You Are the Key

Chapter One:

“You want the rest of this?” I asked Brandon while rubbing his arm to wake him up, and he moaned, opening his eyes. The road trip to Lakeview, New York had taken every ounce of energy out of him. Mostly because he’d gone without a hit all day, and was feeling like a truckload of horse shit… but beside the fact, he’d been asleep practically the whole trip even before he’d started crashing. Bran took the melting container of ice cream from me and stirred it, staring tiredly into the chocolate mess.

“What time is it?” He ate, leaning his head on my shoulder. I noted the quiet, congested hiss in his voice.

“Time to get your ass up.” Gavin called from the front seat, honking the horn for emphasis. The start of a smile graced Bran’s lips for just a moment. He slurped up a spoonful of ice cream and then licked his lips in effort to not make his face a sticky mess. Gavin and I held eye-shining smiles, until Jackie woke up, grumbling.

Just… perfect.

“No, seriously… what time is it?” Brandon said, pulling my arm up to his face to look at my blocky wristwatch. He sighed and kissed my wrist when he saw the time. Even though he loved sleeping, he hated if he slept past one o’clock. It made him feel like there was no point in waking up; he’d already slept away half the day, after all. There was no fault to his logic, but as anyone could see, if you spent day after day sleeping in with the same logic – you never wanted to wake up.

A problem could develop with that kind of thinking, and Bran didn’t need another bullet on the list.

“It’s almost noon.” I told reassured him. My hand, with a mind of its own, started to rub his back calmly. It was his only weakness, being treated with care. I was the only one who ever saw how depraved and wounded he was. Nobody cared to see that far into him. Or maybe they didn’t know there was more to the picture? Yeah, the guys respected him and so they would never go behind his back or do anything intentionally to piss him off, but in retrospect, they didn’t see too far into how he really felt.

My hand made slow, soft circles on his back and he purred, eventually falling back to sleep. Even though he was a mess, I still cared for the poor bastard, and seeing him this at ease made me smile. There was a beast in me that found comfort in his happiness.

“I don’t know why you waste your time...” Jackie yawned, looking back at us from the passenger side. I rolled my eyes and took the ice cream from Brandon gently. He didn’t move once. “He’s on a one way train to Hell.” She said, picking at her nails. I narrowed my eyes at her and she cocked her head sideways.

Why did she have to challenge everything?

“We listened to your shitty Almighty God Speaks channel yesterday for three hours just so you’d be happy. Bran and Gavin are keeping the swearing down to a minimum, and your brother hasn’t smoked a cigarette since Friday. Be happy. Just, please…” My sigh resonated through the car, mixing with the warm hum of the tires and the sing of the highway. Jackie glared at me and turned around, she was lucky I had a tolerance for juniors with God fetishes.

But hey, whatever floats your boat.

Brandon shifted completely and lay with his legs curled up to his stomach. Just the nerve of Jackie… She had no right, not a single say in the matter. How could she accuse him of being a waste? Surely she hasn’t seen his good side.