"You good for nothing fat fuck, just do your job!" Phil, my boss, bellowed in my face. "Maybe if you spent less time eating, you'd be better at it!" It can't have been legal to yell at your staff like that, but there wasn't much I could do about it at that point in time.

I was fighting tears; he'd just rejected the report I'd written him, and had been hounding me for over an hour about finishing another. His latest slew of insults happened to hit a little too close to home, and my childish response to it was wanting to cry.

"You disgust me," he spat. "Get out of my sight, you filthy creature. I don't want to see your face for the rest of the day."

Too hurt to argue anymore, I shoved my stuff back into my bag and made for the door, forcing myself to walk instead of run out of the godforsaken building.

"That's right, just waddle away from your responsibilities," he mocked, calling after me.

I broke down in the elevator, trying to keep from losing it completely as I grabbed at my phone. It rang only a few times before he picked up. "I hate him- I-I hate him, Eleazar!" I whined as he said hello.

He groaned, frustrated. It wasn't exactly an unusual occurrence for him to have to listen to me bitch about my boss. "What happened now? Are you alright?"

"D-do you…can we have dinner together t-tonight?" I pleaded, fighting back another wave of tears. As much as I hated it, it was usually easy to convince my brother to go out with me if food was involved, so I had to make do.

"I'm out of town for the week, Garrett," he sighed, blowing out a breath. "Sorry…"

"T-that's okay…" I sniffed, lying as I tried to wipe my face dry with my sleeve. I vaguely remembered him telling me that.

"If you're really desperate for company, Carmen's sister is baby-sitting our house and I'm sure she'd grab something to eat with you," he offered sympathetically. I winced a little, sorry for putting him in that position.

"N-no…I'm sure I'll live…"

"I have to go now, but I love you, Garrett. You call me if you need to talk, okay?"

"Thanks, Eleazar…I love you too…" Swallowing the lump in my throat, I hung up and shoved my phone into my pocket. Stepping out of the elevator, I contemplated what I would do now; I wasn't in the mood for lunch anyway, but a coffee sounded good.

I was right; the bitter liquid did help me to feel a little better and helped to ease the tension in my shoulders. It wasn't that big of a deal; Phil insulted everyone all the time. He picked everyone's flaws. Sure, I'd fucked up and he'd picked on me today, but maybe he wouldn't tomorrow. Besides, I could just go home and sleep now, anyway.

But of course it had to start pouring with fucking rain. Great. Just great. So much for the hot drink; I was freezing within seconds. Instantly I was just as upset about Phil as I was before; the weather was just as much as a jerk as he was. Perfect.

In my pissed off and already uncoordinated state, I tripped over the edge of the pavement, leaning hard on my hands and knees. My eyes burnt with tears but I forced them back. I wasn't about to cry over nothing for the second time that day. It didn't make me want to get up anymore, though.

"Garrett! Are you okay?"

I recognised the voice but couldn't place it. It wasn't like I had anyone other my brother that would be too concerned about me sitting on the path anyway. I prayed it wasn't someone who I worked with – they'd already know about the drama with my boss.

It was worse than that, though. Of course it was the boy I'd convinced myself I was in love with. It was just my luck I'd managed to slip outside of the bookshop. "Hey, are you alright?" Carlisle crouched in front of me suddenly, his hand on my back.

"…yeah…" I mumbled, gingerly sitting up. My hands were bleeding, but there was no major damage. "I'm okay…"

He laughed quietly, helping me up. "They need to fix their path then." For once I didn't mind a little gentle teasing.

"…Or maybe I should just be less clumsy…"

He rolled his eyes at me. "Will you let me fix your hands?" He was holding my wrists, running his thumb over the back of my hand.

I nodded dumbly, not about to pass up an opportunity to be around him, even in my sorry state.

He led me back indoors and into one of the back rooms, turning on the heater in the process. "Come here." With a bowl of warm water, he carefully washed away the blood and washed out the scratches, wrapping a thin bandage from the shop's first aid kit around them immediately afterwards.

While we both dried out, I sat at the counter against the heater with him, watching him as he served the few customers that came in. The rest of the time we just talked. And I found myself liking him more and more with each second that passed.

Eventually he tired of standing, jumping up to sit on the edge of the desk, meaning he was facing me. "You okay? You seem a little…off."

I almost lied about it, but the genuine concern reflected in his expression steered me toward the truth. "I just…I had a bit of a rough day," I admitted quietly. At his prompt to explain, I hesitantly gave in. "…My boss is a dickhead…it's not like he's mean to me especially though, he yells at everyone…I guess I just took it a little more personally than usual….Usually I go crying to my brother, but he's out of town…" I forced a smile, trying to make a joke out of it.

"You have a brother?" He seemed honestly interested, so I let him have the tiny insight into my life, secretly hoping he might do that same for me.

"Yeah; Eleazar…We normally have dinner together when I turn into a whiney little brat."

He laughed quietly, but his smile faded a little. "I could…you could have dinner with me…if you wanted?"

I agreed embarrassingly quickly, despite the knot of anxiety that bunched in my stomach. "As long as I'm not, um, going to…I don't want to upset anything you had planned…" There was no way in hell this boy was single; I wasn't sure what I was getting myself all flustered for.

"The worst you're going to get is my flatmate."

'Flatmate'. Yeah right. "O-okay…"

And that was how I ended up standing next to Carlisle as he dug his key out of his pocket. We'd just had pizza in the bookshop staffroom, and somehow I'd managed actually get something down my throat without it hurting too much. I was fully convinced that this boy was the cutest person I'd ever met; he was somehow adorably shy despite being seemingly confident when he talked to me. He put me at ease, and despite him being practically a stranger, I trusted him.

In reality, it was rather stupid for both us to agree to me going back with him; I could have a gun under my coat for all he knew, and he could have a torture chamber in his basement…not that I could picture for a second Carlisle ever doing anything bad to anyone.

The other guy didn't even look up as we came in, although I was sure he could hear my heart pummelling away in my chest. I felt like I was going to vomit.

Still, the flat was cute. Warm and tidy and far more 'homely' than mine own was. My apartment looked more like an industrial box than a house compared to this.

Carlisle didn't seem to think twice about my being here. "Hey, Alistair."

"You're late," he accused, almost parental. Boyfriend? Shit.

"I guess? Have you eaten?"

"Um, yes." He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I'm not waiting for some kid that insists on coming home two hours later that he was expected."

He just laughed at his comment. "This is Garrett, by the way."

Alistair glanced back at me, definitely unimpressed about my presence. "Great."

"He's always like this," he told me, rolling his eyes. "Just ignore him."

I gave him a nervous smile and a few awkward seconds passed, but soon I found myself sitting across from Carlisle at their kitchen table, a mug full of hot chocolate in my hands. Alistair – who I now convinced he was dating – hadn't spoken to me again, and I kind of preferred it that way.

"Are you working tomorrow?" he asked after a while.

I nodded slowly, completely dreading it. I watched him as he traced the grain of the wood on the table with his finger, keeping his head down. His hair had fallen across his face, partly hiding his expression from me, and it gave me the perfect excuse to stare at him. "Yeah…"

He cautiously reached across the table to touch my hand. "Surely your boss can't treat you like that…"

"It doesn't matter, Carlisle," I sighed. "Yeah, I mean, he's an asshole, but it's still a job. It's not always that bad."

"Come see me again if you have another shitty day?" he asked quietly, squeezing my fingers gently before drawing his hand back.

I couldn't resist a smile. "Okay."