Love For Sale

~Cole’s POV~

I sat at one of the school’s pianos, wondering how this day came to be. I stared out the window and watched the leaves change from their summer green to their fall red, orange, and yellow colors. My head hurt from all the stress that I encountered from these past few weeks, and I found that I couldn’t concentrate on my work. I had canceled all my classes this week because of Kyle and everything that he had put me through. I had given him my love and in return he destroyed it. Kyle was the only thing that I had since Linda died, but now I had nothing after the stunt he pulled at my parent’s house. I even stopped writing music again. It was pointless. However, since my agent found out that I was writing music again, he signed me up for my first concert at the end of the year. I thought about canceling the concert, but since I was almost finished with my last score, I decided to do that one and only concert for my fans. My last score was propped up in front of me and I was trying to figure out the last few notes. I had written my last piece of music from what Kyle did to me, but since that was three weeks ago, my anger had slowly started to fade, and I was trying to forget Kyle completely. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t forget about Kyle, and I found myself thinking about us together again. It made me so angry that I couldn’t think, and my headache just got worse. I tried to focus all that negative energy about Kyle to my music, and tried to think about the last few notes in my music.

“Fuck!” I yelled, banging my fists against the keys in frustrations. I stood up from the piano, knocking the bench to the floor and I went over to the window, Kyle’s window.

He had told me that he was standing at the right end window on that rainy night when I was playing. He told me that he fell in love with my music, and in return I fell in love with Kyle. I pressed myself up against the window and stared down at the ground, imagining the fifteen year boy standing below the window looking in at me. Kyle’s smile shined brighter in my mind, and I smiled back. I had always tried to picture Kyle on that rainy night, and looking out the window made me finally imagine. I imagined Kyle’s brown hair matted against his wet skin. His clothes soaked and sticking to him like a second skin, and his eyes were big as the moon as I imagined him watching me through the window.

“Do you usually say that word in front of your students?”

My image of Kyle disappeared when I heard Daniel’s voice behind me, and I spun around. My smile that grew while picturing Kyle dripping wet faded, and I frowned when I saw my friend. He was standing, leaning against the door frame, his tie draped across the back of his neck, his shirt half way unbuttoned, and his jacket was lying over his arm. He had a small smile across his lips, as he pushed off the frame. I paid no attention to him and went back to my work. I sat the piano bench back up on its feet and I sat back down. Once again I was faced with the dilemma of my music, and I placed my elbows on the keys. I felt Daniel place his briefcase on the piano and he too leaned against it. I didn’t want him here; I didn’t want anybody here with me right now.

“What are you doing here Daniel?” I asked with a sigh.

“I wanted to come by and check up on you, Cole. I wanted to see how you were doing.”

“I am doing just fine.” I groaned, pushing my hair back as I sat up from my work. “I am just peachy.” I grinned at Daniel to show him how happy I was with my life, but I could tell by his look that he wasn’t buying my corny smile that hid the pain. “So if that is all there is, you can leave now.”

“Cole, I am not just going to leave you like this. You say that you are fine, but you are not. I don’t like what I’ve been seeing with you these last few days. You haven’t been eating, I can tell that you haven’t been sleeping, and you have not been concentrating on your work. Ever since you broke up with Kyle, your life has been going downhill. If you keep this up, then you will be back in the state of mind you were in before you met Kyle. Back on the anti-depressants and living your life in darkness, just waiting to die.”

“So, I was happy then, and I will be happier once I am finished with this last piece of music, and I can forget about Kyle altogether.”

“Cole! How can you say such a thing? You were miserable and you knew it. If it wasn’t for those anti-depressants, then you would be buried alongside your wife and son by now.”

“That would be even better, why didn’t I think of that?” I said sarcastically. I got up from the bench and took my sheet music back to my office.

“Cole!” I heard Daniel’s footsteps behind me as I shuffled down the hallway, and I picked up my pace. “Cole, wait please.” I tried to shut my office door before Daniel could catch up, but he wedged his foot between the doors, stopping me from locking it on him. “Cole, just hear me out.”

“Why? So you could make my life shit as it is! If you want to help me, you can start by getting the fuck away from me and leaving me alone!” I pushed Daniel away from the door, making the path clear and I slammed and locked the door.

“Cole, you can’t push me away that easily!” Daniel yelled from the other side of the door. “Cole, you know that I can be just as stubborn as you are. Cole, just listen to me…I would like for you to come to a gallery opening with me tonight. You need to get out of this funk you’re in, please Cole. I know you can hear me.”

I sighed. Daniel was right, I have been in this funk for far too long. But I did not know if going to a gallery opening would do the trick. I didn’t want to argue about this any longer, and I decided to unlock the door. “Why a gallery opening?” I asked. I opened the door just a crack so I could see Daniel, and I wouldn’t open it if he didn’t have a good reason.

“I have tickets that were given to me by a client. My fiancé can’t go because she’s working, so I want you to come with me. It will do you some good, and you might get inspired to finish your last piece of music. You don’t have to stay for the whole party, just an hour or two.”

“Fine” I groaned. “If it gets you off my back, I will go to the gallery with you.”

“Thank you, Cole.”

“Don’t expect anything from me Daniel; I am just going because I want you off my back.” I relocked my office before I headed out with Daniel, and I placed my keys into my pocket.

“I know Cole, and after tonight, you won’t see me again until my wedding.”

We both walked out together and I headed over to my car. Daniel pulled me away when I was halfway to my vehicle, and he pulled me over to his. I argued with him a little over the question if we should take separate cars, but he would have none of it, and he pushed me into the front seat of his own car. I should have known this was coming. I knew that Daniel would at least stay for almost the whole party, and I did not want to stay for more than an hour. But now that I was now relying on Daniel for a ride home, I would have to stay for the whole amount of time he was there too. I was just happy that I had my wallet in my back pocket, I just hope that I had enough money for a cab ride home. Before we headed off, Daniel gave me a smile, but I just rolled my eyes and ignored him for the whole car ride.

When Daniel told me that he was going to take me to a gallery opening, he forgot to mention that it was all the way in Portland. I didn’t want to chew Daniel out on the ride over to the gallery, but I would once we arrived at the gallery. When we arrived, I found that the gallery was in an abandoned warehouse on the east side of the city. There was heavy traffic due to the opening, and Daniel got in the line of cars so the valet could park the car. Looking at the row of cars, and the amount of people working valet, I was hoping that we would get inside the gallery quickly. Unfortunately, that was not the case. It took an hour for valet to take the car away to be parked, and another fifteen minutes waiting to get inside the building. Already I was not enjoying myself, and thought about walking out from the party and hailing a cab to go to a nearby hotel for the night. However, Daniel reassured me that he would take me home within the hour, but I just rolled my eyes again and paid no attention to what Daniel had to say.

Once we were inside, we climbed up the flight of stairs and headed into the gallery room. When I walked in, I thought I had walked into some kind of sex orgy, but Daniel put that to rest when I asked what kind of art this is.

“It’s a sex art gallery.” Daniel replied, taking one of the artist’s cards on display. He too was taken aback by the weird displays of people touching each other and having sex. Most of the people that were invited to the gallery weren’t even interested in the fine art hanging on the walls, all that they were interested were the naked people. “You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to Cole.” Daniel told me, seeing the atmosphere. “I feel like this isn’t the place for you right now, since you’re trying to forget Kyle and all. Sorry I dragged you down here.”

“It’s fine Daniel. Some of the art isn’t that bad.” I wandered off towards an interesting piece of art leaving Daniel alone. It was of a tree.

Despite the people having sex around me, I found the artwork to be festinating. Some of the work was even breathtaking; I didn’t even know why the artist decided to put people having sex in the middle of the gallery. But the more I looked at the art, the more I saw that some of them were kind of exotic in a twisted way. I didn’t know what to think about the exotic art, but I appreciated it the best way that I could. I even stopped to watch a pair of women kissing each other. As I watched them, I felt uneasy, as the two kept their eyes on me while I was watching. I got even more uneasy when I saw them come over to me, and I left just after they tried to get me to join their group. I wandered into the back of the gallery. The gallery was big, and I found myself getting lost in the sea of people and paintings. I didn’t even know which way was the exit was anymore. Seeing the art around me, I kind of got side-tracked, and the thought of leaving escaped my mind.

“Cole?”

I turned around from a surreal painting of a forest, and found a face that I have not seen since the beginning of the year. “Chad?” I smiled, seeing Kyle’s friend behind me, and we shook hands. “How have you been, I heard that you were a model now?” recalling what Kyle had told me after our last affair, that his friend had ditched the sex business, and decided to be a model.

“I’m fine. And yeah, I’ve been modeling for a few months now. How are things with you and Kyle? Is he here?”

“I’m sorry, Chad,” I told him. “But Kyle and I split up three weeks ago.”

“What? Why? You made Kyle so happy as a person, and I thought he did the same for you. Why did you break up?”

“He cheated on me—twice.” I confessed, shrugging like it was no big deal.

“He cheated on you again?” Chad gasped, almost shocked that his friend could have cheated on me a second time. But he should have known, Kyle did run to Chad’s place when he first cheated on me. “That fucking bastard. I am so sorry Cole for what has happened. Do you want to get a bite to eat and talk about it sometime, maybe ease the stress?”

“I’ve taken this has happened before?”

“It has,” Cole replied. “But it is usually Kyle that I have to take out to dinner. It’s funny, no matter how many times that I’ve talked to him, I would keep finding myself in the same dining booth. Bastard.” Chad cursed under his breath and took a sip from the beer he had. Chad was all worked up from me telling him about Kyle, and he looked like he could step out the door any minute to go and get him. But with a large group of people around us, all he could do is stare into the crowd and try to find a way out. I also stared around the group of people around us, but I was looking for a quieter place for us to talk. “Do you know where Kyle is now?” Chad asked, returning to our conversation about Kyle.

“When I left him, he went with a man name Peter, a family friend. That was the first night, I don’t know where he now though. Hopefully he had found his way back to the brothel.”

“I just hope you are right.” Chad sighed, taking out his phone. “It’s a good thing I kept Kris’s cell phone number. Give me a minute.” I nodded, and Chad stepped away for a minute to call his friend’s phone. Chad was really worried about Kyle, and I was getting worried too. I didn’t care about what happened to Kyle after the day at my parent’s house, but now I was starting to wonder where Kyle was exactly.

“Cole!” my name was called again, and I thought it was Chad. However, when I turned, I found that it was Daniel. “Cole, I need to talk to you!” Daniel called, motioning me over to him.

I yelled over the crowd to tell him I would be over to talk to him in a few. Chad was still on the phone when Daniel called me over, and I decided to wait to tell him I needed to leave. However, I saw Daniel pushing his way through the crowd, and he joined me and Chad. He didn’t look too happy, and he took by the arm. Just before he started to drag me away from Kyle’s friend, Chad hung up and turned his attention towards me. He was surprised that Daniel had walked up to me, but he ignored the lawyer, and turned his focus towards me.

“Kris said that Kyle is not living at the brothel.” He told me, his voice trembled and we both started to get worried. If Kyle wasn’t at the brothel, then where would he be? We started to talk about ideas where Kyle might be hiding, but Daniel interrupted us and told us where Kyle was.

“You know where Kyle is?” I asked, shocked to find that Daniel knew where Kyle was all along.

“Yes, he is here.” Daniel replied.

“What?” both I and Chad gasped and we both looked around to see if we could spot Kyle in the crowded room

“Where is he?” Chad asked, demanding Daniel to take us to where Kyle was.

“In the back, but you’re not going to like it,” he shook his head and sighed. Just by the tone of his voice, I knew he didn’t want me to see Kyle, but I wanted to. It had been so long, and I wanted to know if he was alright.

“Take us to him anyway.” I told Daniel, and he led us to the back of the gallery. I hadn’t even been to that part of the gallery Daniel was taking us to, and from the look on Chad’s face, he hadn’t either.

Daniel lead us all the way to the back right hand corner of the gallery, and he kept on telling us along the way how he thought it wasn’t Kyle at first, but it was. When we got to the back of gallery, Daniel pushed away some of the guests for us to have a clear view of Kyle. I wish he didn’t though. Both Chad and I gasped when we saw the poor situation Kyle was in. He was on his knees, naked on the dirty floor, with his hands chained behind him to a pole sticking out of the ground. A group of men and women were around him and taking advantage of his body. The people around him looked like they were having the time of their lives violating Kyle’s body, but Kyle on the other hand didn’t. He looked paralyzed from where we were standing, and he didn’t even care the men around him putting their dicks in his mouth, ass, and hands. My hands clenched into fists with rage as I watched this, and I felt like going over to the gangbang and punching each and every one of them. I saw Chad was acting the same way, and he took a step towards the group. Daniel saw how we were taking this, and decided to pull us back. We didn’t want to leave Kyle, but both Chad and I followed Daniel to a more secluded place. When we got far enough away from the gangbang, Daniel let both of us go, and I punched the empty wall next to me.

“Calm down, both of you.” Daniel said calmly.

“How can you say such a thing?” I snapped. “You saw what was happening to Kyle. We need to rescue him.”

“I agree.” Chad replied, taking my side.

“And how do you suggest we do that?” Daniel asked. “We can’t just go over and take Kyle off that pole. We need to think this over.”

“Well, can’t you do anything?” Chad asked, “Don’t you have ties with the police?”

“I do, but we need to think logically about this. We can call the police, but then Kyle would be taken to the hospital where they would perform a rape test on him. And if that happens, then Cole might be thrown in jail. Also, Kyle might go back to foster care and we will never see him again. So we need to think.”

Daniel did have a point. We couldn’t just call the police, but we couldn’t just leave Kyle chained to that pole back there. Chad had his hand on his cell phone, ready to punch in 9-1-1, and I was itching to call the police too. But knowing the risks, we could not call anybody. I sighed, trying to think of a plan to rescue Kyle, but I ended up with nothing. The longer I thought about it, the more frustrated I got, and I ended up punching the wall again.

“If you keep doing that, the art will fall off the wall.” I turned sharply to find Peter York standing behind us. Rage filled my soul, and I stomped over to him, my hand raised.

“You son of a bitch!” I yelled, hurling myself at the man. Daniel stopped me from hitting the guy, but he couldn’t stop Chad from doing what I wanted to do. While Daniel held me back, Chad had a chance to take a swing at Peter, and he punched him square in the jaw. I smirked as I watched Peter fall to the floor, and I waited to get my share of the man too. “What the fuck did you do to Kyle?” I yelled as Peter staggered up off the floor.

A few of the guests around us saw what Chad did and helped Peter to his feet. “I did nothing to that whore.” Peter replied, realigning his jaw. “That whore asked to be in the show. Don’t you like it? The artist is really obsessed with sex that he wanted to have interactive pieces for his show.”

“We don’t care about that.” Chad spat. “We just care about Kyle. What did you do to him?”

“Nothing, like I said. I just put him in his natural environment. He actually loves it.”

“That’s a lie! Kyle would never do a gangbang.”

“Oh, then why was he been begging for them since I’ve taken him in? He loves them, he has been in one every night now.”

“You mean you have been using him every night for your own personal pleasure and hosting?” Daniel asked.

“Why yes, he is a good worker. It makes my job a whole lot easier while I have him. And with tonight, I will make a boat load of cash off of him. Hope you have fun for the rest of the night.” Peter smirked as he strolled off, leaving us in disgust and hate.

“Are you sure there is nothing we can do?” I asked Daniel, once Peter was out of ear shot.

“You know, I think there is.” Daniel said. “And the best part is…we can get Kyle back without putting you in jail Cole.”

“That would be wonderful.” I smiled. “I just want Peter to be behind bars, along with any other bastard who touched Kyle.”

“Will do. Chad, make the call.”

“Already on it.” Chad smiled, his cell phone pressed up against his ear. “Hi, yes, I would like to report a rape.” Chad told the emergency operator. We walked quickly and quietly towards the front door, neither of us wanted to be in the building once the police got here, and we waited for the police raid outside.

The Portland police responded to the call right away, and within a matter of minutes, the whole block was surrounded with policemen, and they had blocked off the street. We could hear the pandemonium of the guests outside of the building, followed by some of the guests trying to flee from the scene. Daniel stepped in to do his job as a D.A. and assisted the remaining policemen outside of the building. Thirty minutes after the police arrived, was chaos. Sirens were going off in every direction, ambulances were arriving on the scene, as well as the local news, and people living near-by were starting to see what was happening. I was worried about what was happening to Kyle inside, while the police raided the building. I was scared that Peter had escaped and that he took Kyle with him. But my fear was eased as I saw the police starting to lead out people in handcuffs, one of them being Peter. I smirked as I saw him in handcuffs, and I mocked him by waving my fingers at him. Peter scowled at me, and began thrusting about, trying to tell the officer leading him out of the building that I was part of the rape.

“Wait, wait. Stop!” I heard Peter cry. The police officer who led him away stopped and he looked up at me. “Do you see that guy, his name is Cole Varnini, and he also took part in this whole event too. He also raped that boy in there.”

“Crap.” my mind gasped. I never thought that Peter would do this, and I found myself in handcuffs along side of him. I yelled at the police to let me go, that I didn’t rape Kyle, but the police didn’t want to hear anything I had to say, and I was heading to the nearest squad car.

“Wait a minute officer!” Daniel called, seeing me being led away in cuffs. “Why are you arresting this man here?”

“He raped the boy we found in the back of the gallery.” the office replied to Daniel’s question. “We are taking him in for questioning and testing to see if it is true.”

“He didn’t rape the boy.” Daniel said. “I can vouch for his whereabouts this evening.”

“Then where was he?”

“He was with me. We were attending the gallery opening tonight, along with our friend Chad over there. We were the ones who called in the 9-1-1. Mr. Varani here was by my side all night.”

“Is this true?” the officer asked me, scanning me for any signs that I was lying.

“Yes, officer.” the officer scanned me a second time just to be sure that I wasn’t lying, and I guessed he believed me, because he let me go. “Thank you officer.” I sighed. I was happy that I wasn’t going to be booked for Kyle’s rape tonight, and I smirked at Peter as he was pushed into the back of a police car.

The police officer came back to us when he had Peter in the car, and he took out a small note pad. “Alright, since you two called in the rape,” the officer said, “I need statements from both of you.”

“I will be happy to.” I replied, stepping closer to the officer. Chad came up behind me so that the officer could take his statement as well. After I gave Officer Raze my name and address, I told him about what I saw in the gallery. “I, Chad and Daniel here were attending the gallery, and we saw the boy being raped.” I then went on about how outraged we were with how Kyle was being treated, and we asked who was in charge of the gallery opening. Then I told him that it was Peter York, a family friend of mine. Chad and Daniel told a similar story to mine, and after we each told our side of the story, the officer let us go. He thanked us for our cooperation, and got into his car.

“Cole.” Chad gasped. He tapped my shoulder, and I turned to see Kyle being led out on a stretcher.

The paramedics were leading him away fast, so I had no time to waste. I rushed over to Kyle, but I was stopped by two more policemen. I tried to reason with them to let me by, but they pushed me away.

“Please let me through.” I begged, looking over the two officer’s shoulders, and seeing Kyle being hosted into the back of an ambulance. “I know that boy, please let me see him.”

“Sorry, sir, but no one is allowed back behind this point.” The police had taped off the whole sidewalk, and they had already began their investigation.

“Do you at least know where they are taking him?” I asked.

“To St. Mary’s.” one of the officer replied.

I thanked the two officers before I left and jogged back over to Daniel and Chad. “Daniel, I need to borrow your car.”

“No, you can drive with me to the hospital, my car is a block over.” Chad replied, taking out his keys. “Daniel you have work to do here I see. Once your finish you can meet us at St. Mary’s.” Daniel nodded while Chad pulled me away, and we both hurried over to the hospital.


“How is he?” Daniel asked, arriving at St. Mary’s an hour after Chad and I did. There was very little information about Kyle when we got there, and since we were not family, the doctors could not tell us anything. I was worried about what happened to Kyle, and now seeing Daniel was here, he could get a chance to check on how Kyle was doing.

“We don’t know yet.” Chad replied to Daniel’s question.

“Maybe you can see what’s going on.” I told him, hoping that with his authority that he could see Kyle.

“I will see what I can do.” Daniel sighed. He had just gone through straightening out the crime scene at the gallery, he was tired, but he still had a job to do, and went to see the E.R. doctor. Chad and I followed shortly after him, and my heart raced with worry

“Hello, there.” Daniel smiled, walking up to the front desk and smiling at the nurse behind the counter. “I am Daniel Thomas. I am the Defense Attorney representing the case against Peter York. I came to see how the victim is, Mr. Kyle Wolf.”

“Wolf, you say?” the nurse asked, double-checking the name. She placed the pencil she had in her hands behind her ear, and she began pushing the keys on her computer. “Yes, he is in critical condition,” the nurse said, reading off of the screen. “He was brought in with multiple cuts and bruises on his body. He was poorly malnourished, and had shown signs of extreme dehydration. The doctors treated him with IV fluids, and had done a rape kit on him before they cleaned him up. Poor boy, he was covered in urine and feces.”

“I hope the rape kit will come out successful. Did you also do a S.T.I. test too?”

“Yes we did. The test results should be coming back within a few days.”

“Thank you. Please make sure that I get a copy of the boy’s test results. May we see him now?”

“You sure can. But unfortunately, your friends can’t go in. Doctors say that no one but police and people working on his case are allowed in.”

“Shit.” I breathed, looking back over to the vending machines. It was a good try, but Chad and I could still not see Kyle. I told Daniel that it was okay for him to see him alone, and Chad and I went back to our seats.

“I will tell Kyle that you both say hi.” Daniel told us as he headed behind the double doors of the E.R.

(A/N: I've said this before, but....Thank you to Lisa, she is a awesome beta :D )