"I don't care what you think!" Kit screamed into the phone. "Well that's your opinion." He continued. "I do not want you talking bad about him. Not to me. Do you know how awful it is to badmouth your own son to his brother? I'm hanging up." Kit stated firmly to his mother. He'd heard the last of her complaints about Asher being disrespectful and a bad son. If anyone had been disrespectful, it was her. It was her fault Asher had gone and left anyway. Now Kit was alone. Just like he'd been all those years. Of course, now he had Simon, but his brother being gone from the house was terrible.

The Ericsson home was quiet, too quiet, and Kit was growing reckless. His mother had gone on rampage after rampage, and there was only so much comfort Kit had to offer. She was his adopted mother, so he cared deeply for her, but damn was he angry with her about Asher. Never had he been so angry in his life. Asher was also always a second thought to her, and Kit knew she thought his older brother was a mistake.

Kit thought about calling Asher, but he wasn't sure when his brother got off of work, so instead he called Simon.

"Hey."

"Hi." Simon's voice rang from the other side of the phone, "what's up?"

"Oh no. New question," Kit responded quickly. "I don't like that one. You tell me about you."

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. The last thing I want to do is think about my life. Tell me about yours," Kit prodded.

"Well Liam apologized for freaking out about Shea."

"That's weird." Kit fidgeted slightly with his phone, shifting it to the other hand.

"I know. It's so unlike him. I think we need to have a talk, but he isn't back from practice yet."

"Right," Kit rubbed his neck nervously. "Practice."

"I just don't think Liam would lie to me."

"Well you are very close." Kit pursed his lips, "It'd be a surprise. Anyway, are you going to?"

"To what?"

"To message Shea?"

"No." Simon's voice crackled on the other side of the phone. "I'm done with boys for a while, I think. Shea and I were a mess, and just need to be over."

"That's very mature of you."

"Thanks. Now are you sure you don't wanna talk about things?"

"I... I've been fighting a little bit with my mom," Kit mumbled.

"About what?"

"About Asher," Kit ran a hand across his brow. "It's her fault he's gone."

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah. Now I told you what you wanted to know, so can we move on?" Kit asked.

"Sure..." There was a shuffling on the other end of the phone, "I actually gotta go, Liam's home. I'll call you in a minute and tell you everything."

"You do that." Kit's weak voice mumbled, "Bye."

.... 

   "What do you want to drink?" Shea's voice called as they entered the foreign home.

     Asher felt like he'd stepped into the belly of the beast, as if he'd walked right into a booby trap. He felt like he was in a place where he was never meant to be. He wanted to have no hard feelings for Shea, but the idea of ironing things out finally held him locked into place.

     "Uh.. anything's fine. Do you have pop?"

     "Not that kind of drink," Shea's voice was gruff and strange as the rest of the house seemed to be. "My family's Irish, want some whiskey?"

     "No... that's alright. I shouldn't drink.. I don't think it'd be good for me."

     "Suit yourself." Shea shrugged, opening the bottle and taking a swig right from it. "I wanna get drunk."

      "Why?"

     "To forget," Shea smirked.

     "Forget about what?"

      "Everything," Shea took another swig, "Seems to me like you've got more than enough to forget about."

      "You can say that again."

      "We really don't have that much to talk about do we?" Shea asked.

      "No," Asher agreed. "This is awkward."

       "It's always awkward when one person is drinking, and the other isn't. You sure you don't want any."

      "I'm positive," Asher sighed.

     "I think the only thing we really have to talk about is Simon," Shea shrugged. "Fucks sake, I don't wanna do that with you."

...drinking

...drinking

...Drunk.

     Despite Shea's statement, that seemed to be the main thing Shea wanted to do, and the more they talked, the more Shea strayed the conversation back to Simon. Asher wasn't in the mood to think about Simon; he still felt too bad for what he'd done, but Shea was relentless.

     "You know what?" Shea asked, but didn't wait for a response. "He wasn't even worth it." Shea's breath was heavy with the alcohol he'd consumed, and from the sway about him, he was clearly intoxicated. "He would fuck with me, then go off and fuck with you." Asher had gotten to the point of having just about enough of the conversation.

     "Did you say you fucked him?" Asher's voice caught in his throat.

     "We didn't have sex... he was a prude. I meant fucking with, as in fucking with our feelings... like my feelings!"

     "Simon never fucked with my feelings. He made it perfectly clear what his intentions were." Asher huffed, leaning his head on his arm. He wanted to leave, but he just needed a good excuse.

     "What'd he want with you then?"

     "To be my friend?" Asher's anger was bubbling within him, and he had to use his therapy tactics to keep from lashing out at Shea.

     "Sure.. he prolly just said that to confuse you. He was such a little shi-"

     "DON-" Asher began, but stopped himself and steadied his own breathing. "Don't talk about him like that."

     "Why not? He screwed me over, he screwed you over-"

     "I have to leave." Asher stood up from his chair. "I feel like I'm going to throw up."

    "You didn't have anything to drink?" Shea's face contorted in judgement.

     "I know." Asher left the house with a sigh. He and Shea were on good terms, but that certainly didn't mean that Asher cared for the boy. Quite the contrary, getting to know Shea had given Asher a legitimate reason to dislike him. Still, Asher couldn't be one to judge with his several tons of baggage.

      When Asher entered his car, where he'd stupidly left his phone, he saw several missed calls from Kit. 

      "Hey Kit-"

      "Where have you been?" 

     "You'll never guess." Asher chuckled. 

... 

       Simon hung up the phone and stood to meet his brother at the door. After practice Liam was usually home late, and Simon would be in bed, but today Simon had waited up. Liam's short stopped at his mid thigh, and his t-shirt clutched tightly to his chest. His blonde hair was wet with sweat, and his eyes were tired and surprised to see Simon. 

      "Hi." Liam's brow furrowed, "You're still awake?"

      "Yeah. Did you get my message?"

      "My phone was off. I'm sorry. Was it important?" Liam rubbed the back of his neck. 

      "Yes," Simon shifted on his feet. 

       "Okay. I.. uh.. what's up?"

       "We should do something. Together. Just you and I. I feel like we keep just missing each other and stuff. I want to talk to you, spend some extra time with you."

       "Sure Simon." Liam's face turned to a smile, "That sounds nice.. I'm not sure what we can swing right now, things are a little tight. We could.. we could just do a Saturday at the mall? Would that be alright? Just lunch at the food court, and we can walk around?" 

       "I'd like that." Simon paused. "Liam... would you.. would you ever lie to me?" 

       "I.." Liam choked on his saliva, "I'd try not to." 

       "Oh... I went out to get coffee with Asher." Simon shrank, "He's in foster care now, and he invited me out, so I went, and I shouldn'tve of... I'm sorry." 

      "We- Simon, let's... if we can.. turn over a new leaf. It was probably wrong of me to be trying to control who you were around... Lord knows I haven't always been with the best crowd.. I was overstepping. I- I meant what I said... about Shea-" Liam's teeth gritted at the name. "If you want to be around him you should do... I guess the same goes for Asher...."

      "I'm still sorry. I should've told you sooner."

      "Yeah. It was Shea when you had the panic attack? Shea who yelled at you on the front lawn?" Liam scrunched his forehead to remember. "Maybe I was wrong... It seems like a lot more pain has been caused for you by Shea than by Asher... I don't even really remember why I didn't like him... I guess I just saw myself more in him... though I--" 

      "You were looking out for me.. and I'm glad." Simon pulled Liam into a hug. "I don't know what I'd do without you." 

      "You might have to.." Liam grumbled. 

     "What?" 

     "I just won't always be there to look out for you, and I hope.. I hope you can find someone else to look out for you." Liam explained. 

      "You as well." 

      "Thanks..."

      "There's nothing... nothing you wanted to tell me? Nothing happened?" Simon titled his head to the side slightly. 

       "I... well.. this is kinda hard to say... but the mon-" Liam began, but was cut off by the ringing of Simon's phone.

     "It's the rehab center," Simon's voice rose with concern. "I should-"

     "Answer, we can talk later.. It can definitely wait," Liam's face betrayed slight relief. 

     "Okay.. It's just with Kit being in such a bad situation, I feel like I should-"

    "Go!" Liam smiled.