Sound of Silence
Julesmonster



Part One



Justin wiped the sweat from his brow and sat down at the counter to count his share of the tips from his first day on the job. He wasn’t waiting tables himself, but the waitresses each gave him a percentage of their tips for clearing their tables and running their food.  It wasn’t much, but combined with the small salary that the diner paid him, it would help Justin make ends meet. And since it was under the table, unreported income, it wouldn’t affect his state assistance or financial aid.



It was hard for him to believe that it had been almost a year since his Mom had died. So much had changed in that time. Justin’s world was nothing like it had been before Jennifer had been killed while crossing the road by a drunk driver. They hadn’t had much, but they got by. Without Jennifer, however, life was a lot tougher. Justin was in school, going to PIFA to get his degree with a double major in graphic design and fine art. He was five semesters into his education when Jennifer was killed. He’d been forced to take a semester off while he worked with his social worker and the school’s financial aid office to get his finances taken care of. Even after all that, however, he found that he came up just a little short each month. Hence the job at the diner. He could only work a few hours a week, but those extra hours would be a lifesaver for him.



A shadow fell over him and Justin looked up to see Debbie standing in front of him. “Go home, Sunshine. You look exhausted.” Justin nodded his agreement but didn’t get up quite yet. “You’ll be here on Thursday?” He nodded again and smiled. “Now there’s my Sunshine. I’ll see you then.”



Justin tucked his money away and rose from the counter, only to run right into a firm body. A very tall firm body. He looked up and saw the most beautiful face he had ever seen in his life. It was the kind of face that had inspired Michelangelo’s David. It was the kind of face that was meant to be captured in paint or marble for people to marvel over for centuries. And that face was currently frowning at him.



“Watch where you’re going kid.” He put his hands Justin’s upper arms and moved him physically aside and out of his way. Justin couldn’t tear his eyes away from the beautiful man. He talked with Debbie. She handed him a bag of lemon bars, he gave her a five and then he was turning to go. “See something you like?”



Justin nodded and the man smirked. That smirk turned to a frown as someone said something to him. Maybe Debbie. Justin didn’t bother to turn and see. He was too busy memorizing that face so he could sketch it later. And then the man smirked at him one last time before turning to leave.



Justin chased after him before he knew what he was doing. Once on the sidewalk out in front of the diner, Justin tugged on the man’s sleeve.



He turned to see who had stopped him. “You again. What’s up kid?”



Justin wasn’t thinking straight and began signing rapidly to the man. “Christ. Slow the fuck down. I didn’t catch any of that.  It’s been too many years since I took sign language in college. All I remember is the alphabet and a few simple signs like thank you and some dirty words. The professor was gagging to get laid and I was going for the easy A.”



Justin followed his speech and nodded. He began spelling out what he wanted to say.



“I-W-A-N-T-T-O I want to… What get fucked? I can do that,” the man said with a leer. “You’re kind of young, but you really are hot. I noticed you have a great ass.” Justin shook his head and continued spelling. “P-A-I-N-T-Y-O-U. You want to paint me?”



Justin nodded emphatically.



“I’m hoping that you’re an artist and not a house painter,” he said with a teasing smile. Justin huffed a silent laugh. He nodded again. The man looked him over and thought about it for a minute. “Yeah alright. I’m Brian.”



Justin grinned and began spelling out his name. “Justin. Well, nice to meet you Justin. So, when and where do you want me?”



Justin had to think hard about his work and school schedule. Brian grabbed a pen from the inside of his suit jacket and a business card. He handed both to Justin. “Write it down. Any evening this week after seven, except tomorrow. I have a meeting.”



Justin nodded and wrote: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday?



“Three nights?” Brian chuckled. “Yeah sure. Seven is good?” Justin nodded and wrote out his address. “See you then Sunshine.”



Justin grinned and watched Brian climb into a jeep and drive away. Then he looked at his watch and swore. He was going to miss his bus if he didn’t hurry.



BJBJBJBJBJ



Brian drove to the address on the back of his card and frowned. This was a shitty neighborhood. It wasn’t particularly unsafe—there were certainly worse neighborhoods—but it was building after building of poorly maintained rent controlled and state assisted housing. He wondered just how bad off this kid was. When he’d asked Debbie for more information about the kid, she had said he was an art student at PIFA. Even if he was poor, he should have been able to qualify for loans and scholarships to cover campus housing.



Brian parked the jeep and prayed that it wouldn’t get stolen. Then he entered the building. There was no security system in the building. Anyone could walk in or out. Brian shook his head and made his way up to the third floor where Justin’s apartment was located. The top floor of a three story walk-up had some advantages, one of which being that there were no neighbors walking around above you.



Brian knocked on the door and wondered how the kid was going to know he was there. Then he noticed the mat under his feet. It reminded him of the mats that used to be used for automatic doors. That must be how he could tell.



Sure enough, Justin opened the door moments later, but he wasn’t alone as Brian had expected. He was holding a baby in his arms and feeding him a bottle. From the looks of it, the kid was almost asleep. Brian followed Justin into the living area and sat on the sofa while Justin went through a doorway that Brian assumed led to the bedroom. The only other door in the small apartment he could see led to the bathroom.



The place was small and grungy, but it was pretty clear that Justin kept it as clean as possible. There were no luxuries: no television, no DVD player or game system. The only electronic equipment was the computer in the corner near Justin’s easel. There were few toys around the room, not even half as many as Brian remembered Gus having at that age. There was no swing or bouncy chair. There was no play mat or light-up activity center. There was a small blanket on the floor near the sofa with a couple plush toys and a teething ring. There was a cheap fold-up stroller near the door and a highchair beside the table. Other than that, there was no indication that a child lived there. And Brian had no doubt that the baby was Justin’s. If the blond curls on the baby’s head and his blue eyes weren’t enough of a clue, the way Justin looked at him would give it away.



Justin emerged a few minutes later and closed the door behind him. He checked some sort of monitor and fiddled with his watch and then came over to Brian.



“Cute kid,” Brian said. Justin smiled and spelled out a name. “Daniel? That’s his name?” Justin nodded. “How old is he?”



Justin held up all ten fingers. “Ten months. I have a son. He lives with his mothers.” Justin looked quizzical and held up two fingers. “Yeah, they’re dykes. Gus just turned four a couple weeks ago. He’s the best thing I’ve ever done with my life.”



Justin nodded in understanding. He went to the fridge and got two bottles of water and brought one for Brian and handed it to him.



“So, you ready then?” Justin nodded and gestured for Brian to take off his clothes. Brian smirked. “All of them?” Justin blushed and shrugged. He’d leave that up to Brian. “I’m not shy.” Soon, Brian was standing completely naked in front of Justin and the blonde had a difficult time concentrating on getting his paints and brushes ready. “Where do you want me?”



Anywhere, Justin thought and blushed again. He pointed to the sofa and Brian lay out across it and got comfortable. The leg closest to the sofa back was raised and Brian’s whole body was tilted slightly on his side. One hand was above his head and the other rested on his stomach, just above his flaccid cock. Justin had to put that cock out of his mind as he began blocking in the general shapes of Brian, the sofa and the grungy wall behind him. Soon, it was easy to ignore anything but the paint and shapes.



After a while, Brian began to fidget and Justin hit the side of his easel to get his attention. Brian looked up to see Justin sign S-T-A-Y S-T-I-L-L.



“This is fucking boring,” Brian said.



Justin smirked at him and used the sign for talk. Apparently Brian remembered that one.



“Talk?” Brian huffed. “What am I supposed to talk about?” Justin shrugged. “Alright. I guess I’ll tell you a little about myself. Did you ask Debbie about me?” Justin shook his head no and then went back to painting. Brian wasn’t sure if he should be insulted by that or not. “Okay. Well, I’m pretty fucking successful. I own my own advertising agency. I’m very good at my job. I could sell sand to a man in the desert.”



Brian was quiet for a moment. Justin couldn’t be reading his lips and painting at the same time. It was sort of freeing to be able to say anything out loud to another person and know that it wouldn’t come back to bite him in the ass.



“If you listen to the stories around Liberty Ave, you’ll find out I’m pretty successful with men too.” Brian huffed out a dry laugh. “I’m not just successful, I’m a fucking legend. Guys line up to suck my cock. But I’ll let you in on a little secret. I’m getting kind of tired of keeping the title as the Stud of Liberty Ave. It takes a lot of work. Hair care, skin care, the right clothes, I would do all that anyway. Working out at the gym, yeah, I’d do that too. But I work between fifty and sixty hours a week, and then I have to pick up and fuck a minimum of two guys a night, four nights a week. Otherwise the young stallions will think that they can take over, like Chad or Chet or whatever the fuck his name was. I beat him down, but I’m not sure I should have now.



“I mean, really. How old is too old to keep playing the games?” Brian wondered. “Mikey, he’s my best friend; he seems to think that I should keep going like the energizer bunny until I die. And that’s another thing. I always thought I’d be dead by now. I never thought I’d want to live long enough to get old. I mean, I still don’t want to get old, but I don’t want to die either.  I want to watch my boy grow up. I want to see how he turns out, if he’s a better man than his Pops.



“I’m a better man than my Pops was,” Brian said quietly. “At least I hope I am. I’ll never hit Gus. He’ll never have to be afraid of me. He’ll never have to pay off my gambling debts or drag my ass home because I get too drunk to walk. I’d kill myself before I let that happen. And I know that Lindsey is a much better mom than my crazy bitch of a mother. She actually loves her son.”



Brian was quiet for a while, lost in his thoughts, so he didn’t notice Justin brush a tear from his eye. Brian obviously thought Justin couldn’t follow his ramblings and paint at the same time. He wondered if he should tell him, but decided that if Brian knew, he might not come back. So Justin continued to paint and tried to keep his face neutral.



“Anyway, I’m guess I’m just getting tired,” Brian said. “It’s like a gunslinger in the old west. There’s always someone out to take your place. Eventually, you’re going to lose. Maybe I should just pass the torch and retire a champion. Don’t get me wrong. I still love sex. I still love the high that you can only get from a really good orgasm. I just sometimes wonder if I should give up my no repeats policy. Take you for example. I’m not sure that one time with you would ever be enough. I mean, Christ, that ass of yours, it was made for fucking! I’m betting that you are fucking amazing in bed. Or out of bed.



“I wonder about you though,” Brian continued. “You are a real puzzle. You are obviously smart and talented, but you live in a shithole. You’re obviously gay, but you have a kid.” Brian shook his head. “Then again, I’m gay and I have a kid. I guess I’ll just have to ask you about all that.”



He was quiet again for a while and when he started talking again, it was less personal. He told Justin about his company and some of the problems they were having with one of their clients. And he talked about his friends.



“I really didn’t mean to make him piss himself,” Brian told Justin. “But we’d just had all that soda and shit from the Senior Days fair and then he was fucking teasing me about the gym teacher and I started tickling him. Oh Christ, it only took a few minutes and he pissed himself right there on the sidewalk on the way home. He didn’t talk to me until graduation. That was… shit, at least two weeks.” Brian chuckled. “He’d stop speaking to me again if he knew I had told anyone about that.”



Justin couldn’t help himself. He let a breathy laugh escape and Brian looked up to see the blonde trying to control his face, but he was obviously amused.



“You little shit!” Brian accused, but he wasn’t nearly as mad as he thought he would be. “How much of all that did you catch?”



Justin bit his lips and raised his eyebrows innocently.



“All of it,” Brian sighed as he sat up. He suddenly felt very naked. “Fuck.”



Justin sat down his paint brush and moved to sit beside Brian on the sofa. He spelled out C-A-N-T T-E-L-L.



“You can’t tell anyone,” Brian said with a rueful laugh. “Right.”



Justin touched Brian’s face and the brunet looked at him. Justin leaned forward and kissed him softly. Then he sat back and smirked. I L-I-K-E Y-O-U-R A-S-S T-O-O.



Brian couldn’t help but laugh at that.