Chapter 24 - Opinion.
Brian was roused yet once more from another futile attempt to get some sleep by the door to the holding cell clanging open and then shut again. Fucking assholes! By the time they’d finished carting him all over most of the West Virginia panhandle and significant portions of Western Pennsylvania the evening before, it had been pretty late. And, even after they’d thrown him into this holding cell in some unidentified Pittsburgh police station, he still hadn’t been allowed to just rest. The damn precinct they were holding him in must be one of the busiest in the whole fucking city. The traffic in and out of the the cell had rivalled Babylon’s backroom on a weekend. At one point there were sixteen men crowding into the small 15’X15’ space that only had seating for six, max. And, while Brian Kinney wouldn’t normally back down for anybody, he’d taken one look at the three hundred pound redneck with the swastika tattoos on both biceps and decided that he didn’t want to pick that particular battle - the gentleman in question grunted his thanks when Brian gave up his seat on the bench and moved off quietly to stand in the farthest corner.
Of course, the crowded conditions weren’t the only reason that Brian hadn’t been able to sleep. Part of his unrest came from the fact that the Desk Sergeant just happened to let on to the fact that Brian was gay when the cop had first thrown Brian into the cell. Like Brian had really needed the warning to, ‘Keep your fucking dick in your pants, cause we don’t allow no funny stuff in here, Faggot!’ Why was it that getting tossed in jail for the night didn’t seem nearly as hot or pleasurable as all those porn videos he’d watched? But, well, after being outed to his redneck cell buddies like that, Brian didn’t exactly feel comfortable enough to close his eyes even for a moment. Fucking Homophobic Pitts PD Pigs!
Meanwhile across town in Muncherville, Mel had finally gotten through to Carl. The helpful detective had eventually been able to locate the lost prisoner and had promised to look further into exactly why Brian had been so conveniently lost in the first place. Forty-five minutes later, Mel and Justin were walking into the correct precinct, with the documentation regarding Justin’s inheritance in hand so that they could finally bail out the dangerous miscreant otherwise known as Brian Kinney.
Even knowing where Brian was, however, didn’t make their task all that much easier. The Pittsburgh PD didn’t seem to want to give up such a hardened criminal. Mel had to exert a lot of her bitchy jewish dyke lawyer skills in order to get the reluctant Desk Sergeant to even admit they were holding Brian in their facility. And then there was a drawn out dispute over whether or not Brian was eligible to post bail without having to wait until he’d gone before a judge. When Mel had finally resolved that little legal peccadillo to Brian’s advantage, she still had to argue the validity of Justin’s trust claims with the bail bondsman before he would accept that as collateral sufficient to guarantee the bond. In other words, it was a very long morning.
By the time Mel made it back to the station house lobby, she was beyond stressed out and two miles past ready to get this whole ordeal over with. Unfortunately, Justin wasn’t where she’d left him and nobody seemed to know where to find the kid. Mel had been worried that the poor inexperienced waif would be hiding somewhere scared out of his mind and she immediately commandeered several of the station’s employees to find the little lost one. She probably should have saved herself the stress, though . . . After a five minute search, Mel finally located the errant blond boy sitting next to a rather haggard-looking Drag Queen waiting to be processed on charges of solicitation.
It looked like the friendly young man was in the middle of disclosing his entire life story to his new bosom buddy. “. . . my boyfriend. He’s in jail for kidnapping me, but of course that’s just all pretend ‘cause I wanted to go with him, you know. But the police didn’t know that, and now we have to bail him out of jail. But the good news is that I found out my dead mother - who I didn’t REALLY kill - left me bunches of money, so I won’t have to try and give a lot of hand jobs or blow jobs in order to raise enough money for Brian’s bail. I’m really not all that good at those kinds of jobs yet, although Brian was teaching me before he got arrested and all . . .”
“Oh, Sugar . . . with lips like THOSE, I’m sure you’re better at those kinds of jobs than you think! In fact, I’d be more than happy to let you try out your skills on me - I promise to give you an honest critique . . .” offered the lady, whose long blond wig was askew, sequined minidress was partially torn causing one breast to have become a little misaligned and whose makeup was worn away in spots with darkly smudged mascara and a hefty five-o’clock shadow marring what was left.
“Thanks, for the offer, Miss, but I don’t think Justin will need your services,” Mel interrupted, grabbing Justin by the elbow and quickly hurrying the boy away from his new friend.
“Hi, Ms. Attorney. Did you know that that woman is ACTUALLY a man? She? . . . He? . . . She even let me feel her willy to prove it. I didn’t know there were men who were women out here in the real world. Isn’t that so cool? You just never see stuff like that on television . . . or at least not the television my mother let me watch.” Justin was spouting as Mel hustled him along so quickly that Justin was nearly tripping over his feet.
“Justin, you need to be careful about who you talk to in a place like this. The people you meet here aren't exactly on a pleasure vacation, Sweetie. Most of them are not nice at all and they’re definitely NOT desireable friends.” Mel whispered a warning to her young companion as she hustled him down the corridor.
“That doesn’t make any sense. Miss Kandi Kane over there was very nice. And Brian’s nice too, even though he’s in this place somewhere too,” Justin tried to protest, standing up for his new friend, but he didn’t get time to say much before they were standing outside a mesh-wire gated entryway and his little speech was interrupted by the harsh, loud buzzing sound that rang out, indicating that the gate was being electronically unlocked.
The next thing that Justin knew, the door at the far end of the hallway was being pushed open and a very frazzled looking Brian Kinney was being led towards them.
Brian looked like hell. His clothing was rumpled. His hair was sticking up every which way, his eyes were red-rimmed and circled by dark, tired smudges, his cheeks were shadowed with two days of beard growth and his complexion was lined and worried and grey. However, as soon as the guard leading him out of the holding cell area moved out of the way enough that the prisoner could see the two people waiting for him at the end of the hallway, the careworn face lit up with relief.
“Sunshine! You’re here! Are you okay?” Brian was shooting out the questions even before the guard had let him through the final gate.
“Brian!” Justin was bouncing on his toes with anticipation as soon as he heard the slightly rough baritone of Brian’s voice - Mel had to hold the boisterous blond back with one hand or he would have rushed Brian’s police escort to get to his man.
“Shit! I’m so glad to see you, Sunshine. I was so fucking worried about you having to go back to that hospital,” Brian admitted, immediately wrapping Justin in his arms - as soon as the guard released his grip on Brian’s arm - and squeezing the boy so tightly that the youth could barely breathe.
“Yeah, yeah . . . Move it along, Kinney,” the guard ordered, giving Brian a shove to get him to move so he wasn’t blocking the path. “You two can have your little fairy reunion someplace else. Nobody around here wants to see that shit, faggot!”
“Oh! You must be one of those ‘good-ancient-boys’ whose necks turn red and who don’t seem to like happy people. You should move to Wyoming with the rest of your kind . . .” Justin looked at the guard with disdain before ignoring the big buffoon and turning back to Brian with a kiss. “He’s just lucky I don’t have a Mamma Skunk with me today or I’d show him what happens to anyone who talks mean to MY boyfriend!”
“You probably would, Sunshine,” Brian snickered, delighted that his shy little boy hadn’t hesitated for even a minute to stand up to the homophobic bully. “But, he’s got a point that there’s better places to have our reunion than in the hall of a police station. How ‘bout we move this reunion back to my loft?”
“Nice, Kinney . . . Can’t you even keep it in your pants long enough to say ‘Hello’ to me or to acknowledge my Pro Bono legal representation that helped to get you out of the slammer?” Mel commented from her place standing behind Justin.
“Oh . . . Hey, Mel. Thanks for getting my Sunshine out of the psycho ward,” Brian replied offhandedly to his lawyer as he curled his arm around Justin’s shoulders and began to walk towards the exit, his eyes never leaving Justin’s smiling face for long. “And thanks for bailing me out. I’ll pay you back as soon as I can . . . although I don’t know how soon that will be.”
“Lucky for you, I didn’t need to bail you out, so you don’t owe me anything, Brian.” Mel replied, following on the heels of the couple in silent disbelief over Brian’s words and actions with regard to this little blond newcomer . . . who she noticed had lost his shoes somewhere since the time she’d brought him into the police station.
“You didn’t?” Brian looked at Mel over his shoulder with a quizzical stare. “Then who the fuck did? I seriously doubt that the Pittsburgh PD just let me walk out of here out of the goodness of their homophobic little hearts . . .”
Mel simply tilted her head in Justin’s direction, causing Brian to freeze in place and scrutinize the younger man.
“Sunshine?” Brian queried, viewing the boy, who still came off as completely unprepossessing and naive, with an inquisitive eye.
Justin’s brilliant smile enveloped him. “Guess what, Just Brian? My dead mother left me bunches of money! Isn’t that neat? Here,” Justin tore the sheaf of papers Mel had been holding onto out of the unsuspecting Attorney’s hands and shoved it at the tall, momentarily befuddled Brunet. “It’s all yours. I hope it’s enough to fix your business, Brian. If not, I’ll work on getting up to speed with those hand jobs and stuff. Or maybe I’ll try drawing some more. I just know that somehow we’ll be able to fix things for you. Especially now that I know I won’t have to live at the hospital any more.”
Brian looked down at the papers in his hands. The title on the first page read, ‘Walter A. Taylor, Revocable Living Trust’. A little lower down on the page, Brian saw a figure with more than six decimal places in the number. Brian was completely overwhelmed by the implications of this pile of papers and his first impulse was to shove it all back into the young blond’s hands and run out the door. His impulse must have shown through to his aspect, because the next thing he knew, Brian felt Justin’s soft hands cupping his face with evident concern.
“Brian? Are you okay? Isn’t it enough money?” Justin seemed so worried. “I’m sorry if it’s not enough, Brian. I don’t know much about money and real life stuff . . . I guess I could get a real job or something to help you out some more if you think that would be a good idea . . . Hmmmmm . . . I don’t really know how to do anything though, you know. And I don’t even know where I’m going to live . . . I mean, I’m glad I won’t have to live at that hospital, but I don’t really want to go back to my mother’s house, either - there’s just a lot of really not nice memories there. But . . . Wow! I just never had to think about the future or what I was going to do . . . It’s . . . It’s . . . It’s a lot to think about, isn’t it, Just Brian?” Justin’s attention drifted off into a hazy other-place where his frightening unknown future loomed up at him with such enormity that he was struck speechless.
By this point, they’d reached the front entrance of the police station and Mel was holding open the doors for the boys - watching Brian with unbridled curiosity to see what he’d do when confronted with such an overt display of sentimentality. Despite the fact that Brian had explicitly sent her off to help Justin even before himself, she was all prepared to see the Brian Kinney she knew shoot down this presumptuous kid and bolt. Wasn’t that Brian’s MO? No relationships, no regrets. How had he put it the one time Mel had asked him about his wanton lifestyle? ‘In and out with the maximum amount of pleasure and the minimum amount of bullshit’? Yep. That was ‘The Kinney Way’. And, unfortunately, this poor, unsophisticated boy really had no idea just how fast he was about to be kicked to the curb.
“Justin . . . I can’t take this,” Brian turned toward the boy as soon as they were outside on the sidewalk in front of the police station. “Thank you for bailing me out - I promise to pay you back as soon as I can - but I can’t take any more of your money.”
“Of course you can, Brian.” Justin seemed very confused by Brian’s refusal. “I told you the other day when we were driving that, if I had any money, I’d give it all to you. So, here. Take it. I hope it helps you.”
“I know what you said, Sunshine, but I just can’t take your inheritance . . .” Brian started to insist before he was rudely interrupted by an officious officer of the court.
“Of course Brian won’t be taking your money, Justin,” Mel asserted grabbing the stack of important legal papers back out of the momentarily speechless brunet’s hands and depositing them safely back into her own soft-sided leather briefcase. “Now, why don’t we just drop Brian off at his loft and then we can head back to the house. You’re more than welcome to stay with Lindsey and I until we get all the legalities of your trust worked out and you figure out what you want to do next, Honey. I’ll contact the attorneys that drafted these documents - who I assume will be handling the rest of the estate work - and let them know what’s going on. We should have the matter resolved in a few weeks. In the meantime, we can go back to your mother’s house and get your things together. Then we’ll help you decide what you want to do next.”
“But . . . But what about my Brian?” Justin questioned, looking at the man over his shoulder as Mel towed him away with a firm hand on the youth’s elbow
“What about him?” Mel began, dismissing Brian without even thinking about it. However, when she noted that Justin was no longer following behind her, Mel stopped and turned to look at the impressionable young man. “Justin, there is one thing about Brian that you need to know,” Mel continued, knowing that what she was about to confess to the impressionable young man would likely break his heart but thinking that it was her responsibility to educate the overly naive youngling. “I’m not sure who you think Brian Kinney is, Justin. However, I don’t think he’s the romantic hero you seem to have conjured up in your imagination. You see, Brian is not the kind of guy who’s interested in taking care of some inexperienced twink. To be completely honest, Brian’s a total slut. He is not the type to settle down with just one man, no matter how cute or endearing he might be. If you think that he’s going to take you in, offer to let you live with him or something like that, you’re deceiving yourself. And, even if he did something as completely out of character as that, sooner or later he would get tired of you and toss you away like trash. All you are to him is just another ass to fuck and a mouth to stick his dick into.”
At first Brian was ready to cave into Mel’s expectations of him. He didn’t have a lot of examples to use to dissuade her of her negative opinions about him. But then, as Brian watched Justin, he was surprised to see that his blond defender wasn’t buying any part of the hateful image Mel was trying to evoke. Instead, Justin was getting very angry at what Mel was saying about HIS Brian. The absolute trust Justin was showing in him, gave Brian more confidence in himself than he ever remembered having and he decided it was time for him to step in.
“Justin, please don’t listen to what Mel is saying,” Brian insisted, turning to look at the fuming blond in an attempt to convince him that his trust was justified. “Yes, I know I’ve treated other men in that way, but that’s not the case with you. I wouldn’t treat you like that, Sunshine. You’re different. I’M different when I’m with you. I swear it.” The blindingly brilliant smile that Justin beamed at him in response to his plea was all the reassurance that Brian needed before he turned to confront his detractor. “And, Mel, don’t you EVER speak to Justin that way again. I know that your biased views about me might have some justification due to my past actions, but that’s not all I am or am capable of. Besides, you’ve always hated me, so you’re hardly the most impartial judge. And you really don’t know anything about what the two of us have been through over the past week or how I feel about Sunshine.”
Mel rolled her eyes at Brian’s purportedly sincere declaration of his emotional attachment to Justin. From all the evidence she’d seen to date, she didn’t think Brian Kinney was capable of caring about anyone but himself. She couldn't understand why Brian was putting on such a show when he knew damn well he was not being truthful. It was one thing for him to put on airs to try and charm a trick, but Mel wasn’t going to sit back and let him seduce a sweet, unsuspecting kid like Justin. Especially not when it seem like the whole charade made her look like a fool and a liar. Mel was not going to let Brian get away with these lies - she was determined to come out on top in this little battle of wills.
“Oh, come off it Brian and cut the bullshit already,” Mel snarled. “You know damn well that you have as much feeling for Justin as you do for a snail crushed under the heel of your precious Prada leather boots. Why don't you do the decent thing for once and leave Justin alone - let him move on with his life. You can get your dick sucked somewhere else for once.”
“You know, Mel, I really appreciate your help on the legal front, but you’re still a total cunt.”
Brian was struggling to keep his anger in check as Mel continued to paint the most unsavory picture of him she could in order to keep Justin away from him. But . . . maybe she was right. Was he really the best candidate to help Justin truly become the man he was meant to be? Could he handle all the emotional baggage that comes with not only sharing your bed with someone, but your life as well? What did he really have to offer a beautiful, talented, unsullied young man like Justin? Maybe Mel was right and he really would revert to character and do something crass or hateful or insensitive - something that would hurt Justin? He’d only had one short week of experiencing this thing with the boy, right? And all that was while they were under very special circumstances - away from his usual life, his usual haunts, as well as the pressures of his job, his family and his friends. What’s to say he wouldn’t screw things up with Sunshine now that they were back in Pittsburgh?
While Brian was struggling with his self-doubts, Mel finally wound down on her anti-Brian diatribe, leaving both herself and Brian staring at Justin. Mel had set forth all the logical arguments why nobody should trust someone like Brian. Brian wasn’t sure she wasn’t right, but he still hoped, deep inside, that his Sunshine wouldn’t believe the worst of him . . . even when he sometimes did himself. They both knew, however, that the choice would ultimately be Justin’s to make. They’d each had their say, and now it was up to the boy to decide who he believed. Who he believed IN. Both Mel and Brian fell silent as they stared the youth down, trying to will him to make the decision that they each wanted him to take.
Justin looked back at the two antagonists, his expression clearly showing anger but giving nothing away as to what he planned to do.
“Well, Sunshine. The choice is yours. Tick, tick, tick.”
