Author’s note: This is chapter 10 of my spoiler story. It’s still written entirely in Justin’s POV and this chapter is rated R, once again for sex. I really have no idea where this story is going - I thought I’d have run out of things to say by now. As it is, there will be, at least, one more chapter. I can’t leave all of us up in the air with this.

The Mistake

by Cathy

I was still a little shaky when I got back to the apartment. Daphne was there but, thankfully, she didn’t know anything about what had happened to me this time.

She watched me walk to the kitchen and pull down the bottle of Jim Beam. I carried it, and two glasses, across the room and sat down beside her. I poured some into each glass and handed her one. ‘Cheers.’ I tossed my drank back and set the glass down.

Daphne looked at me in disbelief. She tasted her drink and started coughing. ‘That is disgusting!’ She set the glass down. ‘How can you drink it?’

‘It’s easy.’ I poured another drink and downed it. ‘Do you want to see me do it again?’ I picked up the bottle.

Daphne grabbed my hand. ‘Why are you doing this?’

I pushed her hand away and poured another drink. ‘Because I don’t have any pills to take, that’s why.’ I emptied the glass.

‘Justin!’ She grabbed the bottle, took it back to the kitchen and came back to sit down beside me. ‘What is the matter with you?’

I looked at her for a long minute, but I didn’t say anything. She looked worried. ‘I-I’m sorry, Daph…’ I didn’t say anything else.

‘That’s okay.’ She was still looking at me funny. ‘Are you hungry? Do you want to go get something to eat?’

I shook my head. ‘I-I don’t want to go out.’

‘Okay.’ She picked up the phone. ‘I’ll order a pizza.’ She punched numbers. ‘The works?’

I nodded. When she hung up the phone, she went to the kitchen and brought a couple of beers back.

I looked at the bottle she handed me. ‘It’s okay to drink now?’

‘Please.’ She made a face. ‘It’s just beer.’ She took a drink and sat back. ‘Are you ready to tell me what’s wrong?’ She waited a minute longer and spoke again. ‘Does it have anything to do with Brian?’

‘Why does it always have to be about Brian?’

‘You tell me.’ When I didn’t answer, she turned the television on. ‘I rented ‘Lord of the Rings’ for you.’ She held up the box. ‘Do you want to watch it?’

‘Again?’ I smiled. ‘Sure.’ She put the tape in the vcr and sat down beside me. ‘You’re not fooling anybody, you know. You rented it for yourself, so you could see Elijah Wood.’ We laughed.

‘You’re right - I wanted to see it again, but not for Frodo - for Aragorn.’

‘What’s his name?’

‘Viggo Mortensen. God, he is sooo sexy! Don’t you think so?’

‘He’s all right.’ We settled down to watch the movie.

Three hours later, Daphne turned the tv off and started picking up the remains of our dinner. ‘I’m going to put the leftover pizza in the fridge. We can eat it for lunch tomorrow.’

‘I have to work tomorrow afternoon.’

‘Oh.’ She looked at me funny - I must have sounded weird or something. Leaning forward, I covered my face with my hands.

Daphne was back across the room in an instant. She sat back down beside me. ‘Are you sure you’re okay?’ Her voice was full of concern.

I slowly pulled my hands a way and looked at her. ‘I had sex with Brian…’

Her eyes widened. ‘Ohmygod! When?’

‘Today - this afternoon. I went to his office, to talk to Cynthia. He wasn’t supposed to be there…’ Thankfully, she didn’t start asking a lot of questions. ‘What am I going to do?’

‘What do you want to do?’ Leave it to Daphne to be logical about this.

I thought for several seconds. ‘I don’t know.’ I shook my head. ‘When I’m alone, I think I have it all worked out, how it’s over between us and I just have to live with it. Then I see him and he looks at me and I’m lost. I’d do anything for him - he doesn’t even have to *ask*. I already know what he wants.’

She listened to me politely, waiting for me to finish. ‘Do you want to hear what I think?’

‘Do I have a choice?’ I was trying to sound sarcastic, but I only managed to sound pitiful.

She looked at me for what seemed like forever before she spoke again. ‘I think you should do what you think is best.’

‘What?!’ I expected words of wisdom from my best friend, but not this. ‘Aren’t you going to give me a lecture about how I screwed up and what I need to do to fix it?’

‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘You know yourself. You know Brian. It’s your call, Justin. If the two of you are meant to be together, you might be the only person who can make that happen.’

‘But… what if we’re *not* meant to be. What am I going to do?’

She squeezed my arm. ‘I suppose that’s up to you too.’ She kissed me on the cheek and then stood up. ‘I’m going to bed. I’ll see you before you go to work tomorrow.’

‘Good night,’ I said to her retreating figure.

I sat on the couch for a while longer. Actually, I’d sat there so long that I lost track of time. The sound of my cell phone ringing pulled me out of my revelry. I ran to my bedroom to answer it. ‘Hello?’ There was no answer. ‘Hello?’ I heard breathing. ‘Is someone there?’

‘Justin?’ The voice was barely audible.

‘Brian?’

‘Yeah.’ He said nothing else. I waited. ‘Is it a bad time?’

‘No, it’s okay.’ I was curious about why he was calling, but I didn’t dare ask. ‘Did you want something?’

‘I wanted to… ask you if I could come by sometime…’

I was excited, but I tried to make my voice sound calm. ‘Sure. Come over any time. I’m living with Daphne now…’

‘I know.’ He still sounded weird. ‘Well… I’ll see you…’

‘Okay.’ He broke the connection but I continued staring at the phone, wondering if I’d really heard what I thought I’d heard.

Five minutes later, I was still sitting on the couch, pondering what had just happened. There was a knock at the door. ‘I’ll get it, Daph!’ I called, as I crossed the room. I expected to see Ashlee standing in the doorway, about to explain that she’d lost her key again.

It wasn’t Ashlee, though. It was Brian. ‘You said I could come over any time.’ He held out his cell phone, as if he needed to remind me of our recent telephone conversation.

I smiled. ‘Were you, like, five blocks away?’

‘Actually, I was sitting in my car, outside. C-can I come in?’

‘Sure.’ I stood aside and allowed him to enter the room. He was dressed in black; he looked as if he’d taken a detour on his way to Babylon. ‘Would you like something to drink?’

‘No, thanks.’ He waited for me to close the door and follow him to the living room. ‘Are you alone?’

I shook my head. ‘Daphne’s in her bedroom, but I don’t know if she’s asleep. Our other roommate is at her boyfriend’s house.’ We walked to the couch. ‘Would you be more comfortable in my bedroom?’

‘No, this is fine, as long as we don’t disturb Daphne.’

‘Are you kidding? She can sleep through anything.’ We laughed. ‘Have a seat.’ He sat on the couch and I took the chair, just to make sure. ‘What’s up?’ I hoped I sounded calmer than I felt.

He looked away. ‘I came by to say… I’m sorry…’

It took a great effort on my part not to smile. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say that word. Sorry.’ I said it again.

He tried to smile. ‘I usually try to avoid saying it, don’t I?’

He didn’t say anything else and curiosity was getting the best of me. ‘So… what is it that you’re apologizing for?’

He cleared his throat. ‘If it’s not too much trouble, I’ll take that drink now…’

‘Sure.’ I stood up. ‘Is beer all right?’ He nodded and I went over and grabbed two bottles out of the fridge.

I sat down on the couch next to Brian and handed him a bottle. He opened it and touched it against mine. We sat in silence for a couple of minutes, drinking. ‘I’m sorry about the other day… when I fired you… I was an asshole…’ He had found something fascinating to stare at on the floor.

‘Can I ask you why you did it? I mean, what did I do wrong?’

‘Nothing.’ He glanced up. ‘I saw you standing there, and you looked amazing… I lost control…’ He wasn’t making a whole lot of sense.

‘You didn’t know I was working there? Didn’t Cynthia tell you?’

‘Yeah. She said you’d be in the basement… and I’d never see you.’

‘I’m really sorry…’ There I was, apologizing again, for something I knew wasn’t my fault.

‘No, you didn’t do anything wrong. It was my fault - all my fault.’ He stood up and started ambling around the room, looking at the photographs on the walls and the books in the bookcases. ‘You live here with two girls?’ He looked around at me, a sly smile on his face. ‘Every straight boy’s fantasy.’

‘If it wasn’t for the fact that one of my roommates practically lives with her boyfriend, I’d never get into the bathroom.’

‘Well, we can’t have that. That would cut into your mirror time, wouldn’t it?’

I tried to look mad. ‘*I’m* not the one who spent hours in the bathroom with the mousse and the gel.’

‘Who was it, then? Me?’ He tossed his head. ‘Seriously, I like the way your hair looks now. It’s…’

‘Long? Shaggy?’ I shook my head.

‘It makes you look older - not like a teenager any more.’

‘Have I lost my twink status?’ I hoped he knew I was teasing.

‘I never thought of you as a twink.’ He was staring at me with a weird look on his face.

This was getting a little dangerous. It was time to change the subject. ‘I’m not an expert or anything but, are we actually having a conversation here?’

He pretended to look studious. ‘I believe it’s called small talk. The art of chatting without actually saying anything.’

‘I didn’t know you could *do* small talk. I’ve never witnessed it before.’

‘I thought ‘I’m gonna fuck you all night long’ was sufficient conversation for you and me. I guess I was wrong.’

‘You weren’t wrong.’ I spoke quickly. ‘Don’t you know you can still make me hard just by looking at me?’

‘Like this?’ He continued staring as he walked across the room toward me.

‘Yes.’ I held up my hand. ‘I’m not in the mood to play games with you, Brian.’

‘Oh, I’m not playing, Justin.’ He kept walking until he was standing just in front of me. ‘I never stopped wanting you.’

Now *I* was the one who couldn’t look up. He sat down beside me, but he didn’t say anything. I could feel his breath against the side of my head. ‘Brian… please…’ The next thing I felt was his tongue as it was trailed lightly across my ear. He bit down on my ear lobe and I knew I was lost.

Brian pulled my head around and covered my mouth with his, sucking on my tongue. I collapsed into his arms and gave up on any semblance of resistance I might have had. He’d already stripped my shirt off and was unzipping my jeans before I managed to say, ‘We can’t do this out here.’ I started trying to stand up. ‘My bedroom is in there.

After we stumbled into the other room, things got *really* crazy. We stripped our clothes off frantically as our mouths sought each other. I collapsed onto my small bed and pulled Brian down with me. He produced a condom from somewhere and handed it to me. My hands were shaking as I unrolled it onto his hard dick.

A second later, I was on my back with my legs draped over Brian’s shoulders. He was barely moving. What is he waiting for? I wondered.

‘Fuck me,’ I pleaded. ‘Now!’

Another second later and he was inside me. Where he belonged.

Afterwards, I expected Brian to get up, dress and leave. He didn’t, though. There wasn’t enough room in the bed for us to lay side by side, so I turned over with my back to him. The last thing I felt, before I went to sleep, was his arm snaking across my chest, pulling me to him. I know I was smiling like an idiot as I closed my eyes and drifted off.