Room 304 (mxm)

Chapter 7

"Bill! You almost late! You shift already start so you get butt in kitchen now!" Li Jing scolded him as he hurried into the kitchen through the back door; he wasn't actually late, he was exactly on time, but obviously his stressed boss wanted him to be there a few minutes before his shift started.

"Hey man," Andy greeted cheerfully and Bill sent him a polite smile; he really didn't want to get too well acquainted with the bleached kid because he was afraid he might get the wrong idea.

While Bill prepared one order after another of Chinese food, he was debating whether he should go to that shoe sale at RIF's or not; he was in dire need of new shoes, because... well, they were shoes, but... if he spent his entire money on shoes now... he would have no money for other things. Like prostitutes. What was worth more, a new pairs of shoes or a night with Tyler?

How is that even a debate...? Bill thought drily. Oh no, he was turning into a sex addict! he concluded horrified while he poured some kung pao chicken into a bowl. He should be spending his money on shoes, not hookers! What had become of him
His entire week had been a nightmare; he still hadn't been able to stop thinking about Tyler, who seemed to be the only thing lately that motivated him to work on their music... Not to mention George was totally down and that was affecting their music as well... And for some unknown reason, Victor had mood swings like a pregnant cow, which really didn't help either. Everything was a disaster at the moment.

"Bill! You're burning the food!" Liu Jie pulled the pan from the stove and slapped his arm lightly. "Earth to Bill, anyone home?" He chuckled.

"Sorry," Bill apologized stupidly. "I didn't get a lot of sleep."

"You've been really distracted this week – is everything alright?" Liu Jie asked a bit concerned; Bill and the other cook didn't actually know each other that well and only chatted about casual, meaningless things, so Bill really didn't want to confide his problems in him. Not that he would ever confide those problems to anyone else either, but least of all a coworker.

"Yeah, yeah, no problem. Just stressed out with college and stuff. You know how it is," Bill dismissed it with a bright smile. "... I'd kill for a cigarette break though," he added with a laugh.

"I believe you." Liu Jie chuckled again. "Take it easy." He smiled warmly before returning to his side of the kitchen.

Bill just nodded absently, lost in thought again; he'd only met up with that hustler once and yet he couldn't stop thinking about him. Had he seriously developed a crush on him?
It was probably because he didn't get out enough... Maybe he should find a boyfriend, or at least someone he didn't have to pay for sex. It would be so much cheaper... and less shady.

It wasn't until various hours later that Bill finally hung up his apron, finally ready to go home. He'd had a long day at college, and now the late shift at the Koi, so he was pretty much ready to pass out, like most of these evenings. He hadn't been lying earlier when he'd said that college was stressing him, though it was more the whole idea rather than the subjects because he wasn't actually interested in those; he just had to pretend to be so his parents would carry on supporting his music career which was headed nowhere. And that was another factor that was killing him: they were supposed to be recording an album in about a week, but they weren't ready for it, and didn't even have a name for the album yet. Not that it could be called an album since it had far too few songs still, but they were working on that.
Technically seen they had quite a few songs, but Bill still wasn't fully satisfied with them so they wouldn't be recording those yet; there was something missing in them, but he wasn't sure what.

Once he finally managed to leave the kitchen in which Andy was still cleaning, he lit up a cigarette and leaned against his car, trying to ease up some of the tension that had been killing him all day. This whole thing of trying to quit smoking really wasn't working for him; maybe he should give it up. The trying, not the smoking.