Call me kitten (boyxboy love) ✓

23. Chris the grizzly

I walked through the glass doors and tried to ignore the looks I got from the people that had seen me and Ash outside. Didn't they have anything better to do than standing around ogling? Weren't they supposed to work? My footsteps were assertive as I walked towards the elevators and I realized that I wasn't ashamed as I walked past the office workers, as I thought I would be. I was pissed. What was so damn weird about two human beings showing each other affection? Were there laws that prohibited touching if it was humans of the same gender? No, there weren't. They didn't know neither Ash or me, so they should mind their own damn business.

The anger had made me weirdly energetic so work went by in a dizzying speed, and I got more done than I would have in those previous days when I had just sat in my cubicle like a corpse. The situation with Ash's apartment was temporarily gone from my head and I was just happy that I knew where he was. When lunchtime approached, Chris popped his head over the cubicle as usual. His expression was almost relieved when he saw me.

"Have... uhm, your sister gotten a hold of Ash yet?" he said airily.

At first, I didn't understand what he was talking about, but then I remembered my total meltdown a couple of days ago, and my desperate attempt at concealing it.

"Oh yeah, she has," I said as neutral as I could muster.

He slowly nodded to himself and seemed to think.

"Lunch?" he asked after a while.

What was with him? Maybe he was trying to piece together my strange behavior then, with what I was saying now and didn't manage to do it. And I was pretty certain he was suspecting something but telling him was not an option. He had to draw his own conclusions. I didn't even know how he would feel about me dating Ash. He was usually a pretty prejudiced person, and he might just as well be a downright homophobe.

We talked about the usual stuff at lunch, Chris was whining about some football game that didn't go his way and I just agreed with him, without knowing what he was actually talking about. Suddenly someone had stopped at our table and both Chris and I looked up. It was a co-worker I vaguely recognized, but I had no idea of his name. But apparently Chris did.

"Hey, Colin. What's up?" Chris greeted cheerily.

The guy, whose name was Colin, just nodded at Chris and then turned to me with a hostile look on his face.

"You and your fucking boyfriend better watch out," he spat, and I froze in my seat. "You can do whatever nasty fag stuff you want at home, I don't care, but don't doing that stuff where other people see you, it makes me sick! Got it?"

I just sat there motionless, speechless. Obviously, he had been one of the ones who had seen me and Ash this morning. My head reeled. Never had I been subjected to such open hatred before, and I had no idea how to react. I should say something, but my mouth didn't work, and my body was paralyzed. I was terrified. In the corner of my eye I saw Chris get up with such force that his chair fell down behind him. He grabbed Colin by his sweater.

"Just what the hell are you saying, Colin?" he hissed, and his voice was so threatening that I was released from my paralysis.

"You know what I mean, they–," Colin started, but Chris interrupted him.

"Don't you fucking dare threatening my buddy, ok? He can do whatever he wants to. And if you and that fucking lizard-brain of yours have a problem with that, you and I can go out back and have a talk about it. Do you want us to have a talk about it, Colin?"

Chris was above average height, but now he seemed to tower ten inches above Colin. I just stared at him and the people at the nearest tables did too. Was this Chris? I had never seen him get angry or upset, the closest thing I had seen him do was getting annoyed over some sport. And here he was, defending me like a damn grizzly.