Bradley Fitzgerald (![]() ![]() @ 2017-12-18 17:48:00 |
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Entry tags: | #september 2017 |
Who: Brad and Darren
What: Phone Call
When: Saturday, Sept. 23rd - early afternoon.
Warnings: Language
Status: Complete.
Having gotten the number from Fin's phone Brad sat down on the couch, rolling the phone in his hands for a few moments, taking a deep breath before pressing the ‘call’ button, if Darren answered the call from an unknown number it was good, otherwise he didn't know what he'd do. He needed to find out what it was that had driven the lovers apart so suddenly, what had caused Fin to do what he did. Bringing the phone to his ear he listened to it ring.
Darren had been home for a little bit. The weather was dreary but Maxine always got him around without fail and kept him dry. She’d not been his first choice of vehicle but once he saw how reliable she was he was glad to have chosen her over the other choices.
He had papers spread out on his kitchen table and he was sitting there, toiling over grading. Grading was boring and some of these kids….
Sighing hard, Darren tossed his red ink pen down. He couldn’t focus on this. Fin continued to come to the forefront of his mind, they’d ended on such a bad note and he hated leaving things that way. But Fin had to understand how deeply that wounded him, after all of the fuss about it.
When the phone rang he’d been replaying the scenario in his head and he almost didn’t hear it. Snapping out of the trance Darren leaned over to grab his phone, looked at the number and debated on letting it ring. But something told him to answer so he did, “Yeah?” Whoever it was had better have a good reason to call.
Brad had half expected the phone to ring out or go to voicemail, so when he heard the call pick up and a rather gruff ‘Yeah?’ he released the breath he was holding. “Darren… it's Brad.” He paused, expecting to hear the dial tone when the other man realized who it was.
”...It’s Brad…”
That was the last person Darren wanted to talk to. It wasn’t because Brad was a terrible person, he understood that he had been protective of their mutual friend when the blood was shed. But for some reason this call was giving him a bad feeling.
“How’d you get my number?” He inquired, not unkindly, sitting up a touch straighter in the kitchen chair. He couldn’t recall giving his number to the blonde though he figured it made sense that Fin might’ve, but he couldn’t see how that would’ve come up in conversation. Darren had little to no interest in Brad, even in spite of what they’d gone through together.
Brad knew that he was the last person that Darren would want to talk to, well the second last person at least. But despite of everything the brunette had a right to know what was going on, although he didn’t want to approach that subject just yet.
“How do you think?” He replied, looking around at the room where he was sitting in, the fist shaped holes in the drywall now gone as he had spent most of the afternoon patching them up so his friend wouldn’t lose his bond or anything for damage to the property. “I’m taking as impartial view to this as I can. Seriously, what the hell happened between you two? One minute you’re pulling a Dracula, the next I find a hole in the living room wall and I’m get yelled at to get the fuck out.”
Darren sighed, lifting a hand to his face. His fingers pinched at the bridge of his nose in annoyance, and he closed his eyes for a moment. This wasn’t something that involved Brad, not really, but he supposed that since Brad and Fin were so close he had some sort of a right to know at least a little.
Lowering his hand from his face, Darren opened his eyes and sat back into the hard chair, “While it’s none of your fucking business, I’ll give you the background. Basically Fin and I fought pretty hard with his Ma regarding the auction. She brought it up, we both actively protested and I felt like we won. I assumed there was a clear understanding and direction between us, and that Fin wasn’t going to sign up. He’s better than that, charity or no. But he’s not mine, I don’t get to pick and choose what he does. That doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it, especially when I fight for something and what I’m fighting against happens anyway.”
The more human part of him, the part that had become more defined since leaving home, felt a little bad about how Brad was yelled at considering he’d only been swept up in the tide of their emotion. “Did I look like Dracula?” He said, amused at the mental image. “I don’t like blood that much, but Fin likes to be bitten. I’m sure you knew that already.”
“You’re right, it is none of my fucking business but I think you need some serious Fin 101.” Brad took a deep breath before he started, telling Darren the history that Fin obviously had never mentioned - how Fin was pretty much a miracle baby for his parents, that they had tried many times before and since to have children but for whatever reason Fin was it, how Krys had even been trying for another baby when Cameron was killed and Fin was only three. How when he and Fin became friends that Krys didn’t like it at all, they got along like brothers and it hurt Fin’s mother because she was never able to give Fin a sibling and seeing her son so close to someone reminded her of that every time she saw him. “That’s why he brought the auction up with me, he knew that me just showing up and being there with him would be like waving a massive red flag at a bull. It wasn’t about you, it was about getting revenge on his mother.”
Brad sighed softly after his rather lengthy monologue. “Yeah you did. And no I didn’t, I don’t know the Fin you know, I’m about fifteen years behind. I had only just turned seventeen when I last saw him, before my parents moved me south so I could go to college in Boston.”
“Getting revenge? By doing something he said he wasn’t going to do, and fought against? There are better ways of getting revenge. Trust me, I’m the king of getting back at my mother, and that isn’t it. That’s more like…” Darren said, considering the words very carefully, “A red flag for her and a huge fuck you to me. So, I took what I was given and left. By his agreeing to do that auction it was as if I’d wasted all of my breath trying to fight for his honor. But, like I said before, he’s not mine and even if he was I don’t control him. I never want to. But I have pride, too, and I deserve respect just like anyone. Maybe if we’d talked about it, together, instead of just springing it on me things would’ve turned out differently.”
He had heard every word that Brad said, and while he felt a little bit of sympathy for the cause that didn’t excuse either of their behavior, Krys or Fin. His family was dysfunctional, too, but at least they knew when to leave each other alone.
“I don’t care that you and Fin used to be friends. It’s a good thing he’s got people to rely on. And that’s a hell of a welcome back.” Darren said, referencing what had happened Thursday night between all of them.
“Well I suppose you’ll be happy to hear he’s not going tonight after all.” Brad said in rather a neutral tone, having heard everything that Darren had said and took it on board. Maybe it was now time to tell Darren what he had originally rung to say. “I don’t think they’ll let him out before the end of the weekend at least. I’m guessing you haven’t heard…”
“What are you talking about?” Darren asked, tired of talking about shit that wasn’t relevant anymore. “Heard what?” It was obvious he hadn’t heard. Had something happened? There was a flag that had gone up, something that was felt deep inside that suggested something was awry.
Obviously he hadn’t heard. “Darren… Fin’s in the hospital. Apparently he drunk too much and decided to go swimming.” Brad sighed. “I've only allowed to see him for five minutes here and there and he didn’t want to talk about it. Don’t know if he’d want to see you, disagreements aside I know you care about each other and you have the right to know.”
Drinking too much didn’t sound like the Fin he knew. Or maybe that was a side of the blonde Darren hadn’t taken the time to get to know. There were many things he still wasn’t aware of because he’d never taken the time to ask. Any time he and Fin were together they weren’t having deep conversations.
The shock he felt was coupled with stubbornness - the fact that Fin wouldn’t want to see him was contestable considering how they’d left things. This was not his fault, no matter how Fin took it. Darren only had the stake in it that the blonde had let him have, and that piece (presently) was very small.
“I’ll go over there now. I need a little bit to get dressed, but I’ll go be there with him. When you’re available to be there, too, maybe we can take shifts. He shouldn’t be alone right now.” That was the hard part. He did care about Fin. Probably more than the blonde knew, and losing him wasn’t an option especially when it was over something stupider than what he’d done to himself.
Brad honestly didn't know that much about Fin as he was now, as he mentioned to Darren, he had missed a sizeable chunk of his friend's adult life. What he did know from the few hours catching up on Thursday afternoon was that Fin's relationship with the brunette Texan went much deeper than the ‘friends with benefits’ that Fin assured him was the extent of their relationship.
He knew enough about these types of things from not only his psychology studies but from life in general to know that if someone was classed as a ‘suicide survivor’ that usually crisis support or mental health workers were sent to make sure that they wouldn’t try again. Not that he thought Fin actually meant to kill himself, hopefully it was just a stupid, drunken mistake but no one knew what was going on in the mind of someone else, no matter how well one thought they knew them.
“Don't know about taking shifts, he's in the safest place for him at the moment. I won't be at the hospital tonight, I'm going to be giving Krys a real good piece of my mind. Anything you want me to add?” Brad was looking forward to chewing Fin's mother out in front of her colleagues at the auction. “Just be careful, he might have a mental health worker hanging around, to make sure he doesn't go doing something stupid… again.”