Happy Endings (a Gandrew Story)

3

Shane changes Garrett's life.

He's his fist "rebound" (a sad thought, rebounding off someone who he hadn't even gotten close to dating), and his first new friend after Andrew. It's fresh, new, fun, exciting, and even though they don't work out together it feels good to be close to another person that isn't Andrew, that distracts him and brings a different, friendly kind of light into his life. He loves the hell out of Shane, not with the same burn with which he loves Andrew, but it's a good, solid love that doesn't scare him or hurt him or make him want to crawl out of his own skin.

It's comfortable and it's good. He's thankful for Shane more than he's been for anything in a long, long time.

So when Shane is struggling, Garrett doesn't know what to do for a while. When Shane confides in him about wanting to quit, to give up, to throw in the towel after convincing Garrett to take up youtube (which he has fallen in love with, too), he knows something has to change.

Again, the world is cruel. Well, okay, that's a bit dramatic, but Garrett has always been one for theatrics.

Andrew is looking for work. He's got bills like the rest of everybody and, just like everybody, he sometimes struggles to pay them.

Andrew is smart, bright, talented and dedicated. He has great ideas and great skills, which surprises no one, and seems to constantly be fuelled by some inner passion that Garrett can't seem to identify.

Andrew and Shane, as working partners, are a perfect match. Garrett prides himself, at least a little, on bringing them together. And it works, they do good things, Andrew gets paid and Shane gets inspired and Garrett gets to...

Garrett, he gets to...

...Well.

Well, he gets to see it all come together, at least. He gets to see things sliding into place for his friends in ways that excite them all, and he's glad they're taken care of and happy. Even if it means Andrew is even further tangled into his life, that he's been struggling in the quicksand and it's taken him up to his neck, that his heart still beats harder and faster when he sees him over at Shane's, or he gets that familiar ache in his chest and throat and eyes at night far more often, they're all happier for it. And that, to him, is the most important thing of all.