The Breaking Wheel

Chapter 78: "Grinding Gears"

"So... are we not gonna talk about... it?" Carson was leaning against the door to the SCPs' room.

They'd claimed a mostly empty storage room for their own and slept here whenever they weren't scouting the facility. The 939 brothers had gathered together some of their childhood blankets into a makeshift nest on the floor, while Billy and John slept in a shelved cabinet, John in the upper one and Billy on the lower. Many an unfortunate staff member had been given quite the fright when opening the cabinet looking for supplies, only to find two SCPs dozing on the shelves. Eventually Billy had taped a sign to the door reading telling people that it was someone's room, not a storage unit.

"Talk about what?" John fiddled with a pencil.

"Molly and Lawrence are in love with each other and they're living together now," Billy began. "That means that they'll probably sleep in the same bed, one thing will lead to another, aaaaaaaaaand..." His voice trailed off.

"And what?"

Carson facepalmed. "You really don't get it, do you?"

"No."

"What he meant was that Molly and Lawrence might end up 'grinding gears', if you get my drift." Carson made air quotes with his hands at the "grinding gears" part.

John looked flabbergasted. "Come on, guys, they're more responsible than that! Don't people save that... stuff for after marriage?"

"Fifty years ago they did. Not anymore, though I am not saying that that's necessarily a good thing," Carson replied.

"No worries. When she was little, she would always say that she wouldn't... uhhhhhhhhh... 'do the deed' until marriage. So that's that," said Charlie. "And trust me, it's one of the things that I've tried to scrub out of my brain, but never can," he added quickly.

Simon winced. "Me too."