Freak

by Alicia Masterson

  "Yawn, hello, who is this?" Abigail asked, barely awake enough to realize that she was in fact; awake.

  'Who the hell sleeps at eight in the evening…' Christine asked herself, before responding to the waiting girl. "Hey, Abigail, this is Christine O'Hara. You haven't happened to see Brian anywhere today, have you? We were hanging out today, and he kind of just vanished, I figured he might have gone to your place."

  Abigail perked up at this news, suddenly slightly jealous that Brian didn't mention that he already had plans with Christine all day. "No, he actually called this morning, he invited me to some dinner at his house, but I declined. As I'm sure he told you, I'm grounded for the rest of this weekend, so I took the chance to catch up on some sleep. I'm sorry I couldn't be more of a help. Not much I can do though."

  "Oh… well thanks any-" Christine said, before she heard the other line hang up. "What a bitch! Why does Brian like her anyway?"

  Brian's mother raised her eyebrow at her, but shrugged it off, more concerned about finding her son. She didn't know who else to call though, they didn't have much family in the area, Brian didn't have many close friends, and he was only gone a few hours, so the police was far out of the question.

  The last people that Christine could think of were Dallas and James, but neither of them knew about where he was. They both said that the last time they saw him was when he went upstairs with Abigail at Corey's party.

  'Corey… but that makes no sense. Why would he go there?'

  Her thoughts remained unanswered though, as she could only reach the machine. Defeated, she called Brian one last time, and left a message.

  "Where are you? Everyone's so worried. Call me back as soon as you get this. I'm not angry; I just want to know if you're okay. Please call me back…"

  Brian waited patiently for the two women to slump in the office chairs in utter defeat before he tried to lighten the mood. He knew that Brian was at least currently perfectly okay, and there was no use for them to be beating themselves up all night.

  "Hey, Christine, what was it that I said last time something like this happened? Brian's a big boy; he can take care of himself better than you think. I was totally correct that time, and I'm sure I am this time too. Wherever he is, whatever he's doing," Brian paused, erasing the mental images resulting from his previous statement, "he can handle himself. I'm starving, and there's sirloin steak getting cold in the dining room."

  Before Christine had the opportunity to tell him off for being insensitive, Brian's mother spoke.

  "He's right, Christine. Don't yell at him. We just have to have faith that Brian can handle himself if he needs to. We have no idea where he is, all we can do is have faith. Tonight is about you three as much as it is about Brian. Eat, eat, my husband and I will give you your privacy. I guess it's safe to assume that Lee already started. He's a simple one, that Lee."

  --

  Brian's eyes cracked open slightly, his vision fuzzy from sleep. A wave of déjà vu hit him, and then he quickly realized that it wasn't just a feeling. This was virtually the same way he woke up last time. He was too tired to care though, choosing to snuggle backwards into the warm naked mass that conformed itself to his body. Remnants of the euphoria from their actions that night cushioned his thoughts, pushing away all of his apprehension and confusion. He was warm, sexually satiated, and exhausted, thus he began to dip into unconsciousness again, until his stomach rumbled.

  Everything rushed back in a flood too painful for him to bear. He burst from the embrace, waking up Corey in the process. Still disoriented, Corey grinned as the first thing he saw was a very naked Brian rummaging through his pile of clothes in the dim light of his bedroom.

  "What're you looking for?" He asked lazily, amusement keeping him awake.

  "The dinner… the dinner, how the fuck could I have forgotten. It's all my fault, I shouldn't have come, no, I shouldn't have stayed, it's all my fault, why am I so stupid. Here it is!"

  Brian's ramblings ceased when he found his cell phone, and he used it to figure out the time. It was dark outside, but it was winter, so there was a chance he wasn't too late.

  "Midnight…" Brian sighed, knowing that he failed his friends and family yet again. "Ten missed calls too? One from my mom, nine from Christine…"

  He listened to the voice mail that she left behind, and his heart gave in. There was no rage or malice in that voice; it was pure concern and fear for his safety. He couldn't blame Corey at all, it was his decision to stay, and this is what happened. There was no excuse for what happened. Brian proved to himself that he didn't deserve his friends, but apparently he did deserve the love of the school… and the love of his captain. One thing was for sure, his friends and family didn't deserve him.

  He only desired to return to the obliviousness of sleep, so he returned to Corey's waiting embrace, tears on the verge of forming. Corey observed his breakdown, and attempted to clear Brian's mind the best way he knew how. He placed a single caressing palm on his chest, and another around Brian's head, turning it so that his ear was next to his mouth.

  "I took your virginity tonight, Brian," he whispered. "I've never been fucked before… isn't it only fair that you take mine too?"

  His mind in shambles, and his heart stricken with remorse, Brian could only reason with his body at that point. And at that point, his body took very kindly to Corey's offer.

  With that, Corey wrapped his legs around Brian's, placing his head over his shoulder and fell fast asleep. It didn't take long for Brian to fall asleep, his guilt eroded completely away with the part of him that died, replaced by something that filled him with confidence. Everything would work out. He knew it from the bottom of his heart.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

  Corey unconsciously untangled himself from Brian's sleeping embrace to turn off his annoying alarm clock. He yawned, getting up and stretching his arms wide, bashfulness a waste of time by this point. Corey felt truly satisfied for what felt like the first time in his life, and he wanted to cling to this feeling for as long as he could.

  'Shower time, I guess,' he said to himself, walking to the bathroom connected to his room. As he was about to close the door, he slapped himself in the head, eying the still sleeping Brian in his bed. Why take a shower alone?

  He walked over to the bed, shaking him gently at first, and then shaking him harder when he didn't react. All his shaking accomplished though was an irritated arm slapping half heartedly in his direction.

  "Brian, wake up! It's Monday morning."

  "Mm… five more minutes Mom, I swear."

  Corey, despite being amused by his disorientation, really wanted to get them in the shower as quickly as possible. After thinking for a moment, he decided to go with a failsafe method. He climbed on the bed behind Brian and cupped his hand on Brian's ass, blowing warm air onto his ear.

  "Are you isure/i you don't want to wake up and take a shower with me?"

  Brian's eyes flew open, suddenly aware of his surroundings. He sat up, looking at Corey, processing what he just said, and looking towards the bathroom. Corey waited for his response by playing with the cheek that was currently sitting on his hand, eventually squeezing it hard to let Brian know that it was there.

  "Oh, whoops, sorry about that," Brian said, getting off of Corey's hand, and standing up in the process, waiting for Corey to lead the way.

  "I didn't mind. Let's go," he said, walking seductively to the bathroom, turning around at the door to flash Brian a suggestive smile before entering to turn on the water. Brian gladly followed, glancing at a clock in the room.

  'Plenty of time,' he thought to himself.

  !!CENSORED!!

  "I promise, I'll get checked out soon. I definitely don't need my harem anymore, I'd be surprised if I could keep iyou/i satisfied!" Corey teased, knowing that he was lying. He'd have to keep himself in check, he might get seriously addicted to sex with Brian. This was the first time he'd ever wanted a relationship to be a
nything more than sex, and Corey would be damned if he screwed it up.

  Brian actually started noticing the hot water running down the both of them, and laughed. "We should probably take a shower now. Want to help?"

  "I'd love to," Corey said, laughing along with him.

  --

  After an extended and unnecessarily meticulous shower, Brian and Corey finally emerged from the steam filled room, dried off, shaven, and with brushed teeth. They didn't waste time with bashfulness, knowing that no one else was in the house.

  "Oh, geez, we took a long time. Why'd you set your alarm so early, anyway? Did you expect this to happen?" Brian raised his eyebrows accusingly.

  "No, I actually wake up around this time every day. I usually jog in the morning, and I like to cook something decent for breakfast before school."

  "Wow, you're diligent."

  "Well, we all can't be as naturally… gifted as you," Corey said, looking down at Brian's flaccid length, letting his double entendre sink in.

  "You're not too bad yourself. But you're going to have to teach me how to deep throat. You made it seem so easy."

  Corey's eyes went down again. 'Why does he make me feel so ashamed of myself?'

  "I've had more than my fair share of practice."

  Brian raised his eyebrow again, noticing his embarrassed expression. That was unusual for Corey, who was famous and lauded in school for his activity. He opted to leave the issue alone, just in case it was sore. Speaking of sore…

  "Corey, are you ilimping/i?" Brian said, concerned that he hurt him last night.

  "Don't worry about it. Like I said, you're pretty naturally gifted. I tried to be as careful with you last night as I could be. How are you holding up?"

  "A little sore, but nothing an Advil can't fix. What am I going to do about clothes?"

  "Follow me. My brother's around your size, I'm sure he's got something for you to wear," Corey replied, beckoning for him to follow him out of his room, despite their nudity.

  "iAround my size/i?" Brian joked, "How would you know?"

  "Ha ha, how original. If you're going to be like that though, no, he's nothing special. Let's just say that Adam got the short end of the stick," Corey grinned.

  Corey fished around the closet, pulling out a colorful print button down shirt and some designer jeans. He moved to dresser, and started to open random drawers, until he found the one containing his brother's underwear. Apprehensively, he searched through this drawer until he found a pair of black silk boxers.

  "He enjoys his fashionable clothing. Try those on."

  "He doesn't stay here often? This room's not even as close to as nice as yours," Brian quipped, noting the pretty drab décor.

  "Na, I thought you knew. I'm the only one who lives here. Adam's in college, and Corey, the eldest, is training to be the heir of Towers Pharmaceuticals. My parents are constantly out; at least my brothers visit every once in a while," Corey said bitterly.

  "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

  "It's really not that big of a deal. We've got people to take care of the house, and I'm never exactly short on people for company."

  Brian nodded solemnly, knowing what Corey meant by 'company.' He briefly thought that there was a possibility that he was just being used to fill the void too, but he shrugged it off. It's not like it mattered anyway. It's was just sex, and they were just friends.

  Clothes in his arm, Brian followed him back to his room so that Corey could find something to wear too. Corey took advantage of the awkward silence from Brian's last question to ask one of his own.

  "So… what happened that got you so upset last night? You don't have to answer if it's a personal matter."

  Brian looked up from putting on his clothes, his eyes blank as the question processed in his head. He didn't feel panic this time though. He had a feeling that somehow things would work out. Corey's head poked out of his walk-in closet to meet Brian's eyes, unsurprised to see Brian lost in his thoughts.

  He felt obligated to share his dilemma back; not just because Corey told him about living alone, either. It was a strange feeling. 'What we shared physically… it's only fair that we shared emotionally too. I don't know what I'm feeling, it's not attraction, but I can't help but think that we're a lot more than just friends now…' he thought. He didn't know for sure what lied between friends and… boyfriends, but he didn't feel awkward about what they had, so he stopped his thoughts, and decided to just go with the flow.

  "After you guaranteed my placement as captain, I told my parents. Of course they were happy for me, and my mom was going to throw a celebratory dinner, and she asked me to invite my friends. I was so happy yesterday; it was the first time since the football season started that I could spend an entire day with them…"

  A small confession snowballed into Brian spilling out his bottled up thoughts. Corey joined Brian on the side of his bed, a friendly arm around his shoulder to show his support. Brian told him what happened at the party, with the girls in the pool, with Abigail afterwards. He finally let out his guilt for just having cheated on the girl he tried so hard to get, his guilt for abandoning his friends, and his guilt that no one knew where he was right now. Finally, he told him that felt guiltiest about the fact that despite all of his mistakes, he had no intention of telling them the truth even now.

  "I'm not strong enough too. Maybe some time later in my life, but I don't think I can tell them why I left; why I disappeared."

  Corey nodded, letting Brian's words sink in. His story clarified that Brian actually did keep his word, which surprised him. He always had the assumption that Brian had a thing for that girl that he and Brian were always around. Truth be told, he couldn't have been angry at him for breaking his promise, especially since the information would have saved a lot of people some sanity, including Brian's right now. For the first time in a long time, Corey Towers felt guilt of his own.

  'It wasn't a mistake to quit them... that was my old life, and they were my old friends. I can't believe he still kept his promise though…' Corey thought. He quickly stopped though, to avoid concerning Brian any further. He had his own life to deal with for the moment, and Corey felt obligated to help him, since most of it was his fault. 'It's not just obligation though… I really want to help. Does he feel the same connection too?'

  "Brian, you can't please everyone," he said, filling his voice with resolution that he didn't entirely have. "Your friends, your family, the school… me. Something has to give. Have you given any thought about what iyou/i want?"

  "That's the problem, I wanted it all. To be the perfect son, to keep my closest friends, and being the school's hero is starting to grow on me too. And now… I want you too."

  Corey was surprised how elated Brian's last statement made him. "We can finish this talk later I guess. We're cutting it pretty close on time. Are you taking your car?"

  Brian nodded, the gravity of his last words hitting him. 'I wasn't lying, I want him so badly now, I can hardly think straight. But… I don't know, I'm not attracted to him ilike that/i, but I kind of am. I can't tell him any of this though, I might scare him away. I need his support right now. If he leaves, I might not have iany/i friends left.'

  --

  Brian tried his best to keep his mind clear while driving to school, but he found it difficult to block out the deluge of thoughts. Thoughts of Corey, Christine, his other friends, Abigail, the school, football. So many thoughts traversed through his mind that by the time he pulled into his parking spot, Brian was beginning to experience a dull headache. The headache didn't improve when he opened his door, either.

  Not a second after his door cracked open was he bombarded with a roar of greetings and shouts. A cacophony of "Hey!" "Brian, over here!" "What's up!" and "Congratulations!" drowned out his previous thoughts. Scanning the crowd, Brian frowned, seeing the truth of Corey's words. His eyes eventually land on Abigail, who was in the process of working her way through the fawning people.

  Seeing that Brian was too
busy trying to return all of the greetings he was receiving, Abigail forced her way through, and promptly kissed him softly on the lips, placing an arm around his waist, and turning to the rest of the people.

  "Move along, give the guy some room. He'll be here all year." She glared menacingly at certain individual people who wouldn't leave, driving her message home. "Hey, cutie, sorry about that, how are you? I love what you're wearing, did you just buy these?"

  She watched him looking off into space, at the dissipating crowd, and waited patiently. He just wasn't used to the attention yet, but he would in time. She secretly wondered if his thoughts had anything to do with the annoying call she got from Christine she received the night before, but she pushed it out of her mind.

  Brian stared momentarily at Abigail, before gazing off into nowhere. 'Corey was right… there are too many people to please. I can't be more than one person at once. I'm so tired of hurting my friends, if I even have any left.' He pulled out his phone, going through his missed calls, the sheer number of them reinforcing his thoughts. 'I haven't even called any of them back yet, they must be so worried. I don't deserve them, and it's too late to apologize, there's no point, I'll just screw up again eventually.'

  He shook his head. 'No, ithey/i don't deserve someone like me. But the school, it does. The students need someone to be their figurehead, and I'm not going to let them down. My old friends and family don't deserve a backstabber like me. I'm the flaw. It'll hurt them now, but they'll be better off without me. I'm not going to screw up this time.'

  "I know what I have to do," he told Abigail cryptically. She looked at him inquisitively, but nodded, knowing that something resolved itself in his head. With her hand interlocked with his, she followed at he headed to Corey's parking spot.

  Brian's resolution was starting to clear his head, his strange confidence from the night before returning to him. He saw the pair before they called, and he waved to them, welcoming the fate decided for him.