The next time Darren saw Chris was when he was working, he still hated his pointless job where angry customers yelled at him that he was packing their precious groceries wrong even though it really didn't matter. Chris was walking down the aisle that Darren was stationed at. They both stopped dead when they saw one and other, it had been a very awkward meeting the last time they saw each other. Chris smiled nervously from behind the back of a woman wearing a violently pink sweater. Darren just nodded to the other man, acting civil for his job.
When the woman left, Chris stepped up to the cashier.

'Hey Darren' he said, turning to address Darren who was busy packing the things that Chris brought.

'Hi' Darren said stiffly, not making eye contact with Chris.

'H-how's things been?' Chris asked, making a desperate stab of conversation.

'Fine' Darren said, glaring at a carton of milk that Chris bought.

'That's good.'

There was an uncomfortable silence between Darren and Chris, only broken my Margret, the cashier, who asked for money.

As Chris was preparing to leave Darren caught his arm and said 'hey, can we please talk about what happened? I really want to know why you didn't bother to contact me.'

Chris looked at Darren and smiled a little 'sure, tonight, 8.30 at the bar?' Chris asked.

'I'll see you then.'

The men gave each other a small smile, they were starting to put the past behind them, or so Chris thought. Darren on the other hand wanted to yell at Chris, he had no idea why he was acting like this, plenty of people had stood him up and never contacted him but he had never freaked out like this before and it sort of scared him.

At 8.30, Chris was bar tending as usual when Darren walked into the bar. He looked around the bright room and spotted Chris wiping the counter top.

'Isn't that a little cliché?' Darren asked, walking up to the bar.

Chris looked up and smiled at Darren 'a little, but it needs to be cleaned.'

'True. So do you want to start explaining?' Darren cut to the chase.

Chris stared at Darren for a minute, piercing Darren with his light blue stare.

'Ok sure. Where should I begin?'

'How about after the dinner we had together.'

'Cool, well that day was amazing, we went exploring San Fran and we got a little lost, the city id huge compared to Clovis. Well anyway that day I just sort of forgot about you to be honest but when we came home I looked at my phone and saw that you had texted me. I was a little shocked and scared, no man except my father has ever tried to talk to me this much. Well I did the only thing I knew how to and that was to ignore you.'

Darren looked at Chris sternly and said: 'what happened to you to distrust men so much?'

'Darren, you know I was attacked well I was attacked because I'm gay' Chris said plainly 'I used to hide it, I used to never want to admit it to anyone but a month here does wonders to your self-esteem. But back in Clovis I was tortured for being gay and I hadn't even told anyone. I was thrown into bins and verbally tormented in High School but it got worse when I left, the bullies no longer had teachers to watch them. That's when the abuse began. I was punched in the face at my work, I was kicked in the shins at my sister's netball game and then that night I was attacked and beaten until I was on my death bed, if they had continued doing that I would have died but thankfully they stopped.'

Darren looked at Chris, aghast that people would do that just because someone was gay.

'Well I'm glad you left' Darren said quietly, not really sure what else he should say after someone tells you something like that.

'Me too, it hurts being away from my family but they are the ones who pushed me here in the first place.'

'What?' Darren asked.

'Yeah the day I sent you that text telling you I was leaving. Well my parents and Hannah had a little surprise for me. Instead of heading back to Clovis we went downtown to around here and stopped outside this brick building. They then told me that it was mine and my uncle had brought down all the spare furniture from our house, including all the things from my bedroom. They left me there and I'm glad they did. The next day I came here and got this job, been working here nearly every day this month, I have weekends off though which is good because I really hate drunks…' Chris said letting the sentence hang in the air.

Darren stared at Chris for a minute before saying 'if you hate drunks, why do you work at a bar?'

They both looked at each other for a moment before bursting into laughter, making the people in the room look over at them.

'Well it's just a few minutes' walk from my house and it pays well; I've already paid my next two rents' Chris said through his laughter.

Darren stared at the angelic man laughing opposite him and smiled calmly to himself. Chris Colfer was like no other person Darren had met, that he was sure of because of the way he acted when Chris never contacted him. He knew now for certain that Chris was going to be in his life for a long time.

'So do you think that we will see each other again?' Chris asked after an hour of chit-chat between the pair.

'I hope so, and Chris please don't stand me up again' Darren joked while he gathered his things, preparing to go back home to his family and talk to them as usual again.

'I promise you Darren Criss, I won't ever stand you up again.'

The two men looked into each other's eyes for a moment before Darren left the warm bar and out into the cold San Francisco night, he was happy again.