He's Been Damaged, He's Been Misused

At the end of the day, everyone met up so Carter could drive them all to Kevin’s house. There’s no way in Hell they were gonna walk all the way there. Kevin may enjoy the aching burn in his legs from walking for an hour, but the rest? No, especially if there’s someone willing to drive them. So, the four friends sat in Carter’s Nissan, listening to Slipknot, driving to Kevin’s- nope, Devin just requested that they pick Balz up first, so Carter heads to Balz’s house instead.

They get there after a while and Devin alerts his boyfriend of their arrival. A minute later, a teenage boy around their age steps out of the house and walks towards the car, so they automatically know that it’s Balz. Carter drives off the second Balz buckles in. Everyone introduces themselves on the way to Kevin’s house, which wasn’t too far from Balz’s house, but still not close enough to walk to.

Carter eventually pulls into a driveway and everyone gets out and enters Kevin’s house.

“Well, this is my home!” Kevin announces proudly. Chris immediately makes himself comfortable and throws himself down onto the couch, quickly followed by Ricky as he throws himself down on top of him, scaring the shit out of Chris. Ricky laughs at him and Chris pouts, but wraps an arm around Ricky in a friendly way anyway.

“Alright, lovebirds, make room from us now,” Kevin chirps. Chris and Ricky sit up, providing space for two more people to sit. Carter rushes to sit next to Ricky so Kevin just sits next to Carter. Devin and Balz opt to sit on the coffee table. Ricky looks to Carter, raising an eyebrow at his jealous expression.

“You alright, babe?” Ricky asks his salty boyfriend.

“Fucking fantastic,” Carter grumbles. Ricky sighs softly. He now knows that his boyfriend gets way too jealous way too easily. No one speaks, the situation too awkward.

But, apparently, it didn’t stop Kevin.

“So, what’cha want for dinner, guys?”

<><><>

“I’m sorry, but this tastes like shit,” Chris groans as he tosses his pizza crust on his plate, which was sat next to Balz on the floor. Balz flinches slightly when the bread makes impact with the glass, but acts as if it never happened because he thought no one noticed. Unfortunately for him, Devin saw, but for Balz’s sake, he too acted as if nothing happened.

“ Well, you ate it,” Kevin laughs.

“But it does taste bad,” Ricky agrees with Chris.

“So, I’m the only one that likes it, then?” Kevin raises an amused eyebrow and looks to his friends.

“I liked it,” Carter grumbles, still quite jealous. He doesn’t like how close Ricky is to Chris. He knew that Ricky still liked Chris, and he’s suspicious of Chris liking Ricky back, and there’s no way in Hell that he’s losing Ricky when he just finally got him to be his.

“Thank you! My man!” Kevin celebrates, holding out his fist for a fist bump, but Carter merely pushes it away. The action hurt Kevin’s feelings, but he masked it with a fake smile and a fake cheery tone. “Awe, come on! Don’t be that way! Smile!”

Carter smiles, but it’s obviously not sincere at all. His smile disappears as soon as it appears, so Kevin drops his act. Carter’s never treated him this way, so he decided to just leave him alone. Ricky notices Carter’s attitude towards Kevin and how hurt he looked, so he decides to try to do something about it.

“Alright, Carter, what’s the matter?” Ricky asks, turning his attention away from Chris. Carter rolls his eyes at his boyfriend.

“I’ll tell you later,” Carter growls, clearly irritated.

“Carter, do you wanna go home?” Ricky asks quietly.

“Actually, that might be a good idea. You’re coming with me, so let’s go,” Carter answers as he gets up, gaining everyone’s attention.

“Leaving already?” Devin asks his friends sadly, who nod.

Everyone says their goodbyes as Carter and Ricky as the two exit the house and head to Carter’s car. Devin turns to Chris.

“Dude, you totally like him,” Devin smiles up at Chris. “I can tell.”

Chris blushes. Chris finally realized that he had feelings for Ricky sometime earlier, and got jealous of Carter, which was pretty damn ironic because Carter was jealous of Chris.

Oh boy, please don’t let this end their friendship.

Meanwhile, Carter was just sliding into the drivers seat, Ricky in the passengers. Carter says nothing as they drive to Carter’s house, simply because Carter’s too busy trying not to flip and get into a car accident and Ricky feels awkward and scared. He’s never seen Carter quite this angry.

Carter doesn’t say anything until they’re both in the house.

“What the fuck?!” Carter snaps at Ricky, who flinches at the loud voice.

“What?” Ricky asks, confused. Last time he checked, he didn’t do anything wrong. Carter was the one being a fucking asshole towards people.

“Don’t you fucking ‘what’ me, you fucking bitch!” Carter snaps again, hastily making his way towards Ricky. Ricky, scared, immediately starts recoiling until his back hits the wall. Carter doesn’t stop until he’s right in front of Ricky, towering over him, glaring intensely at him, face contorted in anger. Ricky notices Carter’s fists clenched and shaking, as if ready to throw a punch. Fear slowly starts to consume the smaller teen as his heart starts pounding in his chest, his breathing becoming more rapid and shallow, eyes darting in every direction to look for a way to get away from his boyfriend.

“I-I’m sorry, i-it won’t happen again,” Ricky rushes out desperately, but that only seems to anger Carter more. Carter slams his fist on the wall next to Ricky’s head, making him jump. Tears start to brim his eyes and he avoids eye contact.

“Look at me,” Carter growls down at Ricky. Ricky immediately shakes his head, scared of what he’ll see if he complies.

“Ricky motherfucking Olson, if you don’t fucking look at me right fucking now, I fucking swear to God!” Carter threatens him, voice rising with every word he speaks. Ricky starts shaking. It’s too much. He’s never been so scared before in his life. Ricky quickly looks up at his boyfriend.

“Good boy,” Carter says, voice quieter now so that it’s a bit above a whisper. “We’re gonna set some rules, and if you fail to follow them, you’ll be punished. Okay?”

Ricky nods. Ricky feels that pain in his throat he gets when he’s trying not to cry.

“Good. Rule number one: you do whatever I say. Got it?”

Nod.

“Rule number two: you keep no secrets from me. Got it?”

Nod.

“Rule number three: no one is to know of these rules and the punishments for not following them. Got it?”

Nod.

“Rule number four: you are not to hang around another man unless I’m around. Got it?”

That was so fucking unfair. There’s no way Ricky’s complying to that. He does nothing.

“Remember rule number one? Are you breaking that rule already?”

Ricky shakes his head.

This was so unfair!

“Let’s try this again, then. Rule number four: you, Richard Allen Olson the third, are not to hang out with any other man, whether it be Chris, Devin, Balz, Kevin, or any other bloke you meet along the way, unless I, Carter Kiln, is there to supervise. Nod if you understand.”

Ricky reluctantly nods, and Carter pulls his boyfriend into a hug. Ricky feels better as his boyfriend’s embrace disarms him.

“I love you so much, Ricky. I’m doing this because I love you. You do understand, right?”

Ricky nods. They stay like that for a while, giving the two of them a chance to calm down.

“Okay. Wanna cuddle now?” Carter asks as he pulls away from the embrace and offers Ricky a sincere smile as he wipes Ricky’s eyes with the pads of his thumbs. Ricky nods and smiles back at Carter.

They’re gonna be okay.