DON'T BREAK THE RULES

Chapter 17 - Jamie Never Knocked

Jamie stormed inside the bar.

The moment he entered, the rage seemed to evaporate from his pores since anybody he walked by glanced towards him and stepped backwards. All their eyes widened the moment he was near and they whispered to each other about the manic blue eyes freak show frantically searching the place.

When he saw his prey, he leaped towards the counter with his fists bawled inside his pockets, ready for a brawl.

Craig's eyes lifted when he heard the raucous of footstep, swallowing hard when he met the gaze of his colleague. He knew this was eventually going to come. "Jamie, I didn't know you were—"

"Why the hell do you always have to open your fat mouth?" His rage seeped through his voice, laced with venom that Craig thought he had been poisoned since his entire body felt stiff. He had been wiping a glass and his eyes glanced elsewhere, to which Jamie leaned forward, "Look at me."

A nervous chuckle left his lips. He was never one to turn away from an argument, but not in front of randoms. Besides, creating this sort of scene could cause him to lose his job, which he desperately needed at the moment.

"Look," he leaned forward, attempting to have Jamie notice his surroundings. "How about we go talk in the back? They're all staring at us." His last few words were whispers and when Jamie turned, he saw a few customers were eyeing them suspiciously.

Jamie scoffed but listened, marching to the back room and Craig apologized to the customers seated at the counter before following in his steps.

The moment Craig walked inside and the door shut behind him, Jamie did not even give him a chance to breathe. He snatched Craig by his collar and slammed him against the wall. The back of his head hit hard, and he felt dizzy for a second. "What the—"

"I tell you not to question about her, don't I?"

"You do," Craig hissed, resisting against the hold, "but he's gay Jamie. You had to let him know you weren't. Besides, he's your roommate, I thought he knew."

"That has nothing to do with you at all!"

"Let go of me! You maniac!" Craig slammed his fist into Jamie's stomach, propelling him backwards and finally felt his oxygen return from the release. However, the rage in Jamie began to burn even stronger. "I didn't even say that to hurt you, it just came out," he explained, waving his arm. "For you to come and fight me like this, is uncalled for."

Jamie pointed a finger menacingly. "You shouldn't have spoke about something that has nothing to do with y—"

"What's going on?"

Their manager on duty stormed inside the back room, her apron tightly around her waist and her bushy eyebrows furrowed above her eyes.

The raucous in the back room had caused customers to talk about it and the atmosphere in the bar to change, and she needed to handle this before it was out-of-hand. There were always fights between her employees since they were all younger, but it was the first time she saw Jamie in one of them. And it was the first time she saw Jamie in such fury that he was almost unrecognizable by how contorted his face appeared.

"You're kidding me if you're about to tell me you both are fighting right now, during work hours..." she exhaled in a long breath, shaking her head and placing her palms on her waist. "Are you both out of your goddamn mind?"

"I was working," Craig shrugged his shoulders before pointing to Jamie. "He came in like a wild animal and it's not even his shift."

"Then talk to me outside then." Those words sounded much more threatening than they should have, but Craig was not one to back down from a fight.

He didn't hesitate to throw his apron on the floor and take a few steps towards the exit. "Okay fine, let's—"

"Enough!"

Her shout had caused both of them to pause, finally having their full attention on her. She stomped her heels towards them. "You both are maniacs. I'm not letting neither you fight or else you're fired." Her first instinct was to reach for Jamie, gripping him by the ear and hearing him wince. "You, leave the bar if you're not working."

"Ow, that hurts," he whined while being dragged to the exit. "I can leave by myself."

"Fine then," she pointed to the backdoor after releasing him, "but do not come back here to fight. Do that outside of work hours, you know better than that Jamie."

"This isn't over Craig," Jamie snarled menacingly before pulling open the backdoor, the wind starting to rush in.

Craig shrugged his shoulders, reaching for his apron on the floor and twisting it back around his waist. "Whatever."

***

Jamie had been gone for the rest of the day. The moment Joe woke up from the nap he took after arguing with Jamie, he grabbed the mop and began cleaning the floors. His thoughts had been calmed since he still felt lethargic, and all he could really think of was what food he would cook when he was done cleaning the entire appartement.

He did not want to see Jamie for a little while longer because he was quite embarrassed about bringing Bridgette into the argument. He had no business asking about Jamie's personal life and neither should he have cared. Hence, all flustered, he wiped the counters and recited a few apologies he was going to say to Jamie. He was quite nervous from it, that when he heard knocks on the front door, he jumped.

Until a sudden thought crossed his mind...

Jamie never knocked.

They never had visitors during the day either and he was not one to invite anyone. Besides, Joe was not really sure if he was allowed to bring in guests without Jamie's permission. He concluded that it was definitely one of Jamie's friends that he had no idea was supposed to stop by. The knocks resounded again, and Joe, after washing his hands and setting the cleaning supplies aside, jogged to the front door. "Coming!"

And when he pulled the door open, he thought he was going to puke.

"Hey," he smiled, "I didn't expect for you to answer the door."

Joe was in total shock, standing paralyzed as if he was a deer in headlights. His eyes were widened, his lips gaped open and he had forgotten how to breathe for a moment.

"How have you been, Joe?" Connor asked.