Lovely Bastards (BxB) (MxM)

Chapter 25 - The Likes of You

"Where do you think you are going?"

The words made Kit's head stop spinning, adrenaline shooting through him and slicing through his buzz, shocking him back into himself, vision sharpening to a pinpoint.

No.

He'd walked into a trap. It may have been a while, but Kit would recognize this feeling anywhere, this dropping of his gut, the scent of their triumph in the air.

Scent...

Oliver's eyes burned into his.

"I'll do anything to not be like that – bullied – " he spat out the word, "anymore. Even join them. Even be worse than them."

Kit stared back at him, thoughts whirring. 

He hadn't really remembered his mother's death since it happened, had refused to. Her face haunted his dreams, and he spent his days seeking any and every distraction.

As the memory rushed through him, crystal-clear, impossible to avoid for the first time since his birthday, Kit felt as if someone had knocked the air out of him. 

Because he'd done it again.

Charlie.

Kit almost laughed. It was so stupid, so classic.

He wasn't mad at his uncle - even though Charlie had done terrible things - he was mad at himself. 

He'd hit the wrong person. Shouted at the wrong person. 

And left the one person in his life he cared about alone.

Again.

He'd acted just the same - screaming, fighting, running. Drinking and making bad decisions. For months, he'd been running from that memory. 

And now he was here. 

Well shit.

A painful twist of his wrists brought him back into the present, and his eyes snapped up to meet Oliver's, lips drawing back so he could snarl at his former friend. 

You thought he was too weak to hurt you, didn't you? Stupid, Kit.

"You're the one who showed me a way out."

Oliver looked down at him, triumph and pity mingling in his gaze.

"A chance. You told me Tyson wanted me..."

"Oliver, you  – "

"And you were right. He even fought with Corey over me, like I said. But that left Corey prickly, Tyson on edge, and they could have turned their anger right back at me."

"Why would you – "

"I needed something to...forge us together. A common enemy. Someone that annoyed them both, bested them both – that humiliated them, that refused to back down or be cowed, that Corey couldn't forget about, stop hating, stop wanting."

He stroked Kit's face. "They couldn't forget what you did. And they need someone new to pick on."

"Someone new."

Me.

"You god-damn fucking son of a - "

I thought we were friends. 

"All I needed to make them stop hurting me was a few smiles, my body, and – "

The blond turned to face him, a mad glint in his eyes.