Intrepid Traveler - Part 13
Justin closed his eyes as he relaxed into Brian’s embrace, giving the brunet full access to his neck. The blond did his best to suppress the moan as Brian’s warm, wet tongue trailed down his neck.
“Get a room!”
They both turned around, giving Nick the evil eye.
“They did,” Lindsay teasingly commented as she walked back over to the dresser.
She and Nick offered to help with moving Justin’s things over to Brian’s room. The boys spent the weekend together, leaving the room only to get food. But now that the weekend was over it was time to face reality. Which was moving Justin’s things, as scarce as they were, over to their newly shared one. And hoping that their friends would not prod for any explanations.
Justin smiled at the young woman as he watched her try to make heads or tails of the system Brian used to organize his dresser. Feeling his lover’s hands snake around his waist, Justin leaned back into the strong chest. He couldn’t remember the last time he had felt so at peace, so content.
“Can we get rid of them soon?” Brian whispered in his ear.
“I heard that, you know.” Nick smirked when Brian shot him a death stare.
“I’m sure you did, with those big ears of yours,” Brian shot back, obviously not too happy with the fact that Justin was snickering along with Lindsay.
“Well, you know what they say about men with big ears,” Nick replied.
“Yeah, they got small dicks,” Brian sneered.
“O-kay,” Justin cut in, “Uhm…we were going to order pizza,” he decided to change the subject. “You guys wanna stay?” he asked, despite the not so happy look he received from his beautiful lover. But it was only fair. They helped. Now it was time to feed them.
“Nah, I can’t,” Nick responded. “I’ve got a date.”
Justin’s eyes widened. “A date? Really? With who?”
“This guy who lives on my floor. Kevin.”
“How very hetero of you,” Brian droned in his mocking voice.
“You jealous?” Nick openly challenged him.
Justin winced at his friend’s comment. It hit closer to home than Nick realized. Justin knew now the reason behind Brian standing him up Friday night. To his surprise, Brian actually shared that piece of information with him – admitted that he was jealous. And even though Justin once again assured Brian that Nick was nothing more than just a good friend, Nick calling Brian on that was not the best situation he could think of.
He searched around the room as if the answer to breaking the tension that had once again risen in the room was posted on one of the walls of the tiny room. He did, however, get his answer when his eyes landed on a young woman pulling things out of the middle drawer of the dresser.
“Uh, Linds, that doesn’t go there,” he said, hoping that this attempt at changing the subject would be more successful than his previous one. He was happy to notice Brian move behind him.
“Could you please not touch that?” The brunet told the woman. “I don’t need a woman touching my underwear, thank you very much,” he explained when Lindsay directed a confused look at the two of them.
She rolled her eyes, but put the underwear down and closed the drawer nonetheless. “Grow up, Brian.”
“Grow up, Brian,” the brunet mimicked in a high-pitched voice. “Ouch,” he yelped when she smacked him none too gently on the arm. “Bitch.”
Justin smiled. It wasn’t often that he got to see Brian like this – relaxed, playful, almost giddy. And he loved every minute of it. Brian was beautiful. There was no argument about it. No matter what he was wearing. Or wasn’t. He was absolutely stunning. But when he smiled, it took Justin’s breath away every time.
About ten minutes later Lindsay and Nick said their good-byes and left.
Before Justin even had the chance to close the door behind them, Brian’s arms were once again wrapped tightly around his waist. Not that the blond minded it.
“I thought they’d never leave,” Brian murmured, his hands already sneaking under Justin’s shirt, gently caressing the artist’s torso.
Justin moaned, letting the larger man turn him around in his arms. Justin raised his head, his lips immediately finding Brian’s, his fingers sinking into the sea of chestnut hair.
“And you with your *do you wanna stay for pizza* act…what the fuck was that?” Brian inquired while he worked on removing Justin’s shirt from his body.
Justin snickered. “I was just trying to be nice,” he breathed against Brian’s chest.
“Fuck nice.” Brian’s low growl made Justin’s hair stand on its ends.
“I’d rather you fuck me,” Justin replied, his husky voice matching Brian’s, his hands pushing Brian’s t-shirt up the slender torso.
Brian raised his arms, allowing Justin to easily remove the t-shirt. Tossing the white cotton shirt on the vacant bed, which neither of them had used once, Justin returned his attention to his lover, slipping his tongue inside Brian’s mouth once again and receiving a hero’s welcome.
Somehow the two of them managed to maneuver themselves around the clutter. Reaching the bed, Brian pulled away, much to Justin’s dismay. He didn’t go far, though as he knelt in front of Justin to help the blond shed his khakis. Then it was Justin’s turn to return the favor, freeing Brian’s cock from the confines of the hard denim material and his underwear.
Dropping on the bed, Justin immediately began exploring his lover’s body with his tongue, twirling and curling and sucking every inch of the smooth skin. Brian’s fingernails scratching his back almost made him come right there and then and only the enormous amount of self-control kept him from going over the edge.
Brian’s arms wound around his body and in the next moment Justin found himself being flipped on his back, his lover now on top. A half-thought ran though his mind that he had done something wrong, but when his eyes locked on his boyfriend’s face, he saw that Brian was smiling.
“I haven’t officially welcomed you to your new place of residence yet,” Brian explained.
Justin returned the smile. It was only a brief one, though, being replaced by the look of utter ecstasy as Brian dipped his head to nuzzle Justin’s neck.
~~~***~~~***~~~
Brian couldn’t believe that it was only four days earlier that their lives seemed to be spiraling out of control. And now, sitting in the cafeteria, eating a cheeseburger and listening to Taylor go on and on about some project they had in Life class seemed like the epitome of bliss. The normalcy of it, the casualness. He craved it now more than ever. Just doing regular, every day things with his boyfriend.
He smiled and nodded at something Taylor said, letting the blond know that he was still listening, while his mind wandered back a couple of days. He still sometimes felt the panic when he turned around and Taylor wasn’t there, convinced that as soon as the artist was out of his eyesight, something bad was going to happen.
It was for the same reason that Brian insisted on going back to Taylor’s room to gather up his things, even though all of Taylor’s possessions fit into one duffel bag. He wasn’t under any circumstances going to let his lover go back into the snake pit alone, no matter how hard Taylor insisted that he knew Cole’s schedule and the asshole wouldn’t be there all day.
Brian was relieved to find that Taylor was right. The room was empty and they packed Taylor’s things in no time. They were getting ready to leave when the door opened, revealing none other than the biggest prick in the entire student population of the PSU. And Brian could still remember the anger, the rage he felt as his eyes landed on the large man. He wanted nothing less but to pummel the guy, beat him into a bloody pulp for what he did to his lover.
And Taylor must have sensed that as well, because just when he was ready to pounce on Cole, he felt his boyfriend’s hand on his arm, a gentle touch, but a grounding one still. It helped him ignore the little snide comments Taylor’s former roommate threw their way as the two of them finished packing and left for good. They hadn’t run into Cole since, and Brian planned to keep it that way.
“Hey there, boys,” he heard.
Raising his head, Brian held back a frown and simply stared as Nick, accompanied by another guy, joined them at the table.
“This is Kevin,” Nick made the introduction, then turned to his new boyfriend. “This is Taylor and Brian.”
Brian couldn’t help but smirk at the fact that the other man failed to include a snide remark as he usually did when speaking to or about Brian – a practice that went both ways. Brian had learned to accept that Nick was in Taylor’s life and by extension his. But it didn’t mean he had to like it. And he showed it every occasion he could
“So, Kevin, what are you majoring in?” Taylor took the lead at welcoming the new member of their little circle and Brian settled in to just sit back and enjoy the show. It was an amusing scene to watch – Nick introducing his new man to the one he loved.
The new guy, however, was more to Brian’s liking. He didn’t seem to be as wordy as Nick and Taylor were, sticking to short but precise answers.
It was about half an hour later when once again Brian had wondered what the hell Kevin and Nick were doing together when his eyes landed on a large figure of a man he hated more than his own father. The back of his neck grew cold, his jaw clenched. He willed for the other man to just walk away, but of course Cole had to prove a point.
Jim walked over to the table where the four of them sat. Before he even reached them, Brian was already on his feet, blocking Taylor with his body.
“Walk away, Cole, just walk away,” he roared, barely keeping his anger in check.
“Or what?” the man openly challenged him. “You are nothing but a fucking waste of space. You can’t do shit to me.”
Brian clenched his fists, his nails digging into his skin. “Get the fuck away from us.”
“You think that anybody would even care if something happened to you? Or to one of your faggot friends? Or to your suck-cocking bitch over there,” he sneered, pointing at Taylor. “No one would give a shit if one night he wandered into a dark alley and didn't come out.”
There was no holding it back any longer. Without even thinking about it, Brian drew his fist back and swung, throwing all of his weight into the punch. He watched, almost detached, as Jim went flying over the othertable.
It was as if everything stopped, everything froze in time. All eyes were on Brian. He could feel it. Them. All of them staring at him in shock. Even Taylor. Especially Taylor.
“You broke my nose!” Jim cried, still lying on the floor, both hands covering his face. “You broke my fucking nose! You’re gonna pay for this, Kinney!”
But Brian wasn’t listening anymore. Before anybody else had anything to say, Brian bolted out of the hall.
~~~***~~~***~~~
Justin found him about an hour later in their room, on the bed, blankly staring at the wall. Brian didn’t even look up when Justin walked into the room.
“You ok?” Justin asked quietly, unsure of what to make of his boyfriend’s reaction.
“Fabulous,” Brian replied sardonically, his eyes finally leaving the wall to meet Justin’s. “Can’t you tell?”
Justin sighed. “Brian…” That was all he could say. He didn’t know what was the right thing to say in situations like these. He had only seen Brian punch somebody once. Michael. And he was too far away to know what had exactly happened. It had to have been something major for Brian to punch his best friend. Justin never prodded, never tried to find out. He felt it wasn’t his business. Or at least, that was what he told himself. But this – what happened between Brian and Jim, it was not only his business, it was also his fault. And he had to make it better. The problem was, he had no idea how.
Justin walked over to the bed, carefully sitting down on the edge next to Brian. Unsure of what to say, he just sat silently, hoping that Brian would understand that he was still here for him.
“My mother was right.” Brian stared down at his hand, rubbing the red knuckles. “She always said I was just like dear old Jack, and she was right.”
“What? Brian, no.” Justin shook his head, moving closer to his boyfriend, but Brian refused to look at him. The artist took Brian’s face in his hands, forcing him to look up. “You are not like your father.” The brunet’s eyes still looked everywhere but at him. “You are NOT like your father,” Justin repeated more forcefully, relieved to finally find himself gazing into two hazel eyes.
“How would you know? You don’t know him,” Brian argued quietly.
“No, but I DO know you.”
Brian sneered, but Justin wasn’t about to back down.
“I know you, Brian. Better than you think. Probably better than you’d like me to. And I know that you would never use somebody else as your punching bag.”
“I just did.” Brian’s voice was almost a whisper and only now did Justin notice how tired Brian looked. He wanted to wrap his arms around his boyfriend, to make him feel safe, to somehow make up for all the years of abuse and neglect that made up Brian’s childhood. How could somebody not love Brian, especially his own parents, was still beyond him. And he realized that it always would be. He knew now that he would never stop loving Brian, COULDN’T stop loving Brian, no matter how hard he tried.
“He deserved it.”
“Nobody deserves it, Taylor,” Brian shook his head. “Nobody. Not even those who do.” He shrugged Justin’s hands off and got up.
“Brian,” Justin tried again, unsure of what to do.
The brunet stopped and looked back at him over his shoulder. “Look, I’m sorry…I…” he sighed. “I just gotta get out of here.”
Justin closed his eyes. He had to let Brian deal with this on his own and wait until his lover needed him. Hope that his lover needed him. Soon.
Justin sat quietly on the bed as Brian walked over to the door and opened it.
“Brian Kinney?” Justin heard a stranger’s voice coming from the open door.
Rising from the bed, he came up behind Brian only to see two police officers at the door.
“Yeah,” Brian responded.
One of the officers flashed his badge. “You’re under arrest.”
Go to Part 14