The Fall of the Aftons

107: Michael Afton

Michael scrambled from table to table, taking orders, serving dishes, giving checks, cleaning tables, and giving tips to Henry. The weekend's rush hours were always difficult at Fazbear's, but today was especially bad. The buckle on Michael's fake leg broke earlier that morning, which meant that the stupid hunk of metal wouldn't stop shifting and falling out of place. He couldn't stop falling! Thank goodness that he'd only dropped one plate of food and three drinks so far.

"Yo, Michael!" Simon whisper-shouted, coming up from behind him. "What's going on with you today? If you keep falling, you're gonna get in trouble with Mister Henry!"

Usually, Henry worked at Fazbear's while William worked at Fredbear's. The only reason both of them worked at the same one was if the other was closed for animatronic repairs or if some kind of emergency--for example, Michael's incident with Foxy the past year--occurred. 

Michael laughed nervously. "No, he'll understand. I'll be fine. I promise." He grabbed a check for one table and shoved it in his uniform's half apron before grabbing a tray with a different table's dishes. "Don't worry about me. Everything will be fine." But, as he walked off, his leg shifted suddenly and he fell face-first into the food he was carrying.

Make that seven plates of food.

"Oh, jeez, Michael, are you okay?" Simon asked, trying to help Michael back up onto his feet.

"Let me go, go do your work," Michael told his friend as he pulled his arm away. "I'll be fine. Don't worry about me."

Simon hesitated. "If you say so. I'll chat with you later, 'kay?"

Michael waved him off as he sat up, wiping the gunk off of his face. A few minutes later, he was in the bathroom, trying to wipe all of the food off of his face. Once he was done, he went into one of the stalls and fumbled with his prosthetic, trying to shove it into a position where it wouldn't move. At first, it had worked. But, throughout the day, his attempts to fix the problem only made it worse.

As soon as the restaurant closed that evening, Michael hobbled into Henry's office and flopped onto the floor with a soft thud before he pulled off his shoe. He yanked his fake leg off of the remaining stump of his real leg, then tossed it in front of him. It landed on the carpet about a yard away from him with a muted thud. Henry--who had been sitting at his desk when Michael stormed in--watched, laughing when Michael crossed his arms over his chest like a pouting toddler.

"Would you like your crutches so you can help with clean-up and prep?" Henry asked, soft laughter filling his voice.

"Yes, please," Michael grumbled.

Laughing to himself, Henry left the room. In a few minutes, he returned with the pair of crutches he kept in the janitorial closet.

"Thank you," Michael mumbled as Henry handed him his crutches. It took a minute, but he stood up and exited the room. He made a stop at the janitorial closet and took out the table cleaning supplies, then made his way to the dining area.

He cleaned for about half an hour, getting through half of his cleaning round before Henry came up behind him.

"What's going on, kid? You've been acting weird all day today."

"Nothing. Today has been stressful, is all."

Henry laughed. "Ain't that the truth." He ruffled Michael's hair before he took a seat at the table Michael was cleaning. "Would you like to come home with me? That way you can make any repairs to your leg that you may need."

"Yes, that would be great. Thank you."

He chuckled. "It's no problem. Now, what else is bugging you? I'm sure that today being stressful isn't the biggest thing on your mind. So what's up?"

Michael's hands stopped working on his cleaning. He set the rag down and adjusted his crutches, staring off into the distance. "Why... Why is being homosexual such a bad thing?" he asked quietly, turning to face his father's friend. "I don't understand it. There's nothing wrong with homosexuality, but people act like it's the end of the world when a boy likes another boy."

Henry sighed. "Honestly? I don't know. I haven't got a clue. People, they... People just think that it's bad, I guess. That you'll go to Hell or something. I don't know why, but that's what they think."

"You don't think that, do you?"

He laughed. "No, no, heck no! I'm perfectly fine with homosexuals. As is your father." He chuckled, then sighed. "Frankly, I've fallen for both girls and boys before." He laughed again, dragging his hands down his face as his face reddened. "I... I actually had a crush on your father throughout high school. To this day, it still surprises me that he never found out."

Michael sat down in one of the chairs at the table, sitting across from Henry. "Woah, really?"

"Yes, really," Henry answered, laughter filling his words. "It was the biggest crush I'd ever had on someone before. Heck, if he got too close to me, my face would get so hot that I thought my head was going to explode."

Michael burst out into laughter. "Wow, that's crazy."

Henry chuckled. "Tell me about it." He laughed a little bit before he sighed. He studied Michael for a moment with a slight smile. "Why do you ask?"