No Matter What (Synacky)

Chapter Thirty-Two: Brian

"Here's a cheap one." Zacky said, pointing to an ugly, brick apartment building on the computer screen.

"Uh-huh." I mumbled, not too excited at the thought of living in a dump.

"Maybe it's not that bad." He shrugged.

We had been sitting in the library looking for apartments for about an hour. Both of us were getting irritated from the continuous searching and being turned down by prices that were too high for us. Every decent building we found was way too much for us to afford.

I sighed, "We probably should've just stayed at Matt's house or something instead of spending a shit ton of our money on the hotel."

Zacky nodded in agreement.

I let out another sigh, "Let's just go walk around town or something. I'm sick of worrying about this right now."

"But, where will we stay tonight?"

"I'll call Matt or Jimmy later." I responded, taking Zacky's hand and leading him out of the library.

~*~

"Here." I handed Zacky an ice cream cone before grabbing my own.

I payed for the frozen treats, then walked with Zacky down the brightly lit street. It was around 9:00pm, and the sun had set, but the city lights meant that night never truly came.

I took Zacky's hand, gently squeezing it.

"B-Brian." He whispered, looking straight forward, "Is that..."

His voice trailed off, and I looked up to see the two people I never thought I'd come across again.

"Shit." I mumbled, as they walked closer to us. I handed Zacky my cone.

"Why are you giving this to me?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Incase they do anything."

"Maybe they won't see us."

We both kept our heads down, praying that my father and stepmom wouldn't recognize us.

Sure enough, they did.

My father stepped out in front of me, placing his hands on my shoulders and stopping me. I looked up, meeting his eyes to be surprised that they were full of regret.

As I opened my mouth to speak, the regret suddenly changed. I'm not sure what I saw, maybe hatred? But he looked pissed.

"I never thought I'd see you again." He said, facial expression not shifting from the uncomfortably threatening gaze.

"I could say the same." I replied quietly, glancing over at Suzy, who looked concerned.

Is she afraid he's going to hurt me again?

Then, I looked over at Zacky. And I knew that was what he was scared of.

As I turned my attention back to my father, I saw that he was watching Zacky too.

"Go home, kid." My dad ordered.

"I-"

I gave Zacky a warning look, telling him to go wherever he could to get away.

Luckily, he understood. The younger guitarist gave me a swift nod before biting his lip and walking away.

I knew he didn't want to leave. He wanted to stay and try to protect me.

"Let's talk about this." My father's voice pulled me from my thoughts about Zacky.

He led me to a small table with four chairs that sat in front of a coffee shop. I reluctantly sat down, across from Suzy and my father.

"What do you want from me?" I asked, staring down at the tabletop.

Suzy stayed silent, but my dad immediately spoke out, "We've come up with a solution."

Now I looked up, meeting his eyes, "What?"

I think Suzy got uncomfortable, because she stood and slowly walked away, pretending to be interested by the closed shops.

"Well, Brian, we all know that you aren't really gay. You're just doing all of this for attention, you know?"

I furrowed my eyebrows, but he continued before I had the chance to speak.

"So, why don't you just go ahead and break up with this boy? I mean, you don't really love him. You don't even like him!"

I opened my mouth to protest, but no words came out.

"Go ahead and break up with him, it won't affect him too much. You can move back in with us then."

I stood up, trying my hardest not to reach over the table and punch him.

"Listen, I don't care what you think. I don't care how you feel about me or Zacky or about our relationship. It's not going to change anything. I love Zacky. And I will never, ever move back in with you."

My father was incredulous, eyes wide with surprise and mouth opened slightly.

Without speaking another word, I turned and walked away.