Chapter Six –Bad news.

"Emil, are you gonna come and watch me practice later?"

Lì Xiào, or Leon as he was nicknamed, said as he caught up with Emil in the corridor and slid his heavy gym bag containing his soccer kit and cleats further up his shoulder. He was Emil's best friend, and the pair confided everything and anything with each other and had been friends since grade school. When Leon first enrolled as a student in Emil's class, when he was around 6 or 7, his English skills were practically non-existent, and instead he chattered away to his confused classmates in Cantonese for at least the first few weeks. Despite this, he still insisted on trying to play with Emil every day with use of broken English and the peace offering of letting him have the best toy car in the whole toy box during recess. After those few weeks, the pair grew inseparable and slowly but surely, after much perseverance on Emil's part, Leon's skills and confidence in English grew. Now, Leon was an A grade student in English Language & Literature and was considering taking it as a major once he left school for college. Emil however was completely undecided on what is college major would be, despite his longing to finally be free from high school.

Emil swatted Leon away as he swung his arm around his neck, making it difficult for him to walk down the school corridor. "Yawn. No thanks. It's too cold to be sat outside on a wooden bench watching you run around on a muddy field." He said, and Leon thumped him on the shoulder at his response.

"Fine, suit yourself. What are you gonna do in your free period then?" Leon chided. "You can't live in the library forever like a little hermit lost in your little Emil world."

As much as he didn't want to hear it, Emil knew that Leon was right. Compared to his best friend who was on the soccer team, the swim team, and a member of the English lit club, Emil didn't really have any hobbies or interests. Or at least interests that he wanted to share anyway. He liked to sing in the shower and dance around his room when he was home alone, but he could never bring himself to even think about joining any performing arts clubs. He'd tried to get into lacrosse but hated how competitive his team mates got and quit after one season, and he was not overly strong in any of his subjects like Leon was in English, and had average grades throughout all of his classes.

Leon picked up on Emil's reluctance to answer his question he changed the subject.

"If you wanna talk about something else, let's talk about that gig in a few weeks?" Excitedly, Leon rubbed his hands together and did a small dance on the spot.

Thankful for the change in conversation, Emil pushed his self-doubts to the back of his mind. "I keep asking Lukas if we can go, but he refuses to drive us there. You know what he's like about driving through the city in the daytime, there's no way he'll do it at midnight to come and pick us up. If only Tino could drive…"

Sighing, Emil stuffed his hands into his pockets and looked down at his feet as he turned to enter a classroom. He and Leon had been looking forward to a concert that was happening in town for months. When they had finally saved up enough money to buy the tickets they were let down by Lukas's refusal to drive them there. With public transport not running past 11pm, they would have no way to get home, and sadly, Lukas was the only person that the boys knew with a car. As annoying as it was, they should have known better to expect Lukas to be okay with their plan.

"Your Aunt Tino wouldn't just drive us there, he'd, like, come with us or something! He's cool, but it would be so embarrassing."

Emil looked at Leon and they both laughed, knowing exactly what the other was thinking. Even though it was highly likely that Tino would attend a rock concert, it was easy to imagine him making a complete fool of himself by getting way too over-excited.

"How's he doing at his new job by the way? It's been a week or so since he started, right?" Leon asked.

Removing his satchel from his shoulder and tossing it under his desk, Emil flopped down into his seat. They were a few minutes early for class and so Leon perched himself on the edge of Emil's desk.

"Yeah, he did, and I dunno really," he paused for a moment to refuse some gum that Leon offered him, "He hasn't spoken that much about it. I didn't see him this morning either, he'd already left before Lukas and I got up, it was really weird. I thought he'd be a bit more excited about it than he is; it's his dream job."

Emil finished with a shrug and Leon just sat quietly, swinging his legs and chewing rather messily on his gum. Emil watched him in silence, waiting for him to say something, but he didn't say anything and instead seemed to be just staring into space. After a few moments, without taking his eyes from the blank classroom wall he was staring at, Leon muttered under his breath, "What's your dream job, Em? Where are you gonna go when this last year is over?"

It was then did he look over to Emil, an oddly wistful look in his usually mischievous eyes. Emil just stared back, a little surprised at how sincere his friend was about such a question. His eyes darted around the room for a moment and he swallowed thickly.

"I, uh… well, I don't know. I keep trying not to think about it, it's sort of scary. We're gonna go our separate ways and become adults without each other."

Leon grinned and jumped down from off the desk, looking outraged at the idea of he and Emil growing apart.

"Not a chance, we'll grow old together, you and me."

Playfully, Emil stuck his foot out from under the desk and kicked Leon in the shin.

"You make it sound like you plan to marry me and take me away with you wherever it is that you plan on going when we graduate."

Leon's hair fell across his face as he looked down at the ground for a moment, hooking his thumb in the belt loop on his school trousers and leaning his weight onto his right leg. Then he shook his head and looked back up again, "Nah, I'm saving myself for Daenerys Targaryen. Sorry Em." In return for his small kick to the shin, when passing to go over to his own desk, Leon smacked Emil across the back of the head. Just before Leon was out of reach, Emil grabbed him by the arm as he passed and looked him dead in the eye.

"Leon, she's dead. Carried off by her own dragon, so good luck with that." He tried to stay serious and keep a straight face, but when Leon cracked into a smile Emil relaxed again, not liking seeing this solemnness in his usually carefree friend. "Come stay over at my house this weekend? It's been ages since you came over. Plus it's take-out night."

"Sure! I'll bring some video games?" Leon grinned and flipped his air out of his eyes with a jerk of his head.

"Duh." Came Emil's response with the slightest roll of his eyes.

Emil watched Leon as he sat down, a small smile on his lips, but once he turned to face the front of the class, his face out of Leon's sight, it soon slipped away. All this talk of exams, graduation and the future, made Emil feel anxious and upset and just want to slip under his desk, curl up into a ball and never come out. So many people kept talking about how 80% of high school friendships never last once you graduate, and the thought of slowly losing all of his friends played on his mind.

Lukas's hand was frozen in place, hovering over his mobile phone that began to flash and vibrate loudly on the counter, staring at the screen which read "Incoming call: Mathias".

The bookshop was completely empty and so he had no reason not to answer other than that his gut was telling him not to. He watched as the phone continued to ring and stared at the blank background under Mathias's name. When Tino or Emil called, their faces lit up on the screen from the pictures of them that Lukas had set to their caller ID. Now, it was empty; a stranger was calling.

There was something about the whole situation that just didn't seem right. A stranger is all that Mathias was, and it seemed a little odd for him to show so much enthusiasm in Lukas, who was also a complete stranger. Not to mention the fact that it was a very bold move on Mathias's part! Although society was getting better year after year with its tolerance to the idea of same sex relationships, it was still very odd for someone to be so open about their sexuality, let alone to assume what someone else's was and for a male to flirt so openly with another.

Lukas didn't have much dating experience, it was always Tino bringing people back to their shared room in college, and Lukas had only ever been with women. Dating nowadays isn't what it used to be where most people hooked up in bars, café's at some form of education establishment, or through friends of friends. Now it was all dating sites and social media which added to Lukas's suspicions even more. His path had never crossed with Mathias's, and they were barely even acquaintances. The more he thought about it, Lukas decided that this was bound to be a prank of some kind. Mathias was probably sat with a bunch of his friends laughing and waiting for him to pick up the phone. Tapping his finger on the screen of his phone, Lukas dismissed the call and sent it to voicemail then slid it away across the counter as far away from him as possible.

Deciding to take his mind off his strange admirer, Lukas rolled up his sleeves, picked up his roll of price tags and notebook and headed towards the non-fiction section of his store to do some inventory. The store was completely dead and so Lukas didn't have to worry about getting in the way of customers while doing the inventory. Sadly, over the last few years Lukas's bookshop business hadn't been doing so well. He blamed it on the introduction of the kindle and the opening of the new bookstore in the shopping centre that was part of a large company chain. He began to bite anxiously on his bottom lip as he thought about this, noticing the thin layer of dust that had begun to settle on the shelves. He would soon be nearing bankruptcy if the shop didn't pick up business again soon, he would be forced to close the shop and take a job as a cleaner or grocery store checkout operator; and neither of those appealed to him in the slightest.

As he took the first book from the shelf, his phone began to ring again. Closing his eyes for a moment and leaning his forehead against the bookshelf, Lukas sighed in frustration; what had he gotten himself into? Marching back over to his phone, he snatched up from the front desk and glanced once again at the screen, getting ready to answer and promptly tell Mathias to leave him alone, though this time his heart seemed to skip a beat when he caught sight of the caller ID to see that it wasn't Mathias calling.

Once again, the screen was blank, empty, with no face smiling at him, but this time it read 'Dad'.

"Mish, you'll never guess who I just saw down in the lobby!"

Matthew came hurrying down the small corridor from the elevators that lead to the front desk. He had just arrived at work and was struggling to get his arms out of his jacket as he approached Michelle, glasses slightly askew and his ear buds still in his ears.

"Honey, you're shouting."

Michelle motioned to Matthew to take his ear buds out by pointing at her own ears.

Sheepishly, he took out his earbuds, wrapped them around his iPod and put it away into his trouser pocket, cheeks getting pinker by the second.

The relationship between Matthew and Michelle was deemed uncanny by many of their colleagues, but the two were like peas in a pod. Their interests were completely different, not to mention their personalities, but in the long run those differences gave them so much more to talk about with each other and sometimes introduced them to an unknown similar interest. For a seemingly shy and quiet young man, Matthew was pretty open and talkative when around his close friends.

"Sorry, but I couldn't believe it. Go on, try and guess."

Walking around the reception desk, Matthew seated himself in one of the vacant chairs, sitting right on its edge with one leg crossed over the other, looking at Michelle expectantly.

Cupping her chin in her hand, Michelle hummed to herself a little over-enthusiastically for a few moments.

"Oh I don't know, Kim Kardashian? The Queen of England?" She said, coyly.

Matthews's excited expression pretty much melted from his face into one of annoyance.

"…No."

"Okay, sorry," Michelle laughed, "Go on, who was it?"

"Lucille Marcon!"

Excitedly, Matthew clung to Michelle's arm and waited for her reaction. Much to his dismay, it was just a raised eyebrow and a look of confusion.

He sighed and began to explain to Michelle who Lucille Marcon was. She was a French bestselling author who wrote popular fantasy novels. A few of them had been made into movies, She was quite famous as a result, and Icon were doing a feature on her.

While they were talking, Tino approached the front desk and dropped a stack of letters into the outbox. As he thumbed through the inbox looking for anything address to Francis, he couldn't help but overhear Matthew and Michelle.

"Are you talking about the shoot that's coming up in a few weeks for that writer?" he asked

Matthew spun around in his chair and Tino leaned on the desk.

"Yes! Do you read her work?" Matthew said.

Tino shook his head, "No, but I think my friend does. He owns a bookstore and sells a lot of her novels. I think he actually has a small section dedicated to her work. He'll be so jealous when I tell him that you saw her-"

"I'm sorry to interrupt your little nerd session, but Tino, you should get to work. Your phone is ringing…"

Michelle casually leaned across the front desk and gave Tino a small shove away from the desk, lips pursed and a cold, blank expression on her face. Ever since the day that Tino first met her and she seemed pissed off at him for getting his job while having no previous experience, she had been rather closed off towards him, almost like she was jealous. Tino couldn't even begin to imagine why, but it made him feel extremely guilty. Nonetheless, he was proud of his job and his position, and as much as he felt bad he wouldn't be put off by a silly, jealous girl. He was feeling a little better about himself after his talk with Christina the day before, and didn't want to feel inferior to not only Francis but Michelle as well.

Tino sighed wistfully, smiled and fluttered his eyelashes at her, leaning back onto the counter. "You're right. It's probably yet another important call for me to deal with."

Deciding to bite back at Michelle's attitude toward him, he added a little salt into her wound with that comment, hoping to stir some kind of reaction. If she wanted to play as a brat, then two could play at that game. Sure, it was a little childish, but she started it.

Turning swiftly on his heel, Tino turned his back to Michelle and Matthew and made his way over to his desk. Matthew looked rather stunned and watched as Michelle angrily shook her head and muttered.

"I really don't like him. Who does he think he is? If anyone knows Francis better than me in this entire building then I'll…" she paused, "I don't know, dye my hair green or something. That position should've been mine."

Sitting down at his desk, Tino took a deep breath and cleared his throat before reaching for the office phone. He straightened up, put the receiver to his ear, and in his best 'phone voice' said: "Good morning, you've reached ICON Magazine, Francis's office, Tino speaking. How can I help?"

The proud feeling that began to well in Tino's stomach at that very professionally executed greeting began to quickly turn into what felt like a rock being thrown into his gut when the person on the other end of the line began to speak.

"I'd like to speak with Francis directly. It's typical of him to have his little servant's do all of his dirty work for him, huh?"

The woman's voice was beginning to crack as she angrily spoke down the phone to Tino.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am, but Mr Bonnefoy is busy discussing something in his office with a client. Is there no way that I can help you today? I could pass a message on to him if you'd like?" he said, beginning to anticipate where this call might be heading and fiddled with a stray paper clip on the desk, trying his best to remain professional.

The woman sighed and was silent for what felt like at least half a minute. Tino could hear her shuffling around and sniffling on the other end of the receiver. Patiently, he waited for her to speak again, and when she did, it was quite obvious that she was crying.

"He isn't answering my calls or texts so I didn't know what else to do. I know that this is his office number and I shouldn't have called, but I was just so mad."

"Is everything alright?"

Up until now, every call that Tino had dealt with was either from within the company, such as one of the designers trying to reach Francis to discuss something, or a call from advertising companies, suppliers or other things to do with the running and publishing of ICON. Obviously, this woman was calling for a much more personal matter, and so Tino decided that he could lower the professionalism just a little.

"If you'd rather leave a message or call back at a different time I would be happy to arrange that, but may I ask what the reason that you're calling is? You're obviously very upset and distressed and I'd like to help."

The woman laughed. "How Francis has someone so nice working for him is beyond me. Well, my name is Grace and I was dating Francis for a few months. An hour ago I saw an article in Glamour Magazine with a picture of Francis on a date with one of the featured fashion designers! I mean, I guess it could've just been for publicity, but he should've told me first…"

As sad as it was, Tino knew very well that it probably wasn't just a publicity stunt, and in just the two weeks that he had worked for ICON he had sent flowers and gifts to several girls upon Francis's request. Grace was probably just one of many. Glancing over at Francis's office just opposite where Tino was sitting, he could see that he was laughing and joking and clearly flirting with two models.

One thing that Tino couldn't stand was people being unfaithful to their partners. There was nothing wrong with wanting to try new things with several different people, but don't commit to someone in particular seriously while doing it! He'd had his fair share of people cheating on him and even experienced this only too recently before Marcus actually broke up with him, so knew exactly how Grace must be feeling. He couldn't imagine it being any easier either, especially as she discovered she was being cheated on while flipping through the pages of a magazine that was read worldwide.

Tino's mind was now buzzing with anger, as he also knew what it felt like to be humiliated by Francis. Tossing the paper clip that was in his hand to the ground, Tino decided that Francis needed a taste of his own medicine.

"Alright, Grace. I think I can help you here. As much as it pains me to say this, you aren't the first person to feel humiliated and hurt by Francis. I'm in no position to tell you what to do and who to date, but I know for a fact that Francis isn't worth your time and doesn't deserve you. And you're going to tell him that. If you'd please hold the line for a few moments, I will transfer you to Francis. Thank you for calling ICON."

Without so much as a second thought, Tino pressed a button on the office phone and sent Grace through to Francis's office before standing up and marching straight towards the office door. Francis mustn't have seen him coming as he just carried on his conversation. Through the glass walls of his office, Tino watched as Francis laughed and joked around with the two models that he was supposed to be discussing important details with about a very expensive photo shoot. Instead he was simply lounging in his office chair and chatting away as if he were in a coffee shop. Pushing his hair back behind his ear and straightening his tie, Tino pushed the door open and walked right in, stopping in the doorway.

"Francis, your girlfriend is on line one. She needs to speak with you."

The two girls stopped talking and turned around in confusion, one looking slightly outraged and embarrassed with the mention of Francis having a girlfriend. The man in question was sat behind his desk with his mouth hung open slightly looking very much like a deer caught in headlights. Stuttering an apology, Francis fumbled to pick up the phone on his desk and ushered for the two models to leave the room; all while glaring at Tino who still stood in the doorway, an innocent smile on his face. Satisfied with the reaction, Tino turned to exit the room and took a seat back at his desk and leave Francis to receive an earful of what he damn well deserved to hear from Grace.

"What are you looking all smug about?"

It was now just past 10 o'clock and Christina had just arrived back at her desk from a meeting. She was sat at her desk applying her lipstick in the reflection of her computer screen when Tino entered their little office area. Though applying it seemed to be very much in vain, as when she took a sip from her cup of coffee just moments later, the majority of it smudged all over the rim of the mug. Noticing it, she muttered to herself under her breath and tossed the lipstick back into her bag.

"Oh, nothing. I shouldn't have done it really, but someone had to."

Confused, Christina looked over at Tino, but before she could say anything more she was interrupted by the loud slam of the door to Francis's office. Instantly, Tino knew he was in trouble. As much as his stomach began to churn, he knew deep down that he did the right thing.

"Tino! That was very rude and unprofessional! I was in a meeting!"

Francis was now looming over him as he sat at his desk, but he refused to feel intimidated. He kept his cool and took his attention away from his computer screen, looking Francis in the eye.

"It didn't look like a meeting to me. If it was, then that wasn't very professional either."

"What wasn't professional?"

"Flirting with colleagues. Even more so when you have two potential girlfriends? Grace, and whoever that was you were seen on a date with in Glamour Magazine."

Growing frustrated with Tino's back-chat, Francis began to tap his foot in irritation and took a moment to calm down, looking past Tino and fixing his eyes on a blank wall.

"Tino. You're employed to deal with business and things related to the magazine, not to medal with my personal matters and humiliate me."

"Humiliate you!? In case you'd forgotten, just yesterday you tried to get me to quit my job from pure embarrassment, what happened just then was far from humiliation. And if you don't want me involved with your personal business then next time you want to send flowers and chocolate to your next one-night-stand then, don't ask me to do it!"

Taken aback by Tino's raised voice and last remark, Francis visibly stiffened.

Though he knew that he would just be digging himself into a deeper hole, Tino wasn't yet finished with what he had to say to Francis, and while he was already in trouble and couldn't possibly get any worse; it was now or never.

"The reason that I applied for a job within your publications is because you were my idol. I wanted to be just like you, successful with a brilliant career and an amazing company behind you. But now that I'm here and sat in front of you, I see that you're nothing more than a bully who steps all over people to get where he is. Now, I want to be nothing like you. You need to start treating people around you with more respect, or soon people will start to follow my example and see you for the nasty man that you really are. I don't care if this costs me my job, I don't want to be working with a man who looks down at me, or who calls me names behind my back."

By the end of his little speech, Tino was red in the face. Christina was frozen in place, staring at Tino from behind Francis and shaking her head in disbelief.

He already knew that he was more than fired, so Tino took the initiative and began to stand up and gather his things. Neither he nor Francis said a word as he fumbled to shove all of his belongings into his satchel and put it on over his shoulder. Once Tino had regained a little bit of composure, he turned to Francis once again and took a few steps towards him. Once he was stood up and in the centre of the office did he now notice that quite a crowd of onlookers had gathered, watching the whole scene.

As much as Tino had dreamed of getting a job like this, he hadn't ever dreamed of it actually turning out to be like it was. In reality, the fashion world was much more competitive and tainted than it was made out to be, and fashion wasn't really an ideal career choice for Tino. His head was spinning with anxiety and he began to wonder why he even wanted to become an editor in the first place. Not knowing what else to say, Tino waited for Francis to say something. When he still said nothing and an awkward silence hung thick in the air, Tino decided that it was best if he just left.

To his surprise, he didn't feel as sad as he thought he would when he turned to leave and faced the crowd of onlookers that had gathered from all parts of the office. Instead, he felt a little proud. Considering how Francis had made him feel the previous day, he almost felt that he had done his feelings justice. As much as he thought that he would like to pursue a career at ICON and go on to become an editor, now he wasn't so sure.

As he walked towards the elevators, he didn't dare catch anyone's eye for fear of any further embarrassment or argument, it would be better to leave without breathing another word. Sure, it might not be the post polite way to quit, and he would of course miss some of the people he had come to know over the past few weeks, such as Christina, Elizabeta, Eduard and Berwald, but right now he needed to go home to his friends - his family, and mull everything over before he did anything stupid. Keeping his gaze firmly to the ground Tino tried not to listen to the whispers as he passed group after group of people and eventually found his way to the elevators. The wait for the doors to open after pressing the button was excruciating, and currently Tino wanted nothing more than to run away from the publications and never look back.

Of course, he was probably over-reacting just a little, but with having no previous experience working for any sort of company or firm, he was just a baby in the eyes of his colleagues, and landing himself a position in a company of this size with such high demands and expectations was probably enough to make anyone uneasy and unsettled – and that was without the shit he had taken from his boss added into the mix. No, he was right to be re-considering whether he wanted this job or not, and would e-mail his resignation to Francis if it ended up coming to that. Besides, Michelle could now have the job that she apparently desired so much for god knows what reason. Why she was so desperate to work for Francis completely baffled Tino.

Finally, the elevator doors opened and Tino stepped inside. Instead of turning to face the doors and wait for them to close, he continued to stand with his back to the offices and pulled his mobile phone out of his pocket and began to compose a text message to Lukas informing him that he would be home early.

Francis, after watching Tino make his leave, began to usher everyone back to their work stations, still stood by Tino's desk, rubbing at his chin with his thumb a little exasperatedly.

"You need him more than you think, y'know."

Turning around, Francis found Christina stood with a look of utter disappointment upon her face and arms folded firmly across her chest. He chose not to even respond to her and instead retreated back to his office without a single word.

Upon arriving home, Tino was confused to find that the front door to Lukas's bookshop was firmly closed and locked with the 'closed' sign hung up. Only Lukas had the key to the ground floor of the building where the shop was, and so Tino would have to walk all the way around and use the back entrance. It wasn't like Lukas at all to be closed on a weekday. If he wasn't able to man the cash register for any reason, he still left the door unlocked and put a sign on the counter that he would be back in 10 minutes; he never closed up completely like this.

Sighing, Tino fished around in his satchel for his keys and began to walk around the back of the building. Their apartment was easiest to get to by walking through the shop and heading off into the back room where there was a flight of stairs leading to the balcony on the top floor and their official front door, and so the back entrance was rarely used. Tino hated the back of the store a lot. The back door was situated in an alleyway where all the garbage bins were kept for the whole row of shops and houses on the street. Luckily, Lukas's shop was right on the end on the corner, so Tino didn't have to wade through all of the garbage and mess that littered the path. Unlocking and heaving open the heavy door, Tino stepped inside and kicked off his shoes. Once inside he was greeted by the familiar little room to the very back of the shop where Lukas kept all of his extra stock, and the stairs that lead up to their home were just to the right of him. Piles and piles of book lined all four walls, as well as several card board boxes filled with little nick-knacks like pens, notebooks, cute little hand puppets and craft kits. As much as he didn't like to admit it, Lukas loved interacting with and entertaining children, and often held small craft afternoons in the kids section of his store once a week. Sadly though, as recent weeks went by, less and less children had been coming to the events as his regular customers were growing up now into teens, and no-one new seemed to be coming in. The puppets had a visible layer of thick dust on top of them, and the craft kits boxes were beginning to look a little dog-eared and worse for wear.

As he made his way upstairs, Tino called out to Lukas in case he was only up there to make some dinner for himself, or to grab something for the shop and left the front door open so that he could hear him coming home, but there was no response and when Tino reached the top of the stairs he found the front door closed and all of the blinds and curtains had been drawn. A knot began to form in Tino's stomach; Lukas was acting very strange.

Pushing down on the door handle, he found that the front door was locked too. Growing a little panicked and frustrated, Tino reached into his bag once again for his keys and fumbled to unlock the door.

"Lukas?"

Cracking the door open, Tino called out once again. The apartment was dark as all the lights were turned off apart from the one in the kitchen down the hall, and all the curtains were closed. Setting his bag and coat down on the hooks by the door, Tino wandered further into the apartment and began opening all of the curtains and flicking on the living room lamps to let some light into the… smoky room? Frowning at the unmistakable smell of tobacco and smoke, Tino marched into the kitchen area to find Lukas sat at the table, slumped in his chair with a mug of coffee in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

Lukas looked up, almost startled, when Tino walked into the room, sitting up abruptly and spilling coffee all over his lap.

"Shit." He muttered as he grabbed a napkin and began to try to mop it up. Putting his cigarette in his mouth to free his other hand, he began to stand up to get some more paper towels.

"What're you doin' back here so early? Where were you this mornin'?" Lukas mumbled, not making eye contact with Tino.

"I should be asking you the questions here! You're smoking?! You promised me that you'd given up!"

Tino yelled, snatching the ash tray from the table and thrusting it in Lukas's face, waving it under his nose as a signal to put his cigarette out.

With his head still lowered, Lukas looked up at Tino through his hair that had fallen over his face and sighed before taking his cigarette out of his mouth and stubbing it out in the ash tray.

"There, happy now?"

"Yes. Very."

Tossing the ash tray and discarded cigarette onto the kitchen table, Tino still stood in front of Lukas, brows furrowed and hands firmly on his hips. Lukas began to wiggle himself out of his coffee stained jeans and kicked them off, then straightened up and pushed his hair out of his face. Once his face was visible, it was clear that he had been crying. In all honesty, he looked a mess stood there in his shirt and underwear, red circles around his eyes surrounded by the thick smell of cigarette smoke. Tino relaxed his face and let his arms drop by his sides. Although he was mad at Lukas for smoking again and shutting himself away up here, clearly something was distressing him, and he had a reason for his actions. Motioning for Lukas to follow him into the living room, Tino flopped down onto the couch and Lukas gingerly took a seat next to him.

There was a long silence while Lukas just sat and stared at the floor, taking deep breaths and trying to calm himself down a little. Then, he turned to Tino and sighed.

"My dad is coming to stay with us for a while."