~~Christopher’s POV~~

~~A few weeks later~~

Before this day. Christopher went into work a bit early, hearing that his boss needed him for something. As he realized what could be possibly the problem, it was much too late. His boss fired him, saying that he was keeping the store open for way too long, not closing until a few hours after the past given time that was the absolute closing time. He had to get a new job to help with his Mom, so he looked around for a job that was similar to his last one, but where he wouldn’t have to open or close up.

He finally found one, but it wasn’t necessarily the best. It was a small job as a bar waiter, but it paid well enough. He sighed on his first day, holding the small platter, spinning it on his finger. He would mentally time himself to see how long he could keep it spinning until it would tip and fall off. The night he was hired was a karaoke night where people could go up and sing songs with only the instrumental version of the song, and most of them were drunken idiots.

Christopher would listen however in amusement, holding back every laugh and chuckle when someone sang completely random words at the wrong pitch and speed. There was one person, however, who came in and didn’t get very much drunk. Which wasn’t normal always the case. Normally people came in to drink away their problems, but not this person. Christopher thought he looked roughly familiar, and as he looked at the person, he saw the thing that stood out most on him.

The blue hair.

Christopher had to do a double take to make sure that it was who he thought it was. It was Christian. He thought he was going crazy, but he kept blinking to make sure. What?! Christopher thought, Why is he here?! He was confused, but nonetheless, he felt the platter he was spinning for the past minute falter and fall. He caught it clumsily, dropping it just for it to make a single sound, and quickly picked it up. Christopher felt his face heat up in embarrassment, and he tried to hide the fact that he dropped the platter.

Christian looked over, pulling down his shades to show his eyes. Christopher smiled stupidly, his face getting redder and redder as the time progressed. Oh my god, I am such a damn moron. Christian walked over, sitting on the seat. “Ah, I think you’re following me.” He said, pulling off his shades to put one end in his mouth.

“Me?” Christopher choked on air and slapped his chest a few times. “Uh, I think it is you who are following me. Somehow. First, you appear at my old job, now you’re appearing here.”

“I’m a regular at both places you worked at. So, you’re following me. Or it’s a coincidence.” Christian smirked, and Christopher felt his heart skip an unnecessary beat.

He held his chest mentally, unable to really respond. “M-maybe so, but I highly doubt it. I just think you’re following me.”

“Well, believe what you want. I’ll believe what I believe, and that is...you’re following me.”

Christopher laughed, then shook his head, “Alright, whatever.” Christian chuckled, the smirked a bit.

“Karaoke night, huh?”

“Yeah… Lotta drunk idiots… But I gotta serve--”

“Christopher! Table five!”

Christopher groaned and grabbed the tray, taking the drinks from the bar then putting those on top. God, I hate this job… Christopher walked over to the table, setting the drinks on the table, saying the names of them as he did so. “Good… Perfect another time.” He looked at the man, seeing how drunk he was. He wanted to tell him to go home, but he’d lose his job. He felt bad for all the people that came, but he had to deal with it. He was falling behind on his payments, and his job was the only thing that was getting him paid.

He walked back over to the bar, setting the tray on the table in annoyance. “Like I was saying, I have to serve these drunk idiots…” Christian laughed and the playing song ended, and he smirked at Christopher. “I dare you. A song of my choice. You sing it wrong, I tell my boss to ban you. You sing it right… Your choice of prize.”

Christian smirked. “A’ight. Hope y’know I know a lot of songs.” Christopher whispered the song into his ear, and Christian laughed. “Sounds kinkier than all hell.”

“It’s not. Now go up there, big boy.” What...the fuck did I say?

The blue-haired boy went up to the stage acting as though he didn’t know the song. Christopher muttered the intro under his breath, tapping the table. Give me a B, give me an A, give me a B, give me a Y! What’s that spell? What’s that spell? What’s that spell?! Baby. And then the music played… It took him a minute to get to the beat but Christopher knew he was pretending to not know the words. Christian sang the words perfectly, tapping his feet to the beat in an energetic way.

Somehow his voice made the song all that much better, causing a small gasp to escape his throat. Was he…? No, he was getting turned on… Not physically but mentally...just watching the way his mouth moved… Christopher felt his face heat up and he removed himself from the area, heading into the bathroom to think. No one came into the bathroom from how it looked, but Christopher always scrubbed a spot clean for him to sit so he could think.

He could hear the song reach its muffled end and he heard cheers and applause. Christian won the bet… He heard the doorknob turn and he got up quickly, hoping the drunk idiot would go into the women’s bathroom if he was drunk enough. He held the door closed. “It’s me, Christian.”

Christian… Christopher’s stomach churned, and he opened the door, letting Christian in, and he shut the door. “Y-You, u-uh… Got a nice v-voice…”

Christian sat on the counter by the sink, looking at the stalls. “This place is gross… Bet the woman’s bathroom is cleaner… Anyway, while you ran off here I saw some women flush the color red when I looked at them… More than from them being drunk. They found me attractive.” Christopher knew where he was going with this… “And, I noticed you blushing… You find me attractive don’t you?” A seductive grin crossed his face-it probably wasn’t even meant to be that way, it just looked the part.

“L-like I’d answer that question,” Christopher said.

“Bet you will… Because that’s the prize I want…” Christian pushed himself off the counter and pinned the blonde haired boy to the wall. “Remember, I sang the song perfectly…”

“I wasn’t there for some of it. You could be lying.”

Christian laughed. “I’ll sing it again… Just for you.” There was a small playful growl at the end of his statement, and Christopher covered his face with his hands.

“Are you sure you just don’t want a free drink?” Christian laughed softly and shook his head.

“I just want you to answer my question. Honestly.” Christopher opened his mouth to lie but sighed in frustration.

“Yeah. I am attracted to you. Now can you leave me alone?”

“You don’t want me to though, do you? Like I said when we met… Eyes say a lot about people… I know that you don’t want me to leave you alone… You’re just saying that in hopes that I might. Or, you’re trying to get yourself away from this situation…”

Christopher sighed in agitation and crossed his arms. “Just let me go. I have a job to do.”

“Really? Do you think you can get that by me? You don’t like your job.” Christian tone marveled in amusement.

“Yeah, but I need one.” Christopher glared at Christian and tried to move him out of his way, but he found his wrists pinned to the wall. As weird as it sounded… his hands… they felt familiar… He didn’t know what it was, but it kept itching at him. What is it, what is it?! Think Christopher!

Christian chuckled and let go, leaving the bathroom, leaving Christopher standing there like a complete idiot. Christopher quickly walked out and got back to work.

~~Paul’s POV~~

The vibe was off in the apartment, but he couldn’t figure out why. Maybe it was because he saw the way Christian had his way with Christopher. He saw his eyes. The excitement was in them despite the fact he was acting the complete opposite. Flustered. Embarrassed. To be honest, that was probably why the vibe felt bad. Anyone he had come over had told him that everything in the apartment felt… off.

Paul knew coming back wasn’t the best idea, but he had nowhere else to go, and he wanted to see Christopher. He walked over to the desk he had neatly in the corner, and he opened one of the drawers, pulling out the black folder. He covered it with “Caution” duct-tape, so he knew what it was for. Any fucked up thing that came to his mind would go into this folder. Every drawing, every thought that he had decided to write down on paper, everything. He didn’t care if someone saw it. As long as they saw the warning that covered the folder.

He sat on the swivel chair, and he set the folder down, picking at some of the tape that was ready to come off. He was deciding whether or not he should open it and burn everything inside of it so no one would think of him as a psychopath… That’s a wish that will never come true. The vibes he sent off when he was by himself sent people in a rush to keep it that way. They didn’t want to know what was on his mind. Even some of the lowlifes that would love to make friends like Paul would stay out of his way.

And he was glad…

He kept picking at the tape for a few more moments before finally deciding to open up the folder, with every intent on his mind to burn the contents and start over from the beginning. Maybe he would try and leave again. Get a new place to burn some money on. But then he would just come back… He took out all the sheets of lined paper, computer paper, that weird tracing paper people use, colored paper and set it all over the rugged surface of his desk. The lamp he had gave off yellow light that glinted all the pencil lines to where he had to move the lamp several times just to get the glint away. Maybe it was just him trying to procrastinate in actually looking at the stuff so he wouldn’t throw up later.

He probably would anyway, but that was just what his mind was telling him. After another moment of thought, he began to look at it all, picking up a handful at a time and throwing them to the ground when he was finished looking at them. They were all of his fucked up thoughts. He was a messed up guy. Christopher of all people would know that. The name he had remembered was written and scribbled and drawn all over several papers, weird thoughts and ideas scrawled and wrapped around each one. He was good at getting his ideas across, so one could easily tie all of these into one hell of a rip-off of “Fifty Shades of Gray.” Images, words and all.

If the ones looking had the guts to even look at it long enough to write it all down.

He knocked a handful of papers onto the floor as he reached for another, which he tried to catch but missed utterly and completely. The papers he had in his hand were dropped to the floor, and he had accidentally hit the falling ones further away from him. “Just my luck…” His voice sounded gritty to his ears, but that was just because he hadn’t heard himself talk in a while. He was thinking so hard he almost forgot what his actual voice sounded like.

He got up and picked up the ones he had dropped by the floor first, then went over to the other ones and began picking them up, not even worrying if he crinkled them up or not. They were all going into the fire pit later anyway. And he could easily straighten them back out if he absolutely wanted to. When he picked up two that had fallen on top of each other, he saw what looked to be a cast of some kind peeking from the hidden one. He pulled it out and didn’t realize what he was looking at until he realized what it was. His face flushed deep red and he instantly dropped the papers, taking several steps back. He took a step too far and he tripped over the chair, falling to the floor with a loud thump. It was the first thing he had added to the folder...

It was a picture of Christopher, beaten up, blindfolded and gagged, with his cast on. His heart pounded in his ears, and he lost his breath. He moved all the way to the wall, trying to get away from the damned thing like it was some kind of zombie from the movies he watched. He covered his mouth and felt the bile build up in his throat. What’s wrong with me… I’m sick… How could I do that…

Thoughts were running like wheels on a car going 200 miles per hour inside his mind. He kept his mouth covered, swallowing down every trace of bile he could, hopefully not letting any amount stay in his mouth. He was embarrassed with himself but mostly horrified.

How could he have had his inner demons take the best of him? That didn’t matter… None of that did. He wondered why. He knew slightly why he was like this… It was because he liked seeing Christopher in pain. That was the bad side of him speaking. He wished it didn’t make him like this...