Kieran & Drew (26 page)

Looking at the facts, he knew he was a brat. His father had given him a restaurant, and he’d stormed out of the house. Who did that? But things between them were not so black and white, and though he felt that if he were to be put on the spot and asked exactly why it was he was so angry he would probably fuck it up and just sound dumb, he knew the feelings he felt were just and not so easily erased with such a grand gesture.

Explain that to a guy whose uncle, who he rarely saw, was a more prominent father figure than his own father, though. There was no doing it.

“It’s nothing,” he answered, and felt the tension inside of him wind all the tighter for not being able to share his feelings with Drew, of all people.

“You sure?”

 

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He shot Drew a smile that he hoped seemed genuine. “It’s nothing worth mentioning.”

 

“Okay, well, if you’re sure.” He tapped his thumb against the steering wheel.

“So, um.” Kieran cleared his throat, desperate to lighten the mood for what was supposed to be a surprise for him and a fun day out. “Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” He was glad to see Drew’s excited grin return.

“Alright, so first off, you need to know that my own enthusiasm for surprising you may have actually hyped up where it is we’re going.”

Right then Kieran couldn’t have cared less—he was just happy to be alone with Drew—but Drew’s earnestness was infectious and he found himself grinning. “Are you going to tell me where we’re going?”

Drew didn’t answer; instead he stopped and put the car into park. “I don’t have to, we’re here.”

Kieran frowned and looked out the passenger window and windshield. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. There was the Subway, the comic book store—which looked unusually busy—and the movie house down the street. “I don’t get it.”

“We’re going to the comic book store.”

 

Kieran stared at him blankly and then snorted. “Okay, well I am
surprised
.”

“No, no, no.” Drew unbuckled and then reached into his back jeans pocket to pull out a very wrinkled and slightly torn flyer. “Check it out.” He handed it over.

Kieran read the flyer, letting out a quiet gasp when he realized what it said. “Mike Haven is doing a comic book signing?
Here
?”

“Yep!” Drew beamed, pleased as hell with himself. “He’s doing some sort of tour thing, even visiting small towns. Maybe there’s another movie coming out?” He shrugged.

“How did I not know about this?”

“You never get involved with anything going on in Keys.
Ever
. I’m not astonished you missed it, but I’m real glad you did, because now I get to be the badass boyfriend who surprised you.”

“B-but how did
you
know about it?”

“You remember when we came here ages ago, that first time? I saw the flyer then. I swiped it and googled the guy’s name. He’s one of the artists for those graphic novels you like, right?”

“Oh my God.” It was by far the coolest surprise he ever had, and he’d had a few of those lately. He unbuckled at the speed of light and flung himself at Drew in a bear hug. “You are so awesome!”

Drew laughed, giving him a squeeze. “Cool. I’m glad I could put a smile on your face, even if I didn’t really do anything.”

 

“This is so amazing—oh!” he gasped, realizing that he was empty-handed, which was no way for a fan to meet one of his idols. “What?”

 

“Do we have time to swing back by my house? I have nothing for him to sign.”

“See, this is where I really
am
the shit.” Drew leaned back over his seat, reaching for his backpack. “The last time I was over, I swiped a load of your comic—I mean
graphic novels
with this dude’s name on them.”

“You fucking sneak.” He grinned affectionately, taking the books in hand.

 

“Did I do good?”

 

“You did awesome, just wait until I get you alone later, I’m not even kidding. That’s how psyched I am.”

“Score.”
“In every sense of the word.”

Drew laughed, tipping his head back slightly. “Let’s get going. I think there’s quite a line forming inside.”
H
E’D expected Kieran to be happy, but not
this
happy. He thought it

was due mostly to him genuinely being excited to meet the artist of one of his favorite graphic novels, and then perhaps in part to his crappy morning. He didn’t know what had gone on between Kieran and his dad, and to be honest, there was a strange truce of sorts between them when it came to discussing it.

He’d never quite opened up about his dad to anyone the way he had to Kieran, and he thought the case may be the same for Kieran, but all the same, there was a hesitance between them now to discuss it any further. He thought it had to be that Kieran felt it unfair to discuss the issues he had with his father in front of him, whose father was more or less completely absent from his life. And though that wasn’t how he wanted it to be, it was for now probably easier that way. He didn’t want to be jealous, and he certainly didn’t want to make Kieran think his issues with his dad were smaller or held less significance, but there wasn’t really any common ground when it came to this one thing.

Looking at Kieran now, however, Drew thought he seemed happy. Happy because of where he was and what he was doing, even though it wasn’t anything Drew would consider life-altering. But happy was good. Being happy is being distracted and that was the best possible departure from whatever was bothering Kieran. Or so he told himself.

Kieran had his signed comic book and stood with his hand raised, waiting to ask a question in an impromptu Q and A. He always thought Kieran was good-looking, but he was especially cute when he was as eager and engaged in something as he was now. Drew was ruminating on this as he leaned against the counter at the back of the store, behind all the other people with their hands raised, when Kieran glanced back, looking for him. He was pretty well hidden where he was, so he lifted a hand in a wave to get his attention. Kieran saw him and discreetly wove through the modest crowd toward him.

“Hey, what are you doing at the back on your own?” Kieran asked quietly.

“I was watching.”
“Aww. Creepy.”

He grinned, and after casting a quick look around the room and at the back of people’s heads, he pressed a kiss to Kieran’s cheek, resting his hand at the small of Kieran’s back.

“That was brave.” Kieran looked at him and blinked rapidly for a second. “And nice.”

 

“No one was looking.”

He had only a second to consider what Kieran’s mischievous grin was about before Kieran—much as he had—glanced around them and then pushed him behind an empty comic book rack. He pressed his body flush against Drew’s and reached for his face to bring him down for a hard kiss.

It felt secretive and wonderful, and he held Kieran close, enjoying the feel of his smaller frame against him. It didn’t feel like anything could ever be less than perfect—until suddenly it was.

“Drew.”

They pulled apart with quick intakes of breath to see Matt standing off to their left, his expression completely blank. Drew felt his stomach drop, and he took a single step away from Kieran. A quick look at Kieran and he could see how his shoulders rolled forward and that his cheeks were flushed with heat and anticipation of something unpleasant.

“Matt. What… what are you—?”

“What am I doing here?” Matt asked, his words clipped. He lifted his chin over to where Travis was sifting through a sales bin of merchandise. “I brought Travis here to get an autograph from that artist guy. But you’d know that if you weren’t such a shit friend. You would know this if you hadn’t ignored me for the past few weeks, wouldn’t you?”

“Do you two want to talk alone?” Kieran began, looking between the exit of the store and the small crowd oblivious to the awkward and hushed discussion going on behind them.

“No,” Drew answered, almost urgently.

“Yes,” Matt practically spat, surprising them both. “Yeah, maybe get lost for like… five minutes? Give me just a little time with the guy who used to be my best friend until you arrived?”

Kieran blinked in hurt, stunned silence. He looked between Drew and Matt, that old feeling of being the outsider sneaking back in. “I never—I never stopped him from—”

“I was nice to you,” Matt said, his face twisting slightly. “You know? I was nice to you even when your
boyfriend
here wasn’t.”

“Matt, shut it,” Drew hissed, already seeing that familiar expression of discomfort shutter across Kieran’s face. He took Kieran’s hand in his own but was dismayed when Kieran slowly pulled it free. “Kier, it’s okay—”

“Do you honestly have to hold his hand through everything? It’s not enough that he’s come between us, but he can’t even speak for himself?”

Kieran shook his head when Drew reached for him again. “I’ll be outside by the car.” He didn’t spare a glance backward as he wove his way through the crowd to the front of the store.

Drew turned back to Matt, furious. “The fuck is your problem?” he hissed.

Matt took two quick steps forward and shoved him none too gently in the chest so that he took a staggering step backward. “My problem? My problem is that you completely blanked me for
weeks
.”

“I-I was….”
“Busy? With your
boyfriend
?”

Drew winced at how Matt used the word in an effort to wound him. “I didn’t know what to say,” he offered lamely.

 

“What, you thought I’d call you a fag and never speak to you again?”

 

Drew could only shrug, but this just seemed to piss him off further.

 

“You’re unbelievable. You dickhead. You absolute dickhead.” “Well, look at the way you’re being! Look at the way you spoke to Kieran!”

“I’m pissed at Kieran because I was nothing but nice to him and he paid me back by stealing my best friend, by making me fucking invisible to you.”

“Do you have any idea how pathetic that sounds?”

Matt started to say something, stopped, and then stepped forward, crowding Drew back against a bookcase. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to have the guy who you thought was your closest friend not only ignore you, but think so little of you as to not share the most intimate, important, and fucking
obvious
of secrets?”

Drew blinked. “Ob-obvious?”

Matt’s shoulders slumped and he stepped back, his head tilting sadly to one side. “I should have been the very
first
person you told. I would have had your back in a second flat.”

“Crap,” he whispered. “Crap, Matt… I was scared shitless of you… of—”

 

“Don’t you dare say you thought I’d hate you.”

 

“Or that you’d be uncomfortable. Like you’d think I was in love with you or some shit. Or I wouldn’t feel like your brother anymore.” “So instead you cut me off completely,” he said. “That makes
perfect
sense.”

Drew nodded. “It sounds so dumb saying it to your face like this.” “It sounds
retarded
.”

Drew shook his head. “You don’t get it, Matt. You don’t get the fear of maybe… of potentially losing—”

 

“Let me make this easier for you.” Matt cut him off with a shake of his head. “You’re gay. And I don’t give a fuck.”

A quiet, almost hysterical, and brief laugh burst out of him and a weight he hadn’t even realized he was carrying lifted off his chest. “That means a lot.”

“I’m still pissed, Drew. I’m pissed at the pair of you for not giving me a second thought and leaving me out in the cold.” Drew worried the corner of his mouth. “You don’t really hate Kieran, do you?”

 

Matt rolled his eyes. “Of course I don’t. He’s just as big of a selfish dick as you are, that’s all.”

 

Drew shook his head. “No, he’s not.”

Matt looked at him for a few seconds and then sighed. “No, he’s not,” he admitted quietly, then scratched his cheek. “I guess I was having a bitch fit at losing my favorite toy to him.”

“Did you really just refer to me as your
favorite toy
?” Drew grinned hesitantly.

“Shut up,” he muttered and then looked at Drew seriously. “At the risk of sounding completely self-centered, you cutting me out the way you did really didn’t feel too great, Drew.”

Drew studied him, realizing—now that he was finally speaking frankly with him—just how much he’d missed his best friend. “I have one more big secret.”

Matt raised an eyebrow, saying nothing.

 

“I love Kieran,” he said in a rush, and let out a deep breath. “I’m completely in love with Kieran.” He laughed breathlessly.

 

Both of Matt’s eyebrows disappeared somewhere near his hairline. “Um. O-okay?”

He refrained from rolling his eyes. “The significance of this being that I’m telling you before I’ve even told him—before admitting it to myself, even.”

“So this is you throwing me a bone?”
Drew nodded. “Something like that.”
Matt deliberated. “Okay, I’ll take it.”
“We’re friends again?”

“I’m no longer going to beat you,” Matt said and crossed his arms over his chest, glancing back to check on his brother. “I’m still pissed at you, though.”

“A true friend would forgive me,” Drew teased with a hesitant but weak smile.

Matt narrowed his eyes and let out an agitated breath. “Dammit.” “I’m sorry.” Which was really what he should have begun with. Matt nodded. “Yeah, okay, I guess.”
“I’ll be better.”
“Damn straight you will.”

Drew groaned. “Am I going to have to stand outside your bedroom window holding a fucking boom box to get you to forgive me?”

“You’re making jokes?
Really
?”

Drew bit back a smile, but then looked down to where he scuffed a shoe nervously, his hands in his pockets. “Matt, you are going to apologize to Kieran, right?” The quiet stretched on for so long that Drew glanced up. Matt wasn’t smiling.

“I suppose I should, seeing that I was sort of but not really out of line. And because you’re all in love, and stuff.”

 

“He’s really important, Matt.”

 

Matt watched him, and then nodded. “Okay. Just. Just don’t forget that I’m important too, okay?”

Drew pulled Matt into a brotherly hug, murmuring his apologies again. It was only after a brief moment of hesitation that Matt patted his back. “We’re good?” he asked.