Tests of Friendship, Chapter Seven:

By AD

Intro:

Yikes, I say this every time, but it seems true, chapter seven already, approx. 43000 words.  Not quite challenging JM yet though, who’s whole story of Brian and Justin and Just Beginning total just shy of half a million.

This chapter is slightly shorter than usual, but there is a reason for that. The next chapter might be shorter still, it depends. Anyway, enjoy the story.

Usual legal stuff applies as listed in all previous chapters. Don’t read if you’re not supposed to, and this story is fictional. The story is copyrighted to me, with publication rights to Nifty.

Anyway, on with the story. Thanks for your emails, we’ll see how I develop the epilepsy thing!   Oh yeah, sorry about the lateness of this chapter, it wasn't my fault, honest!  School's now started, and I've had a lot more work to do.   Anyway, on with the show.

Chapter Seven:

I woke first the following morning.  I still hadn’t seen the very grumpy side of Justin since I shared a room with him.  Even JC told me he was usually grumpy in the morning.  I just laid in his arms for a while, until I decided it was time to get up.   I started sucking on Justin’s neck, making him moan softly.

"That’s a nice way to wake up in the mornings." Justin said smiling.   He pulled me in and gave me a quick kiss before getting up.

"Where’s this grumpy side of you you’re supposed to have in the mornings?"

"It’s disappeared since you were here!" he replied, still smiling.  He made a sudden dash for the bathroom, leaving me on the bed.  I tried to follow him in, but as I sat up I fell back to the bed in dizziness.  I went extremely light headed when I went to stood up.  I held me head as searing pain ran through from the back of my head.  Justin didn’t hear me over the shower, and I was glad really, I didn’t want him worrying about me.  I sat myself up in the bed tried again to stand, slightly more slowly this time.  I walked over to the bathroom and stepped in, sitting on the toilet seat, waiting for Justin to walk out.  He walked over to me and looked me in the eye.

"What’s wrong?"

"Nothing, just a little dizzy, that’s all, don’t worry." I said, forcing a weak smile.

"Come on, let’s go and sit down till you feel better." Justin said, putting my arm over his shoulder and lifting me up.

"Don’t worry, I’m fine now.  It was just getting up too quick!" I said as Justin laid me down on the bed.

"Well, I’m not taking any chances. I’ll go and finished getting ready, but I can see you. You can stay here today, you can’t come to the concert if you’re going to have another seizure."

"I couldn’t miss your concert, I’ve been fine before, I’ll be fine again!" I insisted, but Justin had closed his ears before walking back into the bathroom, looking out towards me.  I watched as he brushed his teeth and worked on his hair.  He walked out a few minutes later and got ready.  I stared at his fine ass from the bed once he dropped the towel to the ground.  He glanced around and threw the towel over my eyes, laughing.  By the time I pulled it off he had already pulled a pair of pants on, and was getting out a shirt.  He was wearing a pair of baggy black jeans, and a baby-blue Hilfiger shirt.  I nodded my approval as he walked back to the edge of the bed.

"Ok, do you want to put something on and come and get some breakfast?" Justin asked, holding my hand.  I nodded and quickly slipped some clothes on.  I walked out with Justin and looked for where everyone had gathered.  We found them all in Lance’s room for a change.  Nick, JC, Chris, Brian and Howie were still absent, but the others were already eating.  I poured myself a bowl of cereal, milk and orange juice and sat down at the table next to Justin.

"Did you two have a nice time last night?" Kevin asked, taking a bite from his baguette.

"Yep, Justin proper wined and dined me." I said, Justin blushing slightly.   AJ laughed a little.

"What about when you got back?" AJ asked, pushing the situation.  I smiled at him and swiped across the top of his head.  He pouted and went back to eating his breakfast.  Justin had really blushed, and Lance laughed.

"None of your business Alexander, now, go and eat your breakfast like a good boy."  I replied.  Kevin was smiling slightly, along with Joey.  JC walked in a few moments later and got some breakfast, Nick and Brian following a few minutes behind.  Shortly after that Chris and Howie came in.  When everyone was sat down, Kevin decided to speak up:

"Ok.  We haven't got that much to do today.  Rehearsals aren’t til later, since it’s a virtually identical stage to Frankfurt, with the same run through.  We don't have to be there until 5, and before that the day is ours.  I thought we could tour the city or something like that, since there’s plenty to see." He received a forest of nods from around the room. "Ok, then that’s settled.  We’ll ride round and take in some of the sights for the morning, have some lunch in the afternoon and then head to the arena around five then.  We’ll meet at the elevator in, say, 30 minutes?"  Kevin finished before excusing himself and walking to his room.  Justin and myself finished up our breakfasts before heading back to our room.  I went and combed my hair, brushed my teeth and shaved, before walking out into the main room.  I made myself a cup of coffee while waiting for the others and sat at the bureau.  I pulled out my palmtop and mobile from the suitcase and connected to the internet to check my email.  There wasn't anything really important, except for a message telling me my shares had fallen 23 points, something I didn’t quite want to hear this early in the morning, since that translated to a bit of money.  I jumped when Justin put his hands on my shoulders.   I closed the Psion and looked back to Justin.

"Well, are you ready?  We should get going now." Justin said smiling.   "What were you reading?"

"Just checking my email, nothing important." I said, standing up from the chair and walking out to the elevator with Justin.  After a few minutes we were all ready and headed downstairs.  Brian had called John to tell him to meet him at the TV tower.  A large group of fans were penned in, or out to be precise, on the street, and the guys stopped to sign a few autographs and shake a few hands.  I patiently followed behind and stepped into the limo and we drove off.  We drove to TV tower and headed to the very top, for a birdseye view of the city.  We looked around for about 30 minutes before going back downstairs.  John was waiting outside, and waved to Brian, who waved back.  Brian glanced around before proceeding over to the corner where he was waiting.  The rest of us got into the two limos and waited.  After a few minutes Brian and John got into the BSB’s limo and we drove off towards the Brandenburg Gate.  We spent a further few minutes walking around the Gate, taking a few photos, and generally acting like proper tourists.  We, fortunately, escaped recognition, since school was still in session, and mainly only adults were about.   At about 12 we stopped by at a cafe for some drinks and snacks, before continuing to drive around the city.  We went round a WWII museum, which took a further hour, before finally stopping at a restaurant, well, a fast food joint.  This brought the time close to 3:30, so we decided to head back to the hotel for some rest before having to go to the arena.

As I entered our room, Justin was talking to JC in the hall, my phone rang.  I answered it and didn’t say anything, just listened.  Slightly stunned, I sat down a comfy chair.  I hung up as I heard Justin walk in, cuddling up next to me.   I pushed him off, and just sat alone.  Justin looked upset, and tried to come back up next to me.  "Si, what’s wrong?"

"Just go away for a while Justin, I don’t feel like it right now."  He looked sad, and backed off a little.

"Tell me what’s wrong Simon?"

"No, it’s nothing, I just want to think and be alone for a while.  Go and have some fun, don’t let poor old me hold you down.  Go and talk to your friends, you’ve deserted them lately, I’m sure you’d rather be with them." I replied, holding my head in my hands.  Justin tried to approach me again and I lashed out, throwing my fist round at him. I hit him in the stomach and he bent over in pain.  I quickly spun round in the chair to look at what I had done.   Justin had tears running down his face as he lay on his knees.  I just ran out the room and down the stairs, heading down to the ground floor.  I ran out the lobby, heading out into the street.  I crossed the road, not even bothering to look, the sounds of horns blaring oblivious to me.  I just kept on running away from the hotel, taking random turns through the city.

JC just headed out his room to see the stairs door slam shut.  He just shrugged it off and walked down towards Nick’s room.  He stopped at Justin’s opened door and saw him on his knees, quiet sobbing barely audible.  JC ran in the room over to Justin and knelt in front of him, "What’s wrong Justin? What happened?"

"It’s Simon, he came back, he seemed depressed.  I tried to get close at him and he told me to leave him, but I wouldn’t give in.  He lashed out at me, hitting me in the stomach.  I fell down and he just ran off.  I should have left him alone, I shouldn’t have pushed him.  We’ve got to find him JC, he might do something stupid." Justin said quickly, in between sobs.

"Don’t worry Justin.  It’s not your fault.  It must be the medication affecting him.  He shouldn’t have lashed out like that, it’s not your fault."

"He warned me, but I wouldn’t let go, I just kept pushing him.  I don’t know what he’s going to do.  God, I hope he doesn’t do anything stupid." Justin said, JC helping him to his feet.  JC went and told the others what had happened, and they all met up in the corridor.

"Let’s just split up and search for him.  We’ll all meet up at the arena at...say...5:15, but we can’t be any later than that if we want to pull the concert off." Kevin said, trying to bring order to chaos.  The guys headed downstairs, and hopped into a few cars which had been rented especially for them.   They drove round in twos, trying to cover the streets systematically. JC and Justin drove around the area close to the hotel, but couldn’t find any signs of him.   They searched virtually every street they came across, but found no sign of me. Justin pulled the car over after driving for almost an hour and got out and started walking through the pedestrianized zones.  The two split up and covered the area in a systematic pattern.  Justin jumped when his phone rang.

"Justin, it’s Chris. I’ve just seen him. He just walked into the station."

"Ok Chris, I’ll be right over!" Justin said relieved, running back to the car. He rang JC and they both met at the car.  Justin drove off quickly towards the main train station.  By the time he got there, Chris and Joey were standing outside, and Justin ran over to them.

"Justin, he brought a ticket and went through to the platform." Chris said as Justin stood catching his breath.

"Which way did he go?" Justin practically screamed at Chris, who just pointed towards one of the platforms.  Justin took off after me, taking the stairs 3, sometimes 4, at a time.  Just as he reached the platform, the train I was on started pulling away.  He saw me sitting at one of the window seats and started banging on the glass, but I refused to look.  The train accelerated and left Justin standing at the edge of the platform crying.  JC ran over to him and lead him back up to the ticket area and sat him down in a bench.

"What did I do?  If I hadn’t have bothered him he wouldn’t have ran.   I’ve got to find out where that train was going.  He didn’t take much stuff with him, just his passport and wallet.  He can’t go too far." Justin said, trying to wipe the tears from his eyes.  Joey walked over to him.

"Justin, the train was going straight to Paris, and then connects onto the Eurostar back to England."

"So he’s going back to England?  As soon as tonight’s concert’s finished I’m catching the next flight, we have some time off.  I’ve got to try and make him see reason and come back." Justin said, his composure recovering slightly.  They stood up and walked over to the parked cars, calling the other guys to say they had found me.

Joey and Chris got into their car and drove back to the hotel, with Justin and JC right behind them. "Chris, I don’t think it was right doing what you did." Joey said grim faced, not receiving any response.  "Justin’s devastated, he wasn’t going to leave until you said anything.  He was just sitting there.  Why did you have to tell him to go back to England and leave Justin alone?  He’s not in a very good state right now, and Justin is going to go running after him."

"Ok, maybe I was wrong, but what’s done is done.  Justin will never find him, and he’ll get over it.  It’ll be better for the group that way, we don’t need any bad publicity.  Justin doesn’t know where he lives, has no phone number.  He’ll never find him."

"Maybe not, but it might take him longer than you think to get over it. He’ll blame himself, I mean, you saw what he was like.  He’s putting on a brave face now, but he must be breaking up inside." Joey responded.  He wasn’t going to say anything to Justin about what Chris did, it wasn’t his place to do so.   He certainly didn’t agree with it though.  They pulled up at the hotel and went up to the floor in silence.  After about ten or fifteen minutes everyone was assembled.  They all headed off for the concert, not many words being spoken, except for a few words of consolation towards Justin.

The concert could at best be described as average, Justin putting only a half-hearted effort into his performance.  The fans didn’t seem to notice that much however, since he was still good, just below par.  They skipped a couple of planned songs in order to finish the concert as early as possible.  As soon as the concert was over Justin was driven straight to the hotel and packed our things and went straight to the airport.  He was booked on a flight for East Midlands Airport in one hours time.   (EMids airport is the closest one to Nottingham, about 15 miles down the road.) The other guys arrived after a further ten or fifteen minutes and sat with Justin, until they headed for their flight to Paris.

"I’ll fly over when we get to Paris Justin." JC said as he walked over towards his gate. "Look after yourself ok, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!" he said, smiling.  Justin just nodded, and JC walked to his flight.   After almost half an hour of waiting in silence, Justin looked up to see a little girl, about ten or eleven, standing with a pen and paper in front of him.

"Do you want my autograph?" Justin asked, smiling.  She looked in slight confusion at him. "Er,, möchtest du meinen, er... Unterschrift?" Justin said, trying to remember a few words of German.  The girl just nodded, and Justin signed the piece of paper with his autograph.  He saw the girl running back over to presumably her mother, who smiled over at him.  Justin smiled back at her.  The distraction took his mind off of me for at least a little while.   Suddenly, he was brought back to reality by the boarding call.  He got out his seat and handed his boarding pass to the steward and walked onto the plane, taking his seat in first class.   He just closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep.  He slept for nearly thirty minutes when he awoke to the sounds of shouting towards the back of the cabin.

He looked around to see two men, both with guns walking towards the front of the plane.   The cockpit crew closed the door and locked it, while Justin tried to sink out the way.  The gun men started kicking at the door, demanding it be opened.  One of them shot several times at the lock, and eventually it gave way.  They ran into the cockpit and started shouting at the crew.  Justin was scared, and had turned white as a sheet, his arms tightly squeezing onto the arm rests at either side.  He heard a gun shot and one of the men dragged a body out of the cockpit, blood pouring from the man’s head.  Suddenly the plane lurched downwards, a massive rush of wind flowing through the cabin as the front window broke from the bullet impact.  Everything not secured started running towards the front of the plane, flowing out the window as the cabin decompressed.  Justin put the air mask on which fell from the bag rails above.   Suddenly the man with the gun turned and fired out more windows, and a large part of the hull ripped out.  Justin screamed as he went flying out the window into mid air, falling rapidly.

Justin lurched up, a stewardess leaning over him shaking him slightly, "Sir, we’re about to land, could you return your seat to the upright position?" She asked smiling.  Justin pulled his seat upright and wiped the sweat of his brow.  He was reassuring himself it was only a nightmare.  The plane touched the ground and taxied for about ten minutes until the passengers were allowed to disembark.  Justin walked up to passport control, went through pretty quickly, since the airport was almost deserted at 3am in the morning.  He picked the bags up from the baggage claim and walked over to a car rental desk.  The lady at the desk was reluctant to let him have a car, since his age; however, the night manager came over and cleared him out, because of who Justin was, although not recognising him himself.  Justin walked outside and found his car, a Toyota Yaris, which was all they would rent him because of his age.   Justin hadn’t driven in England before, so it took him a while to get used to driving on the left, rather than the right.  He followed the road signs to Nottingham, and then tried to think of how to find me. He pulled over at a phone booth and called the operator, but my name was unlisted.  So, he just drove round the city, keeping mainly to the outer ring road.

He stopped outside a large burnt out building, the whole area taped off.  The burnt out hulls of cars scattered the front, while a large building further back was barely standing.  What made him stop was the figure standing in the middle of the front lot.   Opening the drivers' door he walked out the car and over to the person, who he couldn’t make out due to how dark it was, the nearby street light not functioning.   Justin tapped the person on the shoulder, and he spun round quickly.

I was surprised to see Justin standing in front of me as I turned round, and couldn’t think of anything to say to him.  He just reached out and pulled me into a tight hug, which after a few seconds I returned.

"What happened?" He asked, not trying to force an answer.

"Welcome to my car garage.  It’s the same with every one across the midlands, and my house.  Everything has been burnt to the ground, including all the cars.  Every last bit of money I had was invested into this business, and the insurance company won’t pay for the stock."

"Why not?"

"Since it is supposed to be put into a secure holding at night, all the cars are driven to a lock up on a transporter. Evidently someone didn’t think it was necessary.  They’ll pay for the building damage, but that’s minor.   The stock in total was worth about £30 million, the buildings would be pushing £5 million.  Virtually every penny I earned was invested into this business, mainly as the stock, since we already owned all the locations.  I invested about £20 million of my own money into this place, and look, none of it’s left."

"Won’t you get anything back?"

"Not immediately.  After a year of going through the insurance company they’ll pay up about £5 million for the buildings and equipment, but I won’t see much of that.  Most of the equipment was rented and not owned, it will now have to be paid for completely, that will take a few million away probably.  I’ll have to pay the staff, settle contracts which we can no longer honour.  It’ll all disappear pretty quickly when it turns up.  I’ve got about £100’000 left in my personal bank account.  The private jet’s been destroyed too, burnt out like my house and the garages, I’ve got nothing left.  All my cars, not that I could drive them, everything is gone"

"Don’t worry, I’m here, you didn’t need to run away earlier."

"Can anything ever go right for me, for once in my life, could something actually go according to plan?  You don’t want to hang around me, I’ll bring you bad luck.  I will have to wait for the insurance to come through and start afresh.   I’ll just have to downgrade the level of the business slightly from luxury to second hand cheap cars, since that’s gonna be all I can afford to do."

"No, you’re coming back to the states with me.  I’m not leaving you here.  The doctor said for you to avoid stress and try and relax.  Now, is there anything left of your house?"

"I’ve not been there yet, I’ve just been sitting here for the past hour or so." I replied, not looking him in the face yet.  I was too ashamed of hitting him earlier.  He must have picked this up.

"Don’t worry about earlier, you were under a lot of pressure and just cracked.   It happens to everyone, I shouldn’t have pressured you like I did, you just couldn’t hack it anymore." Justin replied comfortingly.  I smiled slightly for the first time since I received the phone call. "Now, let’s go and see how bad it is.  Whatever it’s like, it doesn’t matter, you’re moving to Florida with me."  Justin said in a commanding tone, pulling me to his car.   I caught the train straight up to Nottingham, and then a cab, not driving anywhere.

I gave Justin directions to my house, and as we rounded the corner we could see the badly damaged building.  The fire crews had managed to contain the fire to a degree, but by the looks of it, the upstairs looking unscarred from the outside. The door had melted shut, so I smashed the glass with a nearby plant pot and climbed through the window.   Everything had turned to ash, all the pictures of my family, the TV, the furniture.   I walked up the stairs, being careful in case they fell in, and entered my study room.  I had a fireproof door fitted, and it seemed to pay off, everything seemed quite intact.  The computer was unscathed in the corner, the piano still in one piece.  I picked up the two pictures of my family off the table and put them into a travel bag.  I left the room and jumped when I heard a slight scream from Justin.   I ran down the stairs, only to see him pointing to the burnt body of my pet snake.

"I forgot you didn’t like snakes.  His name was Bill, 4ft long boa constrictor, quite short really, they get a lot longer, but he wasn’t very old.   Shame really, he was a nice pet." I replied, walking back out the room.   I was surprised I didn't cry or anything, but I wasn't feeling much in terms of emotion right now, I'd blocked everything out, something I'd done every time something went majorleague wrong in my life.  I salvaged a few clothes, but not many, most were stored unprotected.  I went back down to the lounge and pulled out the fire proof safe from underneath the rug.  Justin helped me lift it up as I entered the code on the front and pulled it open.  Inside was a couple of thousand in cash, a photo of me and my parents when I was born and a copy of my will.  I read it over before ripping it up, since nothing on it was much valid anymore.  Finally it happened, I just fell to the floor and started crying, tears running down my face uncontrollably.  Justin tried to comfort me, and after about ten minutes I collected myself and stood back up.   I went back up to my study area and carried out the computer, putting it in the trunk of the car.  I also took out a 303 rifle, original, complete with ammo.  I played with the action a little until it moved freely, unloading the bullets and putting them into a holder.  The gun was my Dad’s, and I never got rid of it after the gun laws made it impossible to keep such a weapon.  I never had a licence, unlike my Dad, but no one knew about it, so it never posed a problem.  I knew it would be impossible to take it out the country, so I just threw it back on the floor.

I couldn’t think of anything else important to bring, so I just left the house, putting a note on the door.  As we walked towards the car, Sue, my next door neighbour came running out.  I exchanged a few words, telling her I would be gone for a while before driving off with Justin to the hotel.  We had still paid for the penthouse suites, so we checked in and just collapsed on the bed, both of us exhausted, it being almost 4am by now.

I surprised myself by sleeping relatively peacefully, expecting a night filled with nightmares.  Justin on the other hand was tossing and turning all night.  I tried to comfort him and, eventually, he settled down.  We slept through til about 10am before waking up. We both got ready quite slowly.  I wore a collar and tie along with a dark pinstripe business suit, while Justin dressed casually.  I rang Paul Loch, the assistant manager and arranged to meet up at the garage for 12, along with the police and insurance people.  Justin drove me back to the garage, following my directions. He almost strayed onto the wrong side of the road once or twice, and I kept reminding him to keep to the left.  We pulled up outside at about ten to, and everyone else except the insurance people were present.

"Hello Paul, glad to see that you take such good care of my business." I said sarcastically as I shook hands with him.

"I told Mike to make sure all the cars were locked up.  I was entertaining our guests from Munich at the time.  He said he would sort everything out.  It turns out he cancelled the transporters to take the cars to the lock up and told the branch supervisors not to worry.  Now he’s nowhere to be found."

"So are we running along the obvious train of thought here?  That absolutely bastard, I’ll have his head on a silver platter if it’s the last thing I do.   He’s ruined me Paul, ruined me." I replied calmly.  I walked over to the police seargent who was surveying the scene. "Any ideas how they started it?"

"Looks like every single car was doused in petrol and then set up.  The building along the same lines.  Most of the petrol tanks exploded.  The fire people had trouble getting close to contain the fire due to all the explosions sir.  I take it you’re Mr. Williams, the owner?"

"The one and only."

"Well, Mr. Loch thought it might be the work of a Mike Williams, one of the board directors.  Do you have any idea what would make him do something like this?"

"Mike always seemed a conservative guy, the sort of person you would trust and let into your house.  I would have never have dreamt he would do anything along the lines of this.  He completely sabotaged everything, including my house.  There’s not a single car left.  Speaking of that, would you excuse me, I do believe the insurance assessor just arrived." I said, walking away from the police officer to the two men in suits who just pulled up.

"Hello, I’m Mr. Williams, the owner. Thank you for coming so quickly."

"That’s what we’re here for sir.  We’re going to have a look around and survey the damage, look at the initial reports from the fire officer, and then obtain a detailed report as soon as one is issued.  Since this appears so far to be an inside job at night, with the vehicles on the premises, we can’t say exactly what will be covered and by how much right now sir."

"Perfectly understandable.  Since it was a malicious act by an employee, surely that must alter the grounds of the vehicles being left out however?"

"I’m afraid not sir.  If anything, it will reduce the pay-out, since it could have been avoided if a more stringent system was in place in watching the staff conduct there business."

"Ok, I’ll let you get back to your business gentlemen, thank you for your time." I said, walking back to Justin, who was standing over by the car.   "This does not look good.  It seems to be employee sabotage, and the insurance company seem reluctant to even pay the full amount, since it would seem like a way to get money, by destroying your own property.  This is a major mess if I’ve ever seen one."

"Don’t worry, it’ll all get sorted out, just try and relax a little, you don’t want to get to stressed out or you might have a heart attack or something."

"That really wouldn’t surprise me right now, especially with how things are going." I replied, putting on a slight smile.  Inside though, I was falling apart.  My whole life was falling apart around me, and right now Justin seemed the only stable thing left, everything else that had ever been important to me was dead or destroyed.  I wiped the few tears that were starting to form on my eyes. "Let’s just go back to the hotel and meet up with the other guys.  Paul will sort out everything that needs to be done for me, that’s what I pay him for.  I don’t know what’s going to happen here, but I can’t stand to be around it." I said quietly, sitting into the passenger side of the car.  Justin walked round and drove off back to the hotel.  We put our bags in the trunk and headed towards the airport.  As we were leaving Nottingham, I told Justin to turn right, taking us to my house.  We pulled up outside and both went in.  Justin carefully climbed up the stairs to have a look round, while I just sat on the remnants of the kitchen table.   I walked out into the conservatory, all the glass smashed and looked out onto the small garden.  The grass needed mowing, which I almost found funny, considering.

I jumped at the sound of a click behind me.  It took me a second to register what the sound was, "That sounds familiar.  Who do I know who would break into my house, burn it down along with all my garages, and steal a Walther PPK from my gun cabinet?   Hmm, let me think...hello Micheal." I said turning round, to be confronted with the barrel of a gun pointing into my face.  I tried to act calm, and not show any fear, but after his recent actions, I was bloody terrified that he might actually shoot me.

"Hello Adam, nice to see you again.  I’m glad you like my handy work.   It took a lot to pull that off."

"Why did you go it Mike, I’ve tried to help you, I gave you a job, I paid you a good wage, I gave you a good deal of money.  You’re the one who deserted, not me, you were owed nothing, everything I did was out of generosity, which seems to have been stupidly misplaced." I said, taking a few steps away from the gun.

"You got everything, absolutely everything.  I got nothing.  You might have given me a job, a few thousand pounds, but you inherited everything.  I didn’t desert, I was forced out, you forced me out."

"You bloody well ran out the house when I was 14 and told you I was gay.  Ok, you were 24, but you never said a word of goodbye.  You just disappeared, no one knew where you went.  Hell, Mum thought you were dead or something.  You turned your back on mum and dad.  So, where were you at their funeral?"

"You know I wasn’t even in England, we’ve been through this before Simon.   I couldn’t care less.  I wanted to ruin you, let you suffer a bit, and now I’m going to finish the job and kill you, you bastard.  You’ll finally get what you deserve for being the fuckin’ fag that you are.  If Dad knew about you, I would have received every penny he had, he wouldn’t have wanted someone like you to get it."

"I thought higher of you than this, Micheal.  Well, go pull the trigger then, kill your own younger brother, the kid you used to play with as a young boy, who you used to take walks with.  Go and, just pull the damn trigger and kill me in cold blood." I said, waiting a few seconds. "PULL THE GOD DAMNED TRIGGER YOU COWARD." I screamed at him.

He squeezed his finger on the trigger, the gun aimed square at my head.  As his finger tightened, the inevitable bang followed...

The end, or to be continued?

I know what’s going to happen, you’ll have to wait until chapter eight to find out whether this is the end of this story or not. However, if I don’t get a single reply asking if he’s going to die or not, or to persuade me to continue the story, I might end it. I asked at the end of chapter six on whether or not to end the story. Whether this story will go on or not is based of those replies. Chapter eight is already underway as you read this. Is Simon dead, or isn’t he? Tune in for the next exciting episode of Tests of Friendship:) Oh yeah, by the way, the story now has it’s own web site, with a few pictures on. I intend to increase the gallery in the future, since I have more pics to put on, but I won’t do it just yet, in a few weeks maybe.    You know the drill by now, email me at trekster2@hotmail.com with any ideas, suggestions thoughts, and whether Simon should die or not.  Also, we've yet to find out who did the recording.  If the story does end, it will be revealed in the next chapter.  If the story doesn't end, it will be revealed in the next chapter:)  I'm not giving you any hints on what's going to happen.

AD.