Is This the End?

Chapter Eight

Justin smiled. “Nice to meet you, too.” Justin hooked his arms around Brent’s neck and started grinding with the taller man.

“Justin, how old are you?”

“Twenty. You?”

“Twenty-eight. I haven’t seen you around here before.”

“I just moved here from Pittsburgh.”

“You’re a long way from home.”

Justin shrugged. “Just needed a change.”

Brent smiled down at the blond. “Well, their loss is my gain.”

Justin blushed. Brent was the first guy since Brian that had been able to make him blush like a little schoolgirl.

“Are you in college?” Brent asked as he continued the conversation.

“I was going to PIFA in Pittsburgh. It’s the Institute of Fine Arts. I guess I’ll try to find a college here, or get a job. What do you do?”

“I’m a lawyer with Vanyard, Dutch and Miller. I’m the Miller part. Brent Miller.”

“Wow. Aren’t you young to be a partner?”

Brent smiled, “A little. But life’s been good to me.”

With that, conversation stopped and their dancing took over. Justin thought about asking the guy to the backroom but didn’t think he was ready. That was where he had gone wrong with Brian. He had let Brian screw him the first night they had met and their relationship had seemed to be based solely on sex.

A couple of hours later, Justin and Brent were both hot and sweaty from their dancing. Brent went to the bar to get a couple of drinks, while Justin found Nick and Greg at a table.  “Been having fun?” Greg asked as Justin sat down in an empty seat.

Justin’s blue eyes sparkled. “Oh yeah.”

Brent arrived at the table, drinks in hand, and said, “Hello, Nick. Greg.”

“Hey, Brent,” smiled Nick.

“You three know each other?” questioned Justin.

“Yeah, Brent’s a lawyer at the biggest law firm in Las Vegas. We’ve meet when we’ve all been in court,” answered Nick.

“So, I see you’ve met my cousin,” said Greg.

Brent smiled. “Yeah. We were just dancing.”

Justin blushed, again, as he felt his stomach churn with butterflies.

 *****

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA

Brian sat on his bed, thinking about Justin as he smoked a cigarette. He had gotten home an hour ago after having sex with some black-haired man from Babylon. He hadn’t even known why he had done it. The guy was okay looking, but not hot. Brian guessed he had been acting out of habit. He knew what the others thought, that Brian didn’t care about anyone. That he didn’t care about Justin. But he did. He cared about Justin a lot. He was still furious over what Michael had said and over the fact that Michael thought something like that was okay to say.

Michael had seen how broken Brian was at the hospital, after the bashing. How could Michael even suggest that Brian leave Justin on that cement parking garage to bleed? To die? Brian could never have done that because no matter what any of them thought, Brian did love Justin. For the first time in his life he had given his heart to someone and he didn’t know what to do. Brian knew that he had always pulled Justin close just to push him away, and Brian knew why. He was scared, terrified, of someone having control over him. And, he thought loving someone and letting them love him was control.

Putting his cigarette out in an ashtray, Brian flopped down on his back on the bed. He knew that he was the reason Justin had felt the need to cheat and to leave Pittsburgh, but Brian figured Justin had done the right thing. Justin deserved better than what Brian could give him. Brian could give the blue-eyed blond anything money could buy, but he couldn’t give Justin the three little words that the younger man longed to hear. Brian figured he was too broken to even say those words. But even as he fell asleep, his mind whispered what his mouth could not say. “I love you, Justin.”
 

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