Watch Your Back

.:Chapter Eight:.

   The brown-eyed man rolled over in Zacky's bed, taking in the sight of his sleeping boyfriend with a smile on his face. He's really beautiful when he sleeps.. Hell, he' s beautiful all the time.. He thought, reaching his tattooed hand forward to stroke the shiny black hair away from his hazel-eyed love's sleeping face. There's no way I can keep this job going.. I'm in love with him, for fuck's sake. I'll have to call Eli and let him know that the hit is off.. He'll just have to fucking deal with it. He sighed, heaving himself out of bed and trailing into the kitchen, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He would call Eli today, he decided as he poured himself a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice. He couldn't delay the cancellation any longer.
   I should've known he'd become more than just a client.. Jesus, the way my heart speeds up when he's around, it's a wonder he can't hear it. He thought as he shoved a couple of spoonfuls of corn puffs into his mouth, chewing slowly. I just hope he doesn't find out why we became friends in the first place.. I honestly don't think I could live with myself if he found out and then started hating me. He's changed my life so much.. And for the better, too. I haven't been depressed or lonely since we started hanging out. And I haven't wanted to kill anyone, either. Sure, I've got a pretty big body count already, but.. It's never too late to stop. Before he knew it, Brian was finished with his cereal. He put the empty bowl in the sink and ran water in it, tapping his fingers on the counter patiently for a minute before he turned the tap off. He stepped out onto the front porch of Zacky's house, lighting a cigarette before he fished his phone out of his pocket and tapped Eli's contact name.
   "Hello?" Eli answered after three rings. Here goes nothing.. "Did you finally kill him? Is he gone for fucking good?" He growled, and at the sound of the hatred in his voice, Brian cringed backwards.
   "No, uh.. I've got some bad news." Brian muttered, kicking a pebble into the yard.
   "What kind of bad news?"
   "Uh, well," The brown-eyed man laughed dryly, scratching the back of his neck as he looked around the neighborhood. Wouldn't mind living here.. He thought. "Zacky and I are kinda.. Dating.. And I don't think I can carry out this hit, Eli." There was complete silence on the other end of the phone.
   "What the hell are you saying?" The other man snapped.
   "The deal is off, Eli. I'm not killing Zacky. And frankly, you should be ashamed of yourself. He told me all the things you did to him, the things you told him. At first, I didn't believe him, but I could see the fear in his eyes when he talked about you. You're not a fucking man, you're a child. You took for granted the one person who tried to give you everything in his damn life, and now he doesn't know how a real relationship is supposed to work." Brian was eerily calm as he verbally ripped Eli apart, but his entire body was shaking with fury. He didn't realize just how much Zacky's fear had affected him until that moment.
    "I should be ashamed of myself? Syn, please, you're the one that agreed to kill him. You're a fucking scam artist, you know that? I'll fucking get back at you for this, I swear to God." Click. Brian looked down at his phone, raising a brow for a moment before he locked it and put it back in his pocket. After a few more drags from his cigarette, he walked back into the house, ready to wake Zacky up so that they could spend the day together; however, he heard the distinguishable sound of Zacky on the phone in the other room, and he couldn't help but panic a little. Was he talking to Eli?
   "What the hell are you talking about?" The hazel-eyed man shouted, and Brian ran into the bedroom, widening his eyes at his boyfriend who was standing with his back to the door. "You fucking hired someone to kill me?! Who the hell is it?!" There was a pause, and the brown-eyed man could see Zacky go rigid and stop breathing for a moment. "W-what?" His voice sounded distant and small, and Brian knew it was all downhill from there.
   "Zacky, don't listen to him," The brown-eyed man begged, earning a scream of terror from his smaller boyfriend, who then turned around and threw his phone at him. The device shattered against the wall, but Zacky didn't seem to care. "Please, Zacky, listen to me! Just give me a chance to explain!"
   "Get away from me you fucking monster!" The hazel-eyed man cried, backing up against the opposite wall as he tried to get away from Brian. "I never want to fucking see you again! You lied to me!" His eyes were wide and tears were streaming down his face, but that didn't stop him from screaming his heart out at the one person he thought he could trust. "I fucking trusted you! You promised me you'd never hurt me like that, and it ends up that you're going to fucking kill me! I thought you actually cared about me!"
   "Zacky, I do care about you! Please, just give me a minute to-"
   "Get out of my fucking house!" Zacky screamed, pulling a metal baseball bat out from behind his dresser. "Right now! Get the fuck out, and don't ever come back here again!" He held up the bat, shaking violently at the prospect of having to use it on someone he loved. Brian held his hands up in surrender, feeling his lower lip tremble as his brown eyes filled with tears. He began to back out of the room, trying with all his might to keep from crying in front of his love.
   "I'm sorry.." He whispered before he finally left the house, getting in his car and peeling out of the driveway. About halfway to his home, he pulled over on the side of the road, resting his forehead against the steering wheel as he began to sob quietly. I always fuck everything up.. This is all my fault. He thought, wiping away his tears, but it was useless. He just began to cry harder as he remembered the first time he had kissed Zacky, the way his hazel eyes had lit up like fireworks on the forth of July.

   He sat alone in the bar, tracing the rim of his shot glass with his index finger as he mulled over everything that had happened that day. He downed his shot of Jack Daniels, immediately ordering another one and letting his ears be penetrated by the sound of Patience by Guns N' Roses being played over the speakers. He couldn't help but give a pitiful chuckle, wishing that he could've explained himself to Zacky before he was kicked out of the house.
   "Something got you down, man?" The bartender asked gently. He was a tall man, probably 6'6", and he looked muscular beyond belief. His dark brown hair was cut short, and his striking blue eyes seemed to hold nothing but sympathy for the man that was drinking Jack like it was ice water.
   "You could say that." Brian muttered, downing another shot.
   "What's going on?" He questioned, wiping down the bar with a damp rag.
   "I.. I was in a relationship with someone, and I fucked it up by listening to everything their ex said about them. Now, they don't want anything to do with me, even though I tried to explain, and.. I'm pretty fucking crushed." The brown-eyed man sighed, wiping away a lone tear that trailed down his cheek. The bartender frowned, pouring him a glass of water so that he could stay sufficiently hydrated between his shots. "I thought I finally found the one, y'know?"
   "I understand, man. If the person you were in a relationship wouldn't let you explain, try writing them a letter. At least then you'll know that you tried to get through to them." He murmured, earning a shrug from Brian. "Listen, relationships are very fragile things. Sometimes the person you want isn't the person you need, and sometimes the person you need isn't the person you want. You just gotta keep going. You can't let one person bring you down forever, because otherwise you'll miss out on something right in front of you."
   "Thank you.." Brian muttered, looking up at the bartender. "I think I'll try that letter thing tomorrow.. I'm gonna go ahead and go. Thank you for listening to me." The blue-eyed man gave him one downwards nod, and after he laid a few slips of money on the counter, Brian hopped up from his stool and walked towards the front door. "Hey, by the way," He turned around to speak to the bartender, but he found that he was gone, and every light in the bar had been shut off except for the one that kept the counter lit up. "Weird.." He whispered to himself, but then he shrugged and left the bar, ready to go home and get some sleep before he tried to explain to Zacky exactly what had happened. He just hoped to God that it would work, because he didn't know if he could live without him another day.