above all (m×m) ✔

28) dusty old book stores

"Have you read Wuthering Heights from Brontë?" Trey asked, and, in retrospect, that should have been the first hint for Brandon to back off. It was a book about a destructive and unhealthy romance, ending with an obsession taken too far. "And this, I think you'd like this."

"Thank you." Brandon breathed, as Trey handed him the books. On top of the stack was a book called The Go-between, which Brandon had never so much as heard from.

"Read them, and then come back to tell me what you thought about them." Trey said, his tone telling he knew Brandon was going to do so.

"Oh, so you work here?" Brandon couldn't hide the disappointment from his tone. There he had been thinking someone could have actually been interested in him, when the guy was just flirting to get him to buy something. He wasn't sure why he was even surprised about that.

"I'm helping around a friend." Trey shrugged. Yet, when Brandon nodded and turned to leave, he called after him: "But that's not why I wanted to talk to you. Read the books, come back here and then I'll take you out for coffee and we can discuss literature. I'm open to other topics as well."

Brandon had never read faster than he binged those books, eager to go back and find out whether the guy had been serious or just pulling his leg. They went for that coffee, talked about literature and laughed at each other's jokes. For a while Brandon was happier than he had ever been, but, as they say, nothing good lasts forever.

"Do you remember when I stopped coming to FAB?" Brandon asked, then chewed his lower lip while his friends answered with nods and yeses. "I was seeing this one guy, Treyton. He wasn't exactly.. nice", Brandon halted, throwing his hands in the air and chucking joylessly. "You know what I was like when I came back."

"Brandon, you don't ha—" Ash began.

"I do." Brandon cut him short. Steven had made sure Brandon took his meds that morning, as if he no longer believed Brandon was capable of taking care of such a simple task. Which was right, of course, and knowing for certain that he had taken his meds, he felt steadier already. "He was charming and nice at first, but over time something changed."

That something started when Brandon made the mistake of admitting that before the day they met, he had never read anything from Proust or Faulkner. He only said it to make Trey laugh, but instead he got a look disappointed enough to crush all the confidence he had found during the weeks spent with Trey. They talked about it afterwards and agreed it was silly, but Brandon could never truly move on from that look and how it shattered something irreversible in him, and between them.

"He didn't want me to keep seeing you." Brandon admitted, sighing. Steven took his hand and gave it an encouraging squeeze, which Brandon answered by squeezing his hand even tighter. "He was jealous, and he just.. lost control whenever something I did pissed him off."

"Lost control like hit you, or..?" Benjamin asked, his dark eyes impossibly darker as he stared at Brandon. He didn't even know Brandon that well, and yet he had murder and despair in his tone. Miles wrapped his arm around Benjamin's shoulders, pulling him to his side.

"What didn't he do?" Ash grumbled, more to himself, and raked his hand through his bleached hair. If Benjamin was angry, Ash was shaking with fury. He knew the story already, but it didn't make it any easier to hear.

"Yeah, he hit me." Brandon agreed, leaving the rest unsaid: and yelled and kicked and said I was a waste of breath, then called it love. "Then, one night, he hit me too hard, I ended up in a hospital and he in prison."

It was technically true. Trey had beaten him up that night and Brandon had woken up in a hospital, while Trey was taken in custody. Maybe he left out a few details, but the outcome was still the same.