Brian tried to speak with Justin after Miles and Lewis left. It didn’t seem he would be successful because Justin was in bed and got getting out. Everyone had tried to get him out of bed, even Hannah. After deciding to finally be honest with Justin. It wasn’t that he wanted everyone in the country to know about his secrets, but it was something he wasn’t ashamed of anymore and wanted Justin out of his funk.

Kicking off his shoes, he climbed into bed with Justin, curling around the smaller man. “The Shed competition is today,” he said into his ear.

“I don’t care,” Justin told him.

“Quit being dramatic. Do you think you are the first one to do something to feed yourself that you’re not proud of? I can tell you now doing drywall for my buddy’s dad’s company didn’t put food on my plate while I was in college. We all do things to get by you deal with it and go on.”

Justin turned in his arms looking up at him. “You don’t understand.”

“Then make me.”

“Who of our friends do you think told them about the Sap?”

That gave him a moment of pause, the answer was none. “I don’t know.”

“None of them. Then there is the other thing they talked about, only one person knew about that, I didn’t tell anyone, not even Daphne.”

“I’m not following. If no one knew, how did they find out?”

“The only person to know was the man who paid me to be his toyboy while I was in New York. I didn’t tell you because we agreed not to discuss what we did while we were living in different states. We weren’t doing those stupid rules I made when I was too young and too stupid to know better. Brian, he was the only one who knew about it.”

“Who is he?”

“I can’t say.”

“Why not?”

“Because he’s rich and powerful. I don’t mean like you’re rich, I mean like he can buy an island and not blink at the bill. He’s in the entertainment business, I’m starting to wonder if he found out I’m here and used it to hurt me.”

“Why would he want to hurt you?”

“Because he wanted me to move in with him. He wanted to take care of me. I turned him down.”

Brian tried to think of a way to say something without hurting Justin, but he didn’t know how. “I get you think this man would do something, but it seems far-fetched. Who would go through all this just to hurt someone they slept with? You’ve got a nice ass but who would risk their livelihood to get a little piece of revenge.” It didn’t make sense, he knew sometimes Justin a bit of an inflated ego, but this was a stretch.

Justin just shook his head. “Nevermind, I’m being silly.” Somehow that worried Brian more, maybe Mr. Big Time was someone to worry about.

“Where’s Mel?” Debbie asked Lindsay.

“After the talk with her dad she didn’t feel like watching the show today. She’s not doing well with finding out Brian is her brother; I have to admit I’m not doing so good myself. Just to think if they didn’t hate each other so much, Mel and Brian could have had a baby together,” Lindsay said with a shiver.

That would have been a disaster that she didn’t think Melanie would ever forgive her father for if it had come to be. But it didn’t and Michael was JR’s dad and maybe Mel and her dad had a future.

Tonight, it wasn’t many of them there, so they were at her place. That meant that Carl would be watching, he had been angry when she told him about what they did to Sunshine last time. Tonight, it was just her, Carl, Lindsay, Gus Hunter and Meena. Hunter had just arrived in time tonight because he was at work. Brian had given Hunter a job in his mailroom, which was basically Hunter and his boss Rafe. Brian was also helping Hunter out with college, that mixed with Ben’s discount he gets as faculty, they were making it work.

She liked Meena for Hunter; Meena unlike Hunter had a good childhood. She had only been with one boy in her life, it just happened that boy slept around and got her sick. When she told her family, they cut her off and said she deserved what she got. Now she was living with her brother who was also a black sheep of the family. She hadn’t told Debbie why, but she suspected that he maybe gay because she already knew most of the places on Liberty Avenue when she met Hunter.

“Carl, honey, can you get my glasses? My eyes are bothering me tonight,” she asked her husband. They weren’t married officially because her son still couldn’t marry, but he was her husband.

Carl brought over her glasses and sat in his chair. Usually, he would sit by her, but his back was bothering him. He had forgotten that he’s not as young as he used to be and threw it out while playing with Gus and JR at the birthday party.

“I’ve been doing some research,” Meena said as she sat down beside Hunter on the floor.

“What’s that, honey?” Debbie asked.

“Ever since Justin got on the show, lots of people have been posting pictures of him in New York. Mostly museum functions, some of him working as a waiter but a few he was on the arm of an older man.”

“Like Brian older?” Hunter asked.

“Like Carl older,” she answered looking apologetically at Carl.

“I don’t understand why Justin would be with a man like that. I’m not trying to be mean about Sunshine but he’s very much like Brian in that way. He’s all about hot, hard bodies,” Debbie said. It was very confusing; she never seen them with anyone more than five years older than Brian and even then, he had to be gorgeous.

“Probably because the guy’s rich, like really rich,” Hunter told her.

“That stuff doesn’t matter to Sunshine,” she defended Justin. Carl snorted, causing her to glare at him. “Got something to say?”

“Come on, Deb. You have to admit that part of Brian’s allure to Justin was his money. He saw a handsome, well-to-do man and latched on to him. There are many handsome men working at coffee shops and convenient stores. Justin is just as superficial as Brian, more so, if you ask me.”

“What do we do?” Meena asked him in a hushed voice.

Hunter didn’t know what to tell her. Debbie had a protective streak a mile wide. Michael was the only one she was more protective of than Justin. It was hard to see because he never saw what any of them saw in Justin. Pretty face but not much beyond that. It was a teenage crush he had on Brian that caused his first dislike of Justin but wasn’t why he never warmed up to him. Justin thought he was better than everyone else.

Sure, he covered it well with the gang here, but he knew it. So, it made him happy that Carl had noticed it too. It wasn’t to say he was a bad person, just shallower and more stuck up than people thought.

“They won’t argue in front of us. Just ignore them and watch the show.”

As the show started and he noticed the cold war going on between Debbie and Carl.

“There’s Jussy,” Gus said excitedly.

The bags under his eyes could be seen even on Debbie’s tv. Carl had been after her to get a bigger one, but she was a hold out.

“Contestants, it’s time for the Luxury Shed competition. After the competition one of you will be moved to the Time Out room until the next Elimination.”

“What? That’s ludicrous, that’s guaranteeing who gets sent to the Time Out room goes home. People won’t vote to keep someone in that is isolated and not able to interact with everyone.”

There was no surprise that the competition was a steady hand one. At first, he thought Meena was being dramatic thinking someone had something out for Justin. But this was just one too many things. Justin came in dead last because between by the looks of it his nerves and his brain injury, his hand spasmed, setting off the bell. They were supposed to keep their hands steady, keeping a ball in between two lines in a tube.

When the contestants went back into the house, the host told Justin he was to go to the Time Out room and stay for five days until the elimination episode. They hadn’t told them that the loser would be in the room. He was sure Brian would have thrown the game if he knew. Unlike before where there was someone else even if you didn’t like them, Justin was alone. They saw what the people in the house didn’t. All the things that could be counted as nice in the room before was gone. It was now just a bed, small fridge, and the restroom over in the corner, not even a book.

There is a sketch pad but after a fruitless search he sees Justin come up empty for something to draw with, no pencil, pen, or paint…nothing. It reminded him of the It was like a prison. They were trying to force Justin to quit, that was clear. Hunter started to feel bad, this was cruel. Hunter was reminded of that old Twilight Zone he watched late one night someone actually rented a hotel for him to stay in. The world was blown to smithereens, all except on guy who was in a bank vault when the bombs came. He was able to read all he wanted now, except his glasses break. He wonders if that’s how Justin feels now, all the time to draw but just empty pages mocking him.

That night when everyone went home, it wasn’t the jovial tone it usually was.