Tokyo Is Our Vegas // Brolby

二

| | T W O | |

"どうして私たちの天国は今のところすべきでしょうか？"

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A classic venti Starbucks drink rests in the cup holder, next to hers.

Her, shoulder length hair bouncing with the movement of the car, shimmering eyes as she stared at the boy next to her.

Her, his girlfriend, an original purpose of clickbait rather than a coping mechanism.

Her, an excuse to take his mind off him.

Him, nothing more than a friend, maybe more in the past, but nothing could happen.

Him, a haircut that hadn't changed for eyes, dark brown hair always covering his startling blue eyes.

Him, a best friend who he had been ignoring for a month.

A month of lonely nights after she had left to her own apartment.

A month of unread texts from him, a new greeting appearing every other day of the week, countless questions awaiting answers.

A month of him trying to get his life back to a normal place.

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Brennen reads the digital invitation on his phone multiple times before mulling over an answer to it. It was at Sam and Colby's house, where a party was going to be thrown just because they wanted to, as most of the parties they went to were about. You didn't necessarily need a reason to throw a party, as long as you had enough people who were willing to come.

He ached to reject it, grasping for an excuse to miss it, an excuse to not see him, to not see Colby. He couldn't stand the thought of looking into those innocent blue eyes of his, to answer all the questions he must surely have. Why hadn't Brennen answered his texts? How are he and his girlfriend doing? Why hasn't he been posting that much? Brennen had no answers for him, no answers that he was willing to share at least.

Brennen was scared to answer the text, scared of saying no yet scared of saying yes. It would be so easy to ignore it and claim it got lost in his messages, that he didn't even notice it in the first place. Lying was so easy, especially with the kind of life he was living.

Thousands of fans following his every move, buying his merchandise, liking his pictures and reposting his tweets, making fan art, writing fanfiction. It was so easy to get lost in the middle of it all, so easy to make a wrong move and end up right where you started, the very bottom.

How would ignoring this text reflect on his career? How would people react? Would they hate him? Would they still love him?

If the fans knew about Tokyo, knew about the things they did, if they knew about all of that, would they still be fans? Would they still like him if they knew what happened then?

I'll go, he answers Elton's text after what seems like forever. No backing out now, he realizes, preparing himself mentally for the party he was going to have to go to now.

Because of his response, he feels an urge, a dangerous urge, but a tempting one nonetheless. He taps away from Elton and his' conversation and instead pressed another one. His fingers hesitated over the digital keyboard as he thought of what to say, what messages would be good for this situation? Would he even want to talk to him?

Nevertheless,  he types a quick, simple message, and hits send before hesitation cripples him.

Brennen: hey Colby, how are you? Want to hang out soon?