jeans and turning to leave. I wait to get out of the club before putting the phone back up to my ear. "What happened this time?"

I hear him sigh. "I was wondering if maybe I could come over for a couple of days."

This actually takes me by surprise because seriously, since he started (dare I say it?) dating Brian, it's been like they're one inseparable item. And now he wants to come all the way over here?

I quickly walk over to my car. "What happened, Baby?" I ask again.

"We had a fight and I told him I never wanted to see him again and…" I roll my eyes sighing. How in the hell can he think that I'm actually comfortable at playing the couple-therapist when it's the man I'm in love with we're talking about?

"Jus, listen, I'm..."

"I have to get away from here," he cuts me off.

I sigh again. "You can't."

"Why?"

"Because you have to go to work and because I don't want you here. I can't see you moping around because Brian Kinney played the asshole with you. Damn, you knew how he was when you accepted to be with him!" I can feel myself starting to lose patience. I know that I'm his best friend and that I should be there for him no matter what but... did I mention that I'm in love with him?

"You told me to give him a chance!" Justin tells me angrily. Fucking fabulous! Now we're going to fight because of Kinney. I close my eyes for an instant picturing what my best friend looked like when he broke up with Seth and I shake my head. How is it even possible for him to find all the bad guys? All the wrong ones?

"Coming here, what could possibly change? You can't run away from him because you work with him and he knows where you live. Plus, you can't just pack up your things and leave like you did with Seth. You really need to start facing things and stop running away from them." Wow. I don't even know where all this wisdom comes from. And anyway, he can't come here right now. Not when he is looking for him.

I hear him taking a deep breath. At least he's calming down. "Do you think I have some problems?"

I frown. "What do you mean?"

"Every guy I like is an asshole with me."

A small smile creeps on my face. He could have just fucking said yes to me if he wanted something simple. "It's 'coz you like the typical bastard man. Just like about 80% of women." I'm actually able to pull a laugh out of him this time. Good. "Now, why don't you tell me what happened?"

Justin sighs. "He went away on a business trip and fucked the assistant of the man he wanted as a client in order to get to him. And before I knew about that, I found out that he's been fucking most of his clients to get the accounts."

"Ok, so he's a bit of a slut," I joke. Seriously, didn't he know that? "But Jus, remember? That was the reason or at least one of the reasons why you didn't want to be with him in the first place. You got over that. Plus, I'm sure that he has never promised you anything."

"He..."

"He's a lot like me. And I'd never make a promise I'm not sure to keep. Just let some time pass and then listen to him." If there is a prize for the greatest best friend in the whole world, they have to give it to me.

We spend several minutes in silence. I know he needs time, but I'm about to explode. Did he forget that just a few months ago I told him that I loved him? This time, I'd like to be egoistic enough to prevent myself from being hurt.

"Dean?" his voice comes out as a soft whisper. He sounds like the eighteen-year-old boy I met years ago.

I lean my head over the steering wheel and sigh. "Tell me Baby."

"You know you're the best right?" I can hear the smile in his voice as he says it and I can't help but smile back in the darkness of my Camaro.

"Yeah I know."

"Thank you. I was packing a light bag to come over to you for the next week. You probably just saved my job as well as myself."

I clear my throat. "Hey, what is a best friend for if not to pick up the pieces and put them back together?"

"I really miss you." Why does he have to keep doing this to myself?

"Justin...I..."

"I'm an asshole I know. I shouldn't talk about Brian with you, but, as pathetic as it may sound, you're still my only true friend. My best friend."

Maybe I should tell him now about Seth or maybe it will only make things worst. "Don't think about it," I try to say lightly.

I'm stopped from saying anything else to him when I hear a knock on the car window. I look up from the steering wheel to see whom else but him?

"Listen Jus, I have to go now. I'll talk to you tomorrow, ok?"

He takes a deep breath. "Ok, Dean and thank you."

I shake my head even if he can't see me. "Not a problem."

"I love you," I hear him whispering quietly before the line goes dead. Great...right what I needed now.

I roll down the window and look sternly at the man standing in front of me. "What the fuck do you want, Seth?" I try to muster up my best pissed off-face and voice. I just can't stand this situation anymore.

Justin left and went to glorious Pittsburgh and now I'm back here alone, having to face what he left behind him.

Seth puts his hands in the back pockets of his jeans and looks straight into my eyes. "I need to talk to you, Dean."

Justin's P.O.V.

As soon as I put down my phone, I throw myself down on the sofa sighing. I'd like to sink into a hole and never come out of it. I don't even understand why in the hell I was so angry with Brian last night. I knew him. I knew what to expect from him since the beginning but I... I guess I just wanted to expect something better from him.

I feel so stupid and childish for the way I acted with Brian. Maybe I was even right to be pissed off, but the point is that I was angry for a stupid reason. It wasn't the fact that he fucked someone else even if I thought that that was the problem at the beginning, but – God I feel stupid just thinking about it – it was because he fucked that guy on a copy machine. How ridiculous am I?

I tilt my head in the direction of the kitchen. This morning, when I opened the fridge in search of something for breakfast, I found the bottle of champagne that he had bought yesterday. Seeing it there made me feel even worse. The first time the words 'your partner' leave his mouth, and I'm stupidly angry about a fuck that he will never even see again for the rest of his life... or at least until he has to go back to Chicago or Leo Brown comes here.

I get up from the sofa and walk inside the kitchen. I open the fridge and take out the bottle of champagne putting it on the counter. I stare at it as if it's a big bad enemy I have to take down. Seriously, I couldn't be more pathetic...

I hear the phone ringing from the other room and sigh. As I walk inside the living room and pick up the receiver, I tell myself that I'm not wishing it's him, but when I say "Hello?" And a male voice tells me, "Good morning, Sir. I'm Benjamin and I'm calling..." I can't help but feel absolutely and pathetically disappointed.

I hang up without saying anything else and go back to staring at the enemy-bottle, wishing I was strong enough to call Brian and tell him that it doesn't matter if he fucks half or the whole Pennsylvania as long as he comes back in the end. Because I don't really care about that, not anymore...

No, my fear is that one day, he will look across the dance floor, lock his gaze with a man and forget all about me.

Brian's P.O.V.

My finger is lazily tracing the edges of the almost empty glass of whiskey standing in front of me.

The green light of the pub is probably making me look like an alien and I don't even know where in the hell I am. I got in the car and told myself that I didn't want to go where one of my friends could find me because I have to think. Oh yes! I need a fucking plan to get Justin back.

I straighten my back and gulp down what's left of my drink. Then I throw a couple of bills on the table and stand up leaving that for-shit place. It's not drinking myself into stupor that will convince Sunshine that I'm worth a second chance.

When I go out on the street, the cold air hits me in the face sobering me up, not that I'm already drunk, but...we could say that it makes me more lucid.

I could go ask Ben and Michael for advice... hmmm... Zen Ben will probably tell me some stupid old saying and Mikey...well...

If I go to talk with Emmett or Ted, I'll be trapped in a mix between a Barbara Streisand movie and a tragic opera.

That leaves Debbie. Deb will probably tell me that I'm an asshole and that I need to grow up and that I have to do something or I will lose Justin for good, but then she will tell me something that will surely help me. Some motherly way to insult me while making me see reason.

Yep. Let's go to Deb's.

Dean's P.O.V.

I step out of the car and look at Seth. He's just a couple of inches taller than me. I could easily take him down given the chance. I wanted to hit him when we found out about what he was doing behind Justin's back, but he expertly talked me out of it. Now that it's just dear old Seth and me. I could finally even up the score. I raise an eyebrow and stare straight into his grayish eyes.

"What could we possibly have to talk about, Seth?" He looks away and looks nervous. Good.

"I saw you leaving the club and…"

"Get to the point," I tell him crossing my arms.

"It was him on the phone?"

I frown. "I told you already to leave him alone. What the fuck do you want from him now? A second chance? To say you're sorry? Well, too damn late man!"

Seth takes a step towards me, but I don't back down. We've never really been great friends since he was with Justin and I had a crush on Justin and plus, he knew that every time they had problems Jus came to me...well, for comfort...so we never had the real chance to be friends. Too much resentment towards the other.

But now that I look closely at him – no matter if for the last years he's been looking at me like he was ready to punch me or throw me off the window – I can see that he just seems lost. He reminds me of Jus when they broke up.

"I know that you're his best friend and would never betray him, Dean," he says with another step forward. "But I really need to talk to him. Please, don't think that I just want to beg him to come back, because it's not that." He shoves a hand in his short-dark-rebel hair and sighs. "At least, it's not just that."

I search for his eyes and what I see there, it's true sorrow. Shit... I almost feel sorry for the moron.

"Look, if a year ago you were saying these things, it would have mattered, but right now," I shake my head, "it doesn't. But..." I just hope that what I'm about to say will help Justin out.

I'm not totally sure that I'm taking the right choice, but when Justin left, no matter how many times he said that it was over, I knew that he was in some ways still hung-up on Seth and he needs to leave all this behind. For good this time. That's what I decided during the last two weeks when Seth has practically been stalking me.

"But?" now he has stopped sounding desperate, but just sounds kind of hopeful.

"But now that he has someone, it's right for him to tie up all loose ends." If there's one thing I want, it's for him to understand that going to Pittsburgh and talking with Justin is not a door that is starting to open for him to step in, but one that has to be closed. "So I will give you his address, hoping that he won't kill me later. It's a bad time right now, but sometimes you really need to be down to see what's best for you."

The little flame of hope that was starting to burn in the deep of his eyes is gradually fading away. Good, this means that he's starting to get it.

"Ok," he quietly whispers and it's strange to hear him using this soft tone because he's always been so confident, at least around us. Because he's older and all that crap.

I open the car door and take out a pen and a piece of paper. I scribble down Justin's address and hand it to Seth. "Don't call him to make an appointment because he will run away. Just go to his home and knock on the door."

He smiles at me for the first time ever with sincerity. "Thank you, Dean."

I shrug. "I'm not giving you the key to get back to him."

"I know," Seth nods and turns away. "I just need to tell him that he was right about leaving and that I'm sorry. Just this and see if one day we could get past all that."

I don't reply to that and I don't really think he expects me to. He just starts to walk away and I watch him go.

Justin's P.O.V.

So today was Monday, I should have gone back at work because seriously, I'm an adult and it's been a week since me and Brian broke up. He wasn't in all week, but today he was gonna come back so that meant I'd have to face him. Not so ready for that.

Therefore, I spent the day closed up in my apartment. I called the agency and said that I wasn't feeling too good and I needed to take one day off. They bought it and so here I am, laying on my bed, staring up at the ceiling as if it holds the answer to all my problems.

When I was firm in my decision of staying away from Brian, I knew that part of the reason was because I already knew that things with him would have never been easy. I guess it's true after all, that we all have a masochist side in ourselves. Otherwise, who would be so stupid to actually fall in love?

I chose Seth because it wasn't something easy. He was someone that held in him everything my parents hated, from the fact that he didn't keep his hair manly and short, up to the fact that he was a successful gay man.

I remember when I met him. I was scared shitless that something bad was going to happen to me once I'd decide that I didn't give a crap if people were going to accept that I was gay or not, but that changed in the matter of a seconds.

I looked up, our eyes met and so teen-drama like, it was done. I was in love with him and I was determined in my choice and I wasn't letting anything or anyone stand in my way.

Not his friends that found me adorable and pathetic at the same time, the fact that Seth, the big successful man, wasn't able to push away a kid; nor my parents that told me more than once that at the first occasion I'd let them down, they were done with me.

Now I wonder what sense all that fighting at home, leaving my city and all that drama, makes. Because I'm alone, in Pittsburgh, acting like some pathetic loser crying over himself.

It takes me a while to finally realize that my doorbell is ringing. I close my eyes tight, wishing whoever is it would just go away because somehow I know that it's not Brian.

He said that he wasn't letting whatever is it that I am to him go and even if I don't actually believe that he's going to chase after me all over again, I know that if that was the case, he'd do it when he'd be absolutely sure to win.

And it's just too soon for that. I mean, ok, I love him, I guess, and I want him back, but I also know that for some stupid pride, I won't tell him yes right now and I'm sure he knows that too.

I hear a loud knock signaling that whoever is it at the door isn't going away so I finally get up from the bed. Walking in front of the mirror makes me stop for a second to take a look at myself. I don't have the typical I've-just-been-dumped look, so I guess I look good enough to face whoever is knocking.

I walk over to the door and open it, ready to find my landlord on the other side or a seller, but it's just the guy for whom I left my last home a few months ago. Great, isn't it?