~*Flashback / Jaime’s POV*~

“I’m telling you man, this party is going to be an absolute killer!” I grin broadly as I jump down into the seat next to Mike. “Everyone who is everyone is going to be there! Plus, there‘s going to be a lot of booze and girls there too!”

I send a wink in Mike’s direction but he just scoffs at me and turns his attention back to the television screen. He knows how big of a deal this party is, and he knows just how much alcohol is going to be there, yet he still insists that he’s not going to it; mainly because he doesn’t want to let Vic down.

“Jaime, I don‘t care if there is going to be a whole circus full of girls there, I‘m not going so will you please just shut the hell up about it, will ya?”

“Come on, Mikey…” I whine, drawing out the ‘e’ of his name slightly as he turns his head to glare at me. The only person who is allowed to call him that, is his brother but then again I’ve known him long enough to be classed as his second brother; especially considering how often I’m round their place. “Vic‘s not going to be there; he has a date tonight with that waitress from Starbucks, and I don‘t want to be the loner that goes to parties alone, so get your butt upstairs and into that shower before dressing up into something sexy! Please?”

I can see Mike’s mind working on overtime as he takes in my words, and a second later he sighs in defeat. “Alright, I‘ll go but only if you promise me that we‘ll be back before Vic gets home from his date. I told him and my parents this morning that I was staying here tonight and he‘s bound to call round and check that I am actually here before going home.”

“I promise, you have nothing to worry about! Now go on, go and shower!” I agree excitedly as I push him off the couch and over towards the bathroom. “We leave in ten minutes!”

“Yeah, yeah.” He grumbles as he shuts the bathroom door behind him.

I wait until I could hear the shower running before rushing back out into the living room and over towards the mirror to make sure that my hair was still sticking up in the style that I liked. There was another reason as to why I wanted to take Mike to the party with me, apart from not being the one to arrive alone, but also so that he could help me get with this girl in the cheerleading team, you know by talking me up to her while I stand leaning against the doorframe talking to one of the jocks.

That’s probably what I like most about our high school, the jocks don’t look down on anyone as they know that without the support of the other students, they wouldn’t get half as pumped up for a game than what they do from the roar of support from the students gathered round the field. To them, it’s all about gaining people’s trust, so they make sure to take the time to talk to everyone whenever they can…even if they do secretly think that the music students are a bunch of losers, myself included.

I was just starting to think of what I was going to say to the cheerleader when Mike steps into the living room, dressed up in his smartest skinny jeans, black shirt and a black waistcoat that makes him look rather distinguished if I do say so, myself. When my eyes land on him, I can’t help but let out a little wolf-whistle as I look him up and down, causing him to look down as his cheeks flush bright red.

“Now, that’s what I’m talking about…hot damn Michael Fuentes! You are no doubt going to be fending off every girl at the party left, right and centre!”

“Shut up…are we going or not?” He asks as a small smile plays across his lips, his legs moving his body over towards the front door as I nod and reach for my car keys as we both know that I won‘t be drinking; my personality is enough to make people think that I‘m drunk already, so who needs it?

As we pulled up outside of the house the party was being held at; we were taken aback as to how many people were actually there. Considering it was the biggest party of the year, it shouldn’t have surprised me to see at least thirty people all dancing, drinking and even making out with each other on the front lawn. I locked up the car and took hold of Mike’s wrist to stop him from turning back before leading him up to the front door where I nodded at one of the jocks as a greeting and heading inside.

To say that it was crowded was a complete understatement, for you couldn’t move a step without being in contact with someone else. I looked over my shoulder at Mike to see that he was looking round anxiously, I knew that he didn’t like places that were overcrowded like this, hell he waits until everyone leaves the school before going home himself so that he doesn’t get shoved about, but I give his hand a little squeeze and he reciprocates with a small smile as I lead him to what seems to be the door to the back garden.

Once outside, I could sense Mike relax a little; there was a few people outside dancing but there wasn’t as many as there was inside and to be honest, I was thankful for that as I turned to face him with a happy expression on my face. “Alright, you wait right here and I‘ll be back as soon as I find us something to drink.”

“Okay…don‘t be too long.” He replies, his arms crossing over his chest as he takes a look at his surroundings.

“I won’t, don’t worry. I’ll be back sooner than you think!” I say, sending him a little wink as I make my way over to where the drinks table was.

Knowing my luck, somebody would have already spiked the punch bowl, so instead I opted for grabbing two cans of lager out of the cooler, knowing that Mike wouldn’t want a soft drink. As I turned back to where I left Mike, I stopped dead in my tracks to find that he wasn’t where I had left him…actually, I couldn’t see him anywhere in the garden.

“Mike?” I call his name out loudly over the music, my eyes scanning through the mass of people who were dancing drunkenly to whatever song was being played out through the sound system. “Mike? Hey, did anyone see where Mike Fuentes went to?”

“Yeah, I just saw him a minute ago, he was getting pulled upstairs by one of the Football players who was saying something about needing to teach him a lesson for kissing his girl or something.” Derek Sanders explained as he walked past, his arm draped round his girlfriends shoulders as they head down towards the swimming pool area.

“Shit.”

Without thinking, I was throwing the drinks to the side and legging it back inside the house, shoving myself through the crowd of people and deliberately avoiding the glares that they send in my direction when I accidentally step on their toes but I didn’t care, I had to get to Mike. Despite the panic that was flowing through my mind, I couldn’t help but be a little proud of the boy for taking a chance and kissing a girl; although I really wish he would have waited to ask me which one was safe for him to kiss.

After what seemed like a lifetime, I finally made it through the drunken crowd of student and up to the top of the stairs, all the while dodging couples who had their tongues down each others throats every couple of steps. I didn’t need to take a guess as to where the Football player had taken Mike as he had a couple of his pals standing guard outside the bedroom door, when they saw me coming, they stood their ground and started to laugh.

“Not a chance, Preciado. This room is already taken.” One of the jocks sneers as I attempted to push past him, the other one grabbing hold of my arms and shoving me back into the wall opposite.

“I don’t care if it’s taken or not. I’m not leaving here without Mike!” I snarl, my anger building up inside of me when I hear him scream on the other side of the door.

Without thinking, I kick the back of the legs of the jock who shoved me as well as a knee to the crotch of the other, and charged open the door where I found Mike being pinned up against the wall by none other than Austin Carlile; the schools leading Quarterback. As I took a step towards him, I noticed that Mike’s shirt and waistcoat had been torn open and his ribs were starting to show signs of bruising already, his nose looked like had been broken and he was struggling as hard as he could to free his wrists from Austin‘s vice like grip.

“Get the fuck away from him!” I growled menacingly, as I grab onto Austin’s collar and tugged on it sharply, pulling him back a few steps from Mike who slumped down to the floor, clutching onto his sides.

I grab a hold of him and manage to get him to as far as the door before I was being pulled back by Austin, his hands tight round my arms. I shouted at Mike to get to the car, and somehow he managed to get past Austin’s pals without them so much as touching him. I don’t know how I managed it, but I broke free of Austin’s hold to clock him in the nose, my knuckles throbbing at the impact but I didn’t care, I was too full of rage about what he had just done to Mike. I started to aimlessly swing my fists at him, feeling a smirk spread across my lips as I hit him square in the face every time before forcing myself to stop and go after Mike, leaving Austin and his pals whimpering like babies on the bedroom floor.

I raced out of the house in record time, my mind telling me not to bother looking back behind me once I make my way through the front door, past the partygoers and down to where I had parked my car, where my eyes landed on Mike who was using the bonnet of the car for support.

“Mike!” I called out to him as I start to pick up my pace, but he didn’t seem to hear me as his head only lifts up when he hears the sound of my footsteps on the sidewalk next to him.

“How could you leave me on my own?!“ He asks softly, as he looks up at me with pain filled eyes.

“Mike-”

“You left me on my OWN!” Mike shouts in agony as he spins round to look at me properly.

“I’m sorry…I thought that you would have been alright on your own for a moment, I didn’t think that you would have started to hit on a girl right away without a boost of confidence first, especially Austin’s girl!” I retaliated as I reach out for him, to see how bad the damage on his ribs were but he shoves my hands away, a look of pure rage etching across his features.

“I didn‘t start kissing anyone! She came up to me and shoved her tongue down my throat without even saying anything!” I opened my mouth to apologize for making the assumption that Mike had started it but he continued on before I could get a word out. ”Do you have any idea what he was about to do to me? He was about to fucking let his pals hold me down so that he could rape me while they stabbed at my arms with needles full of god knows what! He was actually smirking when he punched me, his voice loud enough to make sure that I knew just what was going to happen to me when he was done…I screamed out for you before he pulled me into the house, but you didn‘t even turn round!”

“I didn’t hear you! Mike, if I had heard you scream out for me, then I would have turned round!” I state truthfully, but he shoves me back, anger flashing across his face.

“You are such a liar!” He screams at me, the tears building up in his eyes as he takes a step back. “You were in on the whole thing, that‘s why you practically begged for me to come with you tonight so that Austin had someone to rip into! You planned the whole thing because you never gave a flying fuck about me in the first place!”

“That’s not true, Mike!” I shout back, his words sending a pain through my chest. I did care about him, I cared a lot, and not just in a big brother kind of way as I saw him more than just a friend but I just couldn’t bring myself to tell him that.

“I should never have went to yours in the first place…” He mumbles before turning away from me and running down the street, his screams of ‘I HATE YOU’ filling my ears as I slump down to the ground, my against my car as I watched him run as fast as his body would allow him too away from me.

~*End Flashback / End Jaime‘s POV*~

“You let him go so that he could cool off, didn‘t you?” I ask Jaime softly as he closes his eyes and turns his head away from me, the tears leaving marks down his pale cheeks.

“Yeah. I thought that it would have been best…but, what the hell was I thinking. I waited for an hour and a half before I started to call his cell phone, but it was only after the third try that I really started to panic when he didn‘t answer. I shouldn‘t have just let him run off like that on his own, I should have gone after him to make sure that he was alright but…I didn‘t.” Jaime explains, his voice shaking more and more with every word that he spoke.

“Jaime-”

“I decided to go looking for him when I couldn’t get a hold of him. I went to his parents house first to see if he went back there, but they hadn’t seen him since he left for school…actually, they started to panic too as he told them before he left that he was staying at mine that night…I made sure to tell them not to worry, that he probably just went to get some pizza’s without telling me and that I’d call them when he came back. I thought that I’d check the school grounds next, the bleachers by the football field to be precise as that’s where he usually skived off from classes or had a smoke. Anyway that’s…where I found him…” Jaime describes, his voice cracking as he closes his eyes and shakes his head vigorously to get whatever image he had out of his mind before continuing. “I have never seen him look so broken before in my life than what I witnessed then…I ran over to him but he was unconscious; turns out he decided to take a couple bottles of vodka and jack from the party along with some of Vic‘s old anti-depressant pills…from the bathroom before he left for school. I didn‘t know what to do apart from screaming his name over and over, shaking him by his shoulders to get him to wake up…I could have stopped him if I had just went after him…It was all my fault.”

I feel my mouth open as my free hand goes up to cover it, an action that is mainly and attempt to stop myself from crying or even possibly screaming out in fear, pain and shock. After a second or two, I manage to close my mouth and put my hand back in my lap before looking over at Jaime’s shaking body. I let out a small sigh and shuffle my body so that I was closer to him and able to wrap my arms around him, pushing his head lightly towards my shoulder as he continues to shake, his breathing uneven due to the cold wind surrounding us and because of the great urge to cry.

“Jaime-”

“I called for an ambulance as soon as I stopped screaming…I called Vic soon after interrupting his date to tell him what had happened and he started to freak out big time, just like I knew that he would. I don’t blame him though, he was so close to losing Mike…When he reached the hospital, they had to pump his stomach to clear it of all the pills and alcohol that he took, he was just mere seconds from his heart giving out and passing over to the other side. I blamed myself for what had happened to him, I still do. If I had just followed him when he ran out of that party, then it wouldn’t have escalated as far as what it did. It took a lot of support from his parents, Vic and myself to help Mike recover and when he did, I swore to him that I’d always have his back, but now…I’ve broken my promise to him tonight by turning him away from my own home…”

“No. Don’t you even dare think about going down that road, Jaime! You are not going to keep blaming yourself, especially not because of tonight as that’s not your fault; you didn’t turn him away…I did and besides, Mike would never do something like that twice, you want to know why? Because he‘s not the kind of guy that makes the same mistake more than once, he‘s smart and he knows how to handle things now.” I say sharply, as I pull Jaime away from me slightly and stare straight into his eyes.

“Tell me this then, Tony. If you’re so sure that Michael wouldn’t do the same thing twice, then why isn’t he answering any of our calls or texts and all of the lights in the apartment are shut off?” Jaime asks me seriously as we both look up at the front door before looking back at each other.

“Shit.” I mutter as I jump up and start pounding my fists on the front door, before taking a step back and opening up my backpack, searching through the contents for my own key that Mike had given to me on the very first day that he asked me to be his. I mentally curse myself for not looking for it sooner. I feel the cool edge of the key at my fingertips, grasping onto it tightly, I pull it out and shove it into the lock, hoping desperately that Mike forgot to put the latch on the inside. I was in luck for the first time tonight.

Before the door was even slightly ajar, Jaime was barging his way through it, rushing towards the kitchen; it was empty. I took to towards the living room which was also empty, as were the other rooms that were downstairs. I wasn’t going to admit anything to Jaime, but I was starting to get really anxious; I could feel the start of a panic attack coming on, but I had to focus. Taking in deep, slow breaths, I looked over to Jaime and we both nodded, heading for the stairs, taking them two at a time as we run over to the first door that we see; the guest room, it was empty. The same could be said for the bathroom, second guest room and study. In a way I was sort of relieved as it meant that Mike wasn’t home like we originally thought but then again, we still didn’t know where he is. I turn to Jaime who lets out a small sigh and shrugs his shoulder, but the look of worry doesn’t leave his expression.

“I guess that you were right, he’s not here.” Jaime sighs in relief as I lean tenderly against the hallway wall, my head turning to the left at the one remaining closed door.

“I wouldn’t say that just yet, Himes…there’s still one more room left to check…” I say, my head nodding in the direction of the door as I swallow the lump in my throat.

I glance at Jaime, and his expression changes to something that I don’t really understand. Fear? Sadness? Guilt? They all flashed across his face, but none of them stayed long enough for me to pick up on how he really felt as he followed the direction in which my head was nodding towards, his eyes growing wide as he saw the door.

“Oh. Right.” He breaths, his body silently shuddering beside me.

Jaime grabs hold of my hand as he turns towards the remaining door; what was once mine and Mike’s bedroom before the incident with the whore that he brought back here; despite the situation at hand and my reaction to that incident, I‘d rather have him bring another whore back than to what my mind was telling me that he had done. I shake my head and give Jaime’s hand a little squeeze; my way of telling him that I’ll go first. Jaime nods in reply and I take a step towards the closed door, sucking in a deep breath as my hand touches the cool door handle. I silently count to three before turning the handle and slowly opening the door to reveal what can only be described as my one and only nightmare; it was like something that I had only seen in one of the awful horror movies that Mike had made me watch with him, and what I thought would be a repeated scene to Jaime as both of our mouths hang open and the sounds of our piercing screams echo around the two-storey apartment.