"I come from a land down under, where beer does flow and men chunder."

[breakablehearts]

Who: Sam, Mark, James, Alec and Kade King
What: Boys Night In
Where: Sam's place, NYC
When: Friday night

It had been a long time since Mark had a drink. Before shit hit the fan in the past and he ended up self-medicating his way into AA, and before they all ended up in New York, the brothers would hang out for a few beers on the weekends regularly. When they were younger, Kade was included by default. It had been a really fucking long time since they did this. Oh, how life had changed since they had. In ways none of them could ever have anticipated. Mark hadn't drank in a long time because he had kept his promise to Justin. But with everything that happened with his health, he had said a few times that all he wanted was to have a beer and chill out. Which he accidentally said in front of Justin, and immediately panicked Justin would lose his shit. All Justin did was tell his dad he deserved one, all things considered. Hence, the boys night was born.

Sam had always been the responsible one, so Justin left his dad in his capable hands. Mark was going to have a few light beers and relax with his brothers and Kade. Justin was going to stay with Sasha at his parents' place for the night, which had turned into the weekend now Ari had called out sick. Sasha's mom was going to take the baton keeping an eye on him, which meant Mark could relax. Still, Sam had taken Justin aside for a quiet word, asking if he was really okay that his dad would drink, or if it was only because he was ill. It wasn't. Justin trusted Mark, and Sam saw the genuine truth in it when Justin confirmed it. The kid had put it in a nuthsell: 'He's not drinking because he's sad, right? He's doing it because he's glad y'all are here for him'.

They were all sticking to light beers, and they had the Aussie football on Mark's massive TV. Sam came back from the kitchen with a few six packs in his arms, James in tow with two massive bowls of Cheezels, all the way from Australia. "Okay, okay, okay," he said, putting the beer on the coffee table. "Before anyone starts getting pissed, I have something I want to say!"

[ FACEBOOK ]

[beautifulday]

Karaoke and pizza night at my folks' place in New Rochelle - Saturday night, after Justin and Sky finish work! We all need a breather from the books.

[ FACEBOOK ]

[likefatherlikeson]

Excited about pizza and karaoke with the squad, and father/son camping trip next week. Life's not too shabby right now.

[ FACEBOOK ]

[privateinvestigations]

"Party until visiting hours are over."

[hiphopping]

Who: Brody Alexander and Harry Matheson
What: Visitors
Where: Pediatrics, Mount Sinai
When: Saturday morning

Brody had been having weekly therapy sessions at the hospital ever since he finally confessed to his brothers what had happened. Hunter immediately took Brody to see Walker after it all happened, and Walker referred him to Gabe at the hospital, who had specialties in counselling young people who had suffered sexual assault or abuse, and counselling LGBT+ youth. That was how Hunter knew him. Gabe received a lot of patient referrals from the hospital Hunter worked for ongoing therapy after they were discharged from hospital. Brody liked Gabe. He trusted him. Even if he struggled initially with talking about any of it, he was getting better with it now the ordeal had been revealed. Gabe would return to various parts of it, but Brody never had to tell the whole story all over again.

He decided to see if Harry was up to having any visitors other than family. Vince had been giving updates, but there wasn't much to update. Harry had been really sick, which lead to him being diagnosed with diabetes. He was still feeling rotten, though better now he wasn't unconscious, and they were messing around with treatment and it could take time to isolate what the best was for him. Being a dancer too, and having gone through something pretty traumatic himself recently (although different to what Harry was dealing with), he thought there was a huge chance Harry was fearing this would destroy his dancing career. That was something Brody really understood, because he was still worrying about that himself.

He bought some flowers from the hospital florist. Not that he knew what to choose, so he just picked what looked light might cheer a hospital room up. If Harry couldn't have visitors, he would just leave the flowers with the nurses to take to him. But when he asked at the desk, they said Harry would probably love a visitor that morning because he was feeling a little down. Brody really wasn't sure if he was the best person if that was the case, but once he heard it, he couldn't just leave. Not when Harry had been so kind and understanding with Brody when they called a truce and Brody explained more about why he had been an asshole.

Carrying the Get Well arrangement he had chosen, Brody found Harry's room, expecting to see an epic fuckton of Italian and Irish people flooding it knowing Harry had a massive extended family. But no one was there. He knocked on the door with a hesitant smile. "Hey, I was just in the neighbourhood..." he joked. Wow, Harry looked really sick. But what had Brody been expecting? Not this. Harry usually looked so fierce and ready to slay everything and everyone in ballet shoes. This was tough to take in. It had to be 100 times tougher for Harry to be living it.