It had been over four weeks since Michael's agreement with Josh had begun and it was starting to take its toll on him. He was always tired and very often irritable, he spent less and less time with his friends, only going to Rays twice over the past weeks, he had even skipped out on work once. The others had noticed the change and were concerned but every time they'd ask he would brush the question off or change the subject.

Michael thought that them caring about him was a little annoying, for the reason that he couldn't tell them what was going on because if he did they'd probably try to convince him to tell his father himself and he wasn't going to do that.

"Michael, get down here!" Michael groaned, it was his dad's voice.

he ran downstairs and into the kitchen where his father was sitting at the table "We're having the Matthews over for dinner tonight so you're going to have to dress up ok, so no dirty t-shirts you know."

"The Matthews?, you mean Josh?" he said this hoping against hope that his dad knew another family of Matthews that he wasn't aware of.

"Of course that's who I mean don't be an idiot"

Michael nodded and left the room, trying not to show his dread. he grabbed his bag and went outside, he was under enough pressure and he didn't feel like socialising with a whole family of people he didn't like.

Josh pulled up and Michael got in the car.

"Here's your math homework, but i'm gonna need another night or two for that essay"

"Whatever, I'm looking forward to meeting your dad by the way"

"Don't get any Ideas, we have a deal, do I have to remind you every day?"

"You need some sleep you're cranky as fuck"

He sighed, there was no reasoning with an idiot.

Michael searched for his books in his locker, he couldn't seem to remember which class he had, though he knew he had checked multiple times.

"hey Michael"

"Hi Ray"

"What're you doing?"

"uhh, getting my books?"

"Why, we don't have classes today"

"What?" he was confused, he couldn't recall any information about this whatsoever

"We've got a talk today, about homophobia, remember"*

"No"

"how did you forget!, they've been reminding us for weeks about this shit"

Michael shrugged bewildered by his own stupidity "a lot on my mind I guess"

"alright well lets go get good seats"

Lindsay and Gavin joined them on their way there and ray told them the story of Michael forgetfulness, which Michael took no notice of.

they sat down Michael on the edge next to Gavin who talked to him non-stop despite Michael's lack of response or acknowledgement of what he was saying. he stopped only when the lights were darkened and a tall blonde woman walked onto stage, ready to give her day-long presentation. Michael was asleep before the projector was even turned on.

he was awoken at both lunches by Gavin who would shake him rather violently which annoyed Michael.

In the last leg of the seminar, unbeknownst to Michael, his head slid down the chair and onto Gavin's shoulder, Gavin blushed at the contact but didn't try to shift him or move him away, on the contrary he was glad of the contact and wished they could stay that way for longer .

This time when Gavin woke Michael up, instead of being annoyed he was embarrassed "Sorry, I didn't mean to..."He pointed at his shoulder"sorry"

Gavin laughed "It's fine"

Michael was dressed up in a shirt and pant's that his mom had laid out for him, he was sitting up straight but keeping his eyes on he table, trying his very best not to take part in the conversations that were going on.

he ignored most of what they said and ate silently, part of him wanted to argue with their statements as most of them were extremely offensive and just plain wrong, but he decided against that as this was his fathers boss after all.

"Josh's grade have been skyrocketing over the past few weeks" Josh's mother said

"Michael's have done the opposite" His mom said

"We had the most interesting seminar today dad" Josh said

"oh, what about"

"Gay's, but, I wanted to know your opinion"

"Well, son, as you know i'm a very religious man" Michael could tell that this wasn't going to be good " I think that it's wrong, sickening really"

Michael could feel josh's eyes on him, willing him to react.

Then his father spoke "I agree Jim, it's revolting" Michael gripped his fork his fist slowly turning white. "Did you know some states are legalizing their marriage"

"I heard, but they won't get Texas"

They laughed, Michael felt sick and what made it worse was Josh smiling at him.

"Could you imagine having a queer son, Jim?" josh's dad laughed again "Guess we lucked out huh" he patted Michael on the back.

He stood up abruptly, almost knocking his chair over " Can I be excused"

His dad gave him a look that said sit down but his mother gave him permission.

"Sorry about him, Jim, he seems to be a bit out of it lately"

Michael ran upstairs and grabbed a pillow off his bed which he screamed into, this was breaking point and he didn't know how to handle it, his emotions were running wild he didn't know what he felt, was it anger?, disgust?, disappointment?, sadness?, fear? it was all of them at once, everything he'd beaten down and hidden away was let loose.

He went into his bathroom and stared at himself in the mirror "Idiot " He said " you knew he'd never accept you" he glared at his mirrored self and raised his fist and slammed it into the glass. After a while he sighed and lowered his hand which was dripping in blood, he sat on his bed head in hands.

A few minutes later he heard his door open and josh entered, he was the last person Michael wanted to see right now.

"You enjoy that jones?" he had his signature asshole smile on.

"Get the hell out of my room, dick-bag"

"Calm your tits" His eyebrows creased "Holy shit what's up with your hand"

"Oh this" Michael raised his hand, a few small shards sticking out of his skin "Punched a mirror"

"Why the fuck did you punch a mirror?, You're gonna get blood everywhere"

"Thank you for caring"

Josh fished around in his pocket and retrieved a small white cloth, he offered it to Michael "here"

"Thanks" he held it to the scattering of cuts, the cloth soaked up the blood and quickly turned a shocking red.

Josh sat on Michael's bed, and coughed awkwardly before saying "You know you should take the leftover bits with tweezers before it heals or it's gonna get infected, it happened to me this one time when I got a wood splinter, it was there for like three weeks, I had to go to the hospital and-"

"No offence josh but I don't really give a shit"

He slapped his thighs and blew air through his mouth "Fair enough" he got up, walked over to the door put a hand in his pocket, took out a band aid and threw it at Michael "You're gonna need that"

*Yo, I don't know if they do these in america but they do in Ireland so...