Credence
 

Chapter One: “Burning”

 

 “The world is burning in the fire of desire, in greed, arrogance and excessive ego.” - Sri Guru Granth Sahib

*****

March

Brian hated being stood up for lunch. Sure, it was just Michael and it was just the diner, but it pissed him off all the same. Brian didn’t appreciate that, instead of eating at Mallorca, his favorite Spanish restaurant, he’d been a decent best friend, remembered how Michael would stink up the place if he ate anything too spicy, crossed out Mallorca and penciled the diner in.

At this point, Brian couldn’t count on both hands the number of potential tricks he could’ve had while he had been waiting for his ‘best friend’ to show. Brian had actually restrained himself and stayed in his seat, sipping coffee and ignoring them. Sure, he allowed a few guys to slip their numbers or cards into his hand as they passed his booth; Brian was a nice guy and hated disappointing people. Yeah, that was his reasoning, all right.

“Tell the nutty Professor I said congratulations. Only next time he gets down on one bended knee with a surprise in his hand, ask him to…”

“Goodbye, Brian.”

“Mikey... wait! Are we still on for Babylon tonight or will you be practicing the art of Zen?” Brian waited and heard nothing in return. Dead air. Not only had Michael abandoned him to suck, fuck, and accept a pretty, little ring on his finger, but also he had actually hung up on him! Mikey had called to ditch him while Ben was sucking his cock; it wasn’t even as if Ben was fucking him.

Brian was the type of person who could do two things at once. Many times, he’d spoken to Michael on the phone while receiving a blowjob, or fucking a trick, he didn’t even break pace! His best pal could have extended the same fucking courtesy to him, couldn’t he? Especially because he’d fucking tossed Brian aside without a thought the moment his Superman promised to fly him anywhere he wanted to go for their honeymoon.

All right, so Brian didn’t actually give a shit about eating alone, but that wasn’t the point. He’d given up perfectly good reservations because Michael had issues with Spanish food. Brian made sacrifices for his friends but where had that gotten him?

Brian’s egotistical introspection ended when a young blond kid charged into the diner at a breakneck pace. Obviously running late, his longish hair plastered around his neck, wet and uncombed. According to Brian, there was only one reason to be late for anything. Sex. He stared intently at the young man. The blond’s pouty lips drew in rapid breaths as he rushed toward the bathroom, tying his apron around his waist and not sparing a glance for Brian. After diner boy was out of sight, Brian’s eyes remained locked on the door the deliciously pert ass had disappeared behind, silently praying it would soon reappear.

He hadn’t seen the kid around here before and wondered when Debbie had hired him. Right on cue Deb walked out of the back looking around the diner, frowning and then checking her watch.

“Looking for the blond?” Brian called to Debbie.

Debbie walked over to Brian and put her hand on her hip. “You seen him?” she asked, smacking her gum.

“He’s in the bathroom.”

“Ah. Good.” Debbie’s face lit up. “I was wondering if he’d show up or not.”

“Why’s that?” Brian asked in a bored tone.

“He started last Friday and every shift I’ve given him since has been extremely busy. Yesterday he even took a double; by the time he left he looked ready to drop.”

“He’s young, I’m sure he can handle it.”

“It’s not just that,” Deb said. “The kid’s too smart to be working at a diner if ya ask me. His SAT score was 1500. When I saw that on his application, I figured I’d be crazy not to call him in for an interview.”

Brian thought it was hilarious that the kid had put his SAT score on an application for the diner, however that was quite impressive. “Really, a 1500?”

“Yeah, he’s got a bright mind, that kid, and he’s an artist to boot. Goes to a fine arts school.”

“So he’s multi-talented,” Brian laughed.

Debbie smacked Brian on the top of the head with her order pad. “You stay away from him, Brian. He’s too innocent for you.”

Brian rolled his eyes at her, doubting that the blond was innocent. “Are you ever gonna take my order?”

“I thought Michael was meeting you for lunch, asshole.”

Brian refrained from telling Mikey’s ‘big news’. Not only was it not his news to tell, but he also wasn’t in the mood to get his eardrums blown out by the shriek of happiness he was sure Debbie would emit if he told her the real reason he’d been ditched. “He’s working through lunch,” he said. Fucking was a form of work, wasn’t it? Well, for those people that it didn’t come naturally to.

“Then you’ll have to drop him by some lunch,” Debbie insisted.

“Ben’s bringing him lunch.” Some sort of lunch.

Brian hadn’t seen the blond exit the bathroom but he was suddenly standing behind Debbie. He nodded to Deb and she turned on her heel to face the kid.

“Sunshine! You decided to come back.”

Justin looked much more presentable now. He’d combed his hair, had it tucked behind his ears a bit, and he’d perfectly tied his apron around his waist.

“Of course,” Justin replied, smiling.

“Well, we haven’t been too busy today so things shouldn’t be as crazy as this last week.”

Debbie handed over her pad of paper. “Why don’t you take his order while I take a break?”

“Sure.” Justin’s eyes finally took in the man at the booth. There was something so alluring about him. Justin’s dick hardened quicker than watching the dirtiest porn had ever made him. “What can I get you?” He thanked God that his voice remained even.

A smile slowly formed on Brian’s lips as he appraised the blond closer. He was beautiful. Brian didn’t usually use that word to describe anything, and definitely not men, men he wanted to fuck, but the blond owned that word. “I’ll have the special, no mayo.”

Justin scribbled the order down, grateful for an excuse to look away from the intense stare for a moment. “What to drink?” he asked without looking up.

Brian held up the glass of water Debbie had brought him when he’d first arrived. “I’ll just have water.”

Justin gave Brian a quick smile. “Okay, I’ll go put that in.” He looked around the diner and only counted three other customers. “It shouldn’t take too long.”

“Okay.” Brian really didn’t give a shit how long it took for him to get his grilled turkey sandwich as long as he got to stare at the fabulous ass walking away from him while he waited.

He decided that maybe it wasn’t so bad that Michael had ditched him.
 

~~~~~~~~~~

Justin took two orders and bussed three tables before the cook hit the bell, indicating that the gorgeous brunet’s order was up. Debbie had returned from her break just as he grabbed the plate from the window.

“Don’t let him give you no trouble, Sunshine,” she said.

“Ah… okay?” Justin didn’t think the man looked like trouble.

“He’s one of my boys,” Debbie elaborated.

Debbie had introduced Justin to her son Michael, his boyfriend and friends on his first day. The man had been polite, as was his partner and the two other men with them, but he’d forgotten their names. Justin took her words to heart and cautiously made his way over to the man’s table. “Here you are.”

Brian looked at the plate before him and then held Justin’s eyes. “Delicious.”

“Enjoy,” Justin said, quickly turning to take the order of the patrons in the booth behind the gorgeous brunet.

Brian picked up his sandwich, bit into it and nearly choked on the mustard that filled his mouth. It dripped all over his plate as he coughed and threw it down, causing it to land half on the plate and half on the table. “What the fuck?” he grumbled, taking the top piece of bread off to examine the monstrosity of a sandwich drowning in mustard.

Justin had finished taking the women’s orders seated in the booth behind Brian and turned back to him to address his griping. “Something wrong with your sandwich?”

Brian took a bunch of napkins from the dispenser on the table and regarded Justin with an annoyed expression. “‘No mayo’ doesn’t mean that I want a pound of fucking mustard to take its place.”

Justin watched as the man wiped the copious amounts of yellow off the turkey. It was a messy job and he felt for the man. “Do you want me to ask the cook to remake your sandwich?”

“No,” Brian bitched, flinging the soggy napkins onto the tabletop, “just do something about these.”

“Sure.” Justin gathered and piled the napkins in his hands. “I’m really sorry about…” Sudden heat spread like wildfire from his hands to his throat. Justin knew what was coming next and there was no time to stop it or ask for help. His throat tightened the same moment he dropped the napkins from his burning hands, which were swelling and blistering before his eyes. “Shit!” he garbled out, grabbing at his throat and trying to pull in breaths.

Brian wasn’t sure what the fuck was going on and by the time he recovered enough to ask, Debbie was beside Justin, holding onto Justin’s arm and sitting him down in the seat across from him. “It’s okay, Sunshine, slow breaths, kiddo.”

“What the fuck is going on?” Brian asked, leaping from the booth. The kid was gasping for air and turning blue before their eyes.

“Under the register, Brian! On the shelf, black case, it’s his EpiPen.”

Customers and employees had begun to notice the commotion and inadvertently got in the way of Brian, forcing him to hop the bar. He found the case in seconds and was back on the other side a moment later, yelling at the nosey crowd, “Back the fuck up! Can’t you see he needs some air?”

Justin started to feel himself blacking out, he could hardly see straight and his body felt like it’d spiked a hundred degrees. Pain radiated from his hands, wrists, and neck. He tried his hardest to stay calm and breathe, but he couldn’t pull enough air into his lungs. Debbie held him, brushing the hair from his sweating face as his body violently shook. Everything went in slow motion; sounds were either ear piercing or not there at all. Tears clouded what vision he had left and he barely made out Brian kneeling in front of him.

“Where does it go?” Brian asked, taking the gray safety cap off.

“In his thigh,” Debbie instructed, “just go through his jeans.”

Brian’s hand shook from the adrenaline coursing through his body but he managed to inject the shot into the kid’s thigh.

Justin jumped as he felt the thick needle enter him. He was still feeling his anaphylactic reaction but just knowing that he had the epinephrine in his body calmed him considerably.

“Wait ten seconds before you remove it.” Debbie advised. She then looked toward one of the other waitresses. “What’s everyone looking at us for?” She cocked her head at a patron. “Call 911!”
 

~~~~~~~~~~

He’d nearly died, dying hair. It sounded funny to Justin whenever he thought about it. He’d almost died dying Daphne’s hair! It was so completely silly and would be completely unbelievable if he wasn't one of the most unlucky people to exist on the planet.

He hadn’t even put any of the dye on Daphne’s hair when the reaction began. Justin had still been in the process of mixing the cream that promised to make Daphne’s hair shine with highlights. It was a few days before they started high school and Daphne had wanted a ‘completely new look’ for her freshman year. Justin ended up missing the first two weeks of school; he spent them in the hospital, his arm receiving IV fluids and epinephrine while doctors closely monitored him for further reaction.

The worst thing for Justin was the 143 different needle pricks he had to endure to test what other allergies he had developed since the codeine reaction he’d had when he was eight. It was almost a good thing he’d had the reaction while dying Daphne’s hair because he apparently had developed an allergy to 13 new things, which brought his count to 21. Luckily, in the almost eight years since the incident, regular allergy tests hadn’t turned up anything new, but what he was allergic to made his life difficult enough.

Now, there was one more thing to add to the list.

But that wasn’t the end of it, oh no. Now his hands were itching from the bandages that wound up to his elbows. It made him nauseous to look at his fingernails because his fingers were so swollen, the nails looked tiny in comparison. That was how his body felt barely compared to his mind. He was totally fucked for money now, there was no way he was going to be able to work for a while, and school… he didn’t even want to think about how far behind he’d be in his final projects. This couldn’t have happened at a worse time.

The number Justin had given Debbie at the diner for his emergency contacts had been his mother’s cell phone, which didn’t work out of the country. So he’d rattled off to Brian his sister’s cell number, once he could breathe properly, and they removed the ventilator tube as they reached the hospital. A nurse had held a phone to his ear while he explained to his sister about what happened. Molly was only fourteen, so it wasn’t as though she could do much for him, but she did call their mother’s hotel and leave a message about Justin and which hospital he was at so that she would call him when she got in.

Justin was certain that he was going to ruin her honeymoon but he had no choice. Once she found out he had no one to care for him at home, she would be on the next flight back from Paris. Daphne was gone to Canada for a sorority sister retreat, Molly was under their father’s care while their mother was gone. He couldn’t have been more fucked if he’d planned it himself. This is what being a reclusive artist gets you, he’d thought.

Then he got a call from Debbie, who had somehow found out what room he was in and told him that Brian was waiting at the hospital until she could get up there to see him. Debbie wouldn’t take no for an answer, even though Justin had told her many times that she didn’t have to come. A few days before he’d made the mistake of telling Debbie that his mother was on her honeymoon in Europe, so she wouldn’t accept him being alone without a ‘mother’ when he was hurt. As soon as he got off the phone with her, he asked the nurse to find Brian.
 

~~~~~~~~~~

Brian couldn’t believe that Debbie had guilted him into riding with the kid in the ambulance. He’d found out the kid’s name was Justin Taylor. He was 21 years old and the allergy card the medics found in his wallet said there were 21 allergies listed. Justin would have to get a new card made now.

Brian hadn’t seen the card for himself, but he guessed that most allergic reactions weren’t as painful as the new one Justin would have to deal with from now on. He guessed that the burning rash that spread from the tips of Justin’s fingers to the top of his elbows probably would’ve made Justin scream if he’d been able to breathe when it had happened. All right, so he did feel a little bad for Justin. The kid was an artist and waiter and now he wouldn’t be able to use his hands until the swelling and rash went away. But that still didn’t justify Brian spending his Saturday afternoon at Allegheny General Hospital.

“He’s going to be fine. He just had an allergic reaction and they’ll be watching him for the next hour before sending him home,” he assured Debbie over the pay phone. He never should’ve called her for the second time. She said she’d spoken to Justin, so she probably knew more about his status than he did. He just wanted to make her hurry so he could go home.

“He could’ve died, Brian!” Debbie yelled. “He sounded like shit when I talked to him. His poor mother is in Paris and he doesn’t have anyone to care for him until she returns.”

“And that’s my fault?”

“You and your calorie counting! You just couldn’t leave well-enough alone?”

Brian held the phone away from him, rubbed his ear and positioned the mouthpiece in front of his lips. “Just because I said ‘no-mayo’, it didn’t give the cook free reign to put a gallon of mustard on it,” he defended. “Besides, all your other bus-boys use gloves when they’re cleaning up.”

“I saw you throwing those napkins around like a little baby,” Debbie huffed. “They could’ve waited to be picked up but you just had to be an asshole.”

“Mr. Kinney?”

“Well it’s not my fault. Blame the cook or better yet, blame Justin. He should’ve known better.”

“He should’ve known!” Debbie roared. “Well, I’ll tell you what you…”

“Deb, I’ve got to go, a nurse is calling me.” Brian looked toward the woman in scrubs who was calling his name. “Come as soon as Kiki gets there, I don’t want to be here all day.”

“I already told the kid I’d be there,” Debbie huffed. “I wouldn’t abandon him after what he’s been through. You’d better not act like an asshole to him,” she warned. “The kid was scared shitless. Just think if that were Gus what would you do?”

Brian rolled his eyes. “Bye, Deb. Get here soon because I don’t know how long I’ll be here.” He hung up the phone and walked over to the woman calling his name. “I’m Mr. Kinney. How is he… uh, Justin?”

“Justin is okay. We'll be running some tests and watching him for the next 24 hours, but after that he should be all right to go home.”

Brian had introduced himself on the ride over in the ambulance. It was one of many things he’d rambled about to keep Justin calm on the drive there. The E.M.T.’s had encouraged him to talk and keep Justin occupied while they set him up with an I.V., something that took an extremely long, painful amount of time because of how swollen Justin’s hands and arms were. Justin had acted terrified, he’d even asked Brian to go with him while the staff admitted him but the doctor had been against it and so Brian had waited.

"You can go back and see him," the nurse suggested and pointed. "He's just down that hall. Room 101."

Brian was perfectly fine with staying in the waiting area until Debbie arrived but he did sort of feel guilty. The situation had been a little eency bit his fault. So he nodded at the nurse and turned down the hall she indicated to his right. Once he found the room, he heard Justin's aggravated voice through the cracked door.

"Dr. Lark, I’m telling you, I don't need to have more allergy tests and I don't need to stay overnight. What you guys are going to charge me will be what it costs for me to attend a semester at school. I can’t afford that."

“Mr. Taylor, these aren’t preventative…”

Brian walked in, interrupting the doctor’s words with some of his own, “I’ll be paying the bill. Whatever it is that he needs to have done, do.”

“You’re not paying for this!” Justin gasped, sitting upright. “I don’t even know you.”

“Then why did you tell the nurse to have me come see you?” Brian asked, nonplussed by Justin’s outburst.

“Because I heard you’ve been waiting all this time and I wanted to tell you that you could leave if you needed to.”

Dr. Lark looked confused as he looked back and forth from Brian to Justin and settled his gaze on Brian again. “I appreciate you offering to pay my patient’s hospital bill, but I’ll have to ask you to respect his decision and leave the room.”

Brian definitely wasn’t going to stay where he wasn’t wanted and he hated the whole awkward situation anyway, so he quickly turned to go.

“Wait,” Justin called, “I also wanted to say thanks.”

Brian grunted and turned. “For what?”

“For saving me.” He paused and gave Brian a small smile. “And for offering to pay for my hospital bills.” It was a nice gesture, but Justin wasn’t about to accept it. He could only imagine what Brian Kinney would be expecting from him in return and he definitely wouldn’t be getting it.

“I didn’t save you, the EpiPen did.” Brian took a large breath. “By the way, the offer still stands.”

“I hate to interrupt,” Dr. Lark said sarcastically, “but we’ve got to get started on admitting you. It’s highly possible that you could experience anaphylaxic shock within the next 12 to 24 hours. If you decide to go home against my orders, it is Allegheny General’s policy to not admit you again and we will not prescribe you a replacement EpiPen.”

Justin felt like total complete shit and the doctor’s warnings only pissed him off more. And there was Brian, a man who Debbie had basically warned him to stay away from, yet had sent with him to the hospital, who, in a sense, cared for him. The man Justin had nicknamed ‘gorgeous brunet’ was offering to pay his medical bills, something not even his father had done when he’d called Molly to tell her that he was in the hospital.

He didn’t want the doctor banning him from going to Allegheny if he had another reaction and there was a risk that he might have another if he went home. Sure, he had another EpiPen at home and one in his broken down, piece of shit car, but he knew that there was a chance it wouldn’t work in such a short period of time if he went into shock again. He would have to have a higher dose of epinephrine, which only the hospital could administer to him. Justin had no other choice than to listen to the doctor.

“Fine, I’ll stay overnight, but that doesn’t mean I need him,” Justin gestured to Brian with one of his bandaged hands, “to pay the bill. I’ll figure out something.”

“Your payment can be discussed with financial resources, Mr. Taylor,” the doctor said. “I’m here to treat you, nothing more.” He started to unwrap the bandages on Justin’s left arm, making his patient hiss in pain. “It’s about time we give your skin some air. I’m not sure why the E.R. decided to wrap you up in the first place.”

Justin blinked slowly and tears sprang into his eyes as the bandage pulled at his skin. “Me neither,” he groaned, looking down and away from both Brian and the doctor.

Brian looked on and winced as he saw Justin’s arm and hand completely revealed. It looked much worse than it had in the ambulance. His once creamy pale skin was swollen and had turned a sunburn red color and there was pus oozing from some of the pinprick sized bumps covering his arms. He couldn’t believe that touching a little bit of mustard had caused such a terrible reaction.

“Do you think this is going to leave scars?” Justin asked fearfully.

The doctor tossed the bandages in the waste bin while shaking his head. “I’d say that it all looks like it’s on the top layer of your skin. You might peel as you would with sunburn for the next week or two, but it will heal.”

“It burns,” Justin admitted, “and itches.”

“I’d advise you not to scratch yourself,” Dr. Lark advised. “I’m going to look into getting you something for the pain and itching that you aren’t allergic to, but that will have to wait until after your tests which I’ll get scheduled now. A nurse will come to move you to an overnight room in a few minutes and I’ll meet you there soon.”

Justin sagged back against his pillow. “Okay, thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” Dr. Lark gave Brian a sly grin as he passed him and walked out of the room.

Brian had a strong remorseful feeling creep into his stomach as he looked at Justin lying in the hospital bed. Even if he’d been a drama queen when he’d offered to pay for the hospital bills, Justin was being quite brave. He was a raving asshole whenever he got a tanning bed burn and his skin looked nowhere near as red as Justin’s skin was now. “So… I’m going to go call Debbie and update her.” Brian wanted to tear his hair out when he heard how wobbly his voice was.

Justin sighed, “Oh… okay. Thanks for coming.”

“Yeah. Later.”

“Later,” Justin replied closing his eyes. When he opened them Brian was gone.
 

~~~~~~~~~~

Two hours and thirty-two minutes later had Justin moved to a room on the third floor and Brian was still at the hospital, ‘showing support’ as Debbie had put it. Yes, Brian was supporting a blond twink he didn’t know. He blamed Debbie and he blamed himself for accompanying Justin to the hospital in the first place.

Brian paced the smoking patio while he talked to Debbie on his cell phone. “Deb, I’ve got shit to do. Justin doesn’t even want me here!”

“That’s because he’s trying to be strong. Of course he needs to know someone is there for him.”

“Someone he doesn’t know?” Brian asked, exasperated. “I’m not even in the room with him.”

“Anyone is better than no one, Brian. Just knowing you’re there at the hospital if he needs you is enough.”

“How could you know that? You’ve only known him a week! Maybe he actually wants to be left completely alone.”

“Of course he doesn’t want to be alone, he’s just a kid and he’s been through hell today. He needs to know someone is supporting him. I’ll be there soon, so…”

“Yeah, that’s what you said an hour ago. I waited while he got his tests run and as for support, I’ve gone above and beyond. I offered to pay his hospital bill.”

“You are paying his bills?” Debbie sounded genuinely surprised.

“No. He turned me down.”

“Of course he did. Justin is a hard worker and he has a lot of pride. I doubt you’d take someone’s money if you were in his place.”

“Deb, there’s a blistering sunburn-like rash up to his elbows and he’s swollen too. He’s not going to be able to work until they heal.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” Debbie gasped. “He didn’t say anything about it. I figured it would go away once the shot kicked in.”

“I thought I did,” Brian growled. So much had gone on Brian couldn’t remember what he had or hadn’t told Debbie.

“Be nice to him, Brian.”

“I’m not even in the room with him, that’s being nice as far as I’m concerned.”
 

~~~~~~~~~~

Twenty-seven minutes later Brian decided that he was going to leave, no matter what wrath he’d face from Debbie. Thankfully, at exactly that moment, he saw Debbie rushing past the waiting room.

“Deb!” he called.

“What room did they move him to?” Debbie asked, turning around to face Brian.

“314.”

“I’m just glad I made it before visiting hours ended.”

Brian was glad she made it, so he could leave. “I’ll be out of town for meetings the next week or so,” he told her, though he wasn’t sure why. He didn’t often give Debbie his itinerary.

Debbie gave Brian a strange look he didn’t understand and then gave him a hug. “I’m glad you stayed, Brian. There’s hope for you still.”

Brian extracted himself from the hug, waved and turned down the hospital hallway. “Hope?” he whispered aloud, “uh huh.”
 

~~~~~~~~~~

Brian had flown to Dallas the following Monday after the anaphylaxis incident and he hadn’t spoken to Debbie or anyone else in Pittsburgh while he was away. After four days in Dallas, he flew to San Diego to coddle a client and scope out the client’s new acquisitions for a week. While there, he got a call from Cynthia regarding a problem with a client based in New York City and it had taken him until last night to resolve the issue. He hadn’t thought about Justin Taylor in all the time that he’d been away, but Brian thought about him from the moment he stepped off his flight once he was back in Pittsburgh.
 

~~~~~~~~~~

Brian was in a piss poor mood today. He’d been aggravated by thoughts of Justin Taylor all morning. By the afternoon, he started actually worrying about the kid, wondering if his Mommy had left her honeymoon early to play nursemaid to her son. That was all he knew of Justin’s plans of recovery and it was annoying him that he didn’t know more, which annoyed him even more when he thought about it.

It wasn’t as if Brian didn’t have a right to know how Justin was recuperating, he had saved the kid’s life, hadn’t he? Didn’t that entitle him to at least a little bit of information about the last two weeks?
 

~~~~~~~~~~

Justin had recovered much quicker than his doctors told him that he would. The first couple of days when he barely had use of his hands were horrible. His mother went to his house and prepared a week’s worth of breakfast, lunch and dinners that he could eat easily with little use of his hands. Jennifer tried not to coddle him too much and Justin was thankful for that, but it still bothered him that he’d had to ask his mother for help when she should’ve been enjoying the first days of her new marriage.

He’d gone back to work at the diner two days ago. Now only slightly swollen, Justin experienced some discomfort in his hands, but he could easily wait tables and work the register. Debbie had insisted that he not bus any tables and if there was an order that came with mustard, she or one of the other waiters would deliver it to the customer. She understood the whole time he’d been off work and guaranteed that he would have his position when he was better. That had been one thing he hadn’t had to worry about while he recovered. He’d gone back the moment Debbie had a free shift to give him, after assuring her that he really and truly was just fine.

Justin had thought about Brian Kinney many times during the last two weeks but never inquired about him in any phone call he had with Debbie or in any of the conversations he’d had with people who he found out were Brian’s friends. He had found out, from eavesdropping on Michael, that Brian had been away on business. Justin was irritated that he even cared about where the man was, he didn’t even know him. From what everyone spoke of Brian, he wasn’t sure he really wanted to.

Brian was surprised to see Justin behind the counter as he walked into the diner. As Justin looked his way, Brian replaced his shocked expression with one of indifference and turned his head, surveying the diner’s crowd. He saw Michael sitting with Ben in a booth and headed their way.

“Hey, you’re back,” Michael said in greeting, standing and kissing his friend.

“Looks like it,” Brian remarked and took Michael’s seat as the other man slid in beside his fiancé.

“Michael said you’ve been flying all over the country,” Ben commented and took a sip of his water. “Good to see you back safe.”

Brian snorted and replied, “Thanks, Ben. And here I thought you’d be glad to be rid of me.”

Michael reached across the table and slapped Brian’s arm. “Of course he cares. Ben loves and cares about those I love, that‘s part of being in a relationship. Not that you‘d know anything thing about that.”

“Thank God.“ Brian rolled his eyes. “So have you picked a date yet?”

“Not yet.” Michael grinned proudly up at Ben.

Brian watched how Ben brushed his hand along Michael’s cheek and then kissed his lips softly. It was such a tender moment, it should’ve made Brian sick from the sweetness, but he saw how happy Mikey was and couldn’t garner the feeling. “So you told Deb, right?”

“Damn right he told me!” Debbie yelled, suddenly appearing beside the booth and startling all three men. “If you ask me, it took him too long.”

Michael cowered a little. “I figured Brian would tell you.”

Brian glared daggers at his friend.

“You told him before you told your mother?” Debbie shrieked.

“Brian happened to call right after I proposed,” Ben supplied, trying to diffuse the tension.

Debbie put her hands on her hips and shook her head. “I expected better from you, Michael.”

A bell dinged by the kitchen window and the cook yelled out, “Deb, orders up!”

Debbie gave Michael and Brian disappointed looks before stomping away.

“I haven’t ordered yet,” Brian yelled after her.

“Neither have we,” Michael added, pouting.

“You’ll have to wait for Justin to take it,” Debbie called back as she grabbed two plates from the windowsill.

“Why’d you have to tell her I knew?” Brian whispered harshly and looked around the diner for Justin.

“I didn’t think it’d be a big deal,” Michael defended.

“Right,” Brian groaned, “it’s only your mother we’re talking about here.”

“I called her the next morning,” Michael said. “We’d already reached our daily phone call limit by the time I talked to you.”

“It was only lunch time then,” Ben teased but kissed Michael softly. “Have you ever tried stopping him from calling her?”

Brian snorted. “I gave up on that a long time ago. If he doesn’t get his daily overdose of doting from his Mommy he’ll project his needs on you.”

“Hey!” Michael protested. “I’m not that bad.”

“Don’t tell me that’s what all the nipple sucking was about,” Ben joked.

“I suck your nipples all the time!” Michael yelled, much to the chagrin of every diner. He put his hands over his red blushing face. “Oh god,” he moaned.

Ben snickered with laughter and kissed Michael’s head. “You’re hot when you blush.”

This time Brian felt like gagging and turned his attention elsewhere. He spotted Justin coming out from the back. “Can we get some service?” he demanded more than asked.

Justin groaned to himself as he headed toward Brian, Michael, and Ben. Before he got to their booth, Emmett and Ted walked in and made their way over to their friends. Emmett squeezed himself in beside Michael, and Ted sat beside Brian. Since he’d been back, Justin had talked to Emmett a few times. The effeminate proud man was so sweet and kind to him, that Justin couldn’t help but smile as he approached the table.

“Finally,” Brian grumbled.

Justin ignored Brian and grinned at the rest of the group. “Are all of you ready to order?”

Emmett put down the menu he had picked up. “I don’t know why I have to look at that thing. It never changes.”

“Just like your taste in clothing,” Brian remarked.

Emmett glared and ran his hands down his shiny neon green top. “Thank god.”

“I wasn’t saying you had good…”

Ted dared to put his hand over Brian’s mouth and told Justin, “I’ll have the chicken salad sandwich.” He yanked his hand away as Brian spit into his palm. “Eww!”

“You’re lucky I don’t fire you for that,” Brian snorted.

“I guess it’s my lucky day then,” Ted spoke dryly.

Justin jotted down the men’s order, disappointed that none of them contained mustard. He would’ve preferred someone else to bring it out to them. He liked Ben, Michael, Ted, and Emmett, but Brian and his ‘sense of entitlement’ attitude got annoying. As he put the order in to the cook, he admitted to himself that Brian’s complete lack of acknowledging him as anything more than a waiter bothered him, too. He at least expected the man to ask about his progress, but apparently, that was too much to ask for. Justin had a feeling that people in Brian’s life expected nothing more than the facade he gave them.
 

~~~~~~~~~~

Justin was a bit clumsy putting the plates down in front of the men. His fingers didn’t feel totally like his own and because of this, Brian’s plate rattled in front of him, spilling half of the mixed vegetables off his roast beef platter. “Sorry, I’ll bring you some more.”

Everyone waited for Brian to blow up. Emmett was prepared to defend the blond and glared daggers at Brian.

“It’s all right,” Brian said, assessing the items on his plate. “I won’t even eat what’s here now.”

“You’re sure?” Justin asked.

Brian nodded. “Your hands aren’t back to normal yet?” he asked.

Justin stretched out his arms for Brian to see how well they had healed. “Just a little swollen but almost as good as new.”

“So they don’t hurt anymore?” Brian inquired, reaching out to grab one of Justin’s wrists to inspect his skin.

Michael guffawed. “You actually care?”

“He did go with him to the hospital,” Ben reminded his fiancé.

“Yeah, and Ma said he bitched about leaving the whole time he was there!” Michael revealed.

Justin jerked his hand back and narrowed his hurt eyes at Brian. “Sorry for the inconvenience, Brian.”

“You didn’t have to say that in front of him,” Ted said, surprising Brian.

Michael gave a sheepish look. “Sorry, it’s just…” He looked up at Justin. “He’s only asking because he probably wants to have you in tip-top shape before he hits on you.”

“Michael,” Brian gritted out between his clenched teeth. “Shut the fuck up.”

“Or is that tip-bottom shape?” Emmett asked. He laughed, assuming that Brian’s anger was a result of Michael catching him trying to pick up the sweet blond.

“Well he can hit on me all he wants,” Justin told Michael. His voice was loud and firm as he spoke again, “But I’m never going to fuck him. He can have anyone he wants but he can’t have me.”

The diner crowd went silent for a split second and then a chorus of ‘oohs’ and gasps erupted from the diners. They all knew of Brian Kinney’s reputation and to see and hear Justin turn him down was a huge shock. The happy waiter had balls and his firm tone of voice convinced them that he wasn’t kidding.

Brian remained calm and did what he always did in situations of the like. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to fuck you but I wasn’t hitting on you. You’d know it if I was, and asking about your puffy, peeling hands was not a come on. I was asking because I wanted to be sure that none of your skin flaked off into our food.”

The diners all changed their tone immediately, some making gagging noise while others just pushed their plates away and started hollering for their check.

Justin raised his arms in the air and waved them around. “As you can see, my skin is no longer peeling. If you want to check for yourselves, feel free.”

A rush of men swarmed around Justin, feeling up his arms and hands, all giving their approving and admiring comments. Justin was burning mad but as he saw Brian fuming with jealousy, it lessened the angry fire within him.

Game on, Brian thought, grinning at Justin.

“What the fuck is going on in here?” Debbie asked, standing at the door of the diner with her hands on her hips. She looked at Justin and the six men surrounding him. “All I wanted was a half-hour break!”

“He told everyone there were skin flakes in our food,” the woman behind Brian told Debbie, pointing at him.

The men surrounding Justin scattered back to their seats as Debbie came toward him. “Are you all right, sweetie?”

“I’m fine, Deb. No harm done.”

Debbie tapped her foot on the floor and eyed Brian. “Trying to lose us business Brian? Or are you trying to get Justin fired. Which is it?” she demanded.

Brian cleared his dry throat but couldn’t speak. He had no idea how him simply inquiring about Justin’s injury had turned into what it did.

And that was the day that Brian Kinney treated all the customers of Liberty Diner to dinner. It was also the day that Justin Taylor decided that leading Brian on wouldn’t be the meanest thing ever done.
 

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