I just can't get you out of my head
Boy, your lovin' is all I think about
I just can't get you out of my head
Boy, it's more than I dare to think about

--"Can't Get You Out of My Head," Kylie Minogue (2002)

Debbie and Michael's housekeeper showed Brian to the patio of the historic Novotny estate three houses down from Elaine's. Michael's father, who died in a car accident shortly before Michael was born, came from one of the wealthiest families in Pittsburgh.

"Brian!" Michael said excitedly when the young man walked over.

Brandon's suck buddy Emmett, who was also sitting at the table, gave him a nod.

"Brian, what a surprise," the prim and proper Debbie Novotny said to her visitor. "Would you like to join us for lunch? We're almost done, but Katie could fix you a sandwich."

Brian locked eyes with the blond boy sitting next to Debbie. He was even more beautiful in person, with pristine pale skin and blue eyes you could drown in.

"No, I've eaten already, thanks," Brian said to the lady of the house, although he was still staring at the blond. "Aren't you going to introduce me to your guest?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Debbie said. "Brian, this is Justin Taylor. Justin, this is our neighbor, Brian Kinney."

Brian put his hand out to the beautiful boy. "Hello, Justin Taylor."

Justin slowly shook Brian's hand, failing to verbally greet him or say anything at all.

"Justin is the son of an old friend of mine and will be staying with us for a few weeks," Debbie continued.

Michael eagerly chimed in as he tried to get Brian's attention. "He's gonna be going to our school. He'll be a freshman in the Fine Arts building like me, but he's majoring in art while I'm majoring in music."

Brian was still shaking Justin's hand and staring into those hypnotic eyes. "You don't say. It's great to meet you, young Picasso."

The blond seemed to finally find his words as he pulled his hand out of Brian's grasp. "You, too, Brian."

Brian chatted with the group while they finished their meals. He met eyes with Justin several times, even while one of the others at the table was talking to him. The stud had no doubt that the boy would be moaning under him in less than a week. He was already crafting the journal entry dedicated to the twink in his head.

Debbie went into the house when Michael and Emmett started talking about the Ant-Man movie they had seen a few days before. Justin knew of the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise but had only seen a couple of the earlier films. Brian hadn't seen any of them. Still, Michael decided to regale Justin and Brian with what happened in the latest film.

"So then The Wasp said..." the boy chattered away.

Brian looked at Justin, who appeared to be as bored by Michael's rambling synopsis as he was.

"Do you want to take a walk around the garden, Justin? Debbie's rose bushes have won many local awards and have appeared in national magazines."

The blond gratefully smiled at him. "Yes, I'd love to."

"Excuse us, boys," Brian said to Emmett and Michael before he and Justin walked out to the garden.

Justin waited until they were well out of earshot. "Thank you for pulling me out of there."

Brian chuckled as they walked down a row of rose bushes. "No problem."

He looked over at the blond, who was taller than he thought he'd be. Brian himself was a bit over six feet tall and he estimated that Justin was probably around five foot eight, which was around average height for a grown man. From the pictures Brian had seen of the boy online, he imagined him being much shorter than he actually was. He was happy to find that Justin wasn't a shrimp, because Brian had always been a size queen.

Brian hoped that Justin would be above average below the belt.

"Don't get me wrong, I like Michael, but he's a little..." Justin paused, afraid of offending Brian by insulting his neighbor.

"Nerdy?" Brian guessed.

"Yes!" Justin agreed, relieved. "I know that he's really into comic books and all of those superhero movies, but I'm not. I don't even enjoy the comics for the artwork, it's all too juvenile for me. I don't know much about classical music, either. I have no idea what I can actually talk about with him."

"I hear that Olivia Munn is a big comic book fan. She's really hot, don't you think?"

"Yeah," Justin said, his agreement over Brian's assertion lukewarm.

Brian stopped walking and looked at Justin. "Are you gay?"

Justin stared back at Brian with a look of pure fear on his beautiful face. "No! Olivia Munn... yeah, she's really hot."

Brian shook his head and chuckled. "It's okay. I'm gay, Michael's gay, Emmett's obviously gay."

"I'm not gay," Justin insisted. "I have a girlfriend."

"Then why have you been eye-fucking me for the past half hour?"

Justin tried to act outraged but only looked guilty. "I... I haven't! I'm not gay, I swear. I only date girls."

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks," Brian remarked, biting his bottom lip.

Justin puffed out his chest. "Even if I was into guys, you would have no chance with me, sir."

"Oh, and why is that?" Brian asked, amused but also concerned for the sake of the bet.

"I've heard all about you, Mr. Kinney."

"What have you heard?"

Justin chuckled. "That you've had sex with nearly every gay guy in town. You'll say anything and do anything to get them into bed, only to throw them away like they're garbage after you're done with them."

Brian had to hold back from raging, even though everything the blond was saying was true. "Who told you this?"

Justin was saved from having to divulge his source when Debbie called out for him loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear.

"Coming!" he hollered back, taking off back to the house at a run. Brian jogged after him.

Debbie was waiting on the patio with a cordless phone in her hand. "There you are, Sunshine. It's your mother."

"Sunshine," Brian repeated softly, agreeing that the nickname fit the blond beauty perfectly.

Brian walked back into the house without saying another word as Justin took the phone from Debbie. He found Michael and Emmett in the den playing a car racing video game.

"Psst, Emmett," Brian said, motioning for the nelly boy to join him in the hallway.

Emmett paused the game, got up from the couch, and followed Brian into the music room across the hall. He was surprised when Brian grabbed him by the front of his shirt and slammed him against the wall.

"What the fuck did you tell him about me?" Brian growled in Emmett's face.

"What? Who?" Emmett asked, terrified of the other boy despite being the same size as him.

"Justin! He said someone told him that I'm a whore."

"I didn't say anything to him about you, I swear!" Emmett said, his voice choked with tears.

Brian let go of his shirt and took a step back. "Then who did? Michael?"

"Oh please, Michael adores you. He would never speak negatively about you to anyone. Justin's from Philly, right? Maybe someone from there who knows the both of you has been bad-mouthing you to him."

Brian searched his brain and came up empty. "I don't know anyone from Philly."

Emmett thought for a moment and snapped his fingers. "Yes, you do: Ted Schmidt."

"Who the fuck is that?"

"I'm sure you've seen him around campus a bunch, he's gonna be a junior. He works in the computer lab at the library. Brown hair, brown eyes, around five ten, kind of shy, sweet little smile?"

"The nerdy guy who always wears a sweater vest?" Brian asked.

"Yes. We've hung out a few times."

"You fucked him?"

Emmett looked down at his Prada sandals and shook his head. "No, ‘hung out' is not code for ‘fucked,' in this case."

"Do you want to?" Brian asked incredulously. "Weren't you just sucking my new step-brother's dick like, an hour ago? Sweater vest guy is nothing next to a stud like Brandon."

"Looks aren't everything, Brian. Ted's actually a nice guy, much nicer than Brandon. He's really smart and great with computers, but of course, he should be, since he's majoring in computer science. He doesn't like you, though."

"He doesn't even know me."

"Every fag on campus knows you," Emmett informed him.

"Why would he go out of his way to warn Justin about me?"

"I'm telling you, Ted really doesn't like you. In fact, not a lot of people do. Your reputation precedes you. People you've probably never personally met don't like you. Still, every fag that knows you either wants to be with you or be you, and I think Ted secretly wishes for both. You're everything he's not, plus your reputation for being awesome in bed is absolutely true."

Brian couldn't help but feel proud. "Too bad he's probably back in Philly for the summer."

Emmett shook his head. "He's doing an internship at some tech company downtown. He has an apartment a few blocks from campus."

"Well, do you think you could arrange a meeting between us so I can confront him?"

"You're not gonna hurt him, are you?" Emmett asked in concern for his friend.

"No, I'm a lover, not a fighter," Brian claimed.

Emmett rubbed his chest. "The bruises I'm probably gonna have later will beg otherwise. If you can get Brandon to go to Babylon tonight, I'll invite Ted. I've been asking that brother of yours to go out dancing with me for weeks, but he keeps saying no. Oh, and if I get Ted to go, you'll have to be nice to me from now on. Deal?"

Brian shook the man's hand, not too happy with the number of deals he was making this early in the day.

No place on Earth made Brian and Brandon feel more at home than at Babylon, the hottest gay dance club in Pittsburgh. The pounding bass coming out of the sound system, the flashing lights, the smell of salty sweat, the gyrating men on the dance floor... It was their own slice of Heaven.

The step-brothers walked into the club shortly before midnight, when things were just getting started. Despite it being a Monday, the place was almost at capacity with what they guessed were students on summer vacation. It didn't matter what day of the week it was or if school was in session, Brian and Brandon spent many a late night at Babylon dancing, drinking, and fucking before dragging their hung-over asses into class the next morning.

Brian found Emmett and the nerd from the library standing by the bar. Emmett's companion was not wearing one of his signature sweater vests, so Brian hardly recognized him. He didn't look too bad, even in the pale yellow polo shirt he was currently wearing that did not complement his coloring.

"Brandon!" Emmett called out over the song that was currently playing, "Perfect Illusion" by Lady Gaga.

"Christ," Brian heard his step-brother say beside him. "What the fuck is he doing here?"

Brian stayed silent as they walked over to the young men waiting for them.

"Hi, Baby!" Emmett yelled as he threw his arms around Brandon and planted a long kiss on his lips, as if he hadn't just seen him earlier that same day. "You all know each other from school, right?"

Brian, Brandon, and Ted all nodded.

The next song to play was "Outside" by Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding, which made Emmett scream like a girl.

"That's my song!" the boy said before dragging Brandon out to the dance floor.

Brian looked over the crowd at his step-brother, who looked like he wanted to be doing anything but dancing with Emmett. Brandon locked eyes with him and mouthed help me. Brian stuck his tongue out at him and then glanced over at Ted, who looked terrified to be without Emmett by his side.

"Do you want to dance?" he asked.

Ted looked over his shoulder to make sure Brian was actually speaking to him. "Me?"

Brian didn't wait for a response before taking Ted's hand and escorting him to the dance floor. They awkwardly swayed to the beat of the music for a minute before Brian decided to cut to the chase. "You know Justin Taylor, right? Cute little blond twink from Philly?"

"Yeah, his family and mine go to the same country club," Ted answered.  

Brian pulled Ted closer and said into his ear, "Who the fuck do you think you are to be shit-talking me to him?"

"What?" Ted said in surprise. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Are you gonna stand here and pretend like you didn't warn him about getting involved with me?"

"I swear, Brian, I've never said anything to Justin about you. Shit, I haven't said a word to him since we saw each other at the club last year when I was home during summer break. It was nothing but small talk. We're friends on Facebook, but I don't even follow him anymore because he was cluttering up my feed with uninteresting shit."

Brian stared down into Ted's eyes, seeing nothing on his face that would indicate deceit.  

"Alright," Brian said. "Here's what you're going to do, Theodore. Our mutual friend will be attending CMU this fall and is already in town. You're going to reach out to him and have a little chat."

"How am I supposed to arrange that? Like I said, I'm not really friends with the kid."

Brian shrugged. "I don't care. Message him on Facebook and invite him to coffee or something. Tell him what good friends the two of us are and that I'm a great guy."

"And why would I go out of my way to help you?" Ted asked in a contemptuous tone. "I really don't even know you, minus a few deplorable things I've heard through the gay grapevine. I'm sure all you want to do is hump and dump Justin exactly like all the other poor bastards dumb enough to fall for you. Why would I lead that kid down the same path?"

"What if I told you that your friend Emmett has a little crush on you?" Brian said with a smile.

Ted's mouth dropped open. "He...? No."

"Yes, he told me himself earlier today. He's too shy to make the first move."

Ted looked around and found Emmett hanging on an obviously disinterested Brandon about ten feet away from them. "What about Brandon? Emmett said that they're not exclusive, but..."

"Trust me, my brother would happily approve of you taking Emmett off his hands. Go over there and ask him to dance."

Brian later discovered Ted and Emmett making out on one of the couches in the seating area off the bar. He cleared his throat to get their attention and handed a Cosmopolitan to Emmett and a Bud Light to Ted.

"Well, how nice to see my two friends getting along," Brian said.

The two boys clinked their beverages together, smiling at each other.

Brian sat down next to Ted. "Remember what we talked about?"

Ted nodded. "I'll send him a message in the morning."

"You two crazy kids have a lovely evening," Brian said as he went to find someone to occupy the rest of his evening.