The Melting Pot Complex

Chapter Sixty-Two ~ Patton

{Possible trigger warnings: lil bit of swearing

If I miss something, I apologize and please let me know}

Patton heard the bell over the front door ring, then a moment later his boss called his name.

"Coming!"

He washed his hands quickly and retied his apron, heading out to the front counter.

A woman was standing there with a boy who looked to be about sixteen or seventeen. He was looking around the room with a cautious interest that reminded Patton of himself, years ago.

"Hi, what can I do for you?"

"Taylor's looking for a boutonniere and corsage for himself and his girlfriend for prom." The mother said with a smile. "We were told that you store does some of the best in town, so we came here first."

Patton grinned. "That we do. Bought my own from here, back when I was in high school."

He looked to Taylor, who was still looking around curiously. "Are you thinking anything in particular?"

His mother nudged him with her elbow. "Tell him what you were thinking, honey."

She turned to Patton, leaning in conspiratorially. "He loves flowers. Growing them, arranging them, all of it."

Taylor smiled a little awkwardly. "I'm learning the language."

Patton beamed. "Me too! Slow going, but I'm doing it."

He had an idea and perked up a little. "Do you want to see the back?"

Taylor's face split into a wide grin and he nodded, but his mother seemed a bit more apprehensive. 

"Are you allowed to do that?"

Patton shrugged, smiling. "Probably. Hey John?"

His boss was on the phone, but he glanced over at Patton.

"Can I take Taylor in the back?"

Patton got a thumbs up in response and chuckled.

"I'm pretty much the highest up here other than John, and he's the owner." He told the woman. "We'll be careful in the back, don't worry. If you'd like to take a look around, feel free."

Taylor followed him into the room where most of the orders were put together, and Patton began to show him some of the different things they used.

"We tend to organize flowers by their type, in alphabetical order. Every shelving unit is a letter, but some have more than one just because there are so many of certain letters-"

"Like R and P?" Taylor suggested with a little smile, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Exactly." Patton chuckled. "We can wheel the shelves around but we usually keep them in the same places for easier access wh-"

He heard the back door open and paused, leaning around a shelf to see who was coming in.

"Oh, hey Charlie!"

"Hiya Pat. Johnny here?"

Patton saw Taylor's eyes widen considerably as he saw Charlie. He hid a smile as he answered the man's question.

"He's up front but he's on the phone. Just go upstairs, I'll let him know you're here."

"Thanks kid." Charlie headed for the stairs.

"Who's that?" Taylor asked, peeking around the shelf.

"That's John's husband."

He saw the way Taylor perked up again, but didn't say anything about it. He went over to the worktable and picked up a notebook. "So, any thoughts on the flowers? Does your girlfriend have a preference?"

Taylor hesitated, then glanced at the door to the front of the shop.

"Boyfriend." He corrected quietly after a moment. "He's my boyfriend... he's trans and Mom doesn't know."

Patton smiled and nodded. "Alright. Do you still want me to make a corsage for him to keep up appearances?"

"Is there a way you can make it so it can be used as both?" Taylor wrung his hands. "We're going to take pictures with my mom, then we're gonna ditch prom and go do something with our group instead. Once we leave home we'll switch it up when he changes into his suit."

Patton scribbled the note down and nodded. "I'll see what I can do. Colors?"

"His favorite color is red. And his dress before we change is silver, and I went with a red tie."

"Red and silver in the outfits, red is the favorite color." Patton muttered as he kept writing.

"We also found these." Taylor held up the tiniest trans pride flags Patton had ever seen. 

"Oh my goodness those are so cute!" Patton took them from him carefully, staring at them. "Where on earth did you get these?"

"Etsy site." Taylor shrugged. "We'll figure out a story to tell my mom about what they mean, if you'd find a way to add them in as well?"

"Absolutely." Patton nodded and set them on the table with the notebook, looking for a little bag.

"Are you using an Improbable_Theorems lanyard?"

Patton looked down at his lanyard, which was indeed Logan's brand. "Oh, yep!"

"He's one of my favorite YouTubers!" Taylor grinned. "He's super smart, and he knows all this interesting stuff- I used one of his videos to frame a paper once and it was the highest grade I'd ever gotten-"

He kept talking, and Patton subtly pulled out his phone and sent his roommate a text.

Suddenly his phone began to ring loudly. Patton answered it and held it up. "Hey Lo! I've got someone I want you to meet."

"Alright..." Logan blinked at him from the screen. It looked like he'd been sleeping, and after a moment Patton noticed Roman's mess of curls on the pillow behind his roommate's shoulder. He smiled and looked at Taylor, beckoning him over.

The teenager was frozen where he was standing, eyes wide. "Holy sh*t- how do you know him?"

"Patton, what is going on?" Logan asked, frowning.

Patton grinned at Taylor. "He's my roommate. C'mere and say hi."

"You serious?"

"Yep."

Taylor peeked onto the screen and gasped, moving to stand next to Patton. "Um, hi!"

"Logan, this is Taylor. He's a big fan of yours."

"I see. Hello Taylor." Logan nodded. "How are you?"

"I'm great! Your roommate is really nice- he's helping me get a corsage for my boyfriend without making it obvious it's a corsage, and- and he's super nice-"

Logan chuckled as Taylor gushed, waving his hands around excitedly.

"He's very helpful, and he does good work." He nodded. "You can trust a guy like him."

Taylor smiled.

"Lo, you've got new merch coming out soon, don'cha?" Patton asked, flicking his eyes to the teenager.

Logan nodded, getting it immediately.

"What's your shirt size, Taylor?"

{Patton's bein' a sweetie pie

also I've been so busy with work that I only have two more pre-written chapters in this right now}