Chapter Eleven

Mac was too scared to leave the house all weekend. The good buzz that had been about them that morning had disappeared till it almost seemed like it had never happened, but it did… because Ron knew that Mac had had sex with Bloo.

Mac wasn't prepared at all to go back to work on Monday but he had to. Bloo gave him an unusually affectionate peck on the cheek before he left. As soon as Mac had walked through those doors, he knew that all eyes were on him.

Coworkers whispered to each other and just plain stared with bugged out eyes. Nobody gave friendly smiles. Nobody said anything to him. That was how Mac knew. He had been targeted, and now was going to be shunned.

Mac went to his desk and prayed to the heavens that a boss didn't approach him and fire him or a coworker harassed him. Ron refused to look at him, but when Mac looked at him, Ron would cast back ugly glares.

Well this isn't so bad, Mac thought with a heavy sigh as he leaned back in his office chair. I mean, being shunned isn't as bad as I thought it would be. Everybody seems to be leaving me alone…

And that was where Mac was wrong. He left for the break room to eat lunch, and when he returned, post it notes with words scribbled in red ink were stuck to his computer monitor.

Mac surveyed the room and saw that people were watching him. He walked over and peeled one off and read it.

DIGUSTING FRIEND FAG.

Mac swallowed hard, feeling suddenly emotional. He crumpled up the post it notes, refusing to read the others, and tossed them in the wastebasket by his desk. He busied himself with phone calls, emails, paperwork and leafing through files and was too scared to leave the desk at the end of the day.

He got up to leave at the end of the day, and then he heard the whispers. Louder.

"Disgusting."

"Disgraceful… I can't believe it though. That kid?"

"Shouldn't somebody report this?"

Mac scurried out of his workplace and then picked up his pace for the walk home. He was certain that somebody was going to be following him. This was of course, just the beginning.

For the next week, Mac found more and more post it notes, and anonymous emails, and was treated nastily by his coworkers. Him and Bloo were lying in bed one night and they found an egg smashed against their bedroom window. Bloo had cleaned it off, and when he went to wash his hands, he could see the pure terror that was in Mac's eyes.

As the next couple of weeks wore on, it gradually got worse. They started receiving phone calls. Mac caught a couple of his coworkers stalking him at one point, as if they wanted to see if it was true. His bosses were now growing increasingly concerned, and they often passed by his desk. Sometimes they chatted with him, but mainly they just watched him. Mac was starting to think that he was some sort of science experiment.

While it seemed like him and Bloo were being constantly watched, there seemed to be one night in particular that Mac noticed another presence lingering around somewhere relatively close by.

"Mac, don't worry about it. Sit down." Bloo sighed in aggravation as Mac wandered over to the window and pulled back the blinds for the fifth time that night.

"Did I see a flash over there?"

"Where?" Bloo got to his feet and shuffled over.

Mac stepped aside and Bloo peered out. He looked across the street to where the park was. In the bushes and trees, he could see nothing. Then again, it was around ten o clock at night, so of course he couldn't.

"Let's just go to bed. I don't have a good feeling about this." Mac drew the blinds and retreated into their bedroom.

Bloo rolled his eyes and flicked off the television. Mac walked back out of their bedroom and then rushed around, drawing all of the blinds and locking all the windows and dead bolting the door.

"Really?"

Mac arched a brow at Bloo and shook his head, now changing into his pajamas.

"Why don't you just get a new job?"

"In this economy?" Mac snorted. "Yeah, good luck with that."

"You made the Dean's list, like, three times or whatever."

"Twice," Mac corrected him. "And it doesn't matter. A recession is a recession, Bloo."

Mac huddled close to Bloo that night, his heart beating irregularly fast. He knew something was coming, he could feel it.

"We've got nothing to worry about, Mac," Bloo told him. "It's just you being all jumpy."

The next morning, however, Mac proved to be right.

"BLOO!" his shrill scream rattled the walls of the apartment and Bloo yelped, falling out of bed.

He tried to unwrap the covers that had been wound tightly around his body as Mac entered the room, holding the newspaper.

"There's a front page story. About us."

"What the hell…?" Bloo mumbled, grabbing the paper from Mac. "Let me see that."

It was certainly a front page story, but it wasn't a major story—just one placed off to the right as a side column. Bloo quickly read through the article, skimming over it. He couldn't find any of their names mentioned, but it did include descriptions about them. They were mentioned in one paragraph, and for the rest of the article, it talked about the possibilities of other friends, the logistics and the legalities, etcetera…

"Bloo, we're screwed. We're screwed." Mac looked like he had eaten some sugar—his eyes were crazed, his hair was all ruffled and his skin was deathly pale. "That's about us! Everyone at Foster's is going to know that's us!"

Bloo's mouth set in a grim line and he set the paper down on the bed.

"What do we do?"

"I don't know." Bloo shrugged.

Mac's shoulders slumped forward. He sighed heavily.

"I'm going to work, Bloo."

Bloo sat there the whole entire time, pondering things and for once speechless, while Mac got ready for work and left.