The week passed uncomfortably quickly and too soon, for Frank, Saturday had arrived. Which meant spending pretty much the entire day with the little fag. Luckily, he had only seen the poof once when they were passing in a corridor: they had made momentary eye contact, before Frank had raised one eyebrow, and Stephen had looked hurriedly away. There was no way that Frank would have been the one to bow out. He just prayed that no one saw. He didn't need any rumours going round that he was in any way queer. His life was difficult enough.
Stephen sighed as he swayed into Bill's for his first day. The week had been bad enough, making awkward eye contact with Bully Grayson, and just generally feeling on edge whenever he looked his way or they were even in the same room. It was like his awareness for the thug had heightened and suddenly he was on the forefront of his mind 24/7. He didn't even know why; he wasn't doing anything wrong. Plus, he could hold his ground against him. He just didn't like having anything to do with him.
The second Frank sauntered through the doors, his eyes did an involuntary sweep of the room for Stephen. They found him immediately, leaning against the counter talking to some girl in an apron. She was all over him, smiling and playing with her hair. Someone needed to tell her he was off-his-fucking-nuts gay. I mean, couldn't she fucking tell? Whatever.
He sighed and walked over to the pair, rolling his shoulders back and tilting his head up just a bit. Confident. Dominant. Proud. Perhaps just a little bit cocky. Yeh. He'd got this.
Why was he even making such a big effort, anyway. They were just co-workers… especially as one of them was the fag. But. You know. Whatever.
"Alright, Glee?" he smirked, watching Stephen's head whip round and the girl beside him cowering a little.
What? Frank wasn't intentionally being that intimidating.
However, instead of shrinking away from him like her, Stephen cocked his head and looked Frank straight in the eyes. He refused to let Grayson bully him.
"Yeh not too bad. You?" he replied.
Well…
This was new, Frank thought.
"M'alright." Frank shrugged, determined not to be the one to back down. "Had a good week?"
Stephen took a deep breath; this was too good an opportunity to show him who's boss.
"Well, I didn't see much of you so…" he dropped a wink and smiled suggestively, only slightly terrified.
Frank's reaction, however, was worth any repercussions. His eyes widened, his jaw sagged and his eyebrows shot up.
Stephen looked away grinning and waited for the shouting or the punching.
But it never came.
Instead, he heard Frank's gravelly voice lean in and whisper in his ear. "Looks like we'll have to rectify that tonight then."
It was Stephen's turn to be shocked, whirling his head round and blinking astonished at the boy beside him, who was nonchalantly looking around the room as though nothing had just happened.
Slowly, he turned his head to look at Stephen.
Their eyes met.
And Frank nearly laughed out loud at the expression on the bitch's face. His perfectly placed features were distorted by shock; everything seemed to have forgotten how to work and instead simply hung there, gormlessly. That showed him not to mess with Frank Grayson.
Stephen tried to think of something to say – he could not let him win – but he just couldn't. He opened his mouth a few times, but nothing came to mind as to what the hell to say, so he closed it again. He was vaguely aware that he probably looked like a gold fish. Dammit. So much for showing him who's boss.
Thankfully, their instructor came over and started telling them what to do, so they obeyed and got on with their work; Frank still smirking over his victory, Stephen still fuming over his failings.
