Stereo Blast Volume 1 [MxM]

Chapter 7.2

He turned to the backrooms. For a second, he felt his entire body being tugged toward the back, but he held his ground. The music, the people dancing around him, were a blur. The bass thumped inside of him, though he could only feel it. It grew inside of him until it was hard for him to breathe. His eyes stared at the door that led to a room. He hoped—something that felt foreign but necessary—Ryan was in there. He hoped he could say all the right things to mend the shattered connection that was all but Taylor’s fault.

The knot in his throat didn’t go away as he walked to the door. He hesitated, his hand hovering over the handle. The eyes of the many people kept burning into his back and none of his thoughts were making any sense. Something was wrong. He could feel it in his entire body and it rocked him to the core.

The door swung open. It hit an outstretched leg.

Black boots with chains hanging from them that looked similar to Taylor’s peeked from around the door. Taylor’s heart plummeted.

He walked around the door and into the dim room. The blue and pink neon signs lit the room with an eerie glow. He saw the blood first and then the beaten body of Tike. His eyes widened as he took in the man’s bruised face that had swollen up. He looked nothing like himself. The once handsome and flamboyant drug dealer was a bloody mess of spit, teeth, and snot. Taylor had seen so many dead bodies he couldn’t be fazed, but he was taken off guard.

He turned and that’s where he found Ryan.

Taylor fell to Ryan’s side, gently turning him over. His chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm, the only thing that eased Taylor’s racing heart, but he was frantic to get Ryan into his arms.

“Ryan?” He didn’t know what to say. He held Ryan to his chest, cradling his head in his hand, gripping him around the waist with the other. He gave him a slight shake.

Ryan’s head rolled to the side. His lips parted and drool dribbled down his chin.

“It’s okay,” Taylor said, but the words fell on silence. “It’s okay, Ry. I’ve got you.”

He checked along Ryan’s body, expecting to find a cut or something that would explain why Tike was lying dead on the couch. He gave out a soft sigh when he found Ryan fine. But when he noticed Ryan’s unbuttoned pants, he stilled.

His thoughts raced a million miles and his blood boiled. He glared over at Tike’s body. He hated to think about what the man had done. If he wasn’t already dead, Taylor would have done everything he could to to destroy Tike and make him plead for mercy.

He had to force his anger down. Ryan needed him.

When he looked down at Ryan’s face, soft and gone from this world, he thought of how he shouldn’t have let this happen. It was irrational to think this was his fault. But the fight and his own hateful words had sent Ryan running to the only other person he trusted. Taylor couldn’t help to think this was what he’d been warning Ryan about.

“Why couldn’t you have listened?” He asked, his voice barely above a whisper. He knew though that he’d demanded Ryan to believe talk from the streets and to turn his back on someone who he’d considered a close friend. How could he expect Ryan to know this would happen? How could he expect Ryan to believe such horrible things when Taylor had never believed the rumors spread about Ryan?

There was nothing he could do about the past. All he could do was make sure Ryan was safe now and in the future. He couldn’t let this happen again or he would blame himself.

He gathered Ryan into his arms and slowly rose to his feet. The party had gone on, the music louder than ever, and no one out there knew what had happened in this tiny room. They didn’t know the host was dead or that Ryan had been assaulted. Taylor didn’t want them to know only for Ryan’s sake. He didn’t even need to hear Ryan say a thing to know this would destroy him. Ryan was strong, but what had happened to him here, from what Taylor could gather, had been a crack in his armor. For anyone to find this out, it would be the same as everyone knowing his past.

Taylor winced as he remembered again the look upon Ryan’s face when he’d called him a slut. Ryan had never been one nor would he ever be. That was in the past and that’s where it should have stayed.

Taylor walked out the door, holding Ryan to his chest, his heart racing and his body growing hot. It was the wrong place and the wrong time, but when he looked down at Ryan, the tall lanky boy with his curly brown hair, and his many piercings, he could only think of how much he loved him. He didn’t know why it happened here. Maybe it was the moment, the realization that neither of them were safe from death, that had the last walls of denial crumbling. He’d always denied what was in front of him and now he couldn’t run from it.

He leaned back against the wall and surveyed the party. A few had spotted them, sending them curious stares, but they looked high out of their mind. It was hard to keep a hold on Ryan since he was in fact shorter than Ryan. If Ryan wasn’t passed out in his arms, Taylor might have laughed about how ironic it was. If Ryan was awake, he would have teased Taylor for his height challenge. But it wasn’t like that at all.

Taylor gritted his teeth and pushed through the crowd.