The Taylor family home, 2 days later

Over the next couple of days, the boys took the time to settle in back at home. They both had haircuts, looking as sleek as ever. After having medical checks, as well as being tested for any sexually transmitted infections, both Brian and Justin were in the clear. Justin had been right; it was fine for the two of them to have been having sex raw. This was a great relief to Brian, who had been worrying about it.

It was a Thursday afternoon and all of Justin’s family and friends, as well as Brian and some of his friends had gathered in the Taylor’s backyard for an official ‘welcome home’ party for the boys. Craig had arranged the whole thing and spent much of the afternoon barbequing. A couple of hours into the party, Craig stopped everyone to make an important toast. “Excuse me everyone!” he called, tapping a glass lightly with a knife to grab his guests’ attention. “I would like to thank everyone for coming. It is about time we make a toast to Justin, my son, and to Brian.” He held his glass in the air, encouraging everyone to do the same. “To Brian and Justin. Welcome home.” All the people present repeated, “To Brian and Justin”, and took a drink from their glasses before Craig held his glass up again. “I would also like to make a toast to my wife, Jennifer, and Brian’s friends Debbie and Michael Novotony. They worked so hard to bring these boys home. To Jennifer, Debbie and Michael.” Again, everyone raised their glasses and joined in on the toast. Jennifer leaned over and gave her husband a kiss on the cheek.

The boys had both officially met each other’s friends at the barbeque. Emmett instantly adored Justin, while Daphne had the same reaction to Brian. Both Michael and Justin were quite excited to meet each other, as they had heard so much about one another over the last 3 months. It was as if they already knew each other.

Justin and Brian, in the meantime, hadn’t spent much time speaking to each other that afternoon, as Justin’s friends had him occupied. In fact, Brian and Justin had barely spoken at all since arriving home. The teenagers hadn’t seen the boy since the dinner a couple days earlier and were busy bombarding him with questions, as well as catching up him on all that had been going on in his absence. Brian sat on the other side of the yard, watching Justin with longing. “Missing him already?” a young voice asked. Brian turned his head to see a younger girl version of Justin smiling at him.

“You’re the famous Molly Taylor”, Brian said, turning his body so that he could talk to her properly. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Molly rolled her eyes. “I’m sure my brother made me sound like a brat.”

Brian laughed and responded, “In some of his stories, but he missed you.”

The girl smiled, glancing over at her big brother as he laughed with his friends. “Yeah. I missed him too”, she confessed. She looked back at Brian and saw the look of yearning on his handsome face as he watched her brother. She grinned knowingly. “He and his friends are pretty joined at the hip”, she told Brian, making him look at her again. “But he won’t forget about you anytime soon. I can tell he’s just as crazy about you as you are about him.”

Brian gave the girl an impressed look at the fact that she’d been able to figure out the nature of his relationship with Justin. She was right; Brian was crazy about his blond. He only hoped she was right about Justin not forgetting about him.

An hour later, Justin had a private moment with Daphne as Hunter had left to go to work. They sat in the corner of the yard, gossiping like a pair of queens. “So”, Daphne began, raising one eyebrow suggestively. “You and Brian were alone on that island for all that time. Don’t tell me nothing happened between you two while you were there.” A shy smile formed on Justin’s lips. Daphne’s eyes went wide as she smiled. “Oh my God, something did happen! You guys totally got together!”

“Yeah”, Justin admitted, looking down at his hands. Daphne was the first person Justin had told about his and Brian’s relationship. “We started out as friends, but eventually we got together”, he revealed while his friend listened intently. “I gave him my virginity…”

Daphne scooted in a little closer to her friend. “So how was it?”

Justin blushed and thought back to that wonderful first night he’d shared with Brian. He remembered how tender Brian was. “It was amazing”, he said, not looking at the girl next to him. “Brian is…he’s amazing. I adore him, Daph.”

A giggle escaped the teenage girl’s mouth and she gave her friend a pat on the shoulder. “My wittle Justin is all grown up!”

“Shut up”, Justin laughed, his face turning an even deeper shade of red.

“Hang on”, Daphne said, making Justin snap his head up.

“What?” he asked, curious and concerned.

Daphne swallowed the last of her cherry soda and said, “Brian’s nowhere to be seen. Wasn’t he standing over there?”

Justin followed Daphne’s pointed hand and noticed that his lover was in fact nowhere to be seen. Frowning, Justin got up and walked over to his sister. “Hey, have you seen Brian?” he asked the girl.

Molly nodded and told the boy, “Yeah, he left about 20 minutes ago. I guess he was bored or something.”

The girl watched as her brother’s face fell in disappointment. “Oh”, he mumbled.

“Sorry”, Molly said, reaching up to give the boy a hug. “I thought he was going to say goodbye. If had of known he didn’t, I would have stopped him.”

Justin ruffled the girl’s hair and she squirmed away from him. “That’s okay, Mol. Thanks.”

“What for?” The blond girl smoothed down her hair with her hands.

“For being on my side for once”, he cracked, smirking at his sister. She poked her tongue out at him, a gesture he returned. Justin walked back to a concerned Daphne and told her, “He left. I was ignoring him the whole time and he left. I’m such a jerk!”

Daphne took her dramatic friend’s hand. “You are a lot of things, but a jerk isn’t one of them.”

Justin gave the girl an appreciative, yet sad smile. “I appreciate the sentiment, but I am a jerk. Brian probably had the worst time. I invited him and didn’t even talk to him.”

“It’ll be fine”, Daphne assured the boy, still clutching his hand. “If you guys adore each other, he’ll forget all about today. You’ll see.”   

Not knowing what else to say, Justin gave in and nodded. He wasn’t sure if he believed his friend, but he allowed himself to hope.

Over the next couple of weeks

As the boys discovered; life goes on. Justin had decided to return to school the Monday after they’d been rescued and was welcomed. Being a highly intelligent and organized young man, he was able to get back into the routine of school fairly easily. He began taking after school and weekend classes to catch up on all he’d missed while he had been on the island. The boy impressed his teachers with how eager he was to catch up by the time graduation came around. Since returning home, Justin had also become more popular than ever. People were always talking to him, asking him questions and treating him like a hero. It was odd to Justin as he had never really been all that popular, but he could not deny that he liked the extra attention from his classmates.

Similarly, Brian went back to his college classes the Monday after they returned home. People stared at him more often than they had, and more people tried to talk to him, but it wasn’t a major difference to how things were prior to the island. Students at his college were very busy, rather mature and quite self involved, meaning that not too many of them cared all that much about Brian’s story. This suited Brian just fine; as long as he had his friends, he didn’t need anyone else. The biggest difference in treatment he received was from his professors. Either they were harder on him, or easier on him. Either way, each professor was quite interested in what happened to Brian. He was welcomed back to work quite easily as well. Just a few short weeks after the boys had been rescued; their lives had predominantly returned back to normal.

One thing that bothered both boys immensely was the fact that they had had no time for each other. Justin saw Brian once after the party at his house and then not at all. They had begun speaking a few times a day, which became less and less frequent until it ceased all together. The boys did not see or speak to each other. The truth was; both Brian and Justin were too afraid to reach out to the other for fear of being ignored or rejected. Both of them missed each other in immeasurable amounts and found it a shame that things could not be the way they were on the island.

Brian had also not returned to tricking since coming home. He contemplated it after starting to get sick of having to resort only to pleasuring himself, and even tried to trick. But the man could not bring himself to even kiss a man after he’d picked him up, let alone fuck him. There was no one he wanted more than Justin. No one had made him feel more excited, cared for, gentle or insatiable than the little blond devil. The boy gave him the best sex he’d ever experienced, making him certain that he’d never desired or been satisfied by anyone more than Justin. It seemed odd to Brian. He had formerly been The Stud Of Liberty Avenue, despite only being 21, a title that Brandon had predominantly filled in Brian’s absence. The thing that was the most odd about that was that it didn’t really bother Brian all that much. He didn’t feel like he was losing anything significant. Previously, he never would have thought that he’d be able to be monogamous, but the last three months proved otherwise. He had spent those months only fucking Justin, whom he knew could keep up with his sexual appetite and stamina. This was why he found himself not wanting anyone else. They had done it raw. Brian let Justin fuck him; the first man Brian had ever let do that. And Brian was sure that he wanted Justin to be the only man to ever do that.

The man’s lack of tricking did not go unnoticed by his friends. They questioned him about it, but he declined talking about it, denying that anything was wrong. His friends assumed that it had something to do with Justin and were surprised to come to the secret conclusion that he was in love with the boy. Each friend was excited by this prospect; Brian only ever talked about how he didn’t believe in love or relationships, but it appeared that that was changing. They only hoped that their friend would be courageous enough to act on it.

Justin’s bedroom

A soft, but sure knock made Justin look up from his sketch pad. The boy was incredibly grateful to be back with his art materials after having spent all that time away from it all. He had been painting and drawing like crazy ever since the first day he got back home. Many of these artworks were of Brian and their island. He was in the middle of sketching a close up of Brian’s beautiful face, which he missed like crazy. “Come in”, he said, closing the sketch book.

The door opened to reveal his younger sister and she stepped in the room. “Hi”, she greeted, going over to sit next to her brother on his bed.

“Hey, Mol”, he greeted back in a friendly tone. Things had been a lot better between the two of them since Justin’s return. Before he went off to Trinidad on the school trip, he and his sister had been fighting non-stop. All was forgiven and forgotten now, and their relationship was better than ever. Molly spent several seconds just staring at the boy. “What?” he asked, feeling his face begin to flush.

Molly shook her head. “I just missed you is all”, she explained. “I’m real glad you’re back.”

Justin smiled, touched at the sentiment. “I missed you too, sis”, he told her, reaching over to ruffle her hair. This of course made her smooth her hair down with her hands the way she always did when her brother messed it up. “It’s good to be back. It really is.” He meant it.

“But there’s something about that that’s not quite right”, Molly said mysteriously. She spoke as if she knew all, making her brother frown at her in question. “ Or should I say someone.”

Justin looked away from the girl and quickly said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.

“Oh, come on. You don’t think I’m that much of a door mat, do you? I know what’s going on”, she told her brother, who knew exactly what she meant. “”You miss Brian.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Mol”, Justin said dismissively. He made a move to get up.

The girl grabbed her brother’s arm and stopped him from walking away as he intended. “Just admit it. Why would that be so bad?”

Justin stopped struggling against the girl and looked at her. “Okay…” he said, giving in. Looks like he was going to have to officially come out to his sister. “I miss him like hell. He’s the only thing on my mind and I wish he was around all the time”, Justin admitted.

With a big smile, Molly said, “See, that wasn’t so hard.” She noticed her brother’s blush and added, “Jus, I’ve kinda known you were into boys for a while now. Well, actually for as long as I can remember. It’s okay.”

Justin reached for his younger sister’s hand and gave it an affectionate squeeze. He smiled at her in appreciation. “Thanks…I suppose”, he laughed. “Gosh, was I really that obvious about it?”

“You screamed as much as I did at the Justin Timberlake concert. And you had posters of Jesse McCartney in your room instead of hot girls. And I always caught you looking at Chris Hobbs’ butt at his games”, the girl said.

Laughing, Justin said, “Okay, okay, I get it. I was obvious.” He was thoughtful for a moment. “Do you think mom and dad know?”

Molly shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe they do.” Again, Justin looked thoughtful, pondering something. “But the point is; you miss your boyfriend.”

“He’s not…well, we never really made it official between us”, Justin confessed. “We sorta just…got together and rolled with it.”

“Be honest, Jus”, Molly urged. “Do you want him to be your boyfriend?”

Justin nodded, his eyes pointing downwards. He was beginning to feel emotional and didn’t want to cry. He felt that crying about it might mean that it was really over between Brian and him, and Justin couldn’t stand that thought.

“Then why don’t you talk to him?” The girl beside him asked. She was looking deeply at her brother, as if studying him.

For a thirteen year old, Molly was quite the wise little one, Justin mused to himself. “Because…” he began, feeling his throat tighten up a little. He swallowed, trying to relax his throat. “Because I’m afraid that if I reach out to him now that he’ll want nothing to do with me. That he won’t want to know me anymore.” Failing at his task, Justin felt tears begin to fall.

Molly nodded slowly, as if she had been expecting this answer. “Justin, any fool can tell that Brian is desperately in love with you”, she stated.

“You-You think so?” Justin asked with a vulnerability that touched his sister’s heart. He sniffed and looked up at the girl.

Molly reached over to rub her brother’s shoulder soothingly in reassurance. “Of course. Have you seen the way he looks at you? He looks at you like you are the only thing on this entire fricken’ planet!”

This made Justin chuckle. He wiped at his eyes. “That’s what he is to me.”

“So talk to him”, Molly urged again. “Prom is coming up. You have a date?” Justin shook his head and Molly continued, “Invite Brian.”

“What if he doesn’t show?” Justin asked, genuinely afraid of that possibility.

“You’ll never know if you don’t try, will you?” Molly pointed out.

Justin looked at the girl for a couple of thoughtful seconds before moving to get his laptop. Molly smiled triumphantly. Justin turned his laptop on and opened up his email, glad that he and Brian had exchanged details back on the plane. He attached the official prom invite to a new email addressed to Brian and wrote a simple, ‘I’ll be waiting.’ Hesitating for a brief moment, Justin froze. This prompted Molly to quickly reach over and press send. “Hey”, Justin protested half-heartedly.

“Where would you be without me?” Molly said cheekily with a shrug.

Justin laughed and shook his head at his sister’s antics and looked back at his screen. He stared at the ‘sent’ message on the screen as his heart raced inside his chest. He was excited, but utterly scared out of his mind at the same time. If Brian didn’t show up, it would break his heart. But if he did show up, Justin would be the happiest man on earth. They would be reunited. Justin only hoped that Brian would at least consider the invitation…

TO BE CONTINUED…