A gentle reminder to take care of yourself babes, I love you all <3

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Trigger warning: Mentions of depression, abuse, PTSD, alcohol abuse, violence

Despite Andy's strict instructions not to show up at his house, Callum did. He rang the doorbell and waited, and when Andy opened the door, he smiled hopefully. The singer looked visibly annoyed and said in a hushed voice, "What are you doing here?" 

"Am I not allowed to see my boyfriend?" 

Andy cringed. The only reason he'd gotten back with him in the first place was because he needed a distraction from everything that had been going on, and Callum was an easy one. "I told you, not here." 

"Why not?" 

"Because Remington's here and you'll scare him." 

"Oh, come on. It's been, like, weeks since the thing with his girlfriend." 

"Yeah, and?" 

"So he should be over it now?" 

Andy wanted to laugh but didn't. "Do you know anything about how the human mind works?" He asked. "Now go, alright. We're having dinner later, whatever you want can wait until then." 

Callum huffed. "Why are you so desperate for him to to see me?" 

"I said. You'll scare him." 

"Yeah, but you're not saying everything, though. There's another reason, I know there is. Come on. What is it?" 

"Callum, I'll see you later," Andy tried. 

"No, I want an answer." 

"I just gave you one." 

"You haven't told him, have you?" 

"Told him what?" 

"My God, you lying son of a bitch, you haven't." He shook his head. "You know what, let me make this easy for you." Then, raising his voice, "Remington! Come here!" 

Andy lunged forward and clamped a hand over Callum's mouth, growled into his ear, "You listen here, you selfish bastard, this has nothing to do with you, and like I said, you'll scare him." 

"You're not as scary as you think, you know. Oh, there he is. Hello, Remington. Remember me?" He smiled. 

Looking at Callum and then Andy, Remington frowned but didn't respond. 

"Leave him alone." 

"If you don't have the decency to tell him, I will. He deserves to know, Andy, just like I deserve to know that you're cheating." 

"I'm not cheating. I've told you a million times-" 

Callum waved a hand in his face to shut him up and said, "Me and you, Biersack, we're done." He looked towards Remington. "And if you have any sense, you'd run a mile, too. He's full of lies and shit." 

Andy shoved him away and slammed the door, making Remington flinch. Immediately, he apologised, then said, "This is not what you think it is." 

"No, course not," the younger mumbled. 

"You don't believe me, do you?"

Sliding down the wall, he fought back the need to cry, but didn't say anything. 

"Listen. Yes, I got back with him, but not until really recently, and you heard him just now. It's over. So there's no need to cry." What sort of idiot says that to a victim of abuse, are you fucking stupid? 

"I want to go home," Remington said quietly. 

Andy frowned. "Home? Honey, I don't think that's a good idea. You'll be all on your own." 

Suddenly, Remington didn't like the pet name. "I know." 

"No, you can't be on your own." 

"Why not? It's my house." 

"You're not safe on your own," Andy reminded him, but he shook his head and repeated that he wanted to go home. "Maybe we can talk to Emerson about staying with him but I don't think you should go home, not yet, anyway." 

The tears were winning the battle. "I want to go home," Remington said again, with more desperation. He was beginning to feel that Andy might be planning to trap him here, lock him away and never let him leave. Keep him hidden so he could use him as a means of personal entertainment. 

"I just don't think you should be on your own right now." 

"I want to go home. Please." Then, after seeing the unchanging decision in Andy's face, he gave in and said, "Okay. Sorry." 

Andy felt guilty. He knew he had upset the younger but he couldn't change what had already been done. He left Remington sitting against the wall and walked away. What he wanted was a drink, but that wasn't possible, because he was sober and he should remain that way. Bad things happened when he drank. No one liked him when he was a slave to the alcohol, but that didn't really matter, because most of them didn't like him when he was sober, either. 

The last time he had had a drink, he caused a fight that ended in two people being taken to hospital with multiple cracked bones. It wasn't Andy that hurt them, not physically, but he stood unsteadily in a car park at gone three in the morning and encouraged them to beat each other up by provoking them with money which he never gave to the winner, because they both lost. At least, by his rules, they did - they both ended up in hospital. 

 It wasn't the first time something like that had happened, but it was the worst instance of it. He was never punished because the victims were also heavily drunk and fortunately failed to recall what exactly had happened, and anyone who had seen didn't dare grass him up. They saw what he was capable of, even with a bar's worth of alcohol sloshing about inside him. And anyone who was in that carpark at such early hours were most likely drunk, too. 

Andy told Remington what he had done. That was how Sebastian heard, and conveniently, they broke up a month later. They said it was a mutual split because they felt they were going nowhere, but that was only half of the truth. The other half was that after convincing Andy to get help in rehab, Remington started talking to a girl. With Andy miles away trying to get sober, he had been alone, and when a beautiful young woman showed him attention, he made the reckless decision of breaking it off. 

The split made Andy's recovery a long process. He was in rehab for almost six months, and when he got out, he and Remington didn't see each other again, because Remington had a girlfriend and Andy knew he was better off without him. 

Now, Andy realised that, had he not been such an irresponsible drinker, Remington never would have gotten with her. 

He blamed himself for the abuse, and now he wanted a drink.