The Falling Rain

Chapter 6

Prapai pulled into his friends drive and knew the moment he stepped out that Saifah had not managed to calm down and must have encountered his brother.

"...didn't even take the time to find out if you were on the same page! You can't just assume things like that! Think about what you put that poor boy through and then you did it again! We drove around for hours that night trying to find him after the first time and then you really did it again! What is wrong with you?"

Oh man, Saifah was really mad. Prapai didn't really want to interrupt the verbal lashing his friend was getting, it was very well deserved, but he really needed to diffuse this before something happened that the brothers would regret.

Prapai walked into the room and placed his hand on Saifah's shoulder. The other man didn't look ready to yield but couldn't really resist when the grocery bag was shoved at him.

"You deal with this, I'll continue where you left off. You're too kind to be this riled up."

Saifah have him a small smile and left the room but did take a moment to send his brother one last severe glare, this was apparently not over between them.

"Yu, what happened? You're not typically like this.l, why would you force yourself onto that poor boy? According to his friend, he's pretty messed up by this all.

"I'm going to tell you something, it's all conjecture but from what I've heard it's very likely. I don't think this boy was aware of his feelings towards men. On top of that, I think he is a complete virgin and I'm pretty sure you sent him into a sub drop."

Phayu looked absolutely horrified.

"I really didn't mean for all of this to happen, the first time he responded so easily and naturally that I just went with it. I wanted to see what happened when he took off but I never found him. Pai, he ran out barefoot! His shoes are still in my room at the shop. I should have behaved better. Then at the school we were in that bathroom and the closeness and his responses got the better of me. I don't have an excuse, I'm so disgusted with myself."

"I mean, A+for self awareness but your self hatred isn't going to help this boy work through what you've done. I decided props would help best right now." He grabbed the second bag that he hadn't handed to Saifah.

"Take the plate and throw it down." He said while handing it to Phayu. The other man did as instructed and the heavy plate shattered into quite a few large chunks. "The plate represents Rain, his trust, and his emotional and mental wellbeing. Do you feel bad for having broken it?"

Phayu nodded, looking a little shocked at the physical representation of the pain his actions caused. It hurt to see the ramifications of his impulses so dramatically illustrated and he couldn't help but feel the telltale sting in his eyes thinking of Rain broken and scared.

"Good. Tell it sorry, tell it you feel bad." His friend repeated it, sounding truly awful and emotionally a bit wrecked. "I'm not trying to be cruel, Phayu, but do you see how your regrets and apologies didn't fix anything? You can't just say sorry or say you feel bad and expect the hurt to all go away. It takes action, it takes a real effort put forth to change.

"If you truly care about this boy as much as you claimed you did, then you need to give him space to heal and when he's ready then you can work on showing him that you're capable of thinking with your head and not your dick. Show him that you can be caring and attentive, kind and doting. You're going to have to show him you can be the exact opposite of what you were, okay?"

Phayu nodded and collected the pieces of the plate, imagining them as Rain had hurt and he couldn't bring himself to throw them in the trash. He had an idea for this and so he was going to keep these pieces as a reminder.

While his friend was walking away, Prapai got a text from an unknown number.

From Unknown:
[Let me know how that talk goes. This is Sky]

Then another came in right after.

From Unknown:
[I'm Rains friend you met at the store, I dont think I ever actually gave you my name. Sorry.]

Prapai couldn't help but smile at the young man's adorable misstep. He hadn't remembered to ask for his name so he couldn't be mad that it hadn't been offered.

To Sky:
[I walked in on his brother a step away from bringing out the baseball bat to beat it into him and had to intervene. I made him cry so I think he got the point.]

From Sky:
[Good. He deserves it.]
[As much as I hate to say this…I think Rains actually likes that asshole. Do you think he can change his ways?]

To Sky:
[I think he'd count all the sand in the ocean if he had to just to prove he is serious about your friend. He usually teases his partners but after all this I see him spoiling your friend rotten]

From Sky:
[UGHHHHHH]
[Should I warn him that Rain can have a very bratty personality sometimes? I try to ignore it but his puppy eyes should be considered a national security threat.]

To Sky:
[Ooooooh well bratty is fine, I won't tell Phayu that though, he'd get too excited.]
[Idk if I've ever seen puppy eyes so strong to be THAT dangerous. I have heard my pout is adorable though ;)]

From Sky:
[Mmn. I'm sure you've had all sorts of people tell you that, huh?]

Prapai got a weird vibe from that text. He was enjoying talking to the other boy but he didn't want anything to be misconstrued here, he may be in the middle of developing a little crush himself.

To Sky:
[You okay? That last text seemed a little off…]

From Sky:
[Yeah]
[Sorry, that's a me problem, I get like that sometimes. Just ignore it.]

To Sky:
[Can I help?]

He waited for a response but none came and after a while he realized he had just been sitting alone in Phayu's house. He decided to go track down Saifah in the kitchen and play his favorite game: How long until he gets banned from the kitchen again.

Current record is five minutes.