You make me feel like I'm livin' a teenage dream
The way you turn me on
I can't sleep
Let's run away and don't ever look back

--"Teenage Dream," Katy Perry (2010)

Brian was eating a turkey sandwich he'd thrown together for dinner when his phone chimed. He looked at the screen and found a Facebook message from Michael.

Michael Novotny: So???

Brian Kinney: So... what???

Michael Novotny: Have you come up with a plan for me to get back with Ben?

"Fuck," Brian said out loud.

Of course, he hadn't thought of a plan. He hadn't even thought of Michael and Ben at all that day because he was too busy imagining exactly what he was going to do to Justin, once he got the blond into bed.

Brian Kinney: I'll be over in ten minutes.

Brian finished his sandwich and walked down the street to the Novotny house. He rang the doorbell, expecting an eager Michael to answer. Instead, he was greeted by Debbie.

"Hello, Brian," she said, not sounding all that enthused to see him.

"Hello, Debbie," Brian replied in an identical tone. "I'm here to see Michael."

"First, you need to answer some questions for me," the woman said, stepping out onto the porch and closing her front door. "What the fuck did you do to Justin? I know you two spent the day together, despite my best efforts."

Brian held up his hands innocently. "I didn't do anything... that he didn't want me to do."

"All I know is that he ran into the kitchen earlier, carrying broken pieces of a plate or something, crying his eyes out. He threw the pieces into the trash and then took off up to his room." Debbie looked down and saw a small piece of Justin's broken plate he'd missed earlier. "Pick that up for me, would you? With my chiropractor out of town, my back is a fucking mess. Why did I ever think I could play golf?"

Brian reached down to pick up the ceramic shard. Once he stood back up, he was met with Debbie's finger in his face, her long, fake red fingernail looking rather dangerous.

"Now you listen to me, mister. Justin is a good kid and doesn't need someone like you getting in his way."

"I'm getting in his way?" Brian said in disbelief, considering who he was talking to. "Because you're the expert in knowing what's best for people, right? Look, Deb, whatever beef you have with my mother has nothing to do with me, so how about you just mind your own fucking business and let me live my life without shit-talking me all over town, huh? You need to watch your own ass; not mine, not Justin's, and not Michael's."

Debbie looked back at him in shock as Brian let himself into the house. He didn't give her another glance as he followed his ears to the music room, tossing the piece of the plate into a large potted plant in the hallway.

Brian found Michael sitting at the piano playing a song. He slid the pocket door closed and waited until Michael finished the piece.

"That was beautiful," Brian said quietly, so he wouldn't startle the boy.

Michael turned to look at Brian. "Thanks... that's Ben's favorite piano piece. It's called ‘Meine Freuden,' it translates to ‘My Joy.' I've been practicing it all day."

"It sounded really good. I'm sure he'd love to hear you play it."

Michael scoffed. "I doubt he even wants anything to do with me now, after how my mother talked to him, like he was shit under her shoe."

"Fuck her," Brian snarled.

"No, thank you," Michael said, chuckling. "What am I gonna do? I want to be with Ben. I love him and I don't care what my mother thinks about him."

Brian thought for a bit before picking up Michael's phone, which was sitting on top of the piano, and pressing the power button on the side.

"Seriously, put a fucking lock on your phone..." Brian said through gritted teeth.

He pressed a few things on the screen before holding it up so that the outward-facing camera was pointed at Michael and the piano.

"Play that song again."

"Why, are you gonna record it?"

Brian nodded. "Go ahead, pretend like I'm not here."

"Well.... alright."

Michael stretched his hands out, took a deep breath, and exhaled before he started playing the piece again. Brian recorded the whole song, which was a little over four minutes long.

Brian pressed a few more keys on the phone and handed it back to Michael. "Beautiful."

"You... you live streamed that on Facebook?" the younger brunet said as he stared at his phone's screen.

"And I tagged Ben," Brian informed him as he opened the door. "Wait to see if you hear from him. Which room upstairs is Justin's?"

"Top of the stairs, make a right," Michael said, his eyes locked on his phone as he eagerly waited for some type of response from Ben.

Brian walked upstairs and found that the door to his right was closed. He put his ear to the door and heard music playing faintly. He then knocked.

Justin opened the door a few moments later. He smiled when he saw that it was Brian, but then he forced his face to a neutral expression.

"Brian, what are you doing here?"

"Can we talk?" the young man asked, not waiting for a reply as he crossed the threshold into the Novotny's guest room.

Brian looked around, finding the room to be furnished in a French country motif. The bed frame was a large wooden canopy-type design, with thick pillars that featured elaborate carvings. The nightstands, dresser, and armour all matched the bed frame and headboard. The mattress was covered with a gold and purple duvet, and at least a dozen throw pillows decorated it. There were fancy vases all around the room filled with flowers from Debbie's garden.

The only thing out of place in the elegant room was the recording of "Love Me You Like You Do" by Ellie Goulding blaring out of the laptop at the foot of the bed. Justin shut off the song as Ellie was belting "What are you waiting for?"

Brian saw that there was a sketchbook face-down next to the laptop.

"Working on something?" he asked as he helped himself to the book.

"No! It's not finished," Justin said, clearly not comfortable with Brian looking at his drawing.

Brian found that what the boy had been working on was a sketch of Brian's senior portrait, which he had uploaded to his Facebook page a few months before.

"Holy shit," Brian said as his own face looked back at him, a perfect likeness. "That's fucking amazing. When did you start on this?"

Justin pulled the pad out of his hands and closed the pages, embarrassed. "Tuesday, I think."

"I want that when it's finished. I'll pay you for it."

"No, I couldn't take money for it, it's yours," Justin said.

"If someone is willing to pay you for something that takes your time and talent to do, take the fucking money. You may think it looks humble, refusing money and giving something away, but that's how you stay poor. If you want to earn a living as an artist, never give away or donate your work. People will appreciate it more if they have to pay for it."

Justin mulled that over. "Wow... yeah, you're right."

Brian took the sketchbook back and opened the front flap. He looked through the drawings, which included a few of the girl he recognized as Justin's so-called girlfriend Daphne and some random objects like flowers, a fancy lamp, and a denim jacket hanging off the back of a door.

They weren't all innocent drawings that a teenager who claimed to be straight would draw. Some of the drawings depicted faceless naked men at various angles and positions.

"Oh, my," Brian said, imitating George Takei.

Justin looked away shamefully. "I..."

Brian continued to flip through the pages until he found his portrait. "That looks about done to me. I'll write you a check for it tomorrow. How much do you want?"

"I don't know, I've never sold a piece before."

"I'll give you five hundred for it."

"Dollars?" Justin said in surprise.

"No, jelly beans," Brian replied sarcastically. "Yes, dollars."

The blond shook his head. "I couldn't take that much for a drawing. Maybe... fifty?"

Brian sighed. "You really need to learn your worth, Sunshine. If someone offers you more than the minimum you're willing to sell the piece for, say thank you and take it. Shit, make a higher counter-offer and make them haggle."

"Are you some kind of financial guru?"

"I'm a business major focusing on marketing, remember?"

"Duh, I knew that," Justin said, feeling dumber by the second. "Okay, five hundred dollars."

He tore the page out of the book and held it out to Brian.

"Don't ever give someone the goods until after you're paid," the brunet said, shaking his head at how inept the kid was. "You're just begging to be robbed, because you're too trusting."

"I trust you," Justin said innocently.

"You shouldn't," Brian answered. "Now, put that somewhere safe and don't let me even see it again until you have the payment in hand."

Justin stuck the page back in his sketchbook, then shoved the book under the mattress.

"I hope, in the future, you invest in a safe or a locker for your artwork," Brian said.

Justin smiled and sat on the bed. "Remind me to hire you for business advice, once I start making money."

"Judging by your business practices thus far, you won't be able to afford me. I'm gonna be a big, fat, fucking success."

"You don't have an ounce of modesty, do you?"

Brian sat down next to Justin. "Not even a fraction of an ounce. Now, about some of those other drawings..."

The boy sighed heavily. "Okay... yes, I'm gay."

"I had no idea," Brian mocked.

Justin bumped shoulders with him. "Shut up. Maybe it was easy for you to come out, but for me-"

"It wasn't easy for me," Brian interjected. "Shit, it still isn't. I'm still closeted with my parents, actually. I'm sure they know, but it's like a ‘don't ask, don't tell' kind of thing between us. My parents just aren't the kind of people that you can talk to about this. My mother is very, very religious and my old man is... a Republican.

"My dad is, too. He even voted for you-know-who."

Brian curled his lips in disgust. "Mine did, too. But still, even if you aren't out with everyone, you at least need to be honest with yourself about what you are."

Justin nodded. "I know. I've never been into girls and I've liked guys for as long as I can remember."

"What about your girlfriend?"

Justin closed his eyes and sighed. "Daphne has known that I'm gay since... forever. Actually, she's the only person I've come out to. She only pretends to be my girlfriend-"

"She's your beard," Brian filled in.

"Yeah. Some of the kids at school still asked me if I was gay, but I always denied it. I didn't want to come out at school and then have it get back to my parents."

"Do you really think they'll be surprised? Look at yourself: you're very artistic, you're prettier than most girls, you love pop music, you have a rather delicate voice-"

"Alright, I'm obviously a raging homosexual, I get it," Justin said.

"You could be worse things... you could be a Republican."

The boys laughed together for a few moments before Brian decided he needed to ramp things up.

"Look, if you're not interested in me, I'll back off, okay?" he said, knowing that Justin was nothing but interested.

Justin scooted closer and put his hand on Brian's thigh. "Of course, I'm interested, very interested. You're like, the hottest guy I've ever seen."

"Have you not seen Channing Tatum?" Brian asked. "Because he's fucking hot. I even sat through that atrocious Jupiter Ascending movie, just to see him."

"Channing Tatum wishes he was as hot as you," Justin said before planting a kiss square on Brian's lips.

Brian, always the dominant man, took the lead and deepened the kiss. He was guessing that Justin didn't have much kissing experience, if any. He lightly sucked and nibbled on the boy's lips, which were so soft and full. He tickled Justin's tongue with his own, making the boy giggle a bit.

Justin had changed into a pair of gym shorts with an elastic waistband sometime after returning home from their date. Once he laid the boy back on the soft bedding, Brian slipped his hand inside Justin's shorts, where he quickly found the boy's hard and rather sizeable cock.

Feeling Brian's hand on his most sensitive area, Justin gasped.

Brian licked, kissed, and lightly nibbled Justin's neck as he started to jerk him off. Soon the boy was becoming very vocal, so Brian again covered his mouth with his own. From the way his body was tensing up and trembling, Brian could tell that Justin was very close.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door.

"Sunshine, dinner's ready!" Debbie hollered on the other side.

"Aah!" Justin shouted as he came.

"Are you okay?" the woman of the house asked.

"Yeah, Deb! I'm... coming."

Brian chuckled at the word choice. "Well, I'm going. Do you have any plans for tonight?"

Justin looked down at his cum-soaked shorts. "Uh... no."

"I'll pick you up at ten," Brian said as he got up. "Wear something sexy, not cargo shorts."

"What's wrong with cargo shorts?" Justin asked.

Brian opened the door and closed it behind himself before the boy could ask any more questions. He then walked back downstairs and out to the front porch, just in time to see Michael's Audi TT peeling out of the driveway.

For Michael to be leaving just as dinner was being served, Brian knew it had to be for something very important. He took his phone out and brought up his Facebook app, finding the video he had recorded of Michael playing "Meine Freuden." Brian saw that Ben left a heart reaction on the post, and he could only guess that there was a private conversation between the two young men that prompted Michael to race off to be with him.

"I hope The Hulk has a good supply of condoms and lube, because he's gonna be busting out of more than just his shirt tonight," Brian said to himself, smiling.