Never Too Late

Never Gave In

The small crowd of friends sat around the coffee table in the living room and worked on school assignments together. To Khrysta's relief, she wasn't the only one that was behind. Between the three of them, they were actually able to finish much more together than was possible alone. In fact, it wasn't long before they were ahead rather than behind. The glories of having future units in the school curriculum available.

"Alright, we should probably stop before we end up completing the rest of our schooling in one night." Khrysta said.

"Yeah, you're probably right." Briggan mused. He couldn't remember the last time he'd done so much schoolwork in one sitting. It felt nice.  Now, he just sat there and mingled with the other two. 

"I have to admit, Briggan, that you've come quite a long way." Khrysta said. "Just four months ago, no one would have ever had a chance to speak to you. Now, you carry on a conversation with ease."

Briggan chuckled. "Make no mistake, I still have horrible social anxiety. Mastace just seems to ease it when he's around."

"Huh," Khrysta said. "I wonder why that is."

Briggan and Mastace shrugged simultaneously. "I guess it's one of those things that just... happen." Mastace said. 

"I get that." Khrysta said. She then turned to Briggan. "If you don't mind, I'd like to know what happened back then. What really happened."

The room went silent. Briggan just looked at her with a blank stare as if as soon as the memories came in to his head, everything just shut down. Have I done something wrong? Khrysta wondered. If she had, he might shut her out again. Khrysta could only wait and watch how this all played out. 

"I... I was in terrible pain back then. I mean... I still am, but it's so munch easier now to manage." The hurt in Briggan's expression gave Khrysta a knot in her stomach. She became nauseated at the notion that Briggan had been suffering all this time and no one did anything to help. "I know none of it is my fault, but sometimes I wonder how differently things would turn out if I had done thing even just the slightest bit different. If... I could've kept all of it from happening."

"What happened?" Khrysta asked.

"The reason that I lived alone before Mastace had come along isn't because I became old enough to care for myself. It was because I have no family left to live with." Briggan said.

Mastace watched the light in Briggan's eyes flicker and dim. The fire within was burning low and he could tell, so he sat right beside the hurting wolf and wrapped his arms around Briggan in an attempt to soothe the pain to tolerable levels, if not away completely. 

"What?" Khrysta gasped. She felt her whole body get shivers from the sudden rush of adrenaline. 

"Most of my family left me after tragedy struck us real bad. I guess I was too much of a reminder of what they had lost, so they all moved on to live other lives and made me stay behind."

"That's horrible..." Mastace growled.

Briggan winced at hearing the low rumble coming from his boyfriend's throat. He hadn't seen Mastace angry in all their time together, and this rather took him by surprise. "What's worse was the reason. I said they left after a tragedy struck. Well, that tragedy was the death of my older sister."

Mastace shook his head. How could anyone just up and leave the family when they all needed help the most, especially Briggan. As the wolf continued his story, Mastace gathered all the details. Briggan was only eight when the car accident that took his sister's life occurred, and his family all abandoned him close to the anniversary of her death. Furthermore, Briggan was in the vehicle when it all happened so he experienced it firsthand. Mastace just let it all sink in as he heard it in detail. Briggan's been through so much, he thought with a touch of sadness. 

"You okay, Mastace?" Briggan asked.

"What?" Mastace shook the fog out of his head.

"Are you alright? You were squeezing my shoulder pretty firmly there."

"Oh, yeah. I'm okay." 

Briggan looked Mastace in the eyes. The aura Mastace gave off did not tell the same story. "Look, if you need me to give you a break, let me know." 

"I'll be fine, I promise. I'm just glad you finally opened the door to get to know you better."

Briggan considered this a moment, then hugged the distraught lion. "It was all because you never gave in."