Consequences of a Party (1)

-22- Forgiveness and Tears

Standing with hands in a sink full of water, Mason stares at the disappearing bubbles, the soft popping filling his ears. He had been sitting on his designated stool only moments before, but now his back was aching from hunching over the sink.

His clothes are splattered with dish water, but he doesn't have the energy in him to really care. Tobias didn't know anything as of yet, but Mason knew he'd have to tell his boss soon. He just wanted to wait until his body was completely over ... it.

Turns out there was still quite a bit his body had to go through before he could be classed as completely healthy again.

To be honest, it was kind of gross.

His body still cramped for the past week, trying to disperse any kind of... left over substances. The pills he was on were to help with his sudden onslaught of depression -- that tended to make him want to crawl in a hole and cry-- and of course all the vitamins he needed to balance his hormones back to their normal level. (or as close as normal Mason could get to).

Stacking another cup on the dish drainer, Mason huffs out a breath of air, flicking a hair out of his face with his arm. He needed a haircut, it was growing long again.

"M-Mason?" George stutters out quietly, shuffling up to Mason with a plate of food in hand.

"Yeah?"

"Are you okay?"

Mason pauses in his scrubbing, turning his body slightly to look at the young chef. George was the quietest employee in the café, and also the youngest. He never really spoke to anyone other than Tobias in the mornings before his shift, but he still fit in to the group of misfits that ran Tobias' café.

Lately, whenever Mason was on a lunch break out the back, George would make him an egg and bacon sandwich, without Mason even having to ask, and send little smiles his way. The other day he even made Mason a coffee during one of their breaks.

Maybe George felt sorry for him? Mason appreciated the thoughtful gesture anyway, after all, his body was still trying to cope with all the sudden changes it had to go through. A bacon and egg sandwich was welcomed.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. Just a little tired." Mason smiles weakly, his lips struggling to form the simple action.

"Oh. How's Ben?"

Mason frowns, he didn't actually know how Ben was. He was still avoiding him like the plague, leaving the house before Ben woke up, and arriving when Ben was still at work -- or passed out on the couch.

"I... haven't really spoken to him lately, Ben and I... haven't exactly been getting along." No use sugar coating it. People were bound to notice the tension between the two sooner or later.

After all, they were once two peas in a pod.

George bites his lip, his fringe escaping his cap slightly as he looks down at the food, his face flickering from happiness and sympathy, confusing Mason.

"W-well, if you would like to, I was thinking that – maybe – you might want to go to coffee with me?" Mason blinks in shock, "Only if you want to." George rushes out.

Balking at the information, Mason sits and stares, stunned. George's face tinges a little pink as he shuffles his feet on the floor. Did he just – Did he just ask him out? Since when was George interested in boys? In Mason?

Opening his mouth, Mason shuts it again, his whole mind turning to chaos at actually being asked to go out with someone. He was dressed in sweats and an old hoodie with dirty dish water splattered across him, yet George still wanted to ask him out?