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It was almost embarrassing how much Neil was looking forward to getting his bagel, for the first time in forever he was looking forward to starting his college semester, purely because of the hundreds of bagels he’d get to have.
Neil really did think it was quite unfortunate that it took him a whole semester for him to find Bee’s Bagels, because frankly, Neil had never tasted anything so good in his life.
The first and only time he had gotten a bagel from Bee’s Bagel’s he hadn’t even gone himself, in fact, he still hasn’t been to the cafe in person. It was only that his group assignment was fast approaching, so he and a couple of strangers (they seem to insist to be his friends, but he’d say otherwise) were pulling a late one in the library, and fortunately for him, Matt had just gotten off shift at Bee’s Bagels and decided to provide the group with some sustenance.
Neil doesn’t like to be dramatic, but he thinks that taking a bite into his bagel was the highest point of his academic career, it’s only been downhill from there. The short story he’d be forced to write will make sure of that at least.
When Neil finally tracks down Bee’s Bagels, he is admittedly both a little underwhelmed and overwhelmed. It's small and doesn’t reflect the bundles of flavours found in some dense bread. It’s independently standing in the middle of a courtyard, nothing around it except for tables and college students.
But it’s small, so small that the short man making the coffee shoots a fierce scowl to the smiley guy at the till every time they bump elbows, and almost directly behind the tall curly-haired man taking orders, is Matt, a tall familiar figure that makes the short man at the counter look even smaller.
Matt himself looks squashed, one step back and he’d be back-to-back with the curly-haired server, and two metres down from the man taking orders, bleach haired girl pokes her head out and calls outnumber for orders.
Aside from the obnoxiously yellow sign, the whole café is black, and the menu stretches out between the two windows listing the dozens of bagels up for grabs.
The thing is, what it doesn’t have in size, it certainly makes up for in customer base. There’s a line of various college students and professors that winds throughout the table of the outside sitting area. If anything, Neil isn’t annoyed about the line, he and everyone else in line know it’s worth it, he’s more annoyed no one told him about this place before.
Despite the length of the queue, it moves quickly, the scowly man is efficient, cutting the bagels in half and putting it in the toaster as they order them, and then quickly pressing the customers coffee into their hands before they’ve even finished paying.
Before Neil’s even had a chance to decide what to order, it’s his turn. Panicking Neil strains to look at the menu, glancing nervously as the blond man who watches looks like he’d literally rather be doing anything else.
Neil looks desperately for the smiley man who was taking order earlier, but Neil catches the head of curly hair frantically making bagels along with two others, scrunching order receipts as quickly as they’re printing out.
“What do you want?” He sighs, tapping the screen.
Neil’s mouth opens and closes a couple of times, he didn’t think to ask what Matt got him, but before he can mumble out the first bagel he sees, the blond man interrupts him, “sweet or savoury?”
Neil pauses, before quickly answering, “savoury.”
The scowly man sighs again, rolling his eyes, “meat or no meat?”
Neil hesitates, he doesn’t have that long and he’s not that hungry this morning, “no meat.”
The blond man looks him up and down, an unreadable expression on his face, “let me guess? Something healthy.”
Neil gapes, “uh, yeah I suppose?”
The man nods, before tapping a couple of times on his screen, “what coffee do you want?”
Neil blinks, he wasn’t intending to get a coffee, but honestly, at this point, he didn’t think he’d have a choice, “just black, no milk or sugar.”
The man scoffs, waving his hand towards the Eftpos machine, “whenever you’re ready.”
Neil stares at the man for a long moment, wondering whether he should ask, what it is he’s paying for and how much he’s paying for it, Neil decides it’s probably better if he doesn’t ask.
Neil’s just finished putting his wallet away when the curly-haired guy pushes forward and passes Neil’s coffee to him with a wide grin, “Hey cutie! Here’s your coffee, sorry about Andrew’s customer service skills, we’re working on it.”
Neil takes the coffee, nodding as he quickly grabs his order number, “right, thanks.”
The man beams, “not a worry, I’m Nicky, it’s lovely to meet you! What's your name cutie?”
Neil stares wide-eyed at Nicky, looking over at the people sitting in silence waiting for the bagels in envy, “oh, um Neil, my name’s Neil.”
Nicky, already scurrying away to make the next bagel, turning to Neil “cute name for a cute face, hopefully, we’ll see you again,” winks, and grins again.
Neil hums noncommittedly, quickly scurrying away, perking up when he hears the blond man, Andrew, speak, “Stop flirting with customers, Nicky, you’ll chase them all away.”
Neil hums quietly to himself, he is not wrong.
However, he quickly remembers that it would mean no more bagels. It would possibly take a lot more than a barista flirting with him to stop him from getting more of these bagels.
Neil keeps going before he can hear Nicky’s response, but whatever he says, causes Andrew to slap Nicky across the back of the head and for his neck to glow a sunburnt pink.
Neil shrugs, waiting impatiently for his bagel to be ready, he has better things to think about, like how he needs to write a short story by the end of the semester.
A statistical report? Any day, a short story? Absolutely not.
****
Neil was almost annoyed with how good the Bagel he got for breakfast yesterday was, he was ready to write a firmly worded letter about rude servers and not even being allowed to make his own order.
However, that was before Andrew absolutely fucking nailed what Neil wanted.
It was a simple avocado bagel with lemon juice and seasoning on an everything bagel, it was so basic, but so what Neil wanted. The avocado was sliced, not mushed, and they didn’t hold back. The bagel burst at the seams every time Neil pressed it down to take a bite, and the seasoning didn’t stop on the avocado. The Bagel could have been an entire meal itself; the seeds and seasonings were mixed throughout the whole bagel and baked into the top.
Neil liked it, to say the least.
Neil decided it was only fair to test how good the grumpy server is and see what he thinks Neil wants today.
It was only until Neil was in line and watching as Andrew confidently manoeuvred around the little shop with ease that Neil realised that he’d just assumed Andrew was going to be working, and fortunately he was.
Fortunately? Neil has never thought something was fortunate ever. If anything, it was fortunate that Nicky wasn’t the barista today, instead it was Dan who Neil had met through Matt.
Neil belatedly tried to remember if Matt and Dan are dating, they probably are, but Neil couldn’t recall Matt ever saying anything, if he did Neil probably wasn’t listening.
Grumpy blond man? Neil paid attention to him. Andrew was interesting, unlike most people.
By the time Neil had reached the counter, he hadn’t even attempted to look at the menu.
Andrew stared at him, the only indication that he recognised who he was, was the lack of hello, and the immediate question of, “sweet or savoury?”
Neil’s lips quirked, “savoury.”
Andrew sighed, “boring,” quickly tapping the screen, “meat?”
Neil had gone for a run this morning so as far as his stomach was concerned, the bigger the meal the better, “yes,” Neil answered.
Andrew’s eyebrow quirked, giving Neil a small once over, “can you handle spice or are you weak?”
Neil scoffed, rolling his eyes, “I can handle spice.”
Andrew snorted, “right-o carrot top.”
Neil frowned, Maybe Andrew hadn’t heard his name yesterday, “my name’s Neil.”
Andrew raised a single unimpressed brow, “yes, I know, orphan Annie.”
Neil blinked hard, did Andrew recognise him? Is that why he was so rude to him?
Andrew gave Neil a long curious look, “you’re not actually an orphan, are you?”
Oh, Neil gaped, he truly was killing it with good impressions, sounds about right that he’d take a simple (what Neil assumes is a) popular culture reference, and take it personally.
Andrew smirked, “put out the fire in your pants, Rabbit, ones more than enough.”
Neil felt himself gape and grow what he would assume is a bright red, knowing that the ugly scars across his face would stay the stark pearlescent pink that become even more obvious the more tan or red he got.
Neil felt himself grow warmer as Andrew started a low rumbling humming to himself, holding eye contact with Neil as he waved towards the Eftpos machine, and handed him his coffee.
Neil barely gathered himself enough to grab his order number and coffee, and desperately tried to hide his fumble as Andrew watched him leave, “see you tomorrow Rabbit”.
It was only later that Neil realised he’d completely ignored Dan, hopefully, she didn’t see how much he embarrassed himself.
Neil was confused but pretty sure he got away with it when all Dan did was give Neil an amused smirk and knowing look the next time she saw him.
****
Neil was frustrated, for multiple reasons.
The first is that he has to write a short story for a compulsory English course as a part of his scholarship and degree.
The second is that he can’t write short stories and doesn’t even know where or how to begin. His lecturer recommended pulling from life experiences, and aside from that being completely useless advice, unless he wants to write about a mob boss dad and a run-away mother and son, he literally has nothing going on in his life.
Neil didn’t really realise how little he does until people talk about the stuff they did with their friends or family on the weekend. Neil was also surprised to find out people have hobbies, and just general interests, that have nothing to do with basic survival.
When he told Matt this, Matt tried to take Neil to a drag race (hoping he’d have someone to talk to about cars), whilst Neil was just very surprised to see loud and smelly cars, not big wigs and high heels.
Neil was too distracted by how overdressed he was and uncomfortable by the man standing next to him deep throating his hot dogs and loudly slapping his girlfriend’s butt every minute or so, to even try and enjoy himself.
The third reason he was so frustrated was that he really wants a bagel, because as much as he hates to admit it, Andrew got it exactly right, the spicy chicken bagel with coleslaw and jalapenos, on the garlic and parmesan bagel was annoyingly good and exactly what he wanted.
He caught himself daydreaming about the baked parmesan and garlic on the crust on the bagel the next morning and couldn’t decide if it was more or less embarrassing than daydreaming about Andrew.
The fourth reason, and possibly the worst, is that he can’t stop thinking about a certain grumpy blond man.
It’s not like he’d never been distracted by people before, but usually, he’s distracted in an anxious, do they know who I am? Kind of way. Or an angry, I can literally think of 24 different ways I want to kill them, kind of way.
Neil’s never been distracted by someone in a, I’d like to spend time with them and get to know them kind of way before, and Neil decided he did not like it one bit.
****
Neil’s short story was approaching at a rapid pace, and no matter how many bagels he had, they never seemed to spark any inspiration for what he should write.
Whilst Neil’s attempts at writing weren’t successful, his attempt at eating everything on Bee’s Bagels’ menu was.
Neil also hadn’t had much success in talking to Andrew any more than Andrew bluntly asking his questions then shooing him away, but he didn’t seem to outwardly hate him (unlike some customers). Neil still struggled with making friends, but he felt that Andrew was probably his most successful attempt yet (Matt didn’t count because he has the disposition of a puppy).
Neil stared at his blank word document, he’d tried story prompts, and word generators but it all felt so fake and robotic. Neil hated this.
“Why the long face, Rabbit?”
Neil startled, looking up in surprise to see Andrew, Neil blinked dumbly, it felt like when you see your teacher outside of a school setting. He’d never seen Andrew out of his work uniform (not that it was much different, it was just a plain black sweater instead of a black shirt with a small logo), but it still felt significant.
“Andrew?” Neil blurted, “what are you doing here?”
Andrew rolled his eyes, “studying, you know, the usual library business.”
“Oh,” Neil paused, “I didn’t know you were a student here?”
Andrew scoffed, “as if someone who wasn’t a student would work at that god damned bagel place.”
Neil frowned, “well I would.”
Andrew huffed, throwing his stuff onto the table next to Neil’s bags, “of course you would, you’re addicted to them.”
Neil felt himself grow red, lightly kicking Andrew’s chair, “I am not addicted to them.”
Andrew looked at Neil for a long moment, clearly unimpressed, “so you don’t want this bagel then?”
Neil squinted at Andrew, giving the little paper bag a cursory look, “I never said that.”
Andrew rolled his eyes, tossing Neil the bagel, and plucking out one of the brownies they sell. The brownies that are usually all sold out by 10 am.
Neil raised an eyebrow, “how’d you get yourself one of those?”
Andrew hummed taking a big bite into the brownie, “whoever packages them in the morning gets first dibs.”
Neil rolled his eyes, “Is that why you’re always on the morning shift?”
Andrew shrugged, “I am a simple man.”
“I somehow doubt that,” Neil scoffs.
Andrew stares at Neil for a long second before humming, quietly to himself and pulling out his laptop, “what are you studying?”
Neil huffs, tapping his space bar a couple of times, “maths and linguistics, You?”
Andrew grimaces, “interesting combo, Nerd,” quickly glancing at Neil’s blank page and blinking cursor, his mouth curling small smirk “English lit.”
Andrew quickly scans his emails, huffing slightly, before glancing over back to Neil, “let me guess, compulsory creative writing course?”
Neil lets out a long sigh, “yeah.”
“Struggling?” Andrew asks as he starts deleting emails on mass, with only cursory glances towards the senders.
Neil frowns at his blinking curser, “no,” he lies, “I’m fine.”
Andrew snorts, “liar.”
Neil huffs, crossing his arms, “it’s so stupid, why is this course even compulsory?”
Andrew rolls his eyes, “of course, a maths student would say that”
Neil bristles, sitting up, “what does that mean?”
Andrew let’s put a long sigh stretching out his legs, “how are you supposed to communicate with the public when you invent some new stupid formula? Instead of just staring at people stupidly when they don’t understand what you’re saying”
Neil frowns, “I communicate just fine, I don’t need to write a short story about ANOVA tables and critical alpha levels.”
Andrew scoffs, “yeah, but no one will care what the fuck anoova and omega shit is if you can’t communicate with the plebs.”
Neil huffs, crossing his arms, “I don’t need them to care.”
Andrew gives Neil a withering look, “yeah you do, how are you supposed to get funding for your research if you can’t make it sound interesting? How are you going to get kids interested in your field if you don’t want them to care about it? Besides, now you’re just feeding into the class system and keeping the poor uneducated and the rich educated, it’s a problem if a kid from the butt-fuck middle of nowhere can’t understand what they're reading.”
Andrew sighs, “look it’s not important whether or not whatever you’re studying or researching is relevant or not, but’s important that you’re held accountable to be accessible to everyone.”
Neil sighs, turning back to his laptop, “ok, I understand that. But I don’t know how to write a short story.”
Andrew huffs, “write about something you find interesting or weird, something you experienced as a child but ten times more dramatic just for the hell of it, those daydreams that you think up whilst at the gym, your life, anything.”
Neil huffs, “but I’m not interesting,” Neil whines, “I don’t have interests or hobbies, I have a boring life.”
Andrew scoffs, “I know boring people, you are not one of those people,” Andrew sighs, looking over Neil’s scars with a gentle kind of curiosity.
It felt different to when most people looked at Neil’s scars, Andrew seemed interested, but in a way that didn’t feel icky and nosey.
Neil sighs, shaking his head, “people don’t want to know about that, people get all awkward and weird when I tell them what happened.”
Andrew shrugs, “that seems like a them problem. If you wanna write about it, write about it.”
Neil frowns, “how? It’s been written about to the high heavens already.”
Andrew rolls his eyes, “did you have any input?”
Neil scowls, “of course not.”
Andrew sighs, flopping back against his chair, “then write about it.”
“But people don’t like it when I talk about it,” Neil grumbles, “I don’t want to fail the course because it isn’t enjoyable to read”.
“Neil,” Andrew sighs, “not everything has to be enjoyable, people are morbidly curious about these sorts of things.”
Neil frowns, “really?”
Andrew huffs, “the most popular kind of podcasts are true crime, I’m fairly sure your dad has a couple hundred dedicated to him alone, people love that shit.”
Neil frowns, “I’m not my dad.”
Andrew looks at Neil, a curious expression on his face, “I know, but you knew him, you were raised by him, you’re the last sane person alive who could talk about him.”
Neil nods, staring blankly at the word document, “the thing about what everyone’s written about my dad, is that it’s so removed and clinical, they weren’t there when he watched stupid actions movies and laughed at bad puns. He wasn’t human to them.”
Neil swallows hard, “Unfortunately he wasn’t crazy. People seem to think that he was a psychopath and was murderously violent in every aspect of his life, and the shit thing is that he wasn’t.”
Neil frowns, staring down at his scarred hands, “he wasn’t a good man, he never was, but he was a man. He was someone who at some point flirted with my mum, and took her on dates, made her fall in love with him.”
Neil lets out a shaky sigh, “people expect me to falsely defend him or something, but I hate him, I hate him so much for what he’s done to me, and I-” Neil trails off, letting out a shaky sigh.
“You’d have never hesitated to kill him if you’d had the chance,” Andrew finishes for him.
Neil stars at Andrew for a long moment, how the hell did they end up here?
“Is that normal?” Neil asks quietly.
Andrew scoffs, “no, but who am I to say?”
Neil huffs, “sorry, you probably think I’m mental.”
Andrew scoffs, “why? I’m no hypocrite. If anything, I’m worse, I actually killed my biological mother.”
Neil looks to Andrew, “was it worth It?”
Andrew stares at Neil for a moment, before the corner of his mouth quirks up slightly, “absolutely.”
Neil huffs out a laugh, “god maybe I should go to therapy.”
Andrew looks at Neil in surprise, “you don’t go to therapy?”
Neil hesitates, “no?”
Andrews huffs, shaking his head, “if anyone should be in therapy, it’s definitely people like you and me.”
Neil Scowls, kicking Andrew’s chair, “shut up.”
Andrew scoffs, “I will when you start writing, if I’m correct, it’ll be due in two weeks’ time.”
Neil sighs, cracking his knuckles, “ok, fine. But if I fail this course, I’m blaming you.”
Andrew glances at Neil from the corner of his eye, “I’d like to see you try.”
****
Through a series of late nights, bagels, and coffee Neil slaved away at his laptop, dredging up old pieces of memory and pretending that it totally wasn’t cathartic to write about the young Nathaniel Wesninski and his far from normal upbringing.
And sometime when Neil couldn’t help but feel the heavyweight of his father’s hand squeezing painfully on his shoulder, or his mother's sharp pinch on his side, or Lola’s nails sharply stabbing his skin as she gripped his wrist.
Just when it was getting a bit too much, and the quiet of the library became deadly to Neil’s spiralling thoughts, Andrew would arrive with a huff smelling of stale coffees and burnt bagels.
He’d throw his bag on the ground in the middle of the walkway and in the way of everyone, he’d unwrap his bagel loudly, wrapper crinkling and crumbs dropping, and he’d smudge his chocolatey fingers all over everything he touched, leaving a trail all over Neil’s stuff, that leads right to the boy that seemed to make everything feel just a little bit better.
They talked a lot, sometimes Neil didn’t talk, sometimes Andrew didn’t talk, sometimes they both sat in silence. The days started to blur together, and Neil started keeping track of them by what bagel he’d had that day.
It was a BLT bagel when Andrew read over some of Neil’s writing, he’d click and type leaving red highlights and comments all over his work, sometimes highlighting whole paragraphs and deleting them.
At Neil’s questioning look Andrew would only ever answer with no, but his comments on the document were always in-depth and helpful and left Neil scurrying away with a brain full of things he’d certainly forget if he didn’t try and type them out immediately, struggling to type with his oily fingers as he nibbled on his hot Italian Sopressa bagel.
The first time he got verbal feedback from Andrew he was struggling with a hot piece of stringy cheese from his Swiss cheese and ham bagel, fresh tomatoes squelching out the side as Andrew forced him to read one of his incomprehensible sentences out loud.
And every time without fail Andrew would tell him about his childhood and growing up; truths. Neil never knew when he’d get a truth, or how many he’d get, not until Neil got Andrew to reread a paragraph he wrote, and he didn’t get any truths.
Every time Neil shared something new about his past with Andrew, Andrew would share something back.
Neil had never been so on top of his work, and it was purely because Neil liked talking to Andrew. Neil liked Andrew.
Somewhere between a pickled pumpkin bagel, playful jabs and truths about his last foster family things started to become a lot clearer.
Neil knew about Roland, Andrew had delved into the teen angst of discovering his sexuality, Neil wasn’t completely stupid.
Or maybe he was because it wasn’t until Andrew’s “I’d blow you”, that Neil finally started to catch on.
It wasn’t until there was a long silence that Neil realised Andrew wanted him to answer. He didn’t realise it was a question.
“Get me something other than bagels to eat first.”
And that was that. Andrew nodded, and Neil waited as he ate his smoked chicken bagel.
Neil didn’t know if he’d just been rejected, or if Andrew was just busy, or if he forgot, or if he’d even misunderstood Andrew, but Andrew hadn’t mentioned smoked chicken bagel day since.
****
Neil was very pleased with himself. He was almost done with his short story and was starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
He’d long finished his morning bagel of pastrami, with swiss cheese, pickles, and mustard on an everything bagel. It was delicious and very satisfying, but Neil wanted another one.
Neil could admit it was ridiculous and a bit of a problem, but Neil doesn’t drink and doesn’t smoke, so as far as he’s concerned? He can have this one indulgence.
Just as Neil was about to give in, Andrew arrives at Neil’s regular spot in the library with a quiet exhalation and a thump as he unceremoniously dumped his bag.
He’d clearly just finished work, as clutched in his hands he had two freshly toasted bagel, one coated thick with Nutella (Andrew’s regular order), and the other Neil’s secret favourite (a favourite which he’d never actually told Andrew about), but a favourite Andrew figured out anyway. An Avocado bagel with extra seasoning on a garlic and parmesan bagel.
Somehow this thing with Andrew had become exactly that, a thing.
They didn’t talk about it, but Neil couldn’t stop thinking about smoked chicken bagel day, and Andrew’s silence.
Dismissing the thought Neil turned to Andrew, “I’m almost finished”
Andrew nodded, “have you checked everything off the criteria sheet?”
Neil frowned, shaking his head, “I lost that a while ago.”
Sighing Andrew slipped out a cleanly printed criteria sheet and passed it over to Neil, “don’t lose this one.”
Nodding, Neil studied it with a frown, “How do you know so much about this course?”
Andrew huffed, rolling his eyes, “I’m a tutor for it, you’d know if you checked your emails”
Neil frowned as he stared blankly at the email icon on his desktop, the one he hadn’t even bothered to set up.
Neil turned to Andrew’s laptop with a frown, “The emails you delete?”
“Yep,” Andrew muttered, as he with the ease of practice, highlighted every unread email and sent it to the bin.
“Oh,” Neil hummed, “Is that why you haven’t asked me out?”
Andrew gave Neil a long-tired look. Neil thought that Maybe he was a bit stupid.
“Wouldn’t want people to think that you’re getting extra help cos you’re sucking my dick” Andrew drawled, with a tone that suggested this was an idea that he thought was particularly stupid.
Neil rubbed his face, squinting at the pages of notes and highlights covering his document, “But I am getting extra help?”
Andrew let out a derived scoff, “Yeah, and my dicks not even being sucked,” with a long-tired breath he slammed his laptop shut and looked at Neil, “what a scam.”
Andrew slowly started packing up his stuff, pausing to look at Neil just as he was about to leave.
“Find me once you’ve submitted it,” and paused to look Neil up and down with a grimace, “and wear something nice.”
****
Neil’s assignment was due tomorrow, and he was stressed. Not because of the assignment, but of what might happen after. Neil had long finished his assignment, he’d reread it to exhaustion, and had made anyone who could read edit it.
What he hadn’t done was find something nice to wear. Every time he thought about it and dug through his closet trying to find a ‘nice’ outfit, he’d always end up defeated sitting in a pile of clothes.
It suddenly occurred to him as he struggled to tug a shirt over his wild messy hair that Neil simply did not have any nice clothes. Staring at his reflection, Neil gathered that if Andrew has put up with his clothing so far, and still asked him out, then surely, he’ll be fine.
Neil felt himself grin as he clicked submit with a flourish, pausing as he read the notice telling him to check his email (the one he still hadn’t set up) for his receipt.
Neil frowned, underwhelmed by the lack of fanfare. He felt that he was due at least a ‘good job’, even if it was just an automated message.
It was quarter to four in the afternoon, and Andrew finished in 15 minutes. Hurrying outside he grabbed his things, and anxiously speed walked all the way to Bee’s Bagels it was five to four when Neil arrived, and he grinned as he saw Andrew scowling as he took someone’s order.
Neil lined up behind them, stepping forward as they walked away in a huff. Andrew sighed before looking up at Neil, Andrew paused, looking Neil over.
“Those are not nice clothes.”
Neil grinned, “I don’t own any nice clothes.”
Andrew sighed, before turning to look at someone out of Neil’s view, “I’m going, don’t serve this asshole.”
Neil laughed, wondering around to where he knew to be the back door of Bee’s bagels, leaning beside the door as he waited for Andrew.
Andrew shoved open the door with a huff and paused to look at Neil. Neil stared back unsure as to what Andrew was thinking.
Quickly Andrew shook his head, letting out an agonised sigh and looked to the sky.
“I hate you.”
Neil stared back at Andrew for a long while, taking in his messy hair, and coffee-stained shirt, “yeah, same.”
Andrew glared witheringly at Neil, “yes, or no?”
Out of all the questions Neil had ever been asked in his life, this was the easiest to answer.
“Yes.”
Andrew hummed, grabbing Neil jaw, pressing his lips firmly against Neil before pulling back slightly to look Neil in the eyes.
Neil felt himself grin before closing the distance himself and leaned forward into Andrew sturdy frame.
Neil felt his breath catch as Andrew licked into his mouth, and desperately clutched the side of his jeans in an attempt to find stability.
Andrew pulled back suddenly, his hot breath puffing across Neil’s face, he grabbed Neil’s hands and placed them firmly on his shoulder, “just the shoulder’s and up.”
Neil quickly nodded, as Andrew rolled his eyes at his enthusiasm.
Grabbing Neil’s face, he slowly looked him over before landing on Neil’s lips, he pressed a light kiss to the corner of his mouth, before promptly consuming any rational thought Neil once held in his brain.
Neil would have never guessed that a bagel place would ever mean quite so much to him.
It wasn’t until a while later that the back door slammed open as a man, identical to Andrew, stepped out, pausing as he took in Andrew holding Neil against the wall and their panting breaths, his face slowly morphing into disgust and contempt.
“Have you two seriously been making out against this wall for the past 30 minutes?” he asked, before sighing as he looked to Andrew, “first of all, gross, second of all, this is seriously why you broke off our deal?”
Andrew glared at his brother, “what’s it to you? You get to snog that cheerleader, I get to snog this idiot.”
The guy pursed his lips, looking Neil up and down, “you look homeless,” before looking over to Andrew and shrugging, “whatever floats your boat dude.”
Andrew scoffed indignantly, presumably at being called dude, before turning to Neil, “you do look homeless.”
Neil shrugged, “you still gonna get me dinner?”
Andrew pursed his lips, before letting out a pained sigh, “yeah in a minute.”
Andrew stepped forward to Neil, pressing him up against the wall again, “yes, or no?”
“Yes.”
They didn’t go out for dinner that night, but the pizza they ate from the couch was just as good.