Untitled

Chapter Two

  Sebastien was wiping off the outside tables when a figure blocked his squinting eyes from the sun. He looked up, expecting Ben with bad news or a club member with a request, but instead, he got Alek.
  Beautiful, sun-kissed, shirt halfway unbuttoned, toned arms crossed, hair messy atop his head, curls falling over his pretty green eyes, Alek.
  "Oh, hey." Sebastien stood up straight, grabbing the rag off of the table and somewhat folding it in half.
  "Look, um, about last night..I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for like..bothering you during work and stuff. I don't remember much of anything, but if I said some weird or embarrassing shit, can you just like..forget about it?" Alek said awkwardly, tugging at the fabric of his loose button-up shirt.
  "Yeah, of course. No problem. You didn't bother me. I was off the clock and bored. The company was nice." Sebastien half smiled, refusing to let himself indulge in the memory too much.
  The latter half of the night was traumatic and embarrassing, but the preceding events, however, were anything but. He hated to admit it, but Alek was quite tolerable. And he's quite entertaining when drunk.
  "Right. About that, don't expect it to like.. happen again. I was...drunk and trying to annoy my parents. We're not like friends or anything."
  Sebastien laughed humorlessly. "Yeah. I know." He resumed wiping off the table, even though it was already clean. "It's not like it would be a crime if we were, though."
  "I didn't mean it like...I just meant like..I can't be seen with people like you. I have a reputation and you won't help me keep it."
  "Oh wow that's much better than the assumption I made!" Sebastien scoffed and walked over to clean the next table.
  Alek sighed and followed him. "That came out wrong. I didn't mean like.."
  "What? You didn't mean it like what? My race? Or my social class? Because regardless of what you might think, both of those reasons make you a shitty person. I don't have control over either of them. In fact, I just found out that I make less than my coworkers enough to the point where I have to have three jobs to stay fucking afloat. So I'm trying to have control and crawl my way out of one of those, unfortunately, socially unacceptable labels, but I still can't waste a fucking Thursday night drinking and crying about the upper-class bullshit that my parents make me do! And I'm gonna be Latino forever, which isn't a fucking burden to anybody, but rich, white, entitled fucking bastards like you and your family! I am not asking to be your fucking friend and I don't fucking want to be if who I am makes you uncomfortable, so leave me alone and go fuck yourself with a golf club!"
  Alek stared blankly at Sebastien for an awkward amount of time, eventually breaking the silence. "I can tell my parents to give you a raise. I don't think you deserve to get paid less than anyone here."
  "What?" Sebastien couldn't process his words. "Is this a joke? If so, it's not funny and you're an asshole."
  "It's not a joke. You've got to stop thinking that everyone you talk to has bad intentions. It's a real character flaw." There was something almost gentle behind Alek's eyes.
  "Oh you wanna talk about character flaws? Let's talk about that bitch you keep bringing around--and before you come at me, I'm allowed to call her a bitch because I'm gay and she's a terrible person."
  Alek laughed loudly, his shaggy hair falling back with his head and then beautifully laying back against his forehead. "I wasn't going to come at you. I agree. She's a horrible person. But our families are close and my dad like desperately wants me to be in a relationship. It supposedly will make me more attractive and will make girls want me since I'm taken or some shit like that. I just do it so he doesn't make up some girl like he did a few years ago. It was mad fucking awkward at dinners because everyone would be like Aleksander, where's your girlfriend? What is she like? How long have you been dating? And a bunch of other bullshit that my dad would answer. Oh and then he hired a girl to be the imaginary person he created for the annual banquet and don't get me wrong, she was a great actress and everyone bought it, but she was too good. And she was a terrible kisser. Not that Chloe is any better, but that's a topic for another time. Why are you looking at me like that?"
  Sebastien felt himself smiling as Alek ranted much like he did when he was drunk. It was fucking adorable.
  "Like what? I was just listening to your very interesting tale of six stories." Sebastien chuckled and resumed wiping off tables to stop himself from staring at Alek again because Alek is very pretty.
  "Shit, my bad. I didn't mean to go off like that. And you're working, shit. I'll leave. I'm gonna talk to my parents about giving you a raise. I took the fall for the whole golf cart thing, so they don't have any reason to complain about you."
  "You don't have to-"
  Alek lifted a hand to silence him. "Ay, shut the fuck up. I'm doing it whether you want me to or not."
  "You're very confusing." Sebastien chuckled, shaking his head.
  "How so?"
  "One minute, you come off as an entitled, racist asshole and two minutes later, you're treating me like an equal. Like we're fucking friends or something, which you made very clear we are not." Sebastien pulled the rag back and forth between his hands.
  "Yeah, I'm sorry about..that. It's like.." He scratched the back of his neck and exhaled. "My therapist says it's like..learned behavior? Conditioning or something. I like have these initial reactions to things. Quick responses that I was trained to use. Things I was told to feel and say that don't reflect who I am at all. She asked me once about like..thoughts that I have. She asked if I ever think rude or vulgar things. I said yes. And she asked if I leave them be or if I have a following thought or reaction to counteract it. I said the latter. These thoughts just like show up and I find myself shooting them down and feeling guilty for them because they make me feel like a bad person. And she told me that thinking that way--having a negative reaction to the intrusive thoughts --means that they don't reflect who I am at all. The counteractive thoughts do. I'm sorry, man I'm fucking oversharing again. That's something else I'm working out in therapy- okay I am going to stop myself right now."
  Sebastien chuckled, looked down at his hands, then back to Alek. "No worries. I like your oversharing. Makes me feel better about my life knowing that a privileged white boy like you also has struggles in life." He placed a hand on his chest for dramatic effect.
  Alek rolled his eyes playfully. "Yes, I too have mommy and daddy issues. I'm just trying to work through them while still on mommy and daddy's insurance."
  "Hell yeah, make them pay for the trauma they put you through. Literally. Crazy how they're still assholes when their son is literally in therapy for it." Sebastien exhaled a laugh.
  "Well, they don't exactly know that I'm in therapy."
  "Oh shit, really? Where do they think you go every Thursday?" Sebastien chuckled.
  "Okay, how did you know I go on Thursdays?"
  "You leave the club earlier on Thursdays."
  Alek raised his eyebrows. "You been watching me?"
  "I watch everyone. It's my job." Sebastien said, twisting the truth slightly. It is. his job to keep an eye on the guests, but he definitely lets his eyes linger on Alek longer than everyone else.
  "You seem very thorough."
  Sebastien gave him a confused side eye. "We were talking about you, not me. How does a kid-on-a-leash boy like you go to therapy behind your parents' backs?"
  Alek chuckled, his pretty smile crinkling his eyes. "Sometimes they think I'm going on a date with Chloe. Sometimes Alice covers for me and says that we're together. I think I've just used the I'm going out card a few times and they assume it's one of the two or that I'm with friends or my managers."
  "I would love to continue conversing with you now that I know you're not a dick, but lunch is starting in like ten minutes and I'm waitressing today." Sebastien started his journey towards the dining hall.
  "No, of course. Sorry for interrupting your work." Alek's face seemed to fall into an almost worried expression.
  "Don't be. I needed to decompress a little." Sebastien offered him a gentle smile.
  "Well, I'm not doing anything later. Is there any chance you'll need to decompress some more when you get off of work?" Alek pushed his hands into his pockets.
  Sebastien hated how he kept reading into every action and word. He hated how flirty the atmosphere felt because Alek is not flirting with him. It's just in his head.
  Sebastien stared blankly for a second. "Um yeah. What do you have in mind?"
  "I don't know. A picnic, a walk on the beach, eating pasta lady and the tramp style?"
  "Sounds lovely. I get off at ten."
  "So eleven thirty?" Alek raised a brow.
  "It's a date." Sebastien winked.
  Alek rolled his eyes and turned on his heel, leaving Sebastien completely stunned.