Tokyo Is Our Vegas // Brolby

十三

| | T H I R T E E N | |

「その日も覚えていますか？」

——

Normal day. It's just a normal day. Wearing normal clothes and doing normal things that normal people do.

A normal day regretting the things I did to you.

Where did you go?

Do you feel like this?

I miss you, but if I told you that you'd hate me even more.

I'm not supposed to miss you.

I'm the one who left you.

You're not supposed to still be gripping the pieces of my heart that I gave you, and I'm not supposed to be longing for the pieces you gave me.

I still love you, you know?

But if I told you, you'd hate me. You'd scream, throw the words back at me as if they were poison. Which they are, because if I loved you then why would I hurt you?

Just a normal day. Wearing normal clothes and doing normal things. Trying real hard to forget you, because I'm the one who left you behind.

——

Brennen got ready for the day ahead, leaving Twitter drama behind him as he finally climbed out of his bed. Leaving his sheets a mess, he stumbled over to the restroom to handle his business. Obviously.

Although he had left his phone on his bed, his head was still focusing on everything he had seen on the small screen. There was still radio silence from Colby. It had been a day. Still nothing.

Maybe it was for the best.

If Brennen heard something from the younger, what would he even do? The last time the two had talked, really talked, was ages ago. Since then it always seemed like Colby was in a different place when he spoke, like his words weren't his own. They were enough to fool everyone else, but Brennen fully understood what he had done to the boy. Maybe talking to him again would be the wrong thing to do.

Colby didn't need Brennen anyway, he just made things worse. The younger boy had been just fine before Brennen had come along. Before he absolutely ruined him.

"Let's go out." Brennen stood from the couch in his apartment, Colby's eyes following his every move. His declaration was met with silence, so he had to turn around to find Colby's head tilted at him. "What? It's boring here," he reached down and grabbed the younger boy's arm, pulling him up with him. "Let's go somewhere, Colby."

"Where would we go?" Colby looked down at his arm, where Brennen had gripped it so that he stood beside him. "It's late, I can't go to any clubs or anything-" Brennen immediately began to shush him.

"Clubs aren't the only place to have fun, Colby, this is Los Angelos, you can have fun anywhere." He lets go of his arm so that he can pick his jacket up off the kitchen counter, grabbing Colby's while he was at it.

"Or...." Colby started as he took his jacket from his new friend. "We could just grab some food and go back to my place, I have video games and a pool."

Brennen just laughed, taking Colby's arm once more and leading him to the door. "Come on, dude, lets go live a little."

Brennen remembered what Colby had told him a couple days later after their late night excursion. It was a long tale of what had happened once he got home after Brennen had walked him home. He should've seen the sign, he was beginning to ruin him.

"I walked in and everyone just started yelling at me." Colby started, the sleeves of his leather jacket flexed as he moved his arms around. "They said they worried, I never called to check in, not even a text. I just showed up. That's ridiculous, isn't it?" The younger boy turned to him, dark circles under his eyes from lack of sleep. "I had a great time, though, Brennen."

Brennen smiled at him, putting an arm around his shoulder and pulling him close. "I'm glad, Colby, I'm glad." He looked around their surroundings, his grip still tight on Colby. "We can do it again anytime you'd like."

A series, a handful, of moments like this, where Brennen took the younger out of his comfort zone. Leading Colby away from his regular life, if only for just a single night. Brennen lived for it, he realized, craved it. Always on the lookout for another opportune moment for one more. They all added up, their impact on one another had escalated.

Then, there was Tokyo.

"Come on, Colby, Elton's not gonna notice, no one's gonna notice. Let's just go. We don't need them." Brennen whispered into Colby's ear, gripping his arm and gently beginning to lead him away from the others. "Let's go explore, Colby. Let's live a little." He glanced over at the others, who were all caught up in the heat of club, lost in the throng of people. Him and Colby were on the edge of it, just out of the gravitational pull of the crowd. Brennen tugged on Colby's arm just a little bit more. "Come on." He urged once more, growing a bit frustrated with Colby's hesitance.

Brennen was pulled out of his memory by the sound of his phone. Not that it hadn't been blowing up this entire time, there was just something about this notification in particular. Something inside of him just urged him to look at it.

He pulled his shirt on as he walked back over to his bed, his head popping through the neck hole as he picked the device up with his right hand.

There. At the top of his list of notifications. There was what had been urging him to look at his phone. Nearly thirty-six hours later there was something. A tweet. Well, not really, it was just a photo. Brennen could tell because his notification showed nothing but a link. He stared down at his phone, his thumb hesitated over it for a few seconds until he worked up the courage to swipe at it, using his thumbprint to unlock the phone and soon he found himself face to face with the photo.

A Tokyo sunset stared up at him tauntingly as he immediately recognized it.

"No." He whispered in disbelief as he went to his camera roll, desperately searching for the picture he had taken ages ago. He couldn't remember Colby taking one himself, so then where did he get that photo?

At last, he found what he was looking for. The sunset he had captured with his own camera. He looked back at Twitter. The two photos looked awfully similar, but Brennen knew that they weren't, he knew why Colby chose to post that photo. Then, a wave of relief washed over Brennen as he remembered how he had never posted his own sunset.

Maybe Colby was testing him, daring Brennen to come find him.

Or perhaps it was Tokyo pulling him back in.