Chapter 6
Over the course of the next two weeks, Brian had tried to come to terms with what he had seen that night at the bar on Larimer. For some reason seeing Justin like that had been the thing to really hit home the truth about what everyone else had been telling him for weeks.
To say that Brian had been shocked to the core by the coldness in Justin's voice when he had talked to him and Emmett, or more to Emmett since he had totally ignored Brian for the most part, would have been an understatement, but what had shocked him even more had been Justin's appearance. The drug use showed and he had changed. It took Brian three nearly sleepless nights to get the image of those lifeless, dull eyes out of his head and to have it stop haunting him. He had found himself looking at the pictures from the envelope that Debbie had given him quite often and couldn't believe that the man who had looked so bad and had behaved so coldly to his friends was the same man that had been so loving and gentle in most of the pictures, who had smiled brightly, his eyes shining with love and happiness.
Brian had found himself unable to believe that a person could change so much and he had been grateful that Michael had kept his promise of being there for him, because Brian had been in desperate need of having a friend close by, trying to help him deal with the fact that a person he had once cared about had hit rock bottom that hard. It wasn't that he had loved Justin and that it hurt him because he had feelings for him, but because he cared for Justin as he would care for every other of his friends as well and it pained him deeply that he had only just come to the realisation that he wanted to try and rebuild a friendship with the younger man, that he wanted him in his life as a friend when it was way too late for that as their visit to Larimer had clearly shown.
At first Brian had thought about going back on his own, about trying to catch Justin on his own and trying to talk to him, forcing him to listen and to make him see sense somehow, even if he had no idea how, but then he had dismissed that idea, realising that it was way too dangerous. If Emmett was right and that jerk was really Justin's boyfriend and if Emmett had also been right about Brian having commited some unforgivable sin by touching Justin, he wouldn't have been safe there. They were probably just waiting for him to come back so they could beat the crap out of him for whatever wrongdoing he might have done in their opinion.
In the end, even though it had been beyond painful to come to that conclusion, Brian had agreed with Emmett and Michael that Justin was out of their reach and that the younger man didn't want any help from them. He had made that clear and even Brian had gotten that message even though he hadn't seen Justin for more than two or three minutes at the most. It was painful, but he knew from experience with drugs himself and from acquaintances that had gone down that path before, he knew from all the research he had done in recent weeks since he had found out about Justin that there was no way to get a drug addict to see that they needed help if they didn't realise themselves that they needed help and started asking for it and as hard as it was for Brian to accept that there was nothing that he could do but sit back and wait for the inevitable to happen, he also knew it was the only thing that he could do without endangering himself and his own well-being.
It nearly broke his heart and had made him shut himself away in his house for three whole days, totally ignoring everyone's worried calls and visits until he had pulled himself together and had tried to push Justin out of his mind, had tried to push him back to the back of it, locking him and thoughts about him away to where he had locked them away before he had come back to Pittsburgh. He had then started resuming to live his own life. No good would come from going down that road himself, so he had made a vow to himself, that even though he felt like hiding and drinking the pain away for the moment, he wouldn't allow himself to do that.
Instead he had started resuming his normal activities, had started meeting with his friends again, had concentrated on his work in his agency once more, had gone to business meetings, just normal stuff that he usually did.
He had indeed just finished a meeting with a client about a new product they wanted him to advertise and had been on his way back to his car when he had felt the urge to do some shopping. It had been a long time since he had just gone shopping, spending loads of money on clothes and shoes, making every woman envious with how good he was at their favourite pastime. He was a champion when it came to shopping and standing on the sidewalk after that meeting, he had realised that he was really in need of some good old retail therapy.
He had turned around and hadn't walked towards his car, but had walked up the street in the other direction, knowing that there were some good shops on it, and had checked them out one after the other.
As he left a shop that sold designer shoes, having bought two new pairs, he turned left and walked down the street, checking a text he had gotten while he had been in the shop. He only looked up from his mobile when he heard some commotion a few metres down the street outside of a shop that sold fresh fruits and vegetables.
At first Brian chose to ignore it and returned his attention back to his cell, thinking that it was one of the usual Pittsburgh things going on, until his breath got stuck when he recognised one of the voices screaming to be let go, while another voice called for help and the police.
“Let me fucking go!”
“Police! Someone call the police!”
Brian looked up and gasped once more when he realised that he hadn't been wrong. A man that looked to be working at the shop was holding onto the arm of a struggling Justin, who was obviously trying to get away from him.
Not quite knowing what to do, Brian watched the scene for a couple of seconds before he made the decision to check out what had happened. He quickly walked closer, totally ignoring Justin and just talking to the other man.
“What is going on here?”
“That filthy piece of shit tried to steal my fruits. Bastard's been at it all week, but now I got him,” the man readily provided, twisting Justin's arm in a way that looked painful even to Brian.
“Let me go, you sick fuck,” Justin yelled once more, not even bothering to acknowledge Brian's presence or the fact that he knew him.
“What did he try to steal?” Brian asked, before he turned to Justin and angrily glared at him. “Oh shut up, Justin, for god's sake!”
Justin looked beyond stunned after Brian had addressed him, for a second even stopping to struggle to get away.
“You know him?” The man just asked in obvious confusion, not able to accept that someone as well-dressed as Brian was, a person who obviously had money would know a scumbag like the man he was holding now.
“What did he try to steal?” Brian only asked again, choosing to ignore the man's earlier question.
“Some apples and peaches,” the man told him, pointing at the shelves carrying the fruits outside the shop.
“Okay,” Brian nodded, then got out his wallet and got a $100-bill out of it and handed it to the man who just looked at him in confusion.
“Take this and let me take care of him,” Brian said, pointing to Justin who was now glaring at him and had once again started to try to get away.
The man looked from Brian to the money and to Justin and then back to Brian, obviously weighing his options. He knew just as well as Brian did that if the police showed up, he wouldn't get that much money. He might not even get back any money at all, judging by the shabby look of the man he was still holding onto and in the end he nodded, knowing that taking the money was the most lucrative solution for him.
He let go of Justin, who was about to run away as Brian just turned in his direction and hissed at him. “Don't even dare!” effectively stopping him in his tracks. Brian handed over the 100 bucks before grabbing Justin's arm and pulling him with him as the man shouted after them that he never wanted to see Justin again near his shop.
The further they walked, the harder Justin tried to get away from Brian's grip. Brian started to get annoyed and stopped in his tracks, turning around and glaring at the younger man, making him stumble into him. “Stop it! You're coming along whether you want to or not,” he just told him in a voice that even Justin realised allowed no contradiction and in the end, realising that he had no other choice anyway, he just stopped struggling and went along as Brian pulled him into a side street and walked down it with him, never letting go off him, obviously still afraid that Justin would run away at the next opportunity that presented itself.
Brian sighed in relief when he finally found what he had been looking for and pulled a stunned Justin into a fast food restaurant. He sat him down at one of the tables and glared at him for good measure. “If you know what's good for you, you'll wait here and won't be stupid enough to run away now.”
Justin just nodded dumbly and happy with that, knowing that he had probably confused and stunned him too much with his behaviour to even think about running away, Brian went to the counter and ordered several items from the menu before he returned to the table where he had left Justin to find the younger man still sitting there a few minutes later, staring at his hands, not looking up.
Brian sat down opposite Justin and pushed the tray full of food over to him. “Here, eat!”
Justin looked up and looked at Brian in confusion, obviously having expected to hear a lot of things, but not that. “What?”
“Eat! You must be hungry. I ordered several things. There should be something that you like,” Brian only replied then leaned back in his own chair and watched as Justin eyed the food with obviously hungry eyes. “I mean it, eat! You like this greasy shit, don't you?”
Taking the bottle of water that Brian had ordered for himself, he watched as Justin tentatively reached out to the tray and took one of the burgers lying on it, still eyeing Brian in confusion.
“Why?” The younger man asked as he took the burger in his hand and took the first bite.
“You're obviously hungry. So eat!” Brian just said, taking a sip from his bottle as he watched Justin eat the burger before the younger man turned to the fries and took another burger.
“Aren't you going to eat?” Justin asked after a few minutes of having eaten several things from the tray, noticing that Brian hadn't taken anything but the bottle of water for himself.
Brian just shrugged and then sneered. “Not if my life depended on it. This shit is gonna cost me three hours on the treadmill...,” then he turned more serious. “I am not hungry and you look like you can do with more than just one meal.”
Not even bothering to reply to that, Justin took another burger and ate it, nearly scarfing it down, making Brian wonder how long it had been since he had last eaten a decent meal. From the gaunt features and the fact that Brian had just witnessed Justin getting caught for stealing food, he guessed that it must have been quite some time and that thought saddened him deeply.
They stayed quiet for the rest of the time that Justin spent eating the rest of the food on the tray, Justin being too busy eating and Brian not even knowing what he should talk about with Justin. 'Oh hey, you know? I am back and I heard you're going through some shit. Care to give me some details?' As he ran that through his mind, he had to wonder at how things had changed between them. Back in the day, when he had first gotten to know Justin and when they had been living together, they could talk for hours on end, day after day, always finding something to talk about, but now...now that they were spending some decent time together for the first time in three years, Brian had no idea what to say to the younger man sitting opposite him. He just watched him intently instead and tried to get his emotions under control.
This wasn't supposed to have happened to Justin. He wasn't supposed to turn into a person that needed to steal to have food. He had had a good life and great education and had looked at a life where he should have had enough money to live comfortably, but now...things had changed. Everything had changed.
When Justin was done eating and had finished his drink, an uncomfortable silence settled between them that Brian broke by getting up and walking back to the counter once more, returning a few seconds later with a piece of paper and a pen. He sat down at the table again and wrote something on the paper.
Justin watched him in obvious confusion, his eyes showing even more confusion when Brian handed the piece of paper to him. He took it and looked at it with a frown.
Without saying anything more, Brian got up, picked up his things and walked past the table towards the exit, turning around once more as he was only a few inches away from Justin.
“Next time you're hungry and about to steal food, come to this address. There's always food for you at my place,” he said before he opened the door of the fast food restaurant and left, walking down the street as Justin watched after him in stunned silence, looking from the piece of paper in his hand to Brian's retreating form.