Fanboy (boyxboy)

A World Alone

"No, don't come over," Adam gasped. "I'll come to you, just stay where you are."

"Okay, but," Brent took a slow breath. Cole tossed Adam's keys at him and Adam managed to catch them. "Can you stay on the phone with me?"

"Yeah, I'll stay on the phone with you, just calm down. I'll be right there," Adam promised and ran out the door.

"I don't understand, Adam, this was never supposed to happen. I just thought, oh my god, I'm so stupid."

"No, you're not stupid."

"You don't even know, I can't even-" Brent started crying so hard Adam couldn't understand anything else he said for the rest of the drive.

Brent was still crying when Adam got to his house. All he could do was hug him and wait until he calmed down enough to explain.

"I need Dax, I need him back," Brent kept saying. "I want him to take me back."

"Okay, why don't I call Maddox and ask him to come home?"

"He won't, he left me, Adam. He's never coming back."

"I'm going to call him," Adam decided. Brent was too upset to tell the story right but he didn't know that Adam knew Dax hadn't really left him. Then again, maybe Brent was so messed up he couldn't understand anymore.

"Adam, what's going on?" Maddox answered right away.

"Maddox, um," Adam paused, remembering Brent could hear his side of the conversation. "It's Adam, um, can you come home?"

"Is that a trick question?"

"No, I know you said you wouldn't, but Brent needs to tell you something," Adam hoped that didn't sound suspicious. He didn't want to be the one to tell Brent that Dax was at his house. "I think you should listen."

"Okay," Maddox sighed. "You know what I said, if he's going to admit he has a problem, yeah, I'll come."

"Just come here. See you when you get here," Adam put his phone down and looked at Brent.

"Is he coming?"

"Yes," Adam nodded. "Can you tell me the truth?"

"I always-"

"No, you don't, but tell me now. Are you on something?"

Brent's expression told Adam everything he needed to know. Cole was right.

"How did you know?"

"It's the only explanation that makes sense," Adam took a deep breath. "What is it, Brent?"

"You know that preworkout I told you about?" Brent wiped his face. "I knew it was bad stuff, but it made me feel better, and then there was so much going on I kept taking it and I knew I was taking it too much but it helped. It's so hard, Adam, you don't even know, being in love with someone who's as depressed as Dax was and trying to be there with him while everything else was going on. There was just all this pressure and everyone was always looking at me, they're still always looking at me and I'm not..."

"Okay," Adam hugged Brent as he started crying again. "You have to pick, Brent. Drugs or Dax?"

"You know what I want, don't ask me that."

"Say it out loud."

"Dax, I pick Dax. I've always picked Dax."

"I know," Adam choked back the tears that were trying to escape. "Let's go get your stash. All of it. Every last bit."

Adam followed Brent to his car where he pulled out a gym bag and showed Adam the small collection of pill bottles. They had labels and looked like every other supplement you could buy at a store but Adam had a feeling the labels didn't actually have anything to do with what was inside.