After - The Society Fanfic.

31.

8:30pm. A Couple of Nights Before The Trial.

"Allie?"

"I need to talk to you."

The joy in Grizz's eyes sparks out. He stares at the vexed face in front of him. Allie doesn't waste any time and starts climbing up the stairs, moving quietly and quickly as to not alert the joyful people in the living room. Grizz can't help but see the symbolism from moving from a light and laughter filled room up to the dark and cold upstairs.

He follows her towards the spare room. It's a cluttered and messy room. Becca dumps everything in here when she doesn't know where things go. The wardrobe is filled with Sam's clothes and the surfaces have almost every baby toy imaginable, cards sitting beside them to help them remember who gave what. Becca's parent's room still sat empty and untouched. She's still not ready to move anything in there.

After a few seconds of uncovering the light switch and moving objects giving them space to move, Allie sits on the bed. Grizz nervously fidgets with his sleeve. There's an agonizing second of silence when Allie opens her mouth.

"I'm gay." Allie closes her mouth, blinking confused. Grizz gestures at her. "That's what you were going to ask right? What's going on with Sam and me? It's new, a lot has happened, it's complicated, we're just going with the flow and-"

"Yeah, no, I wasn't going to comment on that. I figured." Allie's matter of fact tone causes Grizz to be the one now confused. The nerves are gone and now he's just shocked. He stares at her, mouth opening and shutting like a goldfish. Allie raises one eyebrow, patiently waiting for him to speak.

"You-You figured?" He stutters over his words. Sam hadn't figured he was gay. No one else had managed to figure it out. Grizz had spent his whole damn life hiding the fact he was gay, pretending to be straight and Allie is telling him she knew?

"I mean, you and Sam weren't exactly hiding it tonight. Also, you have a hickey." She points towards where his shirt collar is.

Sure enough, poking out from the side is a small hickey. Grizz tugs at his collar, "I-What?". It's actually a lot bigger and there are a few more marks across his body but luckily Allie can't see those. He'd told Sam to be careful where he put them. He's fine with people knowing he's gay but damn, he didn't want hickeys on show. He knows when he tells Sam he'll be smug as hell about it. He gets lost in his thoughts. How can he get Sam back? His handcuffs come into mind but they're still with The Guard. He really wished he'd managed to get those back.

"Grizz." Allie sticks her foot out, nudging the statue of Grizz. He'd gone completely still, frozen as if the computer inside him had broken down. His eyes flit from side to side and she figures he's having a conversation with himself. She kicks him. "Grizz! I actually need to talk to you about something really important." Grizz jumps, holding onto his knee, glaring at him. She rolls her eyes in response, a deadpan stare locked on him. Rubbing his leg with his uninjured hand, he quietens down, staring half annoyed and half expectantly at Allie. What is so urgent? Allie's face softens and she stares at her hands as she formulates what it is she wants to say in her head. She waves her hands in the air slightly as if trying to conjure the words from there. "Sunday, after the trial, if we win-"

"When we win," Grizz interjects.

"If we win. I need you to do something." Grizz frowns as she emphasises the if. However, he doesn't push the matter, the expression on Allie's face tells me this is no longer a somewhat light-hearted conversation. This is something that's been weighing on her mind for a while now.

"Sure, anything. What's up?" He casually leans against the door, folding his arms an equally serious face plastered on him. Grizz felt like the others should be there. This is clearly an important conversation. He's not that important. Just in charge of the farm, nothing special and yet Allie has chosen to speak to him at this moment. Is this because they bumped into each other in the corridor? Maybe she's speaking to everyone individually?