Chapter 2



Jensen Ackles wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Oh no. He worked damn hard for what he had and where he was in his life now. His parents were good, hardworking, honest people, who while not wealthy, made sure their kids got everything they needed and grew up understanding that if there was something you wanted in this life, you had to work for it. They loved their kids, they loved their life, and they loved each other. They welcomed people with open arms and open minds and in the small town just outside of Dallas where they had brought up their kids they were well loved in the community.

So it was not a massive surprise that when Jensen told them he was gay, they accepted this without question. Jensen was their son and they loved him and as long as he lived a happy and fulfilled life then that was fine with them. They also fully supported his decision to become an architect, while Jensen loved music and his guitar, hell that was how he had met his two closest friends, Chris and Steve, he had been practical, and had used his natural talent for drawing and his cool business head to carve quite a successful career in architectural design. But he had still had his nights with the boys, had always made time for some down time, no matter how busy he was. He loved to chill with a guitar, some beers and a good sing along.

Then he had met David Boreanaz.

David with his lean body, and his almost black twinkling eyes and a wicked grin that just melted Jensen's brain until he was putty in the other mans hands. He hadn't even noticed how he had changed over the course of the three years he had known David. Even now, tonight, as he told his tale of woe to his Adonis, he just couldn't see what his two friends had been telling him.

But he had changed.

Soon after meeting David, he had moved in with him. Within twelve months he hardly ever saw Chris and Steve anymore. David thought he should concentrate more on his business and when he retired early he could go play his guitar then. He completely missed the fact that Steve had met and completely fallen for Sophia Bush, a pert, outgoing sassy brunette who adored the ground Steve walked on and ran a bar in a town not far from where Jensen grew up. He never even realised that he hadn't taken out his guitar in forever and it stood dusty and lonely in the back of his closet. He began thinking in terms of "what would David think" "what would David want" "what would David do" and slowly lost the ability to think about himself.

So to Jensen it had been a brilliant idea to build a masterpiece of a house for his new Fiance, a house he had been longing to build for years, a house that wasn't overly large, but a nice size. It was airy, and bright, faced the Sun in the mornings and a stunning Sunset in the evenings and he had even found the perfect location when he had finally caught up with his friends one night when David was away on a business trip with a client. David was an up and coming brilliant lawyer working for the biggest law firm in L.A. so he was away a lot.

Anyway, he found the perfect spot he told his Adonis, the small town where Sophia Bush lived and worked in. He built it on a hill overlooking the town and within walking distance but also very private, with just the right amount of Sun to light up the rooms. He had been sure David would love it, it had been the first and only secret he had ever kept from him, and he had loved every second of it. He had even used David's frequent trips away to go down and get stuck in on the building himself and he revelled in the knowledge that this was his design, his hard labour and a labour of pure love going into every brick and every block of timber he put down. He went to bed at night utterly exhausted but smiling. Though they made no secret of the fact that they did not like David, Chris and Steve even got stuck in whenever Jensen was down there, simply because it meant so much to Jensen and they got to see him more often.

Jensen had been flying high on dreams and visions of his happy life with David, and David's joy when he saw how hard Jensen had worked to build this special house just for them, for him.

Jensen snorted loudly and drunkenly into the whiskey glass at his foolishness. He slammed the glass back on the counter when it was again empty and raised his head to gaze at the Adonis watching him as he refilled the glass.

"So he didn't like the house?"

Jensen raised an eyebrow and replied sarcastically,

"Well what makes you think that?"

"Sorry, I....."

"No, it's ok, I'm being rude, and no he didn't like it....."

Actually David had freaked right the fuck out is what had happened. After the amount of love and care and work Jensen had poured into that house, he had even had it completely furnished, deliberately picking furniture from designers he knew David admired.

"Everything! I put fucking everything into that damn house, and he couldn't have run any faster if he had a fucking tiger yapping at his heels."

"I'm sorry man..."

Jensen waved away the man's apologies, " You should have seen his face the day I took him down there and showed him that house, I may as well have been a woman telling him I was pregnant and we had to get married!" He downed another glass and with an alcohol glazed look in his eyes he gazed up into gold flecked, hazel eyes and whispered "He told me I had gotten boring, said he was too young to be stuck in a small town life, said he wanted to be in the city....said I wasn't what he wanted anymore....when did I become not good enough for him? Where did I go wrong huh? Am I so fucking undesirable?"

He raised his hand and stopped the young bartenders answer; he didn't want to hear this man tell him what he thought Jensen wanted to hear. He just wanted to drink himself into a coma and forget the goings on of the last two weeks.

"I need the bathroom, fill me another huh?"

But damn if his legs refused to co-operate and he found himself on the floor, face first when he tried to put his legs under him and before he could blink strong arms were hauling him up and sitting him back down. He gazed up into those beautiful eyes again before his vision started to swim and two faces appeared and he giggled at the sight of the twin faces hovering over him. But god he was lovely, he knew what this place was, knew its secret and for a moment he wondered if this man, his very own Adonis, was one of those waiters known to slip in the back with certain clients.

Now Jensen Ackles was well raised, he was a good man with good honest to god morals and he had never ever ever propositioned a bar tender before, but he was drunk, hell he was so fucking hammered he knew he would be puking for a week. Before he could stop himself, he had grabbed the man's face and pulled him down into a sloppy, bruising, drunken kiss. All he saw before he landed back flat on his ass on the floor were hazel eyes going wide with sudden shock, and from his position on the floor, and even in his hammered state, he could see that he had seriously pissed this man off.

Two massive fists curled into the front of the expensive shirt he wore, and he was bodily hauled up off of the floor and the bartenders face was twisted in anger;

"Just because you came in here with a sob story and a fat wallet, and just because you think you know all there is to know about me and this hole of a bar, doesn't give you the fucking right to lay a goddamned hand on me. Now you're drunk and you seem like a nice enough guy, so I'm not gonna have Cliff here throw you out on your sorry drunken ass, but I am gonna call you a cab and you are going to go home and sleep it off and we will forget you were ever so stupid."

Jensen barely acknowledged the nod of the mans head to a beefy guy now standing behind him, and he tried, oh man he tried to warn him not to jiggle him so much, before he felt his stomach turn and heave and before he could stop himself he had thrown up what felt like the goddamn bar's whole supply of whiskey all over the other mans shirt.

*************


"Jesus Christ! Goddamn fucking drunken assholes...."

Twenty minutes later Jared finally got to the staff bathrooms to change the shirt that was covered in vomit, muttering darkly to himself the whole time. He had finally gotten the man into a cab and out of the bar. Jesus he had to hand it to him though, drinking all day and only folded now. He sniggered to himself, leave it to a Texan to show the lightweight city folk how it's done. But man he stank now! Although it hadn't all been bad, he fished out the wad of money the man had thrust into his hand just before Jared had walked away from the cab. Three hundred dollars, he smiled to himself, awesome, that definitely earned him a decent dinner with Chad and Sandy. So yeah, maybe it had worked out ok after all.

The sound of the staff room door slipping shut had Jared tensing. Shit, he had fucking left his clean top out there and there were no prizes for guessing who had entered the room. Sighing at the thoughts of yet another cat and mouse game with Patrick he squared his shoulders and left the bathroom.

Sure enough, Patrick stood leaning nonchalantly against the door, smiling softly at the sight of the six foot five of pure sex that walked out of the bathroom, clad in only the almost too tight black trousers he insisted the staff wore. Dangling in his hand was the extra white shirt that Tony had brought him a few minutes earlier; Jared eyed the shirt and sighed. Patrick wouldn't touch him, he knew that. He had only made that mistake once. After Jared had released him from the hold he had of him pinned to the wall, gasping for breath, they had come to an uneasy understanding. Patrick would eye him up every chance he got and make the usual suggestions, while Jared would pointedly ignore him and go about his business. He wouldn't be here forever; he would get out of this god forsaken city, just as soon as he could get Chad and Sandy to straighten themselves out....somehow.

Now though he subconsciously straightened himself up and prepared for the battle of wills to come. Walking over towards Patrick he kept his face deliberately blank and held out his hand for the shirt, but Patrick just grinned and looked Jared up and down;

"So...I saw you kissing that guy, got something exclusive going on there Jared? Should I be following him asking what has he got that made him so special?"

Jared rolled his eyes and reaching for the shirt snapped it out of Patrick's hands.

"That's not what happened and you fucking know it, drop it Patrick!"

"Aww come on now Jared, we both know you can't continue to hold me off, you could have a real sweet deal going on here."

Jared was busy tugging the shirt over his head so he didn't see Patrick move until he felt the other mans breath on his back and a hand ghosted down over the muscles. Turning sharply he narrowed his eyes and shot Patrick a warning;

"Back the fuck off Patrick, I may be stuck working in this hell hole, but I'm not turning tricks and especially not becoming your fuck toy."

He moved to walk out the door before he did something stupid like bash the fuckers head in and Patricks voice followed him out the door;

"You looked hot out there with that mans mouth on yours Jared, you would look even hotter with mine all over you, think about it."

Jared didn't even turn around again; he just threw Patrick the finger as he walked away. He glanced at his watch and groaned, another two hours at least before he could get out of here and just crash. The thoughts of doing this all over again tomorrow night made him want to weep. As he rejoined Tony behind the now busy bar, he remembered the napkin that he had kicked under the shelf and pulled it out. Evening out the folds he gazed at the sketch of the house that the man, Jensen, had been talking about. Even from this quick sketch he knew it had to be a beautiful house, so bright and airy. Fingering the drawing he tried to imagine what the inside would look like, how he would furnish it, none of this modern shit, no, he wanted a home, with real furniture and warmth and safety and no damn cockroaches. Sighing he folded the napkin again and put it into his pocket, not wanting to throw it away like he knew he should. Drawing had always been a hobby of his, and he was good at it too.

Someday he would draw things like that man had done. Someday he would get out of here and make a good life.....Thoughts of Edward sprung unbidden into his mind at the very idea of Jared having a good life and he berated himself for his foolishness. Edward has been his lesson, and he had learnt it well, Jared wasn't meant to have the life he longed for, Edward had come into his life and shown him what he could have if he just reached for it, and then he had been taken.

So no, Jared wasn't going to aim that big anymore.

The pain wasn't worth it.

Forgetting about the napkin he had shoved in his pocket, Jared straightened his shoulders and turned back toward the bar, a smile planted on his face, and a couple more hundred dollars on his mind.

Read Chapter 3 of 27 of Magser's Someone Else's Life