Loyalty (JoshxBrendonxTyler)

6. Reminiscence

By Sunday, Brendon is feeling better than he did last weekend. He's offering cautious smiles and wasn't so bitter towards his mother, which was always a good thing.

Josh had been giving him company without actually doing so, and it was helping a lot.

The whole weekend Brendon had been swiping through Tinder while his mom watched television. He finally had something to do instead of sitting through reruns of shows he's seen multiple times.

It was tiring.

Josh liked sending pictures of random things he was doing throughout the day, Brendon had learned. He would do the same but what was there to send photos of? His ill mother? The bags beneath his eyes? The diamonds on the floor, or the wheelchairs that rolled on top of them?

Brendon wasn't comfortable with the thought, anyways.

What if he sent a picture of himself at work and Josh decided he didn't look as well as he did in his profile pictures?

What if he shows Tyler and they didn't like him?

What if Brendon wasn't the way the two of them pictured him to be?

"I'll see you next weekend, mom." He mutters, leaning forward to give her a hug on the couch. She pats his shoulder, then tells him to move because he's in front of the television. He shakes his head but does so.

Walking to the small table, he collects his keys and wallet, making sure he had his phone before beginning to leave.

He's nearly out the door when Grace finally says something.

"When will Kara come and visit?"

Brendon stops. It's rare she remembers her children's names, besides Brendon.

"I'm not sure." It's solemn, his poor mother.

"Is she still busy with college?" Grace isn't frowning, she doesn't seem to understand how tremendously upsetting this whole situation is. "I told her she was going to work herself to death."

Brendon loses all his faith once more.

"Mom, Kara got her bachelor's degree twelve years ago." He fiddles with his belt loop, eyes shifting to the dirty carpet in her apartment as he tries pathetically to swallow the lump in his throat. "She has two kids. . . Two boys named Kevin and Parker."

Grace turns to face the TV again. "Oh."

"Yeah."

Grace continues to watch Cash Cab, she's perfectly fine forgetting her children's lives. She doesn't know what they're up to, and that doesn't seem so important to her.

Brendon decides it's best to leave now, opening the door.

"I'll see you soon." He walks out, making sure his actions were delicate.

Brendon walks down the hall, caregivers walking around with food and other necessities in hand.

Carina is busy helping her aunt, as always, and that's okay. Knowing Brendon, he'll tell her next weekend. He'll tell her that his mother thinks her thirty-six year old daughter was still a freshman in college, he'll tell her his mother completely forgot that Kara has two children, he'll tell her that his heart just keeps breaking the longer he spends time with Grace.

He wants to tell her now.

He can't, he's nearly to his car.

Brendon considers telling Josh but that's too much to lay on a person you've only known for a week.

Will the topic ever come to surface? He's not sure.

Brendon isn't comfortable opening up to people unless they've made him comfortable, and that's not always such an easy thing to do.