Disclaimer: Don't own them! Chapter 9 – Sugar, We’re Going Down 'We're going down, down in an earlier round And Sugar, we're going down swinging.' Justin + After the ‘accident’, Justin had no idea how to behave. There was just no way he could act like nothing had happened, there was no fucking way he could pretend Brian hadn’t fucked him, hadn’t been deep inside him, in every single way. Justin understood Brian did exactly what Justin asked, he protected their friendship, and that Brian wasn’t aware of how he’d hurt Justin, because he had no idea of what Justin had been close to saying. But while the logical part of his brain knew this, his heart and his gut and his body wanted Brian, and resented him. So their friendship was fucked, one way or another. There was no going back. Justin was in one of the studios in PIFA, finishing an art project. His art was darker than usual, had more of an edge, and Miss McIntire had asked him to write an essay about this particular piece, explaining it. Justin knew his well-intentioned teacher would be taken aback if she read that the piece meant Justin was pining for his asshole roommate who’d fucked him twice last week, and, plus, he didn’t want to write that, he was done with being so goddamned teenage angst. Maybe he’d say he suffered from periodical bouts of depression, or had split personality; it was bound to sound more interesting than unrequited love. “Hey, Jus. Nice piece.” Justin was startled, and turned quickly. Ethan. Oh, shit… Justin had avoided Ethan for the better part of a week, going as far as taking the long way to the entrance just to avoid walking by the Music Building, and, what had been truly horrible, buying coffee in the crappy cafeteria. “Um, thanks, Ethan. What brings you here?” Justin asked, putting down his palette and brushes. “You, actually.” Justin raised an eyebrow, but didn’t answer. He had no idea what to say, so he moved to the sink and started washing the brushes he’d used. “Jus,” Ethan sighed. “Listen, I realize you’ve been avoiding me for, like, a week. I don’t know why, and I don’t want to know. All I want is to tell you that I really, really like you. And that I’m not being all insistent ‘cause I want to get into your pants… I want something serious with you. I want a relationship.” Justin looked at him for a long moment. Any other guy would’ve given up by now, unwilling to put up with Justin’s hot and cold treatment, his indecision… his perhaps all too obvious crush on his roommate. But Ethan was still here, putting himself on the line. It made him either incredibly brave, or incredibly stupid. Brian would go for the latter option, but Justin chose the former. These were words he’d desperately hoped to hear, for two years… from someone he knew would never say them. And Justin finally accepted that. Brian wasn’t going to declare his love, Brian wasn’t going to pursue a relationship with him. Brian was a friend, and last week had been an accident. So Justin walked up to Ethan, and kissed him. + Brian had been sitting in front of the computer, muttering and occasionally cursing, ever since Justin got home, at five. It was already nine, and Justin was getting ready to go out with Ethan. They were going to the movies and maybe grabbing a bite at the Liberty diner afterwards, and Justin hoped against hope that this date wouldn’t end in something terribly dramatic. He’d had enough drama. “Brian, what are you up to? You haven’t moved in three hours,” Justin inquired, standing behind Brian’s chair. Brian rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I have to present an ad campaign tomorrow, and I had a fight with my partner in the project. So I have to do a new campaign by myself.” “But… wait, wasn’t this the idea you ran by me a few weeks ago? About the flu meds, or whatever?” Justin frowned. “You came up with the entire thing, why should you have to do a new campaign?” “Because my other idea sucks. I just realized that this afternoon, but my partner refused to listen, and said he’d go ahead and present the campaign on his own.” Brian shrugged. “If the asshole wants to use it, I don’t care. But he’s not going to ace, because he doesn’t know how to sell my idea.” Justin nodded. He leaned closer to the monitor and examined the poster and slogan Brian was working on. “You know, I think black and white would be more powerful than color.” Brian looked up to him, and Justin realized how close their faces were, how Brian’s scent was surrounding him. He quickly stood straight again, and Brian nodded, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly. “Yeah, you’re right. Thanks.” He turned back to the computer and started making changes to the poster. “No problem,” Justin breathed out. He cleared his throat. “Right, well, don’t stay up too late. And eat some dinner, I left something for you to heat up.” “Where are you going?” Brian asked, without taking his eyes off the monitor. “To the movies, with Ethan.” Brian was silent for a moment. “Have fun,” he finally said, quietly. “Thanks,” Justin paused before opening the door, looking at Brian for a second. He sighed. “Later,” he grabbed his jacket from the peg by the door, and left. + “I can’t believe you made me watch that movie!” Ethan exclaimed. Justin and he were walking down Liberty Avenue after watching ‘300’ in the movie theatre. “Why? It’s awesome,” Justin was still reeling from the sheer hotness of all the Spartan men, not to mention the incredible art direction. “I’ve never seen anything bloodier! And I’ll bet anything the Battle of Thermopylae wasn’t quite as heroic as that.” “Who cares? Justin shrugged, grinning. “The men were gorgeous, and the special effects were just beyond amazing. It was precisely like a graphic novel, the colors and photography were perfect.” “See, this is the problem with dating an artist, they always find irrefutable proof that something has amazing artistic subtleties,” Ethan teased. Justin chuckled, and pointed to the Liberty Diner. “Let’s go to the diner, I’m kinda hungry.” Ethan nodded and followed Justin inside. “Sunshine!” Debbie greeted him, the moment he walked in. “How are you, sweetheart? Haven’t seen you for a week!” “Hi, Deb,” Justin smiled, taking Debbie’s crushing hug with time-honed endurance. “I’ve been a bit busy with school, art projects…” “Hmm. And who’s this?” Debbie raised and eyebrow and pointed to Ethan, who looked a bit scared of Debbie’s overwhelming presence. “This is Ethan,” Justin introduced him. “Ethan, this is Debbie. Surrogate mom to half the guys in Liberty Avenue.” “Nice to meet you,” Ethan said, nervously. Deb kept on looking at him speculatively for a moment, but she broke out into a smile and said, “Well, you’re just gorgeous, honey! You better treat Sunshine here well, you hear me?” she wagged a finger at him. “Um, I hear you,” Ethan said quickly. “Good. Now, sit down, what can I get you?” Debbie asked, pulling out her notepad and pen. “I’ll have a cheeseburger, fries, and a chocolate milkshake,” Justin ordered. Ethan glanced down at the menu for a moment, and then said, “I think I’ll have the same.” Debbie nodded, and left to place their order. “Sunshine?” Ethan asked, eyebrows raised. “Oh, shut up,” Justin grumbled. “Sure, I can totally see where it comes from. You have such a sunny disposition.” Justin rolled his eyes, but gave Ethan a small smile. + 'Is this more than you bargained for yet? Oh, don't mind me, I'm watching you two from the closet Wishing to be the friction in your jeans. Isn't it messed up how I'm just dying to be him?' Justin opened the door to his apartment and went inside. He hadn’t invited Ethan up because he didn’t want to move too quickly, he didn’t feel ready to have sex with him yet. As he walked to his room, he heard faint noises coming from Brian’s room, and thoughtlessly went to investigate. The door wasn’t completely closed, and when Justin realized the noises where actually moans and grunts, he couldn’t help but peeking in. Brian was fucking a burly guy on his bed, fucking him really hard, if the movement of the bed was any indication. Justin sighed, and gently closed the door completely. Why the hell did he do this to himself? He knew better than to investigate any noises coming from Brian’s room, because they usually always meant the same thing: Brian was having sex. At least this time he wasn’t fucking in the living room. With a final glance at Brian’s door, Justin walked away to his own room, to try and sleep without being tortured by longing. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could live with Brian, not if it meant feeling like this. + Emmett + “Hi, Teddy! Where are you? Do you want to come to lunch with us?” Emmett asked. “I’m hanging out with an old friend of mine, we’re in my apartment.” “Oooh! Is he cute?” “She is a lesbian.” “Awww. Shame. Oh, wait!” Emmett exclaimed. “Why don’t you bring her? Lindsay’s all depressed ‘cause she broke up with Rebecca Tucci, again. Maybe she’ll hit it off with your friend.” “I’m not too sure Mel would appreciate being set up…” “Don’t tell her! Just bring her to the diner. Michael, Lindsay and I will be there.” “Michael’s gonna be there?” “Yeah,” Emmett sighed. Ted really needed to get past his crush. Or do something about it. “Um, okay, then. We’ll see you at the diner in about twenty minutes.” “Ta!” Emmett closed his phone. He turned to see Lindsay glaring at him, and Michael holding back laughter. “What?” “Why did you tell your friend I was depressed? I’m not depressed! And I don’t need to be set up,” Lindsay complained. Emmett looked at Lindsay, taking in the baggy grey sweatshirt, the pint of chocolate ice-cream in her hand, the red eyes. “Honey, you are depressed. But that’s okay; we all need time to mourn when we lose things we love. You should’ve seen how heartbroken I was when my favorite pair of lima green jeans shrank.” Michael snorted, and went back to reading the latest issue of Spiderman. “Still, being in mourning is no excuse to look like a fashion emergency,” Emmett continued, and held a hand out to Lindsay. “Come on, sweetie, let’s freshen you up a bit.” Emmett, Michael and Lindsay walked into the Liberty Diner twenty minutes later, and Lindsay looked considerably better. Her hair was brushed and loose, she’d taken off the horrible sweatshirt, and she’d put on eye-liner and lip-gloss. Emmett looked around for Ted, and saw he was sitting at the back. “Oh, look, there’s Teddy!” They made their way to Ted’s booth, and Ted stood up to let them sit and introduce his companion. “Guys, this is my friend, Melanie. Mel, I’d like you to meet Emmett, Michael, and Lindsay.” Melanie smiled, “Hi, it’s nice to meet you all.” Emmett didn’t miss how her eyes immediately fixed on Lindsay, or how Lindsay blushed. Still, he figured it would take them a while to get things going… they were lesbians, after all. “So, how do you two know each other?” Emmett asked Ted and Melanie. “Oh, we used to go to high school together,” Ted explained. “And what do you do, Mel?” Lindsay asked. “I’m studying Law in Pitt-U,” Melanie replied, smiling. “What about you?” “I’m an Art History major over at Carnegie Mellon.” “That’s great,” Melanie said. “I’m not very much into art, myself, but maybe I haven’t had the right teacher.” Emmett kept himself from gagging. Eugh, lesbians flirting. He looked around the diner to distract himself, and noticed the cute doctor from the other day was back… and staring at Michael. “Michael,” he nudged, whispering. Michael looked at him questioningly. “Don’t look now, but Dr. Cutie is staring at you.” “Who the hell is ‘Dr. Cutie’?” Emmett rolled his eyes. “The hot guy I pointed out the other day! You know, the one your mom said was a doctor, and she wouldn’t mind if-” “I remember now!” Michael interrupted. “No need to recall what my mom said.” Ted was looking at them curiously, and Emmett felt kind of bad, so he engaged him in conversation. “So, Teddy, do you want to go to Babylon again? We could go this Friday. I’ll lend you a fabulous outfit,” Emmett offered. “I’d like to go to Babylon again… but this time, I think I’ll just wear something of mine,” Ted replied with a small smile. “Okay. Though I have to say, I loved that t-shirt you wore the other night, it was just so cute,” Emmett said. “You know, I don’t think it fit me all that well. Maybe you’d look better in it… would you like it?” “Really? Oh, thank you, Teddy, that’s so nice of you!” Emmett gave Ted an awkward hug. Eventually, a waiter came by to take their order, and they had lunch. Michael pointed out that the service sucked when his mother wasn’t working, and Ted agreed, saying the portions seemed to shrink, as well. Melanie and Lindsay talked constantly throughout, and exchanged phone numbers. They all stood up to leave after paying, and when they were about to walk out, Dr. Cutie approached Michael. “Excuse me...” Michael turned, unsure if the guy was talking to him. “Yeah?” “Well, uh, last time I was here I… I sort of noticed you looking at me.” Michael blushed furiously. “Yeah, I’m so sorry about that, I-” “No, no, don’t apologize,” the guy interrupted. “I was actually wondering if maybe you’d like to go out with me someday.” “Go out with you?” Michael squeaked out. The guy laughed nervously. “Yes… I mean, if you’re with someone or… I just thought…” “Of course he’ll go out with you!” Emmett exclaimed. Michael and the guy turned to him. “Right, Michael?” Michael seemed to shake himself out of his momentary shock. “Um, yeah, I’d love to go out with you. What’s your name?” “Oh, I’m so sorry! I didn’t even introduce myself. I’m David Cameron,” he said, holding out his hand. “Michael Novotny,” Michael replied, shaking it. “So, could you give me your number? I’ll call you to set something up, later this week,” David said. “Sure,” Michael agreed, and started dictating his phone number to David. Emmett smiled and looked away, but his smile died when he saw Ted’s face. Poor baby… unrequited love sucked. + 'Whatever makes you happy, whatever you want. You're so fucking special, I wish I was special, But I'm a creep' Brian + Brian was absolutely exhausted. After finishing off with his trick, he’d worked through the night, and then dragged himself to soccer practice, where Coach Jenkins had indulged in making his life miserable once again. Functioning on obscene amounts of caffeine alone, Brian showered and made his way to class, carrying his new campaign with him. Mr. Johns had assigned a fake brand of flu meds to Brian and his partner, Alan, saying that Brian had made such an interesting contribution in class when they reviewed the flawed medication campaign, he was extremely intrigued in seeing the ideas Brian could come up with. Initially, Brian and Alan had decided to develop Brian’s ‘sexy meds’ idea, and they’d made a poster and prepared demographic and consumer studies for it. However, after Brian had seen how unoriginal and boring most of his classmates’ ideas were, and realizing that quite a few had used his ‘sex sells everything’ maxim, he wracked his brain for a new idea. It came to him while reading ‘Thank You for Smoking’, and he immediately went to Alan to tell him about the change of plans. “You’re kidding me, right? Kinney, it’s madness to change the campaign now! We’re presenting tomorrow,” Alan said. “Listen, do you want to get an A? Present the campaign we have now. Do you want to sell this campaign to a client? Then work with me, and we can get the new idea done by tomorrow,” Brian tried to convince him. “Fuck that. If you want to do your new idea, then go ahead, but I’m not busting my ass over this damn project again. And I’m presenting the campaign we have tomorrow, alone if need be.” So, Brian was left alone to work on a campaign with his new idea, and he did it all by himself, with a tiny bit of help in the form of Justin’s suggestion. When he got to the classroom, he explained the situation between his partner and himself to Mr. Johns. Alan started his presentation, and people seemed impressed. A few glanced back at Brian, wondering why he wasn’t presenting as well. When Alan finished, Brian stood up and started setting up. “When I first started working on this project, I thought I’d sell these meds with what I’m best at: sex,” Brian began. Most of his classmates chuckled, as did Mr. Johns. “However, yesterday I realized that even while my idea would be attractive to most people, it wouldn’t be appealing to the main core of my consumers. People with the flu don’t really think about having sex, and even if they do, they feel too sick to actually have it. So advertising these meds using sex would’ve been like rubbing their faces in it…” Brian began to uncover the first of his posters. “Which is why I decided to use a fairly ludicrous idea in advertising. Honesty.” The first of his posters showed a young girl who was obviously ill, her nose looked raw and her lips chapped. The photograph was in black and white, and underneath, in blue, were the words: “Using ‘Temprex’ won’t make your flu disappear in a second.” Brian uncovered the second photograph, showing the same girl, looking only slightly happier, but healthier. “But when you use ‘Temprex’, you can be sure you’ll get better, because it treats the disease instead of covering up your symptoms”. Brian then went on to outline other aspects of his campaign, such as the demographics it would be aimed at, and he described television spots, showing story-boards for them. When he was finished, the classroom was silent. Then, a student started clapping, and in quick succession, the rest of the students started clapping as well. Mr. Johns approached Brian, smiling. “Well, Mr. Kinney, I didn’t think you could pull this off. It could use some work, but it’s certainly one of the most original ideas I’ve seen. Congratulations.” + Brian headed to Woody’s straight after school, intent on celebrating. He fought an immediate impulse to call Justin; he was probably on a date with the fiddler, and it was for the best that way. Brian celebrated alone, drinking a few beers and shots of whiskey, and getting an above average blow job in the restroom. Tiredness soon caught up with him, so he went home. He was surprised to find the apartment empty when he arrived, and he walked into the kitchen, wondering where Justin could be. He found a yellow sticky note stuck to a green apple, which read, “Hey, Brian! Daphne called with some sort of crisis, she broke up with her boyfriend or something. I’m going over to her place, and I might stay there tonight. I know you hate eating too much after seven, but at least eat this apple, ok? Later, J.” Brian crushed the note in his hand, closing his eyes. He knew Daphne hadn’t broken up with her boyfriend, because Daphne didn’t have a boyfriend. Justin seemed to have forgotten Brian talked to Daphne constantly, and that Daphne texted Brian quite a bit, usually to bug the hell out of him. Brian headed to his room, apple in hand, and lay down on his bed. He methodically peeled the apple, fighting back the feelings that were running through him. He’d succeeded, after all, there was no point in feeling regret… He’d pushed Justin away, pushed him away so he could be happy. If it meant Justin would no longer be around as much, then Brian would have to learn to live with that. The phone rang, startling Brian out of his reverie. He put down his apple and picked up. “Yeah?” “Brian?” “Yes.” “Brian, this is your mother. Your father’s in the hospital.” TBC A/N: Title from song by Fall Out Boy. Songs quoted are Sugar, We're Going Down by Fall Out Boy and Creep by Radiohead. Thanks SOOO much for the feedback, guys, it really means a lot, and I love to hear what you think about the story.