He's Probably Gonna Spit in My Drink

Chapter 4 - The Day Starts Looking Up

"Sit right there. I think I've got an extra shirt in my bag." Minh instructed as soon as they were alone, guiding Stephan to the edge of a long table that sat in the center of the small room and took up most of the space provided.

"You keep extra shirts in your bag in case someone decides to assault one of your customer's with scalding beverages?" Stephan inquired amusedly as he obediently hopped up on the table and stubbornly ignored the plastic chair sitting at the end of the table that Minh had probably been indicating, leaning back on the palms of his hands to let his infuriated stomach and chest touch as little other skin as possible.

"No, idiot." Minh scoffed dryly and fell silent for a few minutes as he walked to the opposite end of the room and began rummaging through a blue gym bag that sat there against the wall. Stephan thought the conversation was over but, after a long pause, the barista added, "I keep them there for running," sounding slightly tentative for some inexplicable reason. Only then did it hit Stephan that this was the first real conversation, made out of actual exchange of information and personable statements rather than just spat out insults, they ever had.

"You run?" Stephan questioned eagerly, perking up some at the new discovery as he turned slightly to look at the other boy, not able to twist himself more than a few centimeters and even that still eliciting a soft hiss of discomfort.

Minh glanced up from his search to give the brunette a bored look, face flat and eyebrows raised incredulously.

"Yes, obviously, or you wouldn't have just said so." Stephan realized with a start, feeling himself blush as he hurriedly looked away again, suddenly feeling awkward and stupid. "I just - I meant, that's cool, because- um, I run too, you know. Sometimes." Stephan rambled out hastily, audibly groaning at how jumbled his words sounded even to his own ears but when he risked a quick glance back in Minh's direction the guy was staring at him as if Stephan had just whispered the secrets of the universe to him, his dark eyes wide and his face twinged slightly pink.

Stephan opened his mouth to say something more, maybe to dare suggest they go running together sometime but closed it again a moment later, nervousness winning out as he unconsciously wrung his hands together and failed to say anything. Chicken shit, his brain hissed disapprovingly.

Minh wore a similar expression to what Stephan felt on his own flushed face and he too opened his mouth, stuttering out some unintelligible syllable before clamping his jaws firmly shut, glancing away and scowling at some random thread in the beige carpet as if it were the most intriguing thing in the world. "I found one." Is what the guy eventually managed to say, holding up a black T-shirt that looked like it could fit Stephan as a dress and still pass school dress code as the boy pushed himself back to his feet and began walking back towards where the brunette was still perched on the table. When the barista finally reached the boy though he simply turned away wordlessly, holding out the item in offering.

Taking the cue, Stephan pushed himself back into a straight up sitting position, groaning slightly at the action, and grasped the hem of his shirt in both hands. The kid was unable to bite back a sharp hiss that ended in a particularly pathetic whimper he was just going to pretend he'd never let Minh hear as the teen had to bend over slightly to grab his shirt, leaning his destroyed chest against his tormented stomach in a combination that had to have come straight from hell and was intent on dragging Stephan back to those fiery depths with it. Still, Stephan persisted, gasping as he tried to focus on curling his fingers around the cotton material rather than on how much he would rather die than endure this excruciating agony a moment longer.

Finally, he managed that but when he tried to straighten his back to pull the thing up a strangled scream actually managed to force its way through his lips despite the fact that he was biting them almost the point of bleeding in an attempt to smother back the noise. It felt as if someone were peeling his skin away from him, layer by layer, all while pouring lemon juice over the raw wound, a tormenting mix of vivid, sharp pain and a dull constant ache that throbbed through his body and brought back that sudden desire to puke. The taste of copper finally met his tongue as Stephan forcibly bit back the agonized sound but it wasn't before the feeling of broad hands wrapped around his wrists stopped him from going any further.