CP: Bourdelson

Title: I found bliss in ignorance

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Rob and Brad had a quarrel.

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It was the last day of the year. The band had gathered around the fireplace, chatting happily. Brad sat next to Rob on the couch, throwing an arm over his shoulder. The rest were on the rug.

"Guys wanna play truth or dare?" Chester spoke and they all laughed in agreement.

"I'll go first! Mike, truth or dare?"

Everyone joined the game, having fun with their dares and truths. Mike was asked for telling the truth by Chester, which he had to spill it out that he sang Sexual Healing by Marvin Gaye in the shower. Chester couldn't hold back the laugh after hearing Mike singing right there.

Joe chose dare and he had to regret it when Dave told him to pick Mike up. Joe's face frowned and his eyes opened as wide as possible. He really had to use all of his muscles to lift Mike up in his hands. Just for 5 seconds and he dropped Mike down, himself laying on the floor exhausted. Dave laughed contently as he saw Joe giving him a middle finger.

Next one was Brad's turn. He was having a good time with the gang and since the others had already participated in the game, Brad decided to choose Rob.

"Truth or dare, Rob?"

"Oh why me c'mon... Well I'll go with truth."

"Okay I dare you- wait what! God you're so boring!" Brad laughed but didn't mean any harm while poking Rob in the waist.

"Who do you like? That relationship y'know." Brad was going out of his safe zone, pushing the other's button. He knew Rob wasn't comfortable with it, but game was game so he dared to ask.

Rob stayed silent while everyone else just stared at Brad. Chester even jumped on him, shaking his shoulder calling him an idiot. But Rob tilted his head answered quietly.

"You."

"Who?"

"Bradford Phillip Delson."

"What?" Brad eyes widen but soon he clapped his hand laughing. "You lost! You lied to the question. Now go do the pushups!"

Rob sighed, turned away from Brad. His voice trembling a little. "I wasn't."

Brad now confused. A little angry. "Come on. You fucking lied, right?" He scoffed, shook his head pulling his arm back away from Rob's shoulder. Frowning he stood up.

"There's no way you were saying the truth. This ain't funny Rob." Brad's mumbling was turning into a yell. Rob just sit there on the couch, pressing his lips.

As the game seemed to turn out badly, Chester tried to calm Brad down by grabbing his hand. He said something that Brad couldn't hear, maybe because he was too focused on Rob's words. He can't be like that. Part of him knew he was hurting the other, but he couldn't believe it was real. His best friend turned out he was gay for him despite their religion.

"Dude let's just... Let's open the Christmas presents okay?" Chester said smiling awkwardly while the whole room remained silent. Brad shook his head tried to clear his mind, but then stared at Rob who hid his face by a wool hat looking down the floor.

Mike started to get the presents there, joking around trying to push the tension away. They began with Dave's box for Chester. It was a black Deftone shirt which was real cool and stylish with the big logo in the middle. Chester exclaimed happily receiving Dave's and Mike's gift. A small dinosaur stuffed animal.

"That's so cute! Thanks Mike!" He grinned at the other and picked the dino up. "Graww I am the mighty dinooo. Bow to meee."

Everyone in the room laughed except for Rob and Brad. Joe noticed it as he was sitting next to Rob. Glancing at the other for a while, Joe realized had some tears on his face that he just wiped them away as soon as they fell down to the cheeks. He shifted closer to the couch despite sitting on the floor.

"Rob it's getting late... You wanna go home?" Joe asked nicely but the shifting caused Rob to jumped a little.

"Yeah...I'll go. Don't mind me." Rob pulled down the hood, hiding his face. But Chester stood up yawning.

"Well let's just go home! Since we've done all the stuff today. Who wants to drive?" Chester hugged the dinosaur in his arm, looking around and caught Brad's raising hand. "Good, it's settled then!"

They got outside, facing the freezing temperature of the last days of the year. Soon the band got inside of the car, ready to be driven home by Brad. On car everyone talked loudly. Chester poked Mike making the car shake and almost hit a tree. Brad managed to get back to the road and turned around to yelled at them laughing.

But the only one who didn't say a thing the whole trip was Rob. He stayed silent in the middle seat at the back with his hood covered half the face. Brad felt weird seeing him like that through the mirror, but he got to concentrate on the driving instead of worrying for the others.

The guys started to leave. Once the group was almost gone, only Brad and Rob back left in the car, the silent filled the air again. Rob didn't remove his hood, still sitting in the middle which can be seen easily every time Brad took a turn on the road. Brad sighed quietly a few times before started talking.

"Rob."

No answer.

"Rob." Brad tried again, now turning around while waiting a moment for the traffic light to turn green.

"...Yeah?" Rob started to move his body, not like a sitting statue before.

"I think I'll leave the band. Or you leave the band." Brad said turning his attention to the driving again. But Rob was frowning in his hood, which Brad didn't see.

"But- why?! Is there something wrong?!"

"Yes Rob. Very wrong. Like, you forgot it already? We weren't taught to have feelings towards... same sex, you know." Brad mumbled feeling his heart knotted. It wasn't like he hated his friend, but knowing he had a crush on him made Brad feel weird.

"So what?! If I turn my back on my religion, does it matter to my life? Brad, don't see me as a sin!" Rob argued back, now taking off his hood, revealing his face. There were still some lines of tears drying up below his eyes. Brad glanced at him through the mirror.

"Yes it does, Rob. You're denying those years when your family raise you up. You're wasting their merit!" Brad frowned feeling a little wrong in his words but he didn't care. Not when Rob was clenching his fists preparing for a fight.

"Yeah? So what? It's not as important as when I found out my true self! What if I was gay, huh? And you-"

"Don't talk about me! Don't drag me into any of this!"

Rob didn't have a chance to say he liked Brad once more. He was cut short when he was about to say it out loud. But he guessed it didn't matter in an argument, just made it even worse.

"You're saying that you found out your true self? So your true self is just gay, bent and impure, betrayed everything you learnt from your family? Can't believe I was 'your' friend for such a long time! How did I not realize this filthy 'true self' of yours?!" Brad yelled and pressed into the word 'your', shattering Rob's heart. He didn't care about his love for Brad anymore, or maybe he just forgot it when he shouted back.

"Cause you're stupid and fucking arrogant! You damn bitch didn't know how hard it was to fucking hide it for such a long time!" Rob felt his tear building up again. Enraged, he stood up and punched Brad from behind. "You- fucker!"

He heard Brad cursed back when he just climbed over the seat to reach Brad's place, punched him like crazy in the face. Brad couldn't focus on the roads anymore when feeling the pain on his face and stomach, or everywhere on his body. While he was trying to fight back, the car hit the short wall on the bridge, crashing and falling down. Quickly as possible, Rob clenched his teeth throwing Brad out of the car.

As it hit the ground, fire started to grow and soon it covered most of the car inside it. Brad was thrown into a small river right there. Trying to swim up, Brad coughed watching the car burned. As soon as he realized Rob's still there with the car, Brad quickly swam while shouting his name.

"Rob! Rob!!! Are you okay?!" The scene before him was the most obvious answer to his question, but that really was the only thing he could say in this situation.

He dared to get into the fire, ignoring the burning flames to find his friend. As he spotted the arm, Brad tried to pull Rob out while the car was still pressing down on his body.

Brad jumped right into the water pulling Rob along with him, not letting the fire burn them anymore. Brad squeezed Rob in his arms when they got back to the ground. But as he realized what he was doing, gasping he letting go of Rob.

"I'm sorry, it's just-"

"Don't leave the band, please." Rob suddenly hugged Brad making him jump, but then soon turned into a mixed feeling of anger and guilty.

"I can kill myself if you want, but just don't hate me." Brad felt Rob's voice cracked as if he was crying. He returned the hug by placing his hands on Rob's back even though he didn't like the thing, or just he believed so.

"No... I won't. You're just so stupid."

"You're stupid, Brad." And they laughed.

|-Fin-|