Milkshake Hearts

Chapter 33: Apologise

"Shayne-" Brian starts, when he steps out, pausing when Shayne openly grimaces, arms crossed defensively in front of himself. It doesn't escape Shayne that Brian, despite being half a foot taller than him, is by far the smallest of the Topp boys, and maybe his own posture pushing his arms forward is a little threatening. He chooses to keep it that way.

"Yes?" Shayne presses, expectantly, when Brian doesn't continue.

"I... apologise for insulting your career path," Brian responds, hesitantly.

"That's it?" Shayne starts, when he seems to finish his statement again, "You know that's not what you did wrong, Brian. You've been insulting my career path since I was a kid. And you know, I'm happy to take some teasing, I know my path has been less conventional and we all accept that yes, you've worked incredibly hard to get where you are – but I've worked my damn ass off to get where I am, too. I am successful, even though I don't like talking about it – Chris and I are different to you, and you have to accept that for once instead of being an absolute dick about it."

"Yeah, I see that, now. I... didn't know," Brian admits, nodding, "I don't entirely understand what you do, it's so far removed from my world. And Chris is... I mean, with him, like, I know he has the workshop he runs, and the house and the wife and kids and whatever. It's always been harder with you."

"All you need to do is put the tiniest bit of effort into understanding," Shayne replies, and Brian shrugs, "and don't say you don't have time. You would have time if you wanted to."

"We're old and technologically illiterate and we've managed to work it out, Brian, I'm sure you can too," Dianne steps in, "you don't have to watch everything he does, none of us do – but I mean, did you watch the surprise graduation ceremony they threw for him? That was so sweet."

"I didn't, I saw that you sent it to me but I deleted the email," Brian admits.

"You missed seeing me literally fucking cry on camera," Shayne shrugs, "but your loss, I guess. I could take you making fun of me for something like that, but I guess instead you just gotta throw out insulting shit about my relationship."

"Dad said you're going to marry her," Brian responds, matter-of-factly, and Shayne nods.

"Yeah. And look, seriously, could you get any more inappropriate than making some comment about a drunk hookup if you tried? Even if she wasn't the love of my life – seriously, that was screwed up, Brian," Shayne pushes back.

"You're dating your coworker, that raises alarm bells to me," he shrugs.

"That doesn't give you reason to say shit like that where you're just openly trying to insult us. The coworker thing is totally different in my industry anyway, given we're effectively paid to be social. And you should know how serious we are, it's not like I haven't openly said it in family group emails that you've been part of when we were organising this Christmas thing."

"Okay," Brian replies, simply, but it's not enough for Shayne.

"You owe her an apology, Brian. I just- it's whatever about me. It's terrible timing for both of us, we had a similar incident with some fans getting weird about us a couple weeks ago, and it seriously hurt, and I won't say you doing the same thing doesn't, but – whatever. I know you, she doesn't. She is part of our family, she is part of my life and she's going to be forever. It's on you to step up and accept that means that she's part of your family, too, and treat her with respect," Shayne tells him, forcefully.

"You're really serious about her, huh?" he prompts, his features softening.

"I'm completely in love with her. I have been for ages, she's everything to me, and somehow miraculously she feels the same and we have this perfect relationship now and it's the best thing that I've ever experienced," he replies, matter-of-factly, finally letting his arms fall down to his sides. He isn't entirely sure where the honesty comes from, especially in front of his parents, but something in Brian's denial of it all had sparked something in him.