Prank Calls IV - Brian/Michael fanfic (PG-13)
Title: Prank Calls IV
Pairing: Brian Kinney/Michael Novotny
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Some things usually considered to be funny can be disturbing.
Disclaimer: …I wish.
It took more than this one call to turn Michael back into the skittish man he had been before they changed their phone number to a new, unlisted one. Brian and Hunter hadn’t been around so far when Unknown had called, but he figured it was bound to happen some time. And then he wouldn’t know what to say.
Hunter wouldn’t think much, he would just be pissed off. Brian, on the other hand, would want to investigate. Not that there was much to learn, Michael had no idea of the identity of the stalker, but life could get uncomfortable. Not necessarily, but the potential was there.
Michael didn’t want Brian to feel like he had to be his protector. He had…another role for him in mind.
Now it was another weekend, Saturday night, and Michael and his friend Emmett had met for a night out. Unfortunately, every single gay person in Pittsburgh seemed to have the same idea and Liberty Avenue was packed. If you couldn’t decide where you wanted to go, the people around you made that decision for you, pushing you towards the direction the main mass was headed.
Emmett leaned down to Michael, talking directly in his ear, “I don’t think tonight was the best decision, you know? Maybe we should have picked another day.”
Michael was surprised. Reaching for Emmett’s neck to hold his head (and ear) on his level, he said, “But you love to party, the more people around you the better.”
Emmett nodded. “Of course I do. But I haven’t seen you in a while, much less spend some quality time with you, and with this lot around I’m having trouble hearing myself thinking.”
Chuckling, Michael nodded towards Woody’s. “Want to go in there? It can’t be worse than out here and maybe we’ll find a secluded little corner,” he suggested, tired of shouting and only getting about every second word Emmett said.
“Ooooh, mais oui,” Emmett breathed in his ear and batted his eyelashes. “That’s a great idea, Michael. Let’s go,” he added in his usual voice.
Turning away and walking swiftly toward the entrance of the bar, Emmett gave Michael a hard time trying to follow him. Sometimes it was a huge disadvantage to be on the short side, Michael thought, cursing his genes.
When he entered the bar, the noise level didn’t decrease but it changed to something more bearable. At least the sound of the cars and the blaring car stereos was missing. Michael pushed his way past a large man almost blocking the door and saw that he had almost caught up with Emmett. Just as he was about to reach for his arm or even his sleeve, letting himself be dragged behind someone who was actually able to see an empty table should there be one, someone bumped into him.
Unsure if he had something to apologize for, Michael turned to where he presumed the other person to be, but there was no one looking in his direction. Shaking his head, he muttered an apology nonetheless and, when he caught a glimpse of Emmett, followed him to the bar.
Emmett put his cash away and handed one of the beer bottles to Michael, frowning.
“It’s awfully crowded, even in here. Did we miss the announcement of a special event tonight?” he guessed.
“Don’t ask me. I haven’t been out for ages, so I wouldn’t know.”
“Poor you…”
There was no real pity in Emmett’s voice and Michael remembered how often he had rejected an invitation lately. He couldn’t blame him.
Emmett cleared his throat. “Did your roommate happen to mention something? I take it he stills owns Babylon?”
Michael nodded. “Yes, he does. But we don’t see each other that much for him to tell me about stuff like that, you know?”
“Actually, I don’t know because you don’t tell me about it. So you’re coexisting instead of living with each other?” Now there was something like concern in Emmett’s eyes.
“We’re not married.”
“No, you’re not.”
“And we’re not in a relationship. So why does it matter?”
Emmett hummed. Michael expected him to say something along the line of “that remains to be seen”. Maybe he said as much but Michael was too distracted listening to another voice in order to pay attention to Emmett.
Had someone just threatened him?
“Michael?”
Michael came to when someone took the beer bottle out of his hand and then waved their hands in front of his face, calling his name repeatedly.
“Michael? Michael, do you need to sit down?”
Michael awoke out of his stupor just in time to preclude Emmett from asking the guest on the nearest bar stool to get up.
“Jeez, you’re white as a sheet all of a sudden. Did you eat something before you left? Maybe your blood sugar’s too low?” he asked, wrapping his arm around Michael’s shoulder and pulling him against his own body, trying to steady him.
“Uh…” Michael blinked. “No.”
“No you didn’t eat? Michael, that’s careless and you’re a little too old to pull it off playing the fainting princess.”
“No, I… That’s not it,” Michael said. He was still too dazed to protest the jibe.
“So?” Emmett pressed.
“I think someone just told me to drop dead, preferably right away.”
~+~+~
Michael was sitting on Emmett’s couch, a cup of tea with a generous amount of rum in it cradled in his hand. They’d been here for about half an hour now and Emmett was still unable to remain seated. He was pacing, making more tea, and resuming his pacing again.
His face color had changed from his usual healthy complexion to stark white when Michael had told him about the voice and then he had turned red with nervous blotches. He had dragged Michael out of the bar as soon as he had closed his mouth, eager to get him to safety, away from all those people.
Setting his cup on the coffee table, Emmett threw himself in a chair.
“Okay, once again, you didn’t see anyone and you didn’t recognize the voice, right?”
“Correct.”
“But you take it seriously. Or, serious enough to worry like you do, getting pale and trembling. For fuck’s sake, Michael! Normal people would think it was a joke, albeit a bad one. But you don’t. So, start talking, man!”
Emmett crossed his arms and scowled at Michael, looking like the epitome of frustration.
And so Michael did. He started with the first call and ended with the last only hours ago. He didn’t like it but he figured it’d be the right thing to do. And well, maybe the rum helped, too.
When he had finished his tale Emmett was fuming.
“Why the hell didn’t you tell anyone? Heck, your mother’s lover would be a good start if you didn’t want to go to the police. What about Brian? He’d do anything to keep you safe. Fuck!”
Emmett flailed and Michael rolled his eyes.
“Don’t you think you’re over dramatizing?”
Emmett huffed. “You’re an idiot, Michael Novotny.”
“You think so? Just because I didn’t want to make a fuss about a few phone calls?”
“But Brian and Hunter got them, too. Brian was concerned enough to ask you getting an unlisted number. A few phone calls, he says. Jeez!”
Michael shrugged. He could see Emmett’s point. Somehow. But he still thought that he couldn’t have known that the caller might be more than bored and slightly crazy. Phone calls were annoying but they were harmless and so he didn’t think he should have done anything about it. Probably.
“No matter. We’re going to the police now,” Emmett decided and got up, swaying on his feet when he was finally upright.
“Maybe not right now, Em. I guess they won’t be impressed if two middle aged drunk gays come to the police station in the middle of the night and tell them something about a stalker, hmm?”
~+~+~
When Michael awoke five hours later, twisted in a blanket on the couch he had been sitting on the night before and with a headache bad enough for two, if not three, people he regretted that they hadn’t heeded Emmett’s advice last night.
Now that the initial shock had worn off and the alcohol made him dizzy and sick but without the blissful numbing effect it had before, he felt, well, threatened. And scared out of his mind. What kind of sick person crept up on someone like this? No way was this a coincidence. Crap!
As soon as he left this apartment, who the hell guaranteed his safety?
In the end he left Emmett a note, called a taxi, asking for a female driver claiming he had been the victim of a robbery just the other day and was still traumatized, and entered his house around four in the morning. Secure in the knowledge that his two housemates would still be asleep for at least one or two hours (if he was lucky), Michael sank onto the couch. Reaching for the remote control he switched on the TV and started watching infomercials. He feared anything else would overtax his brain.
“Morning,” a disembodied voice called out to him and Michael jerked upright.
Damn, he must have fallen asleep again and so he had missed the opportunity to disappear unseen.
“Morning.”
Michael listened to the coffee machine come to life while he raked his brain for an explanation why he had to leave at…six thirty in a hurry. Sadly, nothing came to mind. But he didn’t want anybody else to worry for his sake. He thought it was more than enough that last night probably had cost Emmett a year or two of his life.
“Here.”
A cup was thrust in front of him and Brian flopped down beside him after shoving his feet off the seat.
“So, how was your night out with Honeycutt? Partying all night long, huh? You haven’t been home yet when I came home from Babylon and you’re looking a little green around the gills,” Brian said, smiling at him fondly. “Coffee helps, believe me. Or do you want me to get you some pills?”
Brian was already halfway up before Michael grabbed the back of his t-shirt and pulled him back down.
“Thanks. I’ll live…if I’m permitted.” He muttered the last part in his coffee.
But obviously it wasn’t quiet enough.
“Sorry? Say that again!”
When Michael didn’t respond fast enough for Brian’s liking he put two fingers under his chin and tilted his head up, aligning their gazes.
“I’m not joking, Mikey. What was that? I’ll happily admit that I’m still kind of freaked out due to the calls and now you’re saying something like that and you seriously believe I’m going to ignore it? Forget it. I’m not stupid enough to not pay attention to anything that concerns you. I…” He hesitated. “Let’s say I learned from the past.”
Michael tried to distract him but when Brian reached for the phone to call Emmett he finally gave in and told him what had happened. Brian’s reaction was quite similar to Emmett’s although there might have been a little less pacing and certainly more cursing.
“If I find that fucker I’m going to rip his balls off!” Brian promised darkly when he returned to the room after he had hurried upstairs to get dressed.
Grabbing his keys he said, “Let’s go!”
Michael looked up. He was still dazed and now everything went too fast. Although he was touched by Brian’s concern. He hadn’t called him pathetic so far and he wasn’t even trying to make decisions for him. He was just supportive and hell, if he was honest, maybe Michael had actually wanted for Brian to know everything.
“Don’t you want to take a shower first?”
“Is that a polite way of letting me know I stink? I thought my roll-on would suffice for now.” Brian raised an eyebrow.
Despite the serious situation Michael grinned, quickly reassuring him, “You don’t stink. If anything, you smell manly.”
~+~+~
Brian stayed glued to Michael’s side for the rest of the morning. He not only accompanied him to the police station but after they had returned home for a quick shower, separately of course, he came with him to the store, saying Kinnetic would survive without him for a day or a month.
Michael was grateful and shrugged off his last comment. Surely, he had misheard.
Now they were at the diner for a quick lunch with Emmett and Ted and the latter was busy scrapping his jaw up off the ground, his eyes owlish.
“And what did the officer say?”
“Nothing much,” Brian sighed. “There’s no proof and so they can’t do anything, really. He’s not ‘endangered’ by the calls and the shit from last night doesn’t have to be connected to them, so… Yeah.”
“Like hell it is!” Emmett exclaimed. “Everyone with half a brain can see what’s happening here. First the calls and now the personal contact… That’s outrageous! Michael, you should have waited for me, I’d have kicked their asses!”
Ted patted his friend’s shoulder. “I’m sure Michael and Brian tried everything they could to convince them, Emmett. - So, what are we doing now? Do you want to try getting Carl’s help?”
Michael scrunched up his face. “I’d rather not… Ma is still giving me the cold shoulder and it’ll feel strange going to him behind her back.”
“What happened? I noticed that she was avoiding you that night when Justin was there…”
“If I were you I wouldn’t mention that night or that whole wretched weekend!” Michael hissed and Brian held up his hands in a placating gesture.
“Listen, I know you were pissed, but-”
Brian was interrupted.
“Not past tense, I still am.”
Ted looked from Michael to Brian and back. “What’s wrong?”
“Can we forget about that shit and get back to the topic at hand, please?” Michael asked, his tone rather acidic.
“Michael’s not happy because when Justin was in town he asked me if I had a bed for him and I agreed. That’s all.” Brian explained.
“And like he did just now, someone didn’t care at all about my wishes!”
Ted frowned. “Oh, I was wondering… Was that the weekend you hurt your back sleeping-”
“Theodore!” Brian said sharply.
Ted blushed and apologized with a gaze.
Emmett looked curious but Michael decided to ignore him. He was grateful he didn’t have to listen to Brian recounting the gymnastics that led to an injury he had wisely failed to inform Michael about. He absolutely wanted to keep it this way, thank you very much.
He was finally starting to get over his anger and he really appreciated his best friend’s presence lately, there was no need to ruin it all now.
After a few tense moments, Emmett was the first to recover. “Have you guys wondered who it could be? Stalker boy, I mean?”
“’Course! But now that we know it’s Michael he’s after most of who I thought of are out,” Brian said. “Why would one of my cast-offs stalk Mikey?”
“Maybe just because you’re calling them that? Or it’s because you’re living with Michael? Because they feel betrayed because he’s special to you and they’re using him to get to you?” Ted suggested.
“But if you’re right then shouldn’t they have stalked Justin before?” Brian wondered.
Silence.
“And if it is Justin?” Emmett asked, immediately slapping his hand on his mouth. When three pairs of eyes looked at him, he winced. “Did I just say that out loud?”
“Uh huh.” Ted nodded.
Michael paled. Certainly that couldn’t be true? He couldn’t stand the little punk but he wouldn’t go that far. Or would he?
“But does he even have our new phone number? Brian?”
Brian took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds before he answered.
“Yes. He… He usually uses my cell phone number but one day he must have clicked on the landline number instead and so he noticed that it’s no longer available. He brought it up when I drove him to the airport and so I gave him the new one but… I don’t believe it’s him.”
“Who cares what you believe? You’re always on his side, are you not?” Michael stood up. “I’m not hungry anymore!”
“Michael! Mikey!! He’s not the only one who knows that blasted number! And I’m not always siding with him, for fuck’s sake! Just because I don’t see him spending hours pressing redial? Please! And if it was him, do you honestly believe he would have ambushed you in Woody’s where everyone can identify him?”
Brian was in front of Michael and Ted’s side of the booth now, one hand on the table and the other one gripping the backrest and therefore effectively holding him in place.
“Maybe he sent someone else? We already know that the world is full of lunatics!” Michael insisted. Justin could have done it! God…
“Sweetie, I’m not saying I’m wrong, but,” Emmett piped in, “maybe you really shouldn’t jump to conclusions?”
Michael’s eyes narrowed.
“What do you know?”
-- TBC--
Pairing: Brian Kinney/Michael Novotny
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Some things usually considered to be funny can be disturbing.
Disclaimer: …I wish.
It took more than this one call to turn Michael back into the skittish man he had been before they changed their phone number to a new, unlisted one. Brian and Hunter hadn’t been around so far when Unknown had called, but he figured it was bound to happen some time. And then he wouldn’t know what to say.
Hunter wouldn’t think much, he would just be pissed off. Brian, on the other hand, would want to investigate. Not that there was much to learn, Michael had no idea of the identity of the stalker, but life could get uncomfortable. Not necessarily, but the potential was there.
Michael didn’t want Brian to feel like he had to be his protector. He had…another role for him in mind.
Now it was another weekend, Saturday night, and Michael and his friend Emmett had met for a night out. Unfortunately, every single gay person in Pittsburgh seemed to have the same idea and Liberty Avenue was packed. If you couldn’t decide where you wanted to go, the people around you made that decision for you, pushing you towards the direction the main mass was headed.
Emmett leaned down to Michael, talking directly in his ear, “I don’t think tonight was the best decision, you know? Maybe we should have picked another day.”
Michael was surprised. Reaching for Emmett’s neck to hold his head (and ear) on his level, he said, “But you love to party, the more people around you the better.”
Emmett nodded. “Of course I do. But I haven’t seen you in a while, much less spend some quality time with you, and with this lot around I’m having trouble hearing myself thinking.”
Chuckling, Michael nodded towards Woody’s. “Want to go in there? It can’t be worse than out here and maybe we’ll find a secluded little corner,” he suggested, tired of shouting and only getting about every second word Emmett said.
“Ooooh, mais oui,” Emmett breathed in his ear and batted his eyelashes. “That’s a great idea, Michael. Let’s go,” he added in his usual voice.
Turning away and walking swiftly toward the entrance of the bar, Emmett gave Michael a hard time trying to follow him. Sometimes it was a huge disadvantage to be on the short side, Michael thought, cursing his genes.
When he entered the bar, the noise level didn’t decrease but it changed to something more bearable. At least the sound of the cars and the blaring car stereos was missing. Michael pushed his way past a large man almost blocking the door and saw that he had almost caught up with Emmett. Just as he was about to reach for his arm or even his sleeve, letting himself be dragged behind someone who was actually able to see an empty table should there be one, someone bumped into him.
Unsure if he had something to apologize for, Michael turned to where he presumed the other person to be, but there was no one looking in his direction. Shaking his head, he muttered an apology nonetheless and, when he caught a glimpse of Emmett, followed him to the bar.
Emmett put his cash away and handed one of the beer bottles to Michael, frowning.
“It’s awfully crowded, even in here. Did we miss the announcement of a special event tonight?” he guessed.
“Don’t ask me. I haven’t been out for ages, so I wouldn’t know.”
“Poor you…”
There was no real pity in Emmett’s voice and Michael remembered how often he had rejected an invitation lately. He couldn’t blame him.
Emmett cleared his throat. “Did your roommate happen to mention something? I take it he stills owns Babylon?”
Michael nodded. “Yes, he does. But we don’t see each other that much for him to tell me about stuff like that, you know?”
“Actually, I don’t know because you don’t tell me about it. So you’re coexisting instead of living with each other?” Now there was something like concern in Emmett’s eyes.
“We’re not married.”
“No, you’re not.”
“And we’re not in a relationship. So why does it matter?”
Emmett hummed. Michael expected him to say something along the line of “that remains to be seen”. Maybe he said as much but Michael was too distracted listening to another voice in order to pay attention to Emmett.
Had someone just threatened him?
“Michael?”
Michael came to when someone took the beer bottle out of his hand and then waved their hands in front of his face, calling his name repeatedly.
“Michael? Michael, do you need to sit down?”
Michael awoke out of his stupor just in time to preclude Emmett from asking the guest on the nearest bar stool to get up.
“Jeez, you’re white as a sheet all of a sudden. Did you eat something before you left? Maybe your blood sugar’s too low?” he asked, wrapping his arm around Michael’s shoulder and pulling him against his own body, trying to steady him.
“Uh…” Michael blinked. “No.”
“No you didn’t eat? Michael, that’s careless and you’re a little too old to pull it off playing the fainting princess.”
“No, I… That’s not it,” Michael said. He was still too dazed to protest the jibe.
“So?” Emmett pressed.
“I think someone just told me to drop dead, preferably right away.”
~+~+~
Michael was sitting on Emmett’s couch, a cup of tea with a generous amount of rum in it cradled in his hand. They’d been here for about half an hour now and Emmett was still unable to remain seated. He was pacing, making more tea, and resuming his pacing again.
His face color had changed from his usual healthy complexion to stark white when Michael had told him about the voice and then he had turned red with nervous blotches. He had dragged Michael out of the bar as soon as he had closed his mouth, eager to get him to safety, away from all those people.
Setting his cup on the coffee table, Emmett threw himself in a chair.
“Okay, once again, you didn’t see anyone and you didn’t recognize the voice, right?”
“Correct.”
“But you take it seriously. Or, serious enough to worry like you do, getting pale and trembling. For fuck’s sake, Michael! Normal people would think it was a joke, albeit a bad one. But you don’t. So, start talking, man!”
Emmett crossed his arms and scowled at Michael, looking like the epitome of frustration.
And so Michael did. He started with the first call and ended with the last only hours ago. He didn’t like it but he figured it’d be the right thing to do. And well, maybe the rum helped, too.
When he had finished his tale Emmett was fuming.
“Why the hell didn’t you tell anyone? Heck, your mother’s lover would be a good start if you didn’t want to go to the police. What about Brian? He’d do anything to keep you safe. Fuck!”
Emmett flailed and Michael rolled his eyes.
“Don’t you think you’re over dramatizing?”
Emmett huffed. “You’re an idiot, Michael Novotny.”
“You think so? Just because I didn’t want to make a fuss about a few phone calls?”
“But Brian and Hunter got them, too. Brian was concerned enough to ask you getting an unlisted number. A few phone calls, he says. Jeez!”
Michael shrugged. He could see Emmett’s point. Somehow. But he still thought that he couldn’t have known that the caller might be more than bored and slightly crazy. Phone calls were annoying but they were harmless and so he didn’t think he should have done anything about it. Probably.
“No matter. We’re going to the police now,” Emmett decided and got up, swaying on his feet when he was finally upright.
“Maybe not right now, Em. I guess they won’t be impressed if two middle aged drunk gays come to the police station in the middle of the night and tell them something about a stalker, hmm?”
~+~+~
When Michael awoke five hours later, twisted in a blanket on the couch he had been sitting on the night before and with a headache bad enough for two, if not three, people he regretted that they hadn’t heeded Emmett’s advice last night.
Now that the initial shock had worn off and the alcohol made him dizzy and sick but without the blissful numbing effect it had before, he felt, well, threatened. And scared out of his mind. What kind of sick person crept up on someone like this? No way was this a coincidence. Crap!
As soon as he left this apartment, who the hell guaranteed his safety?
In the end he left Emmett a note, called a taxi, asking for a female driver claiming he had been the victim of a robbery just the other day and was still traumatized, and entered his house around four in the morning. Secure in the knowledge that his two housemates would still be asleep for at least one or two hours (if he was lucky), Michael sank onto the couch. Reaching for the remote control he switched on the TV and started watching infomercials. He feared anything else would overtax his brain.
“Morning,” a disembodied voice called out to him and Michael jerked upright.
Damn, he must have fallen asleep again and so he had missed the opportunity to disappear unseen.
“Morning.”
Michael listened to the coffee machine come to life while he raked his brain for an explanation why he had to leave at…six thirty in a hurry. Sadly, nothing came to mind. But he didn’t want anybody else to worry for his sake. He thought it was more than enough that last night probably had cost Emmett a year or two of his life.
“Here.”
A cup was thrust in front of him and Brian flopped down beside him after shoving his feet off the seat.
“So, how was your night out with Honeycutt? Partying all night long, huh? You haven’t been home yet when I came home from Babylon and you’re looking a little green around the gills,” Brian said, smiling at him fondly. “Coffee helps, believe me. Or do you want me to get you some pills?”
Brian was already halfway up before Michael grabbed the back of his t-shirt and pulled him back down.
“Thanks. I’ll live…if I’m permitted.” He muttered the last part in his coffee.
But obviously it wasn’t quiet enough.
“Sorry? Say that again!”
When Michael didn’t respond fast enough for Brian’s liking he put two fingers under his chin and tilted his head up, aligning their gazes.
“I’m not joking, Mikey. What was that? I’ll happily admit that I’m still kind of freaked out due to the calls and now you’re saying something like that and you seriously believe I’m going to ignore it? Forget it. I’m not stupid enough to not pay attention to anything that concerns you. I…” He hesitated. “Let’s say I learned from the past.”
Michael tried to distract him but when Brian reached for the phone to call Emmett he finally gave in and told him what had happened. Brian’s reaction was quite similar to Emmett’s although there might have been a little less pacing and certainly more cursing.
“If I find that fucker I’m going to rip his balls off!” Brian promised darkly when he returned to the room after he had hurried upstairs to get dressed.
Grabbing his keys he said, “Let’s go!”
Michael looked up. He was still dazed and now everything went too fast. Although he was touched by Brian’s concern. He hadn’t called him pathetic so far and he wasn’t even trying to make decisions for him. He was just supportive and hell, if he was honest, maybe Michael had actually wanted for Brian to know everything.
“Don’t you want to take a shower first?”
“Is that a polite way of letting me know I stink? I thought my roll-on would suffice for now.” Brian raised an eyebrow.
Despite the serious situation Michael grinned, quickly reassuring him, “You don’t stink. If anything, you smell manly.”
~+~+~
Brian stayed glued to Michael’s side for the rest of the morning. He not only accompanied him to the police station but after they had returned home for a quick shower, separately of course, he came with him to the store, saying Kinnetic would survive without him for a day or a month.
Michael was grateful and shrugged off his last comment. Surely, he had misheard.
Now they were at the diner for a quick lunch with Emmett and Ted and the latter was busy scrapping his jaw up off the ground, his eyes owlish.
“And what did the officer say?”
“Nothing much,” Brian sighed. “There’s no proof and so they can’t do anything, really. He’s not ‘endangered’ by the calls and the shit from last night doesn’t have to be connected to them, so… Yeah.”
“Like hell it is!” Emmett exclaimed. “Everyone with half a brain can see what’s happening here. First the calls and now the personal contact… That’s outrageous! Michael, you should have waited for me, I’d have kicked their asses!”
Ted patted his friend’s shoulder. “I’m sure Michael and Brian tried everything they could to convince them, Emmett. - So, what are we doing now? Do you want to try getting Carl’s help?”
Michael scrunched up his face. “I’d rather not… Ma is still giving me the cold shoulder and it’ll feel strange going to him behind her back.”
“What happened? I noticed that she was avoiding you that night when Justin was there…”
“If I were you I wouldn’t mention that night or that whole wretched weekend!” Michael hissed and Brian held up his hands in a placating gesture.
“Listen, I know you were pissed, but-”
Brian was interrupted.
“Not past tense, I still am.”
Ted looked from Michael to Brian and back. “What’s wrong?”
“Can we forget about that shit and get back to the topic at hand, please?” Michael asked, his tone rather acidic.
“Michael’s not happy because when Justin was in town he asked me if I had a bed for him and I agreed. That’s all.” Brian explained.
“And like he did just now, someone didn’t care at all about my wishes!”
Ted frowned. “Oh, I was wondering… Was that the weekend you hurt your back sleeping-”
“Theodore!” Brian said sharply.
Ted blushed and apologized with a gaze.
Emmett looked curious but Michael decided to ignore him. He was grateful he didn’t have to listen to Brian recounting the gymnastics that led to an injury he had wisely failed to inform Michael about. He absolutely wanted to keep it this way, thank you very much.
He was finally starting to get over his anger and he really appreciated his best friend’s presence lately, there was no need to ruin it all now.
After a few tense moments, Emmett was the first to recover. “Have you guys wondered who it could be? Stalker boy, I mean?”
“’Course! But now that we know it’s Michael he’s after most of who I thought of are out,” Brian said. “Why would one of my cast-offs stalk Mikey?”
“Maybe just because you’re calling them that? Or it’s because you’re living with Michael? Because they feel betrayed because he’s special to you and they’re using him to get to you?” Ted suggested.
“But if you’re right then shouldn’t they have stalked Justin before?” Brian wondered.
Silence.
“And if it is Justin?” Emmett asked, immediately slapping his hand on his mouth. When three pairs of eyes looked at him, he winced. “Did I just say that out loud?”
“Uh huh.” Ted nodded.
Michael paled. Certainly that couldn’t be true? He couldn’t stand the little punk but he wouldn’t go that far. Or would he?
“But does he even have our new phone number? Brian?”
Brian took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds before he answered.
“Yes. He… He usually uses my cell phone number but one day he must have clicked on the landline number instead and so he noticed that it’s no longer available. He brought it up when I drove him to the airport and so I gave him the new one but… I don’t believe it’s him.”
“Who cares what you believe? You’re always on his side, are you not?” Michael stood up. “I’m not hungry anymore!”
“Michael! Mikey!! He’s not the only one who knows that blasted number! And I’m not always siding with him, for fuck’s sake! Just because I don’t see him spending hours pressing redial? Please! And if it was him, do you honestly believe he would have ambushed you in Woody’s where everyone can identify him?”
Brian was in front of Michael and Ted’s side of the booth now, one hand on the table and the other one gripping the backrest and therefore effectively holding him in place.
“Maybe he sent someone else? We already know that the world is full of lunatics!” Michael insisted. Justin could have done it! God…
“Sweetie, I’m not saying I’m wrong, but,” Emmett piped in, “maybe you really shouldn’t jump to conclusions?”
Michael’s eyes narrowed.
“What do you know?”
-- TBC--