Saving Me [MxM]

Chapter 13

September 15 was coming up soon, and Varian was unusually excited to see Nathan. It could be that he was going to him instead of Nathan coming to Mandan. Or the fact that his headache had taken permanent residence in his skull and was kind enough to send painful jabs every now and then when the constant throbbing wasn’t doing its job.

Work wasn’t too bad, so long as Justin left him alone. There weren’t any people right now, which meant it was decently quiet, both he and Millie stocking shelves, Justin mopping the floor.

Pausing in his mopping, he groaned loudly, hugging the mop to himself before sighing dramatically. "This is so fucking boring."

Jumping at the sudden speech, Varian winced at the jab it sent behind his eyes. “Boring isn’t bad. Quiet is better.”

"Boring is boring. I could be doing so many other things with my life on a Saturday. And instead, I'm here. With you." Justin sighed, hanging his head.

Millie walked by him to another shelf and smacked his arm along the way. "Hush, before I fire you."

"You won't fire me. I'm the only other person here who can work during high temperatures."

Narrowing his eyes at Justin, Varian paused in stocking. “I can work in high temperatures. As long as I have blood.”

"Which you usually don't." Justin added with an innocent smile.

Looking away from him, Varian focused on moving the items around and felt another sudden jab. “Can we please go back to quiet?”

"Quiet is boring." Justin replied. Millie decided to just sigh and shake her head to herself.

Opting to keep his mouth shut, Varian ignored him. No sense in prodding the guy.

"So Varian, how're you doing with the whole college thing this year?"

“Peachy.”

"Cool, cool. I was curious, you know, since Nathan's not gonna be down as often, and it'll be like his Freshman year all over again, which kinda sucks for you guys. Especially the headaches, I bet those are a bitch." Justin said with a nod.

At the mention of headaches, Varian winced again. “You think?”

"Well, I wouldn't know, so I'm going off what I've seen here." Justin shrugged, then thought for a second and raised his eyebrows. "How about Jecklynn, how's she?"

“I don’t know. Nor do I care.”

"Oh. A little hostile there."

Pausing in his stocking, Varian looked at Justin again. “You’re stepping into territory you know nothing about.”

Justin held up his hands, the mop in one of them. "Oh. Much hostility," he mumbled.

“It’s my problem, not yours. Butt out.”

"Extreme hostility." Justin whispered. "Millie, are you feeling this hostility?"

"Yeah, so shut up before I become a witness to a murder," she snorted.

Rolling his eyes, Varian went back to stocking. He didn’t want to talk about Jecklynn right now.

Apparently Justin decided to go back to work himself, resuming mopping and humming to himself for a second. "You know Varian, I can think of a few things that would make you less uptight," he said with a nod.

“I’m sure.”

"Sex. Alcohol. Chocolate. Chocolate makes everyone happy; you can't go wrong with chocolate. Little puppies. Kittens," he listed.