His Protector

"Are you fucking serious?!" I said over the phone standing in the hall of my office building.

"Yeah.....that fucking asshole flat out admitted to his face and then made a post on Instagram about being single again. Apparently, it's been going on for months." Sara's words were laced with an anger I hadn't seen from her in a long time but It was nothing compared to my own.

"How's he taking it?" I let out a heavy sigh as I leaned up against the wall reeling my temper back in check. I was worried because Taylor was never the best at handling these things.

'How do you think he's handling it? You're his best friend! And probably the only person he'll talk to right now!" Sarah countered.

"And you're his sister!" A weak argument really.

"But I'll try and give him a call and see how he's doing, and I guess I can head over that way after work." I resigned. Sara was right though; I was the only one that might have a chance of talking to Taylor after this. He wouldn't do anything stupid but I wasn't going to take that chance.

"Ray, thanks for taking care of him. You're the only real friend he has, and your friendship means more than anything to him." Sara laid it on thick but there was sincerity in her voice.

I figured it wasn't the best idea to wait all day to call Taylor since I knew he was just going to be sitting at home with nothing to keep him busy. I tried to call him on his phone, discord, and messenger but I didn't get an answer.

I knew he was upset but he should know better than to make Sara and I worry like this. I poked into my boss's office and told him that I had to go deal with an emergency and I might be gone a few days but if anything came up, I would have my computer with me. He said he understood and to take all the time.

I tried to give T another call, but once again I was met with nothing. Taylor lived about two hours away from me. It was the same apartment we shared all the way through college and after we graduated, he found a job at a software company in town that allowed him to work from home, so he decided that staying there was easier than finding a new place. I got an offer for a place at a cybersecurity consulting firm but a two-hour commute both ways wasn't something I was looking forward to so I moved out and got a place closer to work.

I headed home, changed out of my work clothes and tossed a few days clothes in a duffel bag and got back in my truck and headed over to the grocery store. I knew Taylor too well and I figured as upset as he was even If he didn't want to see anybody, I could bribe the little gremlin with an offering of snacks.

After running through the store, I got back in my car and got on the highway. I was mid-day, but a major accident turned a six lane highway to one lane, leaving me sitting in dead standstill traffic. While I sat there, I thought back to how me and Taylor became friends..

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I had just moved from North Carolina to Maryland after my dad got a new job. I was 10 and really didn't have any friends the first two years because "I was just the big kid from the country". I was a good six inches taller and easily outweighed any of the kids in my grade, so when the bullies came, they didn't try and bully me for fear of me fighting back. It stayed that way for about a year when we got a new kid, Taylor, and the kids immediately went to picking on him. While I was bigger than all the other kids, Taylor was smaller, and his style and mannerism weren't doing him any favors. He was quiet, a little chubby, had long hair, and had painted fingernails. All together a much easier target for the bullies. At free time after lunch, I usually just walked around the school yard since none of the other kids liked me. Today, though I saw the usual group of bullies messing with Taylor and I had always been told that if you can, you protect those who can't protect themselves. This mindset had led me into a lot of fights before I moved so I was reluctant to revert to my old ways, but something made me want to help.

I walked over and told them to leave him alone, but they didn't listen, instead they tried throwing insults at me. It was pathetic and I gave them another chance to leave. They didn't take it. A quick stomp on the toe of one followed by an elbow to the gut and headbutt to the other cleared everything up and they left licking their wounds. After that I introduced myself and we became quick friends. Over the next few years, the situation would play out almost the same way a few times. Someone would pick on Taylor; I would come in and save him. The worst time happened when Taylor came out in 10th grade. Some guys claimed he was looking at them in the locker room and beat him up. I felt horrible because I had been out of school that day and felt like I had been there, it wouldn't have happened. The next day though and despite Taylor's insistence that I wouldn't go and do anything brash, I went and kicked all their asses before turning myself over to the principal. I got off easy and got only a few days suspension. We had a few more times where people would bother him, but it always stopped soon because you didn't want to "get on the bad side of his boyfriend" as they would say.

We shared a love of video games and wanting to make them as a career so we both decided to go into the computer science field and decided to apply to the same college. We both got in and we decided to get an apartment instead of staying on campus. During our time at school, we both found things in comp sci we enjoyed more than creating games, Taylor was amazing at coding and I got really into cybersecurity. Tay used to say I was always looking out for people and that while this was digital protection, it was protecting someone, none the less. College was a lot less judgmental than our previous school experiences, and Taylor found acceptance and started dating. I had few semi-serious relationships with girls I met at school but nothing steady and by my sophomore year I came out as Bi, which didn't surprise anyone, then I dated a few guys but once again, nothing serious, mainly just one night stands or semi-occasional fuck buddies. Taylor would date somebody then a few moths later he would have a bad breakup and come running home.

This pattern continued till about our senior year when he met, Allen. Allen was this guy from the wrestling team who was everything Taylor liked in a guy on the surface, he seemed perfect, but I honestly never liked the guy. I heard rumors about him and every time I tried to tell T, he would say I was wrong and that I shouldn't worry.

Over the past two years, I eventually I relented and even though I never trusted Allen, he made Tay happy and to me that was all that was important.

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I snapped back to reality as the traffic finally started to break. I wanted to go pay Allen a visit, but he was a little down my list. I had more important matters at hand then dealing with that cheating asshole.

I finally got to our old building and headed up the stairs, and around the corner to the apartment. I usually was here every other weekend if neither of us had any real plans and I did have my own key but I just didn't want to go bursting in.

As I stood there holding the two shopping bags of snacks and my own bag across my shoulder, I couldn't really knock. I could hear the sounds of battle and Japanese so I knew he was on the couch in the front room. He didn't know I was coming but I'm sure he figured I would come eventually after finding out.

I gave the door a light kick on the bottom, something I use to do all the time when my hands were full back when I lived here.

"T, open the door. I know you. You're sitting on the couch curled up in a ball watching anime. Let me in, please?"

Nothing.

"Come on, bro! Just open the door." Once again, nothing.....

"I brought snacks!" I finally heard movement. Like I said, Taylor was a little gremlin who could be bribed with food when necessary.

I heard the door unlock and the moment it opened; a short, figure in an oversized hoodie wrapped its arms around me tightly. I couldn't see his face but I knew the tears were streaming.

His 5'4 frame let him bury his face right in my chest.

Honestly this just felt like our first few years of our friendship, him getting hurt and me comforting him.

"Hey, my arms are full. Let's go back inside." I followed him back into the apartment. All the lights were out, save for the TV.

Taylor hopped back on the couch and tucked his knees into his chest. I walked over into the kitchen and placed the two bags of snacks on the counter. I took my bag and tossed it off to the side of the big recliner I left here. I grabbed my secret weapon out of the snack bags and walked over to the couch and sat besides Taylor, who had unpaused whatever anime he had been watching before I arrived.

"Whatcha watching?" I asked trying to him to open up before I used the ace up my sleeve.

Nothing....Fine be that way

"Well If you won't talk than I guess you can't ask me for any of my ice cream." I said jokingly

Black cherry ice cream was like catnip to Taylor, If I couldn't get him to talk for this, then I wasn't sure what it was going to take.

"You're gonna share, right?" He finally said not even looking towards me.

"Here." I handed him the container and spoon I sat down with, my plan seemed to work as I got over the first two barriers of getting him to talk to me.

As Taylor began eating his ice cream, I decided I would go ahead and wait a bit before I tried to get any information about the whole situation with Allen. We watched two episodes of the generic isekai that Taylor had been watching before I came over.

During the show, he did his usual thing of curling up against me and laying on my shoulder. I had several girlfriends over the years, that our closeness made them uncomfortable, but I told them, that they were all just used to guys being way too insecure (I always left out the part where he called me his emotional support teddy bear because that might just have been going too far).

"So.... Sara told me what happened" I said lightly.

T grabbed my arm tighter. He didn't say anything and with his hood up I couldn't see his face, but I did hear the sniffling.

"T, I'm sorry. I knew you thought that you had the right guy this time but hey remember I have always told you?" I hoped he would turn around and look at me, but he didn't.

"What?! That Allen was a horrible piece of shit and that I should be ready for him to hurt me?!" he said still not turning to see me.

"What? No...well OK I did say that a few times... but before him. Before any of the past guys?"

I realized that he might be a little mad at me, almost thinking that I came here as a "I told you so!".

"I told you that no matter what happens, you can always come to me when things go bad. I'm always going to here for you to talk to and be a literal shoulder to cry on."

I took my free hand and pulled the hood down from his head.

His mid length brown hair was a mess, and his makeup was smeared and had runs from where he was crying.

"Hey, let me up for a minute, OK?" He looked a little confused as though I was taking something he needed away from him.

I walked down the hall the bathroom off the living room. I had been in here a million times and knew that he kept some extra makeup wipes in the cabinet. I grabbed them and headed back to the couch, tossing the pack, and watching him fail at catching it.

He never did get any better at sports over the years.

"Clean yourself up. We're way pass the emo days and Warped Tour! Also, I'm pretty sure that's my hoodie and I don't want a whole bunch of makeup stains on it when I finally get it back" I said thinking back to high school and going to concerts and festivals.

Taylor had fully embraced emo culture back then. I remember joking that him and some of his favorite artist were prettier than a lot of girls at the shows.

Taylor picked up the pack of wipes, took a few out, and then stuck his tongue out at me and threw the rest of the pack at me. He missed wide right, and I watched as the pack went harmlessly down the hall.

"A for effort but a C for accuracy" I laughed as I went and grabbed a can of Monster from the fridge.

I sat back down next to him as he cleaned up his makeup, tossing the used ones in the general direction of the trash can next to the TV.

After he finished, he pulled off the hoodie and threw it at me.

"Congrats, You're like one for ten on your throws tonight!" I was just trying to keep the mood light as we inevitably moved towards the more uncomfortable topic.

Taylor looked at me and then looked down.

"What did I do wrong?" He said heavily.

I knew he felt like he must have done something wrong but he really didn't. He just was the target of a known asshole and Allen probably never loved him, but I couldn't say that, at least out loud.

"Look bro, sometimes you just wind up getting hurt. Doesn't mean you did anything wrong and I know how you feel. Remember like two years ago, when Emily cheated on me?"

That one hurt to think about because I honestly thought we were going to have a future together, but that really didn't matter anymore.

"And she never even gave me a reason! All I'm saying is that almost all the time, if someone is going to cheat, you probably can't stop them. FUCK THEM!!" I stood up as I said this taking a few steps around the living room.

I tried to keep my cool as I said this, but the fact of the matter was that I wanted to smash Allen into a pulp was just under the surface.

Taylor let out a giggle at my little speech.

"Once again, here you are as my protector, this time from myself...." He said quietly.

I wanted to see him smile.

I downed the rest of my Monster, crushed the can, and grabbed one of the xbox controllers from under the coffee table, pointing it at Taylor like it was a gun.

"ALEXA, PLAY THIS WAR IS OURS BY ESCAPE THE FATE!!" I commanded the little speaker on the sofa table.

As the music came on with its signature Halo chorus, I looked at Taylor

"Enough of the sadness!! I want to do glorious battle with the Covenant!! I yelled and tossed another controller at him.

I saw the smile I wanted to see slowly grow over his face.

Halo co-op was our thing. It always had been our go to stress relief for years and I knew I could distract him from his rough time with some good gaming.

Several hours of going through the Master Chief collection and going back to watch a bunch of classic Red vs Blue shorts, we were both laughing and it seemed like Taylor had become his normal, happy self.

"343 will never be able to outdo Bungie, T!" I said grabbing another piece of the pizza we ordered around halfway through Halo 2.

"Yeah...Yeah!!" Taylor said throwing a pillow from the couch at me, once again missing.

"Maybe if I got closer, you won't miss! At least you're a good shot in Halo" I said as I got right in his face

Taylor immediately planted a kiss on my lips

"Boom! Headshot!" he said laughing..

I bust out laughing as well as I collapsed on the couch.

"Ok that was unfair." I said looking back at him.

I had always been attracted to him, but I felt like if I tried to have a relationship, I would damage our friendship and I was not going to let that happen. I didn't even know if I he found me attractive anyway so I figured it would just be for the best if I just protected him when I could and stay close. He always called me his protector, and I was content with being just that honestly.

"Ray, will you stay with me tonight?" He asked with a little embarrassment.

"I brought clothes and stuff so I could! I even took a few days off!" I said wanting him to know I was here for him.

"....... No, I mean like sleep with me tonight...like in my bed." He said sheepishly

I had to decide what I was going to do because I was sure this was the line that I had been fighting not to cross.

If anything, this gave me the knowledge that he at least found me attractive. I mean I never felt I was ugly, but I was definitely overweight and while I was nowhere near weak, I didn't have the muscle that some of his previous boyfriends had.

I looked at him and he knew what he was doing. He put this little pout on his face, one that over the years I had caved to more than a few times.

"Fine...I'll stay with you." I said in a false defeated tone.

"I'm going to take a bath!" He said as he jumped up and almost ran down the hallway.

I remembered hearing my phone vibrating during our gaming session and decided to finally check it.

I somehow missed 10 text and 4 calls from Sara. I sent her a text saying everything was fine and I would check back in with her in the morning. I had to laugh to myself because my relationship with my sister was nothing like theirs. We barely talked and she couldn't care less about my dating life.

I decided I was going to take a shower while Taylor was in the bath. I remember when we were first looking for a place, he was argued that we didn't need two bathrooms, but I won that argument by bringing up that he spent an hour in the bathroom every morning and I wasn't missing class waiting for him to make himself pretty.

The front bathroom had always been mine, as it was right across the hall from my old room. I looked at the sink seeing the toothpaste and toothbrush I knew had to belong to Allen. I felt a twinge of anger before casually throwing it in the trash. I felt petty but I kind of wanted to see what else he left that I could get rid of before the weekend ended.

I took my shower and a questioned if I was doing the right thing. I felt like I almost was preying on him in a time of weakness but was that really the case? I shook my head. Who said there was going to be sex? I was just spending a night in bed with him......Yeah, sure.

I stepped out the shower and pulled on just some basketball shorts and a black t shirt that I had tossed in my bag. I left the bathroom and walked down the hall to peak into Taylor's room. The door to the bathroom was closed and I could hear his speaker playing music over a few light splashes. I walked back to the living room and popped the x-box back on for a bit.

I played some Forza while I waited for him to finish his bath. It was another thirty minutes or so before he came back up front.

"Ready?" he asked walking towards me.

He was wearing what appeared to be nothing but a large Pittsburgh Steelers shirt.

"That's mine....." I said as he sat down next to me. I could smell his body wash, it smelled of cherries with a hint of citrus.

"I found it behind the laundry machine." He said flatly.

"AND If I remember correctly, you said I could have anything you left!" he said while once again sticking his tongue out at me.

"Yeah yeah." I rolled my eyes at him and shook my head.

"Hey, Rayray!" he said excitedly.

He was the only person in the world I allowed to call me that and even then, it still annoyed me but it caused me to do exactly what he wanted me to do.

I turned my head to see what he wanted only for him to kiss me again but this time we held it. The last time was so quick I never got to appreciate how soft his lips were. I bit down on his lower lip slightly, causing him to release a cute moan and arch his back.

He broke the kiss and sat back on the couch.

"Hey...Can you carry me back to the bed?" He put that pout back on from earlier. I was going to play along but I had a little something planned.

"Yeah, I can but I'm not into the whole little thing." I knew I would get a response with that..