29 Brandon
Brandon
Brandon should have known better. He stands there, sobbing in just a towel, in front of his closest friends and two people he just met today. Of course, this is how it ends. He doesn’t deserve love. He’s such a fucking idiot.
“Hey,” Ollie says, hugging Brandon. “It’s okay.” Nicole and Ian join in the hug, surrounding Brandon like the shell of an egg. Brandon lets himself lean into them, crying.
“I think maybe we should go,” Safiya says softly outside the egg.
Brandon barely registers it as she and Tom leave.
For a little while, the only sound is of Brandon’s tears and water dripping on the floor.
He keeps his head down to hide the horrible contortions of his face as he wails.
He knew it was insane, but if it was insane, it had to be worth it, right?
“Hey, it’s okay,” Nicole says, squeezing his arm. “You’re going to be okay.”
“You deserve someone who won’t walk out like that but will talk with you,” Ollie says.
“He lied about his name, and he is wrapped up in dangerous, sketchy stuff,” Ian says.
Brandon knows they’re all right. But it still feels like a cannonball in the gut. Like shattering. He looks up at all of them, a halo around him, and forces a smile. “Yeah,” he says softly. “Sorry I yelled at you.”
“We deserved it,” Nicole says. “Go get dressed; I will make us all some strong drinks.”
Brandon nods again, happy to be given a task, goes into the den and towels off, and puts on his clothes, then pads back out. Nicole has made everyone vodka sodas, and they’re talking in soft voices.
“You don’t have to whisper,” Brandon says.
They all pause for a moment, exchanging glances. “Are you sure?” Ian asks, eyebrows up. “We’re talking about how much trouble Jon is.”
“Connor,” Ollie corrects. “His name is Connor. I don’t think Jon was a nickname. It was an alias. He knew all about guns, hand-to-hand combat, and he was there when a guy got shot. He was drama, Brandon, the bad, dangerous kind.”
“That might all be coincidence,” Brandon says. He knows they’re trying to help, but he would really prefer them just telling him he’s amazing and will find someone better. Trashing Jon just makes him feel stupid.
“I talked to him, dropped some info about KBA to see how he’d react,” Nicole says. “I did a lot of research with Ellen today, so I had some specifics to press him with. He covered, but I didn’t buy it.” She sips her drink. Everyone is quiet.
“Okay,” Ian says suddenly. “I should tell you all something. Today Heart-Eyes came to the store.”
“What?” Ollie screams. At the same time, Nicole says, “Jesus.” Brandon doesn’t say anything but feels his eyes bug out.
“He came to the store and flirted a little—”
“Tell me you didn’t,” Nicole interrupts.
“I didn’t!” Ian glares at her. “I’m not Brandon.”
“Ouch,” Brandon says, then sniffs.
“Too soon,” Ollie says quickly.
“Sorry.” Ian reaches out and squeezes Brandon’s arm. “I love you. And it’s not like I’m doing much better.”
Brandon nods, and Ian slides their hand down Brandon’s arm to squeeze his hand.
“What about Heart-Eyes?” Nicole asks, voice loud.
“Yeah,” Ian says, frowning. “So he asked for my number and left when I didn’t give it to him. Then, later, when I went out for lunch, he pulled up beside me in a car and made me get in with him.”
“Made you?” Ollie asks.
“With a gun.”
The only sound is Pete padding across the room with that blue thing in his mouth.
“Okay,” Nicole says.
“Yeah. So, in the car, he wasn’t actually so scary,” Ian says.
“Jesus, Ian—” Nicole starts.
“I didn’t!” Ian’s hands fly up, breaking with Brandon’s.
“I did not screw the trained killer. I’m just saying he seemed, like, reasonable as mercenaries or whatever go.
And he called someone, a woman, and she told me that Jon had agreed to bring them something on a zip drive, but hadn’t, and asked me to bring it to them instead, if I could find it. For ten million dollars.”
The room is quiet again. Even Pete is frozen by his water bowl, staring at Ian.
“Ten million,” Brandon whispers. “What’s on that zip drive?”
“I don’t know, but they undersold me,” Ian says, pulling a phone out of their pocket, opening it, and holding it up for them.
It looks like an auction site, but the current bid is being held by a large chibi character.
Weird. And the current bid is a number Brandon thinks is too high to be actual dollars.
“That’s the site that was on Ellen’s phone,” Nicole says, eyes wide with shock. “She didn’t say anything about this.”
“How did you see it on her phone?” Ollie asks.
“Whose phone is this?” Brandon asks, taking the phone from Ian.
“Jon’s. Connor’s. Whatever. I took it,” Ian says.
“Now you stole his phone?” Nicole smirks, then shakes her head. “This is bad news.”
“Did Ellen show you the auction?” Ollie asks, one eyebrow raising.
“I saw it, okay?” Nicole frowns.
“You fucked her!” Ian shouts.
“Can we focus on the more important thing?” Nicole says, her expression professional.
“I’m so glad I’m not the only one making bad decisions,” Brandon says.
“Focus!” Nicole says, clapping. “Ellen knew about this auction, and she didn’t tell me. She was who we were trusting to keep us safe.” She frowns more, thinking.
“The woman on the phone said we’d be too messy to kill,” Ian says.
“Glad our being messes finally has an upside,” Brandon says, not sure if he’s going to laugh or cry.
“Did you find the zip drive?” Ollie asks Ian.
Ian shakes their head. “No money for us.”
“Awww, you were going to split it?” Ollie asks.
“I thought maybe we could all get a place together,” Ian says, rolling their eyes. “Don’t make it a thing.”
“Awwww,” Ollie repeats, drawing it out more this time.
Nicole starts pacing, sipping her drink. “Ellen lying to me means she had her own agenda. She didn’t even hide the auction from me. She was so confident, she played me…” She sighs. “I’m an idiot.”
“But Jon is gone,” Ian says, rubbing her shoulder. “And the woman on the phone said we’re safe. So that doesn’t matter. It’s over, right?”
Nicole stares at each of them in turn, thinking. “It doesn’t feel like it. I don’t like being played like this. We should talk to someone. Victor maybe.”
Ian sighs. “I don’t know if he wants to talk to us. I did invite him in case Jon got violent though.”
“What?” Brandon asks. “Really? You guys think my taste in men is that bad?”
They all exchange glances again.
“We should really have talked about all this before the party,” Ollie says. “We could have worked together.”
Nicole takes a sip of her drink, nodding. “Yeah, we fucked that up.”
“We’re better as a team,” Brandon says. They are. Together, maybe, they could have figured everything out, and Brandon wouldn’t have ruined it with Jon.
“Yeah,” Ian says, rolling their eyes. “Could have kept me from embarrassing myself in front of Victor.”
“What did you two talk about, anyway?” Ollie asks.
“Let’s clean up,” Ian says, standing. “We can do group therapy later.”
Nicole goes over and locks the front door and puts the chain on. “I’ll crash on the sofa tonight. I just think we should all be together. I don’t believe we’re just done with this.”
They head up to the game room and clean up, and as Nicole reads out the unplayed trivia questions, and everyone laughs at Ollie’s obviousness— What is CIA training like?
Name three famous spy ciphers. —Brandon starts to feel like he’s crawling out of a pit back toward normalcy.
He knows later, when he’s alone in the den, he’ll be crying again.
A lot. But with his friends, he knows he can get through it.
And yeah, maybe Jon was bad news. Brandon isn’t suited to a life of crime.
But it was so good to feel like he was special.
He starts to cry again a little, collecting beer bottles, and Nicole wordlessly hugs him tightly, and then Ian and Ollie surround him, too. He’ll be okay. He can get through this.
After they’ve given the game room and living room and kitchen a thorough going-over, Nicole makes another round of drinks, and they sit down in front of the TV in the living room.
It’s late, but Brandon doesn’t want to go cry in bed just yet, and he can tell his friends know that.
So Ian turns on The Nanny , and they all spread out on the sofa, watching and laughing, even Nicole, who is clearly lost in thought.
It’s the third episode when Ian’s phone rings. They pull it out and smile slightly, standing to leave the room. “It’s Victor,” they say, as some sort of explanation.
“You never told us what you two talked about,” Nicole says.
Ian shrugs, putting the phone to their ear as they leave the room. “Yes. Who is this?” They stop, and Brandon and the others turn to watch Ian, their face now concerned, walking back over. They press Speaker and hold the phone out.
“—matter who this is,” a male voice says. “What matters is we have your boys.”
“Boys?” Ian asks.
“Victor and Connor,” the voice says. “And Connor isn’t doing so well, probably because of all the bleeding.”
Brandon feels sick. He feels a heavy weight splash down in his stomach, pushing everything else out, even air. He can’t breathe. He looks up at his friends. They all look the same.
“So here’s what’s going to happen: You’re going to bring us the Velvet Alley data. And then we’re going to let everyone go.”
“What?” Ian says. “We don’t have it.”
The voice laughs. “Yeah, Victor figured it out. He saved his own life. Said he wouldn’t tell us if we didn’t promise to spare him. And you. Sweet, right?”
“They could kill us anyway,” Nicole says, so softly that the phone can’t pick it up.
“How can we trust you?” Ian asks. “How do we know you won’t kill them and us anyway?”
“Mmmm,” the voice says, as though they hadn’t considered that. “I guess you can’t. But don’t worry, one dead body is enough to clean up for now.”
“One?” Brandon mouths, eyes wide. “Who?”
Ian shakes their head.
The voice gives them an address in Williamsburg.
“The gym?” Ian asks.
“Uh, yeah, it’s an abandoned gym,” the voice says, clearly bewildered that they know the place.
“It closed?” Ian asks. “I had a threesome in the locker room there, but I guess that was years ago.”
There’s silence as Ian seems to realize what they’ve said, and the voice takes a moment to process it.
“Look, just be here by midnight. No one else.”
“There are four of us,” Ian says.
The voice sighs. “Fine. You four. That’s it.”
“Where’s the zip drive?” Ian asks.
“Victor says check the dog. Hope he’s right. Otherwise he and Connor are dead.”
Then the line goes silent.