dreamlikenewyork | "How painful the hangover was today."

Who: Caden and Brendan Drake
What: That awkward moment when your teetotal nephew is hungover
Where: Home, Broadway, NYC
When: About lunch time the day after THIS

Caden was oblivious to what Brendan had done the night before. In fact, he had wholeheartedly believed Brendan's text telling him he was going for a coffee with Reecy was exactly what had happened. Caden had woken up early and gone to brunch with Casper before his lover was due on set to film his TV show. Then he met briefly with Lisa and Sam for coffee, and although nothing had been officially declared there yet, Caden could see his sister had feelings for the doctor and he was 100% okay with that. It was Justin's uncle, and Caden adored that whole family.

So when he got back and heard someone being violently sick in the bathroom, considering only one person lived with him, he knew who it was and was instantly worried. Hangover didn't even cross his mind. He went straight to the bathroom and pushed the door open, finding Brendan on the floor hugging the toilet bowl and throwing up pretty intensely. "Hey, hey... Bren, buddy, you should have called me if you were sick," he chastised gently, but as soon as he was in the bathroom, he could smell the stale odour of cigarette smoke and booze. Not to mention the fact Brendan was still in the clothes he was wearing at the theatre the night before, his leather jacket half on one arm and half off draped over his leg.

"Are you... hungover?" he asked in surprise, voice raising a little in tone.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Brendan's initial instinct was to try and lie, pass this off as a bad migraine, which he had a history of, but he felt too shit to maintain a lie like that. Besides, he looked like shit. He remembered portions of the night before, but not everything, and he was aware of the fact Reecy brought him home and stayed with him because she wouldn't leave him to be alone in the state he was in. But when he had woken up a little while ago, she hadn't been there and the first thing he had to do was get to the bathroom, and ASAP. He was a mess, his clothes from the night before all messed up because he had slept in them.

He tried to answer, but just got caught in another bout of heaving and throwing up. He got a slight breather after that, where he could finally form some words. "What the fuck does it matter," he moaned, putting his head down on his arm. "I'm fine, just leave me alone."

Caden went over to the sink and wet a face cloth with cold water and then brought it over to where Brendan was slumped over the toilet so he could press it to his forehead. "You're not even remotely fine, Bren. C'mon, this is me. Don't lie to me, buddy. I'm here to take care of you, so I'm most certainly not leaving you alone like this," he resolved, frowning. "It matters because this isn't like you, which tells me something's wrong. You're not here to just be my room mate, you're here for me to take care of you. What's the matter? Is it about Bryce?"

They had gotten bad news earlier in the week that Bryce had needed a second surgery because they hadn't gotten all the brain tumour and the chemo wasn't reducing the size of it. They did they surgery ASAP but he had been in an induced coma since then and Brendan had been very quiet on the whole thing. "I'm going to sit here until you tell-- what the hell happened to your face?!" he cried, when he suddenly noticed Brendan's face was bruised and he had a black eye. He moved the cloth to cup Brendan's chin to get a better look at the injury.

Bryce was definitely a part of it. That had been on his mind ever since he had been told Bryce was sick. After the first operation to move the tumour, thing had been tough. They hadn't been able to get it all without risking too many complications. A second surgery would possibly need to follow once they saw how Bryce responded to chemo. It hadn't done much and in fact, the tumour had grown. That was why they needed to do the second surgery as a matter or emergency. They did get it all this time, but to reduce the chance of brain damage, they had put Bryce into an induced coma. As a result, Brendan had been spending more time with Taylor. It was all just a painful and surreal situation for Brendan because it had ultimately happened so quickly.

Now this. They thought Maisy's visit would be okay because it was a different environment and she had been doing well back home. And she had done okay initially when she arrived a few days ago. Then she seemed to begin to process what Brendan was achieving here, and that he had access to Uncle Caden whenever he wanted, and he was working on Broadway, making all these friends. The jealousy coupled with the hectic and overwhelming pace of New York City and not at all liking the fact their mum had a boyfriend (sort of, it hadn't really been confirmed), she just lost her shit at Brendan and thumped him. He lost consciousness briefly, but it was enough for her to storm out and get on the next flight back to England. He tried to elbow Caden away, reacting defensively, but he was too weak to manage it. "What the fuck do you think happened?" he snapped.

Caden closed his eyes briefly. This news felt like a punch in the gut. He had been worried about Maisy's visit, knowing how behaviour towards Brendan could be when she was ill. He had talked about it at length with Lisa, but ultimately Maisy had been well and everyone, including Brendan, had been hoping the change of scenery might be enough to have seen the end of those episodes. Brendan was on the defence, which was really out-of-character for him, but there was no way he was going to respond to the attempts of being pushed away. Just because Brendan was hurting and upset, he wasn't going to let him be alone with this. He didn't even care where the booze had came from for Brendan to get drunk to be in this condition. It didn't matter. All that mattered was Brendan had been in pain enough to try to drink it away, and Caden felt like he let his nephew down.

"Come on, Bren. I'm going to help you up off the floor and get you back to bed. Don't protest, I'm stronger than you and not hungover. On three... One, two, three," he said and helped Brendan up with off the floor. The sudden movement took it's immediate toll, and as soon as Brendan was up, Caden was holding him over the toilet to throw up again. It took a bit of time, but eventually Brendan stopped being sick long enough to wash his face, brush his teeth, have a bit of water and be helped back to bed. Caden got him a bucket in case he wasn't done vomiting, and some ice for the swollen bruising of his eye and cheek. He gently and carefully pressed the icepack to Brendan's face, looking at him worriedly. "I want you to rest and keep the fluids up. There's water and Sprite here for you. I've sent your mum a text and told her what happened with Maisy, but I didn't tell her you got drunk. That can be our little secret, okay? But I want you to talk to me, Bren. You're my nephew, and I'm here to take care of you now you live with me. We've always been able to talk things out before, and that hasn't changed."

Brendan couldn't believe how awful he felt. He had never been hungover in his life. In fact, other than a pint on his 18th birthday with his mum that she took him for because it was something a father would usually do with their son and she hadn't wanted him to miss out, he hadn't touched a drop of booze. He saw what it did to Maisy when she had days she wanted to be trashed. So, this was really his first time popping his booze cherry, and apparently it made him want to pop his other cherry with Reecy. That sucked so hard. For one, she had a boyfriend, and two, Brendan always wanted to lose his virginity to someone he had deep feelings for and was dating, and all those other things he wanted to come before he tried sex for the first time. He didn't even know why he was feeling rejected by Reecy when he had always wanted all that to be what his first time was like. The whole situation had left him feeling miserably, unwanted, and lonely. Even more than he had been before he told Reecy he wanted to get drunk.

He groaned and closed his eyes. The room was spinning a little less now he was lying down and propped up on some pillows in bed, but he didn't feel less ill or stupid. Caden's response should have been expected. Brendan had expected him to be disappointed or angry, hence why his defences had gone up. But his uncle was right, they had always had a close relationship and Brendan had always felt like he could talk to Caden about everything. "I'm just... lonely. When Mais hit me, it felt like nothing had changed, and that was why I came to New York. For a change. Bryce might die. His Mum and Dad told me that yesterday before what happened with Mais."

It was really hard news to hear, and if it was hitting Caden this hard, it would have been hitting Brendan a hundred times worse. They had grown up together, Bryce was his closest friend. To hear your friend might not survive an illness of this magnitude, and then have a sister whose moods were extremely volatile around you, Caden would have been going out to get blind drunk too. "I'm sorry there's no better news with Bryce, Bren. He's been very sick and this is something no one hoped it would come to. But I know his Mum and Dad very well, and they would want to be honest with you so you're kept informed and not blindsided. I also know Bryce and he was willing to go through anything it took to give himself the best fighting chance to beat this. It's just a waiting game, but I know it hurts. I know it hurts so much, Bren."

"Are you lonely in general or feel like everyone has someone and you don't want to interfere with that? It's okay if it's the latter, because you're only human and it's natural to start wanting those sorts of things when you hit your teens and start to figure life out more. Is that ice okay? Is it too cold? It should help a little. You've got a lot of swelling where she hit you," he murmured sympathetically.

"How painful the hangover was today."

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject