A door slammed. Stomping and sniffling could be heard throughout the apartment. Another door slammed. The lock clicked. A sob sounded from the other side. Something hit the wall. An angry cry followed the bang, then another sob.
The front door opened and closed. "Come on, it's really not that bad," came Seth's voice. "You're going to need the time off anyway." He placed down the store bag he was carrying and followed the angry noises coming from his bathroom. The screaming devolved to gagging and a flush. Then Stefon came out of the bathroom looking sicker than ever.
Purple circles under his eyes only brought out his pale skin even more. His arm rested over his chest as though it would help his nausea and he leaned against the wall for support. His eyes were tired as he glared at the man before him. "Time off?" He repeated. "I just got fired and you see it as time off? I missed my deadline all because I slept a day away because of this 'sickness'." He made quotation marks with his fingers as he said the word sickness. A groan came from him and he covered his mouth until another wave of nausea passed. "I know I'm not sick. And I know you know that. I haven't gone out in days because I was tired and I was busy. Then I slept the day away and woke up worse! And now..." he shook his head, an exasperated sigh escaping him, "now I don't even have a job."
Seth stood in silence. For the last few days he had wrestled with his thoughts. At one point, he even took down the pill bottle he had taken from the poor guy and almost gave it to him. Instead, he put it back up right before it was seen and preferred to live under the assumption that he forgot where it was. It hurt to see Stefon this way, but he supposed it was for the better. As soon as Stefon was better, life could be. "Okay, I misspoke. But I still think it's important for you to just relax a little." Cautiously he moved forward and pulled Stefon closer by the waist. The young man had been irritable and lashing out all morning. Deep down Seth knew he wouldn't be hurt but he was worried the verbal lashing might turn physical and every move was made with caution.
Stefon rested his head on the older man's shoulder. It felt like he was breathing through a filter. In an attempt to ease the gurgling in his stomach, he pursed his lips and closed his eyes, focused solely on breathing. When he could speak again he said, "What use am I if I don't have a job though? My mom and my uncle are already dis—"
"Don't worry about them. You are an adult. Things happen. You are going through something right now that they don't understand. They don't need to know what happened. The important thing is that you are being taken care of right now." Even as he said it, he knew Stefon wouldn't listen. He would stress about this until he found another job and it would only make his recovery more difficult.
"I need to go out." This took Seth by surprise as his partner stumbled back and leaned against the wall, looking like he'd be sick again at any moment. "I just need to get something in my system. This is hell." He stumbled back into the bathroom and slammed the door as another wave of nausea overpowered him. Seth used this as an opportunity to move the pill bottle he'd been hiding over the stove. Instead of putting it somewhere else in the apartment, he shoved it in his pocket and told himself he would put it in the glovebox in his car. There was no way in hell he was letting Stefon relapse now. He had gone days, nearly a week, without any drugs and it would be stupid of him to restart. The withdrawals would go away with time. He didn't want to have to worry about the capsules in the house being found in a moment of desperation. Then he went into the bedroom and looked through Stefon's bag to make sure he wasn't hiding anything in there, as well as rummaged through the pockets of yesterday's jeans. He checked in the open pack of cigarettes on the nightstand. When he found nothing, he returned to his spot outside the door of the bathroom. He could hear his partner's heaving breath behind the door. A few groans came through as he stood up, then a flush, and the door opened again.
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Everything
Fanfiction"This relationship has everything..." Stefon is finally coming out to his family, officially this time. He has sat down every important person in his life to give them the news. His brother and cousin pretty much have it all figured out, but his pa...
