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Brian snapped his head when his door busted open and he seen Nick standing there, anger and sadness dancing in
his eyes.

The nurse that was in the room taking Brian’s stats looked up as well, startled. “Can I help you sir?”

“Out, now!” was all Nick said in reply, never breaking his glare from Brian.

The nurse hesitated to leave, but Nick’s hand shot out and grabbed her by her upper arm, pulling her away from the bed suddenly but gently.

“Have you lost your damn mind?” Brian asked him, trying to raise himself up off the bed.

Nick pointed towards him. “You stay right there…” he turned back to the nurse. “Out now… and make sure no one comes into this room.”

The nurse looked back at Brian, as if waiting for his answer. Brian simply nodded, letting her know that everything would okay and that she could leave. The truth was everything was not going to be okay and he did not want her to leave anywhere. As soon as the nurse walked out of the room and had closed the door behind her, Nick rushed up to the bed.

“I thought you and Howie left already.” Brian remarked, not knowing exactly why he was there and not saying anything, so he took it upon himself to say something.

“Yeah well, I thought you were my best friend.”

Brian continued to stare at him in puzzlement, what did he mean he thought he was his best friend? He was for crying out loud, or at least the last time he could remember. “What are you talking about?”

Nick grabbed the collar of Brian’s hospital gown and had yanked him forward, pulling him in close to his face. “You know damn well what I am talking about… what; did you think I would never find out that my own brother was dead?”

Brian’s eyes widened. “No Nick… I was going to tell you, but…”

“But!” Nick exclaimed, cutting him off. “That’s all I heard from you and Howie… but this, but that! What are you gonna say? You were gonna tell me when the time was right? You knew I was looking for him Brian! This whole time I thought he was alive while both you and Howie knew he was dead all along! He was the only hope I had left Brian… the only reason I looked forward to getting discharged so I could visit him and make sure he was safe, but no, this whole time he wasn’t okay… he was f***ing dead! And you both kept it from me… you both lied to me, telling me that no one died. How could you f***ing do that to me Brian?”

At this point, tears were flowing freely from Brian’s eyes. “I didn’t mean to Nick, I swear to you. If we would have told you while you were still recuperating, we knew you would’ve beaten yourself up over the situation. You needed to give your body and mind time to heal, and we knew if we told you at that moment you wouldn’t have allowed that process to happen.”

Nick roughly pulled Brian up off the bed, dismissing the fact that the IV was literally ripped out of his arm. He tried to stand Brian up on the ground, but when he realized that Brian’s legs were too weak to support his weight, he pinned him up against the wall. “Don’t you f***ing tell me what’s best for me… your not my f***ing parents. You’re supposed to be my best friend, someone who would never keep anything from me, especially when they know your brother’s dead. So I’m asking you again Brian… how the f*** could you do this to me?”

Brian fell silent; he didn’t have a true answer. On second thought, he did. He was too busy telling Nick that he wasn’t ready, when this whole time; he wasn’t ready to tell… Aaron had made him realize that. “I was afraid to tell you…” he whispered.

Nick pulled him forward and had slammed him back into the wall. Brian winced when he felt the back of his head hit the wall full force. “I didn’t hear you! What the f*** did you say?”

“I was afraid to tell you!” Brian shouted this time, crying hysterically. “I was afraid to tell you because I didn’t want to lose you… I didn’t want you to shut me out Nick. I know you better than anybody in this damn group, and I knew how you would’ve been if I had told you earlier. I didn’t want you to go through more pain when you were busy dealing with what had happened. I was going to tell you Nick… I swear to you.”

Nick began to cry as well, but he held his grip on Brian’s collar, keeping him pinned to the wall. “You already f***ing lost Brian…” he sneered. “You f***ing lost everything from me… my trust, my friendship, and most of all… you f***ing lost me!” and with that, he used the other hand he wasn’t holding Brian with and had punched the wall behind him, right near Brian’s head.

Brian shut his eyes tightly, wincing when he heard the sickening crack of Nick’s knuckles meeting the wall. It was so close to his head, that the sound alone sounded like a gun shot. The force of his fist was so hard, he could feel the vibration in the back of his head from the wall, and the wind from the impact was tremendous. He released his grasp on Brian on purpose because he knew his legs weren’t strong enough to support him. He simply stood there and watched as Brian immediately collapsed to the ground, not caring to help him back up onto his bed. He turned and roughly pushed the door open, briskly walking past the nurse and Howie who was standing there in shock.

Howie sprung into action and rushed into the room, kneeling down before Brian, meanwhile the nurse slowly walked in, surveying the damage.

“Hey…” Howie whispered, trying to break Brian out of his trance. “Brian, look at me man… what happened?”

Brian didn’t say anything for a while. He simply remained silent and continued to stare straight forward, not bothering to look at Howie or the nurse. “Who told him?” was all he asked.

Howie sighed, “Angel… he called home and had asked for his mom. Angel told him that both her and Bob was at the funeral home, from there on she explained everything to him.”

“Oh god.” The nurse suddenly gasped.

That broke Brian out of his trance because both he and Howie looked up to see what had made the nurse so startled. She was staring at the bed, and when they looked down to where she was staring, then seen a pool of blood staining the sheets. Their eyes followed the trail of blood, which lead from the bed, down off the side and to the ground and straight to Brian’s bloody arm.

Howie gasped as well and gently grabbed Brian’s arm, trying to see where he was bleeding from. “What in the hell did he do to you?”

Brian pulled his arm away and began to wipe the blood away with his bare hand. “Nothing, the IV was just pulled out from my arm, that’s all.”

The nurse walked up with a hand towel, handing it to Brian. “He’s bleeding a lot because the needle was pulled so roughly from his vein… nothing life threatening, we’re just going to have to stop the bleeding and probe your other arm for a vein we can place the IV in.

While Brian was busy wiping the blood off his arm, both Howie and the nurse began to clean up the mess, Howie wiping the blood off the floor while the nurse took off the bloody sheets and replaced it with fresh, warm, crisp sheets. Howie helped Brian off the ground and had walked him to the bathroom to clean him up. Once they were able to get the blood under control, they changed him into a new hospital gown and had helped him back into bed.

Howie looked to the side and seen a gaping whole in the wall. Brian looked over towards the wall as well, “He punched it…” he replied, as if answering Howie’s thoughts.

Howie looked back at him, watching him as his eyes began to drift shut. “Where did he go?” Brian had asked in a barely audible voice.

Howie shrugged, “I don’t really know…”

Brian’s eyes were becoming heavy by the second. “Please keep an eye on him Howie…” and with that, he fell asleep.

Howie grabbed Brian’s hand and squeezed it slightly. “Don’t worry… I will.”