"Hey, you okay?" Tina asked, looking up at me.

It felt like walking into a dream. I let Tina go and ran my hand along the bureau that had pictures of him and I or him and William tucked into the sides of the mirror behind it. I pulled one out of the three of us and stood staring at it for a moment or two.

I placed it down and went to his closet. There were his assortment of clothes, mostly designer, he was well into fashion since he was a teenager. He half thought of becoming a model, but my father squashed that idea as soon as he spoke up about it.

I knelt on the floor and rummaged in the bottom. Wondering if it would be there. Everything else was here.

"Alex? Is everything..."

I held up my finger for Tina to hold that thought as I found what I was looking for. I pulled out the box and swiped some dust off of the top.

"What's in the box?" Tina asked.

I sat upon the bed and opened it. Tina came further into the room and sat beside me.

"It was our memory box, Aidan and mine. Whenever something good happened to us, we'd take a memento of the moment and we'd keep it in here. I thought it disappeared when my parents had turned my room into a guest bedroom, but I had forgotten that Aidan had the box last."

I pulled out a gay pride pin. "This was the pin, William had given Aidan when he finally admitted to him that he was gay." I ran my thumb over the pin. "It was also the day that he told me he was in love with my best friend," I half laughed and half sobbed from the memory.

It was all there, in the box, every shared moment my brother and I had, our triumphs, our awards but also just our special moments together.

A small rock had caught my notice. "No, it can't be?" I said, pulling it out, it was exactly what I thought it was, it still had a little blood on it from where it cut Aidan's forehead. I didn't know he kept it. That was the day I stood up to Aidan's bullies.

We were coming home. It was eighth grade. Some no account named Colin kept at him, everyday at school. I hated that kid. One day he was lying in wait for Aidan, him and a few of his buddies.

We heard a loud bang in an alley and someone yell, "Hey, Homo!" Aidan turned to look and got hit in the forehead with a rock. It gashed him and blood ran down his face. I lost it. I went charging into that alley, tackled and beat the crap out of Colin until his two friends pulled me off of him and pinned me to the wall.

Colin stood up. His nose bloodied, his eye already starting to swell, and suckered me right in my stomach. I groaned in pain and that's when I'd seen Aidan, blood dripping down his face, pull on Colin's arm when he pulled it back to hit me again, and then Aidan hit him square in the face.

Colin's eyes rolled into his head. His cronies were too scared when they'd seen Colin drop to his knees and face plant into the ground. They let me go and took off, not even bothering to help or check to see if Colin was okay.

I rolled Colin over. He was just knocked out, so we left him there. I took off and handed Aidan my hoodie to clean up his face. The cut was minor. He was just hit in the right spot that it bled a lot.

He then apologized to me that I got involved.

"They are only picking on you because you're gay," I announced, anger making the words sound harsh.

Aidan winced. "You know?"

"Of course I know. You're my brother," I told him.

"And you still came to my aid?" Aidan said surprised by the idea.

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