CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR - CONFRONTATION
“Home!” Sammy cried as he bounced up the steps leading to the front door. “Is Tykey okay?” His excited chatter had not stopped for the entire drive home as he told Brian everything that had happened.
“He sure is!” Brian laughed as he unlocked the door and opened the way for Sammy. “You missed us all, huh?”
“Yeah,” Sammy said as he hugged Brian’s legs, too small to hug him properly.
Brian smiled as he leant down and picked Sammy up, kissing him on the head as he did so. At last the house was filled with light again and it was almost as if he had never left. Brian felt his soul lifted up with wings of joy as he realised that for the first time since his return from 2023, he would have both B and Sammy again. He pushed the door open and immediately Tyke was about his feet, whining in excitement as he jumped about Brian’s feet.
Sammy giggled and Brian placed him down so that he could pet the dog and receive wet, doggy kisses as Tyke clambered onto is lap and licked his face.
Brian retrieved Sammy’s bag from the car and his eyes drifted upstairs to where B would be, hoping that he would not be upset by Sammy’s return.
“Do you want some lunch, Sammy? Or did you eat on the train?”
Sammy shook his head. “No! I’m hungry!”
Brian smiled down at him as he took Sammy’s red coat and hung it up beside his own, and now also B’s leather jacket that Nick had given to him. He gave Sammy a push towards the kitchen. “You go sit down while I take your bag upstairs. I’ll make you fries and a beef burger, okay?”
Sammy nodded eagerly and scampered to do as he was told, Tyke happily following his little friend.
Brian slung Sammy’s bag over his shoulder and dashed up the stairs two at a time, anxious to check on B, even though he knew that he was being paranoid. There was no sign of any disturbance so B should be fine.
Should be…
He knocked on the door but did not wait for a reply before he burst in. B was sitting in bed with a green Nintendo controller in his hands, his eyes glued to the screen. They flickered towards him as he entered and he smiled in relief. “Dad!” There was something in his voice though that caught Brian’s attention, a note of fear and pain almost.
“You’re gonna crash!” Brian warned as B turned his attention from the game and allowed his car to skid off of the track, but the game was of little importance as he studied his son carefully.
B shrugged and placed the controller down. Brian frowned slightly as he spotted the redness of B’s eyes, betraying the fact that something was wrong.
“I’m glad you’re back,” B said. “How’s Sammy?”
“He’s fine and he had a great holiday. How are you? Were you okay by yourself?”
“Of course,” B replied stubbornly. “Why shouldn’t I be?”
Brian watched him turn back to his game and his brow furrowed slightly as he saw his phone at the far end of the room, the case having fallen off to reveal the circuitry beyond. He would have to leave questions for later because Sammy would be expecting his lunch.
“I’m going to do Sammy’s lunch. I’ll bring you something up, okay?”
“Okay, thanks.”
‘And then we’ll have a little talk, ’ Brian added silently.
Brian closed the door to B’s room, but his son’s attitude had him worried. He had been extremely relieved that he was back and why were his eyes red like he had been crying? Had he been that scared while Brian was out or was it something else?
He placed Sammy’s bag in his room, ready to unpack later on before he retrieved the little present he had brought Sammy at the seafront.
Sammy was sat at the table, scribbling eagerly on some notepaper he had found. He smiled when Brian entered and thrust the sticky piece of paper into his hand. “This is for you!”
“Aaww, thanks!” Brian said as he looked own at the picture. There was a house (or a misshapen blob – Brian wasn’t exactly sure) and a stick person outside of it with another blob in the air that Brian took as being the sun.
I MISSSSESD YU
“Missed you!” Sammy said as he flung his arms about Brian again.
“So you keep saying!” Brian laughed. “Well, this is for you.” He handed over the brown bag containing Sammy’s new toy and watched as the boy’s face split open with a delightful smile as he unravelled the horse and stroked it’s fluffy hair.
“Thank you! Thank you daddy!”
“You’re welcome,” Brian replied as he held Sammy close to him. “Now why don’t you go and play while I do your lunch?”
“Okay.”
“And don’t play in the spare room ‘cause my sick little friend is in there and I don’t want him being disturbed.”
Sammy nodded but Brian could see that his eyes were alight with curiosity. He trusted him not to go into B’s room though as he watched Sammy scamper away. He was a very good boy and would never want to upset Brian.
He busied himself with preparing lunch for all three of them, but his thoughts lingered on B, wondering what was wrong with him. Eventually he called Sammy back down and settled him in front of some cartoons with a beef burger and a few fries while he went to take some food up to B.
B was sat in a chair looking out of a window, his elbows leaning against the window sill and his chin rested on his hands. The green eyes stared out and contemplated what they saw and the emotions swirled about their depths awakening the feelings inside of him. He sighed and then lowered his eyes from the window, as if the view were too painful to look at anymore.
“What’s up?” Brian asked as he placed the tray on the bedside table.
B jumped at Brian’s sudden presence and he leapt away from the window as if he had been caught with a guilty secret of some kind. He fiddled nervously with his hands and his eyes dropped away from Brian’s face.
Brian stared at him curiously. “What’s wrong? Is there something out there?” He glanced towards the window.
“There’s a guy watching us,” B said slowly. “In a black cloak.”
Brian froze slightly as he realised it was him again. What the hell was he still creeping around for?
B seemed to see Brian’s eyes narrow and sense his sudden unease and he shifted uncertainly as Brian glanced out of the window. Sure enough, old cloaky was sat on the same bench he had been on before, his eyes fixed on their house.
“It’s not a Gerai,” B said. “So don’t worry.”
Brian turned sharply to him. “How do you know that?”
B turned red slightly in discomfort. “I think he’s from my time and I think he’s watching over me… to waiting for me to go and see him. He called me earlier on your phone.”
“He did what?” Brian’s fists instinctively clenched into fists at the thought of the invasion. That creep had probably just been waiting for the right opportunity to talk to B alone and convince him to sneak away from Brian.
“He called and I, um, broke your phone.” B’s eyes fell to the phone on the floor. “Sorry.”
“Why didn’t you tell me when I came home?” Brian snapped. He didn’t care about the phone, but the stranger he did care about… how dare he come near B…
B’s eyes flickered at the tone of Brian’s voice and he immediately came forward with his own. “Well why didn’t you tell me he’d been sending you messages?” B said accusingly as he folded his arms across his chest.
Now Brian was the one caught with the guilty parcel. He looked down at the floor, unable to meet B’s gaze as he saw the betrayal and the fear that was present there. He looked as if he might cry at any minute.
“How could you?” B said. “How could you? I thought he was dead! Why didn’t you tell me?” His voice was desperate and full of torment, the very emotions Brian had wanted to protect him from.
“B - ” Brian tried to grasp his shoulders but B shrugged him away and went to stand by the window again. “B, I had no idea who it was! They wouldn’t give me a name and they wouldn’t tell me anything at all! For all I knew it could have been a Gerai! I didn’t know it was your friend!”
“He’s not my friend,” B said bitterly. “He hates me.” B had his face turned away from Brian, but there was no concealing the pain in his voice as he spoke those words. “He’s only here because I’m important.” He slowly placed a hand on his arm where the cruel knife scar was beneath his t-shirt.
“B, I never want to hurt you, I would never do that!” Brian said quietly. “I was - ”
“You can’t promise,” B said flatly.
Vicious stabbings of pain assaulted his heart as each word cut deep into him and cackled as it tore him inside. He would do anything to protect B, anything in the world…
“I was so worried about him. I was worried about Sammy as well and it was killing me that I had no clue as to what happened to either of them… Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I had no idea who it was,” Brian protested. “I didn’t know if they were your friend or not.” That was a lie, a selfish lie. He had kept quiet because he had not wanted to lose B. he had known that it wasn’t a Gerai… “Besides, he never came forward. It was only via messages that we had any contact. I asked him about Sammy and he ignored me.”
B’s eyes were beginning to fill with angry tears. “How - ”
“I didn’t want to worry you!”
“He didn’t tell you anything about Sammy?” B asked, his eyes burrowing into Brian’s daring him to tell him a lie.
“Nothing. That’s why I never told you. You were sick and didn’t need the worry and there was no proof that Sammy was in trouble.” B has turned away from him again and Brian suddenly felt numbing sick as his heart sunk down to his stomach. “B, is something wrong with Sammy?”
B sniffed slightly. Brian heard him take a deep, shuddery breath before he replied in a half sob. “He’s missing. The Gerai have him. He says he’s safe but I - ”
“Come here,” Brian said softly as he pulled B into his arms. “I’m sure he’s right and that he is safe.”
“But how can he be safe when he’s been captured by the Gerai?” B sobbed.
“Do you want me to go talk to your friend?” Brian asked. “I think we need to sort all of this out.”
B shook his head. “No, don’t. Stay here with me,” he begged. “I’m not ready to see him again.” He was practically clinging onto Brian in desperation now.
“B, this has to be sorted out. You can’t hide forever and I think you want to make things up with him as much as he does with you,” he replied as he untangled B from his arms. B often chose to ignore emotions inside or to hide them with anger when he was confused, but he had to learn to stop running away or one day he really would end up being hurt.
“I want to stay with you. He hates me.”
“No he doesn’t.” The text messages had showed that and there was no other reason why Brian would feel so jealousy. B did not reply and Brian sighed as he continued to hold him like he did to little Sammy when he was upset. “B, what’s the deal with this person? Is this part of the reason you ran away?”
B pulled away from him. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“B, if you don’t tell me then I will go out there and ask him.” He pointed to the window. “This needs to be sorted.” And he might finally understand why he harboured so much resentment towards this person and why they were hiding. He already had a vague suspicion of who it was. It had to be Kevin or Nick or one of the others. They loved B like their own and would naturally come looking for him. They would also have to stay hidden in case a fan spotted them. But which one was it? Kevin? Howie? AJ? Nick?
B turned away from him again and stared out of the window. “I can’t tell you.”
“Then I’m going out there. I think it’s about time I met your ‘friend’.”
He started towards the door, a tingling sensation was running through his body at the thought of finally putting his mind to rest about the stranger. He had his money on Nick or Kevin, but why the hatred was there he had no idea.
B turned around in horror and he slammed the door shut as Brian attempted to open it. “Dad, don’t!”
“Then you tell me! I’ll find out one way or another! Please, don’t keep me in the dark B,” Brian said.
B sighed. “All right he’s like a father to me and Sammy and he looks after us, unfortunately me and him don’t get along. I was stressed in my time, he yelled at me and we argued. The next the Gerai set a bomb in the base and he got hurt bad. I thought he was going to die so I came here because I was upset. Is that enough for you?” B asked sarcastically.
Sarcasm – a form of defence when a person is upset. Like a father to him? Well that explained why he had been so worried, but is also served to heighten Brian’s jealousy. Brian was his father.
“It’s one of my friends isn’t it?” Brian persisted. “Nick or one of the others.”
B looked uneasy. “It’s hard to explain. A lot of things have changed since you went.”
“B, we gotta talk to him.”
“I’m not ready,” B whispered. “I want to stay here with you. I don’t want to leave so suddenly. I prefer you to him.”
Brian’s heart smugly sang to itself as he pulled B into his arms again. He did not mind Sammy taking care of B, but there was something unsettling about a replacement father.
“Don’t make me go. He’ll let me stay here, he said so on the phone. He wants me to be happy and he knows I’m happy here.”
“All right,” Brian said, smiling as he held his own son close. He kissed him on the head as tears began to creep from the corners of his eyes. “I don’t want you to go. But you have to talk to him sooner or later.”
“When I’m ready,” B said. “You have no idea how hard and complicated this all is.”