One Damn Cold Night

Freezer Burn

"Wait, what?", Anthony murmured, and in a second he was standing in front of the door, trying to get it to open. He pushed and pulled, even kicked it, but it wouldn't open.

Ian was still standing in the same spot. He only turned his head to look at Anthony as the boy practically tried to break down the door, but his whole body was frozen in place. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. There was no reason for him to let his claustrophobia take control him, at least not just yet. Maybe Anthony could get it to open, maybe it was... Well, he didn't know what it could be, but he was pretty sure he'd do nothing but irritate Anthony if he started having a panic attack then and there, so he took a deep breath and opened his eyes again.

While Ian had his eyes closed, Anthony had stopped trying to open the door and now he was looking at him. He knew how bad Ian hated closed spaces, so he totally expected him to break down in that exact same moment. The bowl haired boy had to put up with Anthony's panic attacks, which usually came with lots of bitching, crying and sometimes even screaming. But he was totally surprised when he opened them up once again and blinked a few times, rubbing his eyes due to how tired he was.

"What the fuck, man?" He looked at him, raising an eyebrow. "I mean, we-we didn't..."

Anthony knew what he meant and shook his head. It was impossible. There was no way one of them locked the door, because neither of the pair had the key, so they should be able to just push the door open and get out of there with no problem. Unless...

Ian's blue eyes grew wide when he remembered.

"Shit", he cussed. He threw his head back groaning, and he knew his friend was probably looking at him confused, so he looked back at him and sighed. "John, man. Fucking John."

And then everything fell into place.

Before they came into the freezer, they had seen his boss give someone the keys to lock the door. Neither of them had realized at the moment, but now that they remembered, they knew that that "someone" was John, their friend and co-worker. He was around their age, if not a little bit older, and since Ian and Anthony started working there (which was a month ago) the three of them hung out almost every other night. But now, John had locked every door and left the shop. And every door meant every door, including the freezer one.

"He-he had no idea we were in here so he probably locked it after we came in." Anthony whispered.

They both stood there in front of each other, in the middle of the freezer, not knowing what to do or say. Ian was having a panic attack on his inside, feeling like the walls were going to suddenly close up on him, and Anthony was trying to catch any reaction or gesture from said boy, wanting to know if he was actually going nuts or not. When Ian took in a deep breath and curled his hands into fists, the man rolled his eyes. He was holding back all of his feelings, trying not to show them. And maybe that gesture wouldn't have given anything away to anyone else, but Anthony knew him all too well, like the back of his hand, so it was kind of impossible for Ian to hide things from him.

Despite him being so stubborn, he got closer to Ian and rested a hand on his back. He made him look up, murmuring something like "let it out." Ian frowned and looked down to avoid his gaze, shrugging and talking in the same tone his friend had before.

"I... I don't know, dude. I'm just really freaked out. I mean, there's no one in here. John locked every single door and is probably already out of this place. Just-... Oh, what about our phones?"

He didn't even look at him in the eye again. They simply started patting all of their pockets and searching for it. The pair started whispering things to themselves and one another, even though they weren't listening to what the other said.

"Jeez, I could swear I-" and then Anthony stopped himself. "Fuck, we left them in our bags, remember?"

Ian let his head drop, feeling sad and angry at himself at the same time. He decided that he was too tired to think of how to get out of there, or even worry about freezing to death. So with the little bit of strength he had left, he went to the corner where they had left the boxes not too long ago and sat down. He patted the space next to him when Anthony looked over, and he could see how he laughed and came closer to sit down. Once Anthony was beside him, he looked at him in the eyes and smiled softly, trying to cheer up the mood, even if it was just a little, but his mind went blank when Anthony looked back and returned the grin. He was so... gorgeous. And then all of the feelings that he had been experiencing this last year but were buried deep down came back to him. It was like falling in love all over again. That beautiful grin, the way his hair fell into his eyes, it was all...

No. Stop. Hold up, Hecox.

He had to remind himself this was just a stupid crush, that he may be feeling a little bi-curious and Anthony was his closest friend, so his mind picked him to fall in lo-to like. His mind picked him to try to find out what his feelings toward men were. Nothing else.

Actually, he was convinced he had a really big crush on Amanda Wooster, his neighbour's daughter. Or at least he wanted to believe so. She was really pretty, with her blond hair and green eyes, and had a really nice smile. But the most important thing was that she was a girl. And he was supposed to like boobs, like the ones she had, not flat chests, like the one his friend right beside him owned.

But sometimes that lopsided smile and cute brown eyes made him forget how much he liked girls. Or was supposed to.