Callum wanted to snap at Julian for his comment but refrained, staring back at Adam so confused and conflicted. "I just..." His throat was tight, feeling like he was nearly choking on his restrained emotions. He wanted to so much to just believe him, grab hold of Adam and dissolve into to tears or something. However. his feet felt rooted to the spot and he wasn't sure he could just believe him. Callum scrubbed a hand over his face with a frustrated sigh, why was this happening to him?

He was quiet for several moments, looking between Julian and Adam. His boyfriend had never given him a reason before to mistrust him, though clearly he'd not been a hundred percent honest with him either. "Adam... I just don't get it... why didn't you tell me you had someone staying with you?" He looked at the man imploringly, if this was as much of nothing as he claimed then why would he have failed to mention it? He let out a heavy sigh, unsure what to do or think. Adam seemed sincere and yet he was afraid to have his trust abused.

The soft pained tone of his voice made his heart wrench. Callum's deep brown eyes met Adam's blue ones, staring at him for a moment. "I... believe you, but I just..." I just what? I don't want to be hurt... I really don't want to be hurt He swallowed thickly, searching for the words. "I don't know what to do Adam, I think maybe I should just go." The wind was out of his sails now and he was feeling drained and upset. A large part of him wanted to hug Adam, hold onto him for dear life until these feelings dissipated and yet he was scared. Callum had never felt like this for another person, he'd never loved someone like this. He'd been careful not to invest himself in others, and yet he'd done it whole-heartedly with Adam.

He dropped his gaze down to his shoes, he wanted to get out of this room but his boyfriend was blocking his only exit. Callum's shoulder's sagged as he stared down at his sneakers, what was he even doing? Why should Adam want him? There were no incentives... no perks, to being with him and yet here they were.

"I should just go home now I think."

Shit, things were getting heavy. And, as usually happened when shit got heavy, Julian was struck by the urge to just get out. Bad energy like that could stick to a guy and totally bring him down. That was the theory, anyway… when it actually came down to seeing two good bros all on the verge of tears and messed up with each other, well… shit, man. Since when had being in the wrong place at the wrong time ever caused so many problems?

Julian had clearly missed out on a lot of rom-coms whilst growing up in the States.

He wanted to scram, but now that he was thinking about it maybe that was the shitty thing to do. Adam had been good to him—never asked a dime in rent, even though Julian had stayed long enough to be considered a roommate. And maybe that was why he hadn’t told anybody about Julian (which was kinda weird, now that he thought of it)—because he didn’t want people thinking he was being taken for a ride just because he was such a fucking cool dude that he let drifters crash on his couch for months on end.

“Guys,” he said, hoping to avoid tears. Tears were the enemy right now. “Seems to me you guys got a good thing going, but maybe I kinda gummed up the works here a bit. Y’know? So… I’m thinking maybe I oughta be the one clearing out. Give y’all some breathing space, yeah?”

He laughed, totally not at all nervously.

“I’m picking up on the English ‘yeah.’ Man, that’s totally you’re fault, dude.”

But really, there wasn’t much funny going on right now.

“... Look, it’ll only take me a minute to pack up my shit…”

"It wasn't like I did it on purpose..." Adam trailed off, a small bubble of guilt bursting inside his heart. Perhaps he had realized subconsciously what might happen if his darling found out he was living with Julian? He bit his lower lip, scared to admit that all this time, he had enjoyed his funny, American room mate so much that he had put how hurt his own boyfriend would be if he found out, to the back of his mind. Adam took a sharp breath, "Darling-" but he didn't even have the strength to continue.

It all seemed too ridiculous to be true, who could have guessed that such a little thing could lead to this scene before him?

He had to do something to prevent Callum from leaving. Adam's body remained frustratingly still though. It wasn't like if his boyfriend left now they'd never see each other again... Right? Adam was a little unsettled by the fact that he wasn't a hundred percent sure of the answer. Never before had he wanted to be able to know how somebody else felt as much as this moment.

Just as he was about to reach out, Julian spoke. Adam blinked, coming out of some sort of stupor, finally remembering that the other man was still standing there. For some reason, he had assumed Julian had already gone - this really had nothing to with him, now that he'd proved Adam's case by acting as a witness (of sorts) and Callum understood the truth of matters.

Adam would have to be stupid and deaf not to pick up the sadness and frustration contained in Julian's voice. He felt like banging his head on the nearby wall. Why was this happening?

"This isn't your fault, dude. It's all gonna be all right, okay? Just go find a seat on the couch or something." It was bad enough having Callum ready to leap out the door. He did not need Julian going for it as well.

Callum let out heavy sigh as Julian moved to start packing up his things. He pinched the bridge of his nose and shut his eyes. He was trying to wrap his mind around this and it wasn't going well at all. "No," he said softly, "Stay here Julian, I'm just gonna go home, alright?" Callum opened his eyes again, looking at Adam before looking in Julian's direction. This was bizzare and the state of things was really making him angry. How dare someone live and share a space with his boyfriend? Roommates were one thing, but Julian seemed to be living off of Adam and that didn't sit right with him. Adam was kind soul, Callum knew that well, but looking past the strange scene, if he and Julian weren't actually sleeping together then it looked like his dear Adam was being taken for a ride.

Shaking his head, he looked back at Adam. "I'm gonna go home, okay? I want to be alone... and, I just need some time to think." He bit the inside of his cheek, forcing back the cold cruel words he so desperately wanted to shout at the pair of them. Instead his kept his tone neutral, not looking away from his boyfriend, "It's probably just best if I go now, alright? Obviously this isn't any of my business, if it were I'm sure you would have discussed it with me before now. If you want to live with Julian and foot his bills that's fine, your decision to make, not mine."

He held up a hand as Adam tried to speak, "No, I'm going home now... sorry to interrupt." Callum didn't bother looking back at Julian as he side stepped Adam and all but bolted out the door. He swung the hotel door shut behind him with a snap and hurriedly headed down to the elevator. The tears that had been threatening to fall finally won, running down his cheeks as he mashed angrily at the down button on the lift. Callum swiped angrily at his face. Get it together, you're not some cry baby... Only as he saw his reflection in the shiny gold doors of the lift, he realized that's exactly what he looked like.

Callum O'Doherty was nothing but a cry baby.

Julian was pretty sure he should be leaving. That was totally the right thing to do right now. Except then Adam told him to grab a seat on the couch or something, and Callum was telling him to stay too, and Julian kind of just froze. He’d already made a pretty big splash right up in here, and maybe if he just kept quiet it wouldn’t get any worse? Then Callum was leaving and Julian exhaled heavily, letting the tension rush out of his body as he sank down to sit on the bed.

“Man, that was heavy…” he muttered. “I dunno about you, dude, but I could really go for some bud.”

Some marijuana, some music, and some lovemaking--didn’t really matter with whom, just a willing warm body would be nice. Best kind of stress relief there was. The bud was a good place to start. He wasn’t sure why this was getting him down so much—definitely didn’t have anything to do with the kind of cutting comment about Adam footing the bill for Julian or maybe the fact that he was kind of okay with the idea that he and Adam could have been screwing around all this time—but it sucked seeing a good bro so unhappy.

He even felt a little bit bad for Callum, who he genuinely liked. Still, little dude had totally overreacted.

“So what do you say?” he asked, looking at Adam. “Ready to get high and forget this shit?”

If there was anything Julian could do to help Adam out at this point, that was probably it.

The way Callum had spoken, forceful and upset, had left very little room for argument. Adam wouldn't normally have just let Callum go, especially not with the way things were, but he realized that it would be easier to deal with one thing at a time, instead of trying to multi-task. The fact that he was even a part of the reason that his darling had looked close to tears though... It left a sour taste in Adam's mouth and furrow in his brow, as he plopped down on the sofa, smacking a hand on his forehead, berating himself and trying to think of a solution, even though a headache was slowly making its presence known.

He breathed deeply a few times and tried to hide how distressed he was. When he felt he was finally calm enough, he glanced over at Julian, "I feel like such a jerk." Adam had no idea why he was stating the obvious, other than the fact that it lessened his feeling of guilt. A part of him was thinking that he had done nothing wrong. No, of course Adam freaking Levitt could make no mistakes - it was never him; it was always the other person, something wrong with them. Even as he thought this, he shook his head. He couldn't live that way anymore.

"You know man, despite all this, I don't regret letting you room with me. I was damn lucky to find somebody who accepted me despite the fact that I'm... Not normal. In any case, don't you dare feel like this is your fault. If anything it's mine." He sighed, "I realize now that I really should have run this by him. I mean, that's the sort of stuff boyfriends do right? Not live with other people without telling each other?" It wasn't as if Adam did not know the rules; he had just chosen to ignore them up until now.

Adam bit hard into his lower lip and despite this ridiculous situation, almost let a smile slip. "That sounds like a great idea - you go ahead." Sometimes he wished he could be like Julian, so easy-going and relaxed, never upset for more than a few minutes, "I need to um, run out real quick and try to find Callum."

He left through the door real casual, like nothing was wrong. Then, the second it was closed, he made a mad dash down the hall.

THREAD IS COMPLETE