JUSTIN

Blake sat on my couch and didn’t say much after the whole run in with Michael. I started drawing, trying to think of something to say.

“You still love Ted?” I ask.

“I sometimes wish I didn’t. When I met him I was really messed up, and it wasn’t exactly love, just someone to mess around with. He and I never really had a ‘normal relationship’, it’s been up and down for years.” He tells me.

“What makes him the person you thought you could love?” I ask him.

“When it’s just Ted and me, everything is great. It’s just, when Michael comes around, it’s almost like Ted wishes I was more like Michael.” He tells me.

“Why would he want you to be anything like Michael?” I ask him.

“When Michael’s around people he likes, he puts off this vibe like he’s a wonderful man who only looks out for his friends. If you aren’t a friend, he lets you know, but does it in a way that makes it look like you're the one who’s being unreasonable, not him.” Blake tells me.

“Like what? I’ve only seen someone who honestly seems like he has ‘little man’ issues.” I tell him.

“Lindsay could probably tell you a lot more than I can, but it’s like when we were all going out together, he would always act like I was included, but then cut off any conversation I was having, either with Ted or especially with Brian. See, Brian was really the leader of the group, but Brian didn’t dictate who any of them could date or talk to, but when Brian wasn’t there, it was like Michael decided he was the leader.” He tells me.

“Michael used that he was Brian Kinney’s best friend to control the group?” I ask.

“And it works, because for the longest time, if anyone hurt Michael they dealt with Brian. After Michael married Ben, Brian seemed to back off being the protector. Which meant no one to stop Michael from being the asshole he is, because Ben is so blinded by love that he won’t do the one thing Brian did, and tell Michael to shut up.” Blake tells me.

“Because Ben’s whipped, not blinded.” I tell him.

“It just got to be more than I could handle. I’d cleaned myself up, but I’ve always felt like I was lucky that Ted still wanted me after all the shit I put him through, and maybe it’s why I never defended myself when Ted wanted to know why I didn’t treat Michael nicer.” He tells me.

“Right now I can’t see why you even want someone who seems to put that asshole first.” I tell him.

“Ted’s not normally like this. He’s normally a sweet man who likes simple things. I think that when he went to work for Brian, Michael got jealous that Brian and Ted were spending more time together than Brian spent with Michael. I don’t think it’s really me that Michael had a problem with, but that Ted’s relationship with Brian was changing. Emmett’s been showing up at my office lately and he’s recently had the rose colored glasses smashed by Michael.” He tells me.

“They both rub me the wrong way, not as bad as Michael, but they don’t make me want anything to do with them.” I tell him.

“I can’t say much to defend them, since they aren’t the people I thought they were.” He tells me.

“Mel told me that Emmett wanted to talk to me, but I just don’t see the point if they already made up their minds about me.” I tell him.

“Hi, can I come in?” A redheaded lady asks me.

“Deb, if you're here to give Justin a hard time, Brian will not appreciate it.” Blake tells her, and mouths ‘Michael’s mom’ to me.

“No, I wanted to meet Justin, but not because of anything my son said. I also want to talk to you and find out if and how I can help Ted get the man he loves back.” She tells Blake, and I see Lindsay behind her, looking at Deb as if she’d pounce on Deb.

“Lindsay, I might defend Michael too much, but not in this.” She tells her.

“It’s fine Lindsay.” I tell her.

“I think I’d like to hear this change of heart, since Mel and I were constantly to blame when Michael was accusing us of things the way he seems to accuse Justin of something he wasn’t doing.” Lindsay tells her.

“I feel like I have a lot to apologize for lately.” She tells us. 

“If you'd actually talk to everyone before believing Michael, you wouldn't need to apologize.” Lindsay tells her. 

“I don’t need an apology from you.” I tell her. 

“Because I haven't made a fool of myself to you?” She asks. 

“Deb, you never did anything to me either. I just always felt like you didn’t really want me around. You never said anything, it's just the way I felt.” Blake tells her.

“I wish Mel and I could say the same.” Lindsay tells her.

“Which is more my fault then Michael’s, it felt like you didn’t want me around Gus.” She tells Lindsay.

“It was never that we didn’t want you around Gus, it's that you tend to make us feel like we couldn’t do anything right when it came to Gus.” She tells Deb.

“I'm a busy body, it comes from having to raise Michael on my own. I would love to spend time with Gus, just tell me when I'm being overbearing. I'll try to rein it in.” She tells Lindsay.

“I need to get to work, but Deb, we'll talk later.” Lindsay tells her.

“I was supposed to be just getting coffee, so I have to go too.” Blake tells us, following Lindsay from the room.

“I promise to behave, if you're willing to talk to me.” Deb tells me. 

“I'm just not sure what you want to talk about.” I tell her. 

“Other than my idiot son, there's Ted and Emmett. I heard you were having a hard time with them.” She tells me. 

“They seem to have decided I'm a man stealing asshole, just don’t see how I could be friends with people who didn't even give me a chance.” I tell her. 

“I could give you my opinion on what those two are really like, maybe it would help.” She tells me. 

“Why would you want me to like them?” I ask. 

“Because they're misguided, not assholes.” She tells me. 

“It's how Blake and Lindsay seem to see them too. All I've seen is that they want me out of Brian’s life.” I tell her. 

“If it were Michael you were saying that about, you'd be right. In their minds you hurt Michael, and in the past, if you did Brian would have been in your face. Now they’re dealing with a Michael that doesn't have Brian telling him he's wrong. It's like they took on Brian’s role but forgot they aren’t the man Brian is.” She tells me. 

“I don’t understand how, for example, Ted let someone cause him to lose Blake, when he seems to love Blake.” I tell her. 

“Are you worried that it could happen to you and Brian?” She asks. 

“No. I wouldn't let what someone else thinks matter. Brian already told me that if I want to know something, ask him, not look to anyone else for answers. Which is what I see happened to Ted and Blake.” I tell her. 

“You don't blame Michael?” She asks.

“I’m sure he didn’t help by treating Blake like crap, but Ted didn’t have to stand by and make Blake deal with it alone. He could have asked Blake why he didn’t like Michael and listened, instead of acting like Blake was wrong. That’s really just my opinion on what I’ve seen so far, because instead of running after Blake today, he just stood there dumbfounded to find out that Michael was trying to set him up with some guy, who apparently thought he was being set up with Brian.” I tell her.

“It’s like I find out something new every hour. Justin, Ben had to admit to me and Carl that he helped make Michael think that you were interested in him, and I’m not saying that to excuse my son, but so you understand where the whole fiasco started from. I’m not sure what Ben was thinking, to subject someone to the things you probably had to deal with.” She tells me.

“I couldn’t tell you either, since the only time I saw Professor Bruckner outside of class was to hand in assignments when he told us we had to bring them to his office.” I tell her.

“I just came to let you know that I would love to meet and get to know the man that Brian loves.” She tells me.

“We’ve only known each other a few weeks, I won’t say we were in love yet, but possibly.” I tell her.

“The fact you can say possibly, is really big for Brian. Just don’t let anyone get between you.” She tells me getting up and hugging me.

“I never do.” I tell her.

BRIAN

“Brian, you deal with him, or I’m going to make it so you never have a decent cup of coffee.” Cynthia tells me, standing in front of my desk.

“Since you’ve never gotten my coffee, you’ll have to do better than that.” I tell her, when I see Michael pacing outside my office.

“He said that he’d chain himself to my desk. Why mine and not yours or Ted’s? You two are the ones that make me question your intelligence for staying friends with Michael past puberty, so he should be pissing you off, not me.” She tells me.

“Let him in.” I tell her signing dramatically.

“Not going to get me to feel sorry for you.” She tells me, opening the door and waving Michael in.

“Finally. What did you have to do, tell Brian all the wonderful things you think about me?” He asks her smiling.

“Yeah, there were just so many things that I felt Brian didn’t know about my undying love for your many, many phone calls.” Cynthia tells him rolling her eyes as she walks away.

“You should tell her that her jokes don’t come off as friendly.” Michael tells me, sitting on the couch.

“I don't have to tell Cynthia anything, she understands how I want her to behave.” I tell him, staying at my desk.

“We need to talk about this guy who thinks he can talk to me like I don’t mean anything to you.” Michael tells me. 

“Nothing to talk about, Justin can say and do as he pleases.” I tell him.

“Brian, he accosted me at a coffee shop and acted like I was wrong to want him to stay away from Ben. He can’t seem to leave Ben alone, do you really want someone who would cheat on you if Ben would give him the time of day?” Michael asks me.

“No. I wouldn’t want anyone who would give Ben the time of day.” I tell him.

“Good, then I’ll go explain to Justin that he needs to leave you alone.” He tells me, getting up to leave.

“I didn’t say anything about Justin, because Justin wouldn’t give Ben the time of day. Take Ben’s class to meet a requirement to graduate, he did. Hit on Ben, he didn’t.” I tell him, as he opens the door and closes it again.

“Brian, I found them together in Ben’s office.” He tells me.

“Doing what? From what I was told, Ben was looking over Justin’s assignment.” I tell him.

“You didn’t see the looks Justin was giving Ben.” He tells me.

“But you did, from the door. Wouldn’t that be the back of Justin’s head you were seeing?” I ask.

“It was his body language.” Michael tells me.

“You can judge body language? Then tell me what mine is saying to you. I’ll give you a hint, it’s ‘GET THE FUCK OUT’. You know what else it’s saying, it’s saying that if you cause one ounce of stress for Justin, not to call me, because what’s left of our friendship will be over.” I tell him as Ted comes in the door and almost hits Michael with it.

“Watch out Ted, you almost hit me with the door.” Michael tells him.

“Damn, I missed, I won’t next time. Brian we have a conference call to take.” Ted tells me.

“Brian, we’ll talk about this later. And Ted, he’s gone, deal with it.” Michael tells him, trying to pass him.

“He’s gone for now, but since I finally figured out why, I have hope to get Blake back. Then you want to know what I’m going to do Michael?” Ted asks him.

“Worry about when Blake meets some other, older, richer guy?” Michael asks him.

“No. Make new friends, so he and I can be happy.” Ted tells him.

“I can’t help that he couldn’t take a joke.” Michael tells him.

“Michael.” I call him. “Blake loves jokes and kidding around, what he doesn’t love is having to deal with your issues that Ted didn’t love you best anymore.” I tell him.

“So now you read minds?” Michael asks me.

“It was much easier, I asked my friend Blake.” I tell him.

Michael waited like there had to be a punchline, when I didn’t say anything more he frowned and started to open is mouth.

“Don’t right now. I’m trying to decide if you mean anything at all to me. You say one word right now about Blake or Justin, and you won’t.” I tell him.

Ted and I watch as Michael walks out of the office and out Kinnetik’s front door.

“What conference call?” I ask Ted, seeing no lines flashing on my phone

“I can go and call from my office to yours if you need me to.” Ted tells me, smiling