Stereo Blast Volume 1 [MxM]

Chapter 2.1

Ryan couldn’t rest easy. He’d thought about it, tried to make sense of it, but it was his ultimate failure when he couldn’t explain the man with the f****d up eyes. Or the situation that he and Taylor had found themselves in. He could see how shaken up the whole thing had made Taylor. It wasn’t anything like him to let such a thing mess with his emotions. Since they’d known each other, Taylor had been the one that had detached himself from everyone around them. Which made being friends with him harder.

Ryan could handle it. Only because he’d been friends with Taylor for so long, not seeing him every day made him feel all kinds of weird. He was Ryan’s own drug now, a routine that couldn’t be easily broken. Much like smoking or drinking, Ryan had fallen into a depth of darkness that he knew Taylor felt as well.

Taylor might not know what to call it, but Ryan knew the signs. He didn’t know what to make of those signs or whether he should even try to act on them. They were there though. He couldn’t do anything about that.

On top of all the things to happen today, Taylor had found out about Cleo. Ryan knew he was a bad liar, bad at keeping secrets at all, but he’d tried this time. He never wanted this to happen. He’d never meant for Taylor to find out about the confrontation in the first place.

Taylor wasn’t going to let it slide either. It just wasn’t him. The damage Taylor’s father dealt out on a regular basis was the foundation for Taylor’s rage and his out of control attitude.

Ryan saw this side of him almost every day. Even before they’d met, before they’d become friends, he’d heard about the Wolves’ smallest cub in the gang. Being the son of a gang leader had wired Taylor’s mind for violence. He was tough and Ryan almost thought it was a good thing. But he saw the effects it had on Taylor’s judgment.

Ryan crushed his cigarette out on the windowpane that looked out above Kitro District. His small room in a sturdy brick apartment was close to the center of the city and was just a block away from Taylor’s. He’d been here since Taylor thought he could handle being on his own. Which hadn’t been until last year.

Things like that weren’t his time in arguing over. If Taylor wanted to be unreasonable, he’d let him.

It was also kinda cute. But also annoying at the same time.

The ash smeared across the rotten wood. He dropped the last of the cigarette over the edge and watched as it disappeared into the pile of trash below his feet.

Taylor was going to start s**t and it would be Ryan cleaning it up. It was always that way. The few times Taylor had been smart enough to drop his fists had been the times the opposing side had decided to start s**t up again.

The unnecessary fighting was f*****g bullshit, especially when it was over him and who he used to be.

Who he never was.

That side of him had never existed in the first place. Taylor didn’t understand what it felt like when the past was brought up. He didn’t understand how insulting it was for him to think of Ryan as ever being that way in the first place. He acted like Ryan was supposed to chase down every person who’d made one snide remark about him.

Ryan understood him though. He knew why he did it. He was trying to protect Ryan and his own reputation. Ryan was the closest person he had and those outside the Wolves—and inside—knew it. He wasn’t afraid to hide their friendship, wasn’t afraid to die for the things he cared about.

He didn’t know if he could change Taylor’s mind after he’d made a decision. All he could do was try and hope.

He stood up from where he sat on the windowsill. Just as he climbed back into his apartment, he saw a mop of fizzy brown hair. A little girl with messy brown hair pulled tight in a pony-tail and ripped overalls huddled in the corner of his one bedroom apartment.

He sighed as he sat back down.

“Logan, I can see you.”

She stiffened, crouching down further with her leather jacket pulled up to cover her face. He’d already seen her. It wasn’t making a difference now.

“Logan, come on. I’m not mad.” He was irritated, but he always was when she broke in without him noticing. The twelve-year-old was a klepto and he was her main source.

Logan gave up on hiding and poked her head up. Her face was covered in old and new scars, bruises on her face and running along her arms. A nasty scab had grown over a cut on her chin. It was inflamed, red all along its edges like she’d been picking at it. She was a wild one, always looking for trouble everywhere she went. She was much like Taylor in that regard and Taylor knew it as much as Ryan did. It angered him and because of the anger, Taylor hated being around her. And like Taylor, Ryan hated when he saw himself in her as well.

“What are you doing here?” He braced himself on the edge of the window, staring as she climbed over to sit on his bed. He half expected her to huff and angrily walk off, but she didn’t. The look she was giving him could kill someone.

She continued to stare at him. It was too familiar. Taylor had really rubbed off on her.

He patted the empty spot beside him.

She didn’t move.

“Suit yourself.” He leaned back, folding his hands behind his head. Twisting around to get comfortable against the window frame, he closed his eyes.

It wasn’t long after that he heard her small and faint footsteps on the weakened floor. She crossed the room and nudged at his feet. He smiled, trying to keep her from seeing. She’d hit him if she did.

He moved his feet, his eyes still shut. He could feel her eyes on him, tracing his features, waiting for movement.

She mimicked him, leaning against the opposite side of the window. Their feet touched. A few minutes passed and he opened his eyes.

The silence bothered him. Made him feel weird.

Taylor and Logan could go on for hours sitting in silence while he could barely make it through a couple of seconds.

A bird flew off the roof of the building and over the empty sky.

“You know what’ll happen if they catch you with me again.”

“I don’t care.”

‘They’ meant her parents. Not all the bruises on her face were her own doing.

She was a good kid. Too independent but good. Her parents held her on a tight leash her entire life until they couldn’t keep her tied down. It was impossible to raise a kid in Kitro without them developing a need to explore and fight. He’d suffered from it just as Taylor did. It was a disease.

“You should,” he said, wishing that he didn’t have to. “You really should.”

He leaned his head back and looked out into the open sky, a feeling of longing inside of him. It was a strange feeling, one he wished he didn’t have to deal with. Emotions were weaknesses out here. Anyone could use them against you and Ryan was too inside his head most times to stop himself from letting others rule him with them.

Logan would probably end up like the rest of the gang members. They worked their asses off making scraps and by the time they’d made a decent life for themselves, they were on the path to being dead. It was surprising Logan had both her parents.

“Is Taylor going to kill Cleo?”

He bit his lip. When he turned to look at her, taking in her soft but fierce eyes and her tiny form, he could only see how frail she was. She couldn’t stand against anyone. She might think she was invincible, but she was glass.

“Yeah.”

It was what she needed to hear. Cleo was an overlooking threat to her and everyone living in Kitro. The Eastcliffs would cut every single one of them down, anyone who lived in Kitro. They killed their own people all the time. Ryan had been a witness to that.

If he could give her anything to make up for all the hurt she would get in her coming years, he would do it. To not to just felt wrong.