Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2001 16:47:10 +0000 From: Elly Iles Subject: From The Heart - 2 From The Heart ************************************************************************* Okay, remember, this is a 'Then' chapter, which basically means about four weeks have passed since the end of LWL. If you still don't get this, maybe you should give up! Disclaimer: Nope, I don't know the Backstreet Boys, and I definitely don't own them. I don't know anything about their sexualities, and I don't pretend to, either. This story is pure fiction, from the mind of a bored teenage girl. This is FICTION. I'm not making any money out of this, so please don't sue me. ************************************************************************ Chapter 2 Then... Kevin stared down forlornly at the hairbrush. It was official. He was old. The single grey hair resting in between the bristles served as a reminder that he was twenty-five, and looking his age. Maybe even older. The phone rang suddenly, and he sighed heavily before reaching over and picking up the receiver. He knew who it was before he even heard the voice. "Hey babe." AJ whispered seductively down the phone-line. "Hi ya AJ." Kevin replied normally. He wasn't in the mood for phone foreplay today. He had more important things to concentrate on. Like his retirement plan. "I was wondering if you wanted to come round tonight?" He could practically hear his boyfriend pouting on the other end. "It's awful lonely round here." "AJ, I can't." Kevin desperately tried to think of an excuse that would sound feasible. "My parents are coming round later." "Cool. Can I come round there?" "AJ, I'm not quite ready to introduce them to my new boyfriend. They don't even know I'm gay yet, remember?" "I've met your parents before." "Yeah, as a friend. Look, I can tell you're horny, and I know what you get like when you're like this. You'll be firing cheap sexual innuendos all night, most probably at my dad and I really can't handle that today." "Let's see each other tomorrow then? Just us two." "Yeah, okay." Kevin started to hang up. "I love you babe." "Love ya too, babe." Kevin assured him before hanging up. He rubbed his forehead painfully. Why did he always get a headache after talking to his boyfriend? This couldn't be healthy. He thought about Nick's soft, youthful voice. No way could he ever get a headache talking to him. "Stop it." He said aloud. "This is not helping anyone." But try as he might, he simply couldn't bring himself to think of AJ the same way he thought of Nick. Right now, Nick and Brian were probably waking up side by side, in each other's arms, gazing lovingly into each other's eyes, their only thoughts being about how much they loved each other. Kevin was a world away from being that happy. Here he was, making excuses to his own boyfriend about why he couldn't spend the night with him, and he was wondering what it would be like to be in a loving relationship. I am in a loving relationship, he concluded. Unfortunately though, the love is only coming from one person. And that really isn't enough. *** Brian leaned over to put his arm around his boyfriend, and felt it slump onto nothingness. Scowling, he opened his eyes to find the bed empty, and a note on the pillow that simply read, in Nick's messy handwriting 'Sorry Bri, I had to get home early today. Love ya loads.' Brian groaned and screwed up the note, aiming it at the bin and missing by several meters. This wasn't fair. Him and Nick had finally decided, after three weeks of subtle pressuring on Brian's behalf, to take their relationship a couple of stages further. Since then a week had gone by and they had only slept together twice. Twice! It was an outrage. Maybe he had been foolish to expect Nick to want it every night, but Brian couldn't understand why Nick seemed to enjoy it so much, and still not want to do it during every spare opportunity. Brian inhaled the scent of Nick's pillow as he hugged it tightly. It smelt of Nick's clean hair, and Brian wanted to hold Nick so badly it was almost unbearable. The problem was, while Nick was still living with his family, he would always be rushing home, afraid of what his mum would say to him. If he could persuade him to move in, they'd be able to spend every second together. Brian understood that Nick didn't want to come out to his family yet, and he respected that. If Nick moved in, they wouldn't think strangely of it because the two were such good friends. No, Nick's parents wouldn't cause a problem. It would be Nick that he had to convince. He reluctantly rose from his bed and pulled a towelling robe over his naked body. Downstairs, he could hear his cell phone ringing, and quickly ran to answer it. He looked down at the called id and smiled. It was Nick. "Hi ya gorgeous." He answered. He heard Nick giggling on the other end. "Lucky that wasn't my mum calling you." "Why the hell would your mum be calling me at all, let alone from your own phone?" "Well, I don't know. She could have been. She could have pressed the call button by mistake. You're always the last person I called." "I wonder why that is?" Brian grinned. "So let me guess; you just called to say you loved me, huh?" "No." Nick giggled again. "Why would I do a stupid thing like that? Actually, I called to see if I left a shirt round your house?" "Nick, I'm sure you wouldn't have left the house without wearing a shirt. That sounds suspiciously like an excuse to hear my lovely voice." "I was wearing two." Nick laughed. "A t-shirt and a shirt. So there." Brian could practically see him sticking his tongue out at the phone. Brian walked through to the kitchen to see Nick's shirt flung untidily over the chair. It no doubt ended up there last night, in a moment of frenzied passion. "Yup, I've found it. You gonna come over and get it?" "Not today. Haven't we got a group meeting tomorrow? You can give it to me then." "Yeah, that's fine." Brian smiled deviously. "I'm sure Kevin will really enjoy watching me give it to you. 'Here Nick, you must have left this round my house last night'. That will go down really well." "Brian." Nick sighed. "You gotta stop doing this." "I'm just having some fun, Nicky. You know I don't mean it. I've been fine to Kevin these last couple of weeks." "You've barely spoken to him." Nick protested. "And when you have, you've been so sickly sweet everybody knows it's fake. Please, just forget about it. He's with AJ now, and he's happy. So are we. Why do you keep having to bring up the past?" "The past?" Brian spluttered. "Try a month ago." "Whatever, it's not important." Nick told him. "What is important is us. Only us." "I know that." Brian told him, a little too angrily. "I just can't help getting pissed off when I think about it." "I have to go." Nick sighed, and Brian could tell had upset him. Brian couldn't help but grow angry by this. He couldn't help it if Nick was some kind of saint who never got mad at anyone. Brian had feelings. Strong ones. "Fine. I'll see you tomorrow." Brian told him abruptly. "Seeing as we hardly ever see each other outside of work anyway." "That's not fair, Bri." Nick's voice sounded tearful, and Brian instantly began to feel like crap. He fought the feeling before he gave in; he was going to win this argument. "Yeah, it is fair Nicky. It's the truth, and you know it. So fuck off back home like you always do." He hissed. He ended the call before he had time to contemplate his last sentence, and when he thought about it, he suddenly realised how out of order he'd been. It wasn't Nick's fault that he'd been seduced by Kevin, no matter how ardently he insisted it was a two-way thing. Chucking the phone onto the sofa, he quickly walked over to the drinks cabinet and poured himself some scotch. Drinking first thing in the morning; it doesn't get much sadder than this, Brian thought to himself as he gulped down the glass. But the mood he was in, he needed to clear his head. And if that meant having the odd drink, so be it. Nick certainly wasn't going to calm him down. ********************************************************************** AN: Please, please, please send me feedback for this. The more feedback I get, the faster I'll update. That's an absoloute promise! Oh, and for those of you confused, yeah, Brian is gonna have a problem with alcohol in this. I wrote a lot of this story before the whole thing with AJ happened, so it was really too late to change it. But I hope nobody will be offended. It's just a story, remember?