Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/1052650.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Underage
  Category:
      M/M
  Fandom:
      Inception_(2010)
  Relationship:
      Arthur/Eames_(Inception), Dom_Cobb/Mal_(Inception), Previous_Robert
      Fischer/Eames
  Character:
      Arthur_(Inception), Eames_(Inception), Mal_(Inception), Dom_Cobb, Ariadne
      (Inception), Yusuf_(Inception), Robert_Fischer, Tallulah, Phillipa_
      (Inception), James_(Inception), Original_Characters
  Additional Tags:
      Underage_Sex, Older_Eames_and_younger_Arthur, Sweet_though_and_not
      creepy, hopefully, warnings_of_fluff, because_I_am_a_secret_romantic,
      also_happy_endings_becuase_they_are_wonderful, Yusuf_is_an_amazing_friend
      and_publisher, Mal_is_alive_because_she_is_awesome, and_Dom_isn't_a_crazy
      person, Mention_of_drinking_problem, and_almost_death_pre_story, Arthur
      is_also_a_great_brother, Eames'_arms, Top_Eames, Bottom_Arthur, because
      that's_always_useful_info, Alternate_Universe_-_High_School
  Stats:
      Published: 2013-11-20 Chapters: 1/? Words: 28094
****** When Our Worlds Collide ******
by danceswithfandom
Summary
     Arthur is a high school student who divides his time working and
     looking after his nephew and older sister. Eames is a famous author
     who moves back to Arthur's town after a messy break up which has also
     left him with a serious writers block. They're both running from
     something, hopefully they can slow down long enough to connect.
Notes
     This idea spawned after I watched Shelter for the hundreth time, some
     elements appear but it's mostly original. In addition this....this is
     going to be a long fic since I've come to terms with the fact I
     cannot do short stories. In this one Eames is twenty six and Arthur
     is seventeen, Mal, Yusuf, Dom and Robert will make appearances in
     later chapters. Also this is my first time writing smut, so I'm just
     gonna hide behind this rock until I know if it's any good or not.
     This is unbeta'd by anyone but myself so all mistakes are mine. Also
     apologises the characterisation of Arthur is similar in another story
     of mine on fanfic, others will be a bit different.
     I've made some changes (99% grammatical) and merged the two old
     chapters and the new one into one for convenience sake. I can only
     apologise about the long wait for an update, I've been travelling on
     my gap year and was too paranoid about taking my laptop with me.
     Hopefully the stories a little easier to read now. :)
See the end of the work for more notes
“Order up! Two burgers and a side order of fries Arthur.”
“Got it Rich!” Arthur grabbed the two luke warm plates and span on his heels
balancing them whilst gripping his pencil between his teeth. The couple at
table seven seemed to be deeply engrossed in a serious conversation, the woman
gave a small nod of acknowledgement without breaking eye contact with her
companion, dark brown hair perfectly styled into neat bob. When he set the
plate down in front of her, he took note of the set, thin line of her mouth and
the stiff shoulders of her companion the way they both stopped talking when
Arthur had arrived. When you’d worked in the dinner as long as Arthur had you
knew when small talk and questions would be welcomed and when they would be
rebuffed and these two looked like they didn’t want to be disturbed. He asked
quietly about drinks, but they had already begun harshly muttering to each
other and Arthur quickly retreated.
He swept his eye around the dinner, both of his tables, the one with the couple
and another filled with college students laughing and messing around with each
other, were still in the middle of eating. His gaze lingered on the kids in the
corner, the bright spark in their eyes and their easy smiles, he was younger
than them but he wondered if he’d looked older with the dark circles under his
eyes.
The ding of the bell on the counter brought Arthur out of his day dream and he
flushed at Frank’s raised eyebrows, making his way quickly back into the
kitchen. Frank was yelling out orders to their new fry cook, a shy younger guy
Lucas or...Luke...something like that. He looked like a strong gust of wind
would blow him over, getting flustered more and more flustered with the amount
of orders Frank called out to him.
When there was a loud clang from his direction Frank met Arthur’s eyes and
rolled his, he wiped his hands on the front of his apron before picking up a
large kitchen knife to cut a large chunk of beef.
“Your awful distracted tonight Arthur,” his voice competed with natural sounds
of the kitchen, large round face becoming pinker by the second. “Y’all ain’t
got a girl finally tucked away hav’ ya?” Arthur grinned, for some reason
Frank’s southern lilt had the effect of putting him at ease – he hadn’t lived
in Louisiana since he was a kid but the accent had never faded - though he
chuckled at the question.
“I should be so lucky Frank,” the other man gave him a sympathetic look and
grabbed a fresh bag of potatoes, slapping them down ungracefully on the table.
“If your tables are all set, you best start peeling those we need some more
fries.”
Arthur grinned and moved swiftly to the counter, pouring a few potatoes on the
bright yellow chopping board. “Y’know normal dinners usually just buy the
packet chips,” he turned in time to see the utter look of disgust on Frank’s
face.
“Yeah that’s because they can’t be assed to do it themselves, now get peeling,”
Frank was so easy to wind up. Arthur peeled steadily, tension bleeding slightly
from his muscles with the repetitive action. He almost didn’t notice the
vibrating in his jean pocket; he cleaned his hands with a nearby kitchen towel
before flipping his phone open, heart sinking at the caller I.D.
“Lisa?” Frank muttered by his shoulder. Arthur nodded mutely in response,
running a hand through his hair. God he so didn’t need this right now, he was
so tired he wanted to curl up on the floor “Go, Jake can cover you for a sec.”
He shot the older man a grateful smile. “I’ll be back in two minutes max I
swear,” Frank nodded and turned back to his chopping, Arthur ducked out of the
employee back entrance out by the rubbish bins and reluctantly hit ‘Accept’.
Lisa’s voice to a second to come through. “Artie?” her tone gave what she
wanted away immediately and Arthur felt his heart sink “Are you there?”
“Yeah Li, what d’you need?” there was a pause down the end of the line, before
his sisters voice crackled through again.
“Look I know it’s short notice but there’s this amazing party down out Nolan’s,
like once in a life time amazing kind of party and I know it’s my day to watch
Will, but like I said it’s like only a one-time event!” Arthur rubbed his eyes
in frustration. It amazed him how nonchalant his sister was about leaving her
kid to go to some random club.
“Li I’ve almost worked every day this week and I’ve got an paper in for
tomorrow.”
“Come on little brother,” his sister whined down the phone, using the voice she
used when Arthur was six and she convinced him to take the blame for smashing a
favourite ornament that had belonged to their mother. “I promise I’ll make it
up to you.”
He sighed heavily, feeling himself cave, it’s not like there was any other
option, Li would go either way she’d just get one of her ‘friends’ to babysit
and there was no way he wanted that. “Fine, I’ll be home in an hour.”
“The club opens in forty-five minutes, can’t you get home then?” his muscles
felt stiff, lack of sleep and food all washing over him at once mixed with
frustration, but like he always did Arthur felt himself just giving in.
“Fine,” he breathed. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Lisa gave a little squeal down the phone. “Oh thank you Arthur, you’re best
little brother ever! Like I said I promise to make it up to you!” It was all
lies, Arthur knew that, it was always the same promise being broken over and
over again, Arthur wasn’t naive enough to believe her.
“It’s fine,” he muttered. “Just try and be back by three this time, and make
sure your phones charged and that you have money for a taxi.”
A loud huff came down the line. “God, yes mum! I’m not sure about three, Abby’s
knows about this after party, apparently some big sports guys will be there!
Wish me luck Artie!”
“Wait Li—“ she hung up before he could finish. He shoved his phone into his
jean pocket and growled in the silent alley at the dark starless sky above him.
When he moved back inside he yanked and pulled the door closed it with more
force than necessary, Luke actually jumped at the sound and shirked away when
Arthur stormed passed. Every conversation with his older sister ended the same
way; Frank didn’t even blink when Arthur came back over with what Ari described
as a ‘death glare’ on his face.
“Lisa need you again?” Arthur sliced the potatoes vigorously, and gave a small
hum in response, Frank’s hand on his shoulder forced him to stop what he was
doing and reluctantly turn to face the older man. “Jesus boy when was the last
time went to bed at a decent hour of the night” Arthur shrugged, he couldn’t
honestly remember, between the dinner, homework and taking care of the house
sleep was usually either hindrance or a small luxury that he didn’t have the
time to indulge in.
Frank looked concerned as his gaze swept over Arthur’s face, brow knitted
together. “Your too thin boy, thinner than when you started here and that’s
sayin’ somethin’.” Arthur had always been naturally skinny, but maybe he had
lost more weight? “I’d give you less shifts if I didn’t think y’all would get
another job and work yourself even harder,” Franks words were laced with worry
and rang uncomfortably true, but they needed the money and to get that Arthur
had to work.
At Arthur’s impassive face Frank seemed to give up, hand leaving his shoulder.
“What time do you need to be back?”
He felt a surge of gratitude to the old man, “If I can go twenty minutes early
I think she might wait that long before leaving, I’ll arrive early tomorrow,”
Frank turned round back to the counter top.
“You’ll leavein thirty minutes and if I see you here early tomorrow I’m gonna
make you wait on the corner tables until your shift actually starts,
understood,” he called gruffly over his shoulder. There were times when Arthur
was reminded how lucky he was to have someone like Frank as his boss.
“Thank you,” he offered sincerely.
“Yeah yeah,” Frank mumbled. “Talk to me when you’ve finished those potatoes,”
Arthur turned back and got to work as fast as he could, determined to make sure
his last twenty minutes of work counted.
True to his words at 9:32 exactly Frank shoved him out of the kitchen and
Arthur ran to catch the bus, he arrived home just in time to see Lisa tottering
out of the door in her stiletto’s surrounded by a group of people, only two of
which Arthur recognised. When she caught sight of him her face lit up in a way
that Arthur could see a glimpse of his big sister behind the caked on
foundation and bright red lips.
“Artie!” she threw her arms around him, Arthur could smell perfume and the
sheer amount she had on made Arthur’s nose hurt. When she pulled back, wobbling
slightly he could see that her eyes were already a little glassy, obviously the
party had started early.
“You’re such a good little brother,” she petted his head as if he were a small
child. “Guys this is my baby brother Artie, ‘cause of him I can have fun with
you guys tonight. Three cheers for my little brother!” To his horror the group
actually started cheering, the lights in the neighbours house flicked on at the
noise, Arthur flushed in embarrassment.
“Li cut it out,” he muttered harshly. His sister just laughed in his face, he
smelt the alcohol on her breath for sure this time, she stumbled slightly and
Arthur instinctively caught her.
She giggled again. “God Arthur chill out, don’t be so boring,” the group
snickered behind her.
“Come on babe lets go,” a guy with a bright blue Mohican pulled her back and
wound an arm around her, he looked at Arthur like he was a piece of gum stuck
to his shoe. “Let’s ditch this kid.”
Li snickered at him. “God you’re so rude! Alright lets go guys, bye Artie!” The
group pushed past him, looking at each other, then Arthur giggling. He watched
Lisa totter down the street, the groups loud, raucous laughter echoing down the
street.
He wanted to go after her, to bring her back inside and put her to bed with a
glass of water, but past experience had taught him that she’d resent him for
stopping her going out, she would declare that she would do what she wanted and
her baby brother certainly going to order her about. He wasn’t even hurt by it
anymore, just turned around pushed open the door she’d forgotten to lock and
stepped inside.
The smell of cigarettes hit him and he wrinkled his nose in disgust at the
scent. “Is that you Arthur?” a little voice piqued, in the living room, curled
up on the sofa was the little figure of his nephew. Will looked over with big,
nervous eyes until he saw Arthur and a small smile graced his mouth.
“Hey munchkin,” he grinned at him. Despite the exhaustion he was genuinely
happy Will’s “Why aren’t you in bed yet?”
“Lisa said I could watch a film,” Arthur sat next to the little one. Will
instinctively snuggled into Arthur’s side, he put an arm around him and hugged
him close, the younger boy’s hair tickled his chin. He watched Finding Nemo
with him for a while, Will tried hard to stay awake but halfway through the
film his head was drooping, eventually his steady breathing gave away that he
was also fast asleep.
As carefully as he could, he manoeuvred Will so he could pick him up; he walked
down the small corridor to the Will’s room, tucking him as gently as he could
so not to wake him up. Will didn’t stir except to snuffle slightly, before he
left he took one last look with a wistful smile at his nephew before he turned
off the light and closed the door.  
He grabbed his backpack from where he’d dumped by the and gladly retreated to
his room, closing the door was like shutting off the outside world, like a
great burden had been lifted. The relief was only temporary however as he had
homework for tomorrow. His stomach let out a growl which Arthur ignored,
pouring the contents of his bag onto his bed he steeled himself for the
inevitable two hours this essay would take.
And this was Arthur’s life, a mix of school, work, homework and babysitting
with little else in-between. Ambitions and college were words that had no
meaning to Arthur, his sister needed him here, they couldn’t afford the bills
if Arthur stopped working, with their joint income they balanced them. Will and
Leah needed him here, Li...she had her good points but she hadn’t quite got the
hang of motherhood yet, if Arthur wasn’t here she’d forget to make sure they
had lunch money, or they had clean clothes, or sometimes that they had school
at all.
When Will was old enough to take care of himself then he’d look into college or
something like that, that’s what he told himself, Ariadne, Frank and his
guidance counsellor. The more they asked the more determined Arthur’s voice
got, but they would always give him the same sad look that let him know they
doubted his assured tone, and to be honest Arthur doubted his words too.
-------
The next morning Arthur’s alarm jostled him out of the few hours sleep he’d
managed to get, he dipped his head into Lisa’s room and found her face buried
in the chest of blue Mohawk guy, his hair had sufficiently deflated during the
night, for some reason Arthur found it funny.
He got Will up and ready for school, and picked up a piece of toast for
himself, munching on it half heartedly. They caught the bus together, Will held
on tightly to his hand as the moved round the strangers to find a free seat, he
eyes flicking around suspiciously.
When the bus set off Will He dropped them off at preschool, Will made too walk
straight in but seemed to lose his nerve and lingered, looking back at Arthur.
“Go on Will they don’t bite,” Arthur meant to reassure him but instead he
looked even more uncertain.
“They don’t really bite do they daddy?” he asked nervously.
“Uncle,” he reminded him for the fifteenth time. “And no munchkin they don’t
bite, you ready to go in?” he nodded, determination setting on his face.
“Your mom’s picking you up today remember,” they nodded. Arthur gave his
shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Have a good day guys,” he called out as Will strode
towards the school. He waited until he saw Will disappear inside with one of
his friends, before racing like a madman to the bus stop he managed to catch it
just before it left, in doing so he got to school on time for once rather than
ten minutes late as was usually the case.
He slipped into his tutor room, and walked straight towards he and Ari’s desk,
his friend was already there, phone out and chewing on the end of her pencil.
He took the seat next to her. “If Mr. Jacob’s catches you with that he’ll take
it,” he warned her, she shrugged not looking up from the screen.
“I’m checking with Rachel if the writers here yet,” he frowned in confusion.
“What writer?” she looked up from her phone with a look of complete
astonishment, Arthur felt himself flush slightly
“The writer that’s coming in today?” Still nothing. “The famous one! Who went
to this school like seven years ago?” Nope. “The reason we miss half of first
period ‘cause he’s doing assembly which we’re literally about to go to?” her
voice had gradually gotten higher and louder the more flabbergasted she got.
The bell rang, presumably to signal the assembly with this writer guy, they got
up Arthur hooking his back pack over his shoulder.
He shrugged. “I guess I forgot.”
“How could you forget it’s literally all that people have been talking all
week?!” he was getting a little frustrated with her dumbfounded stare at him.
“I don’t usually listen to people talking,” half of his concentration was
actually now on making sure they didn’t crash into anybody as the class moved
faster than they had the entire year at school.
“It’s all I’ve been talking about all week!”
He shrugged. “Sometimes I drift off,” Ari punched him lightly in the arm.
“Some friend you are!” she muttered, but she looped her arm through his as they
approached the auditorium doors. Mr. Jacobs was there sending them in a line to
their seats. Ari waited until they had been sat down and the principal of their
school had started his longwinded introduction to pipe up again.
“Rachel told me he’s single as well, apparently he just broke up with his
girlfriend a few weeks ago,” Arthur frowned at the suggestion.
“You’re not seriously hopping this guy goes after you, it’s a little creepy,”
she gave him a cheeky smile.
“Of course not! I just thought it’d be like something from a book, y’know the
young author gets his heart broken and then gets swept up in a passionate love
affair with a student,” she grinned wistfully he shook his head at her words.
“You better save that one for one of yourstories,” he sank down in his seat as
the principal finished his intro and the obligatory applause began. “Plus I bet
you anything he’s this sweater wearing, giant bearded, pretentious
intellectual,” when Ari didn’t answer for a moment he turned to look at her and
found a raised eyebrow and disbelief all over her face.
“Arthur have you ever seen a picture of this guy?” he scoffed at her.
“Of course I haven—“
“Hello there, I’m Fredrick Eames but please just call me Eames,” A British
accent interrupted him and Arthur turned to look at this so called famous
author. And his mouth stayed open, this time in disbelief.
Well he’d been right about the sweaters thing.
“I’m very proud to be presenting this assembly, although I admit it’s a little
odd considering I’m used to being the one watching the person the school had
bribed to do the assembly that week,” a murmur of laughter went through the
students, even Mr. Jacobs cracked a smile.
Eames was fucking hot.
This was the only thought that had been able to process itself through Arthur’s
head whilst this guy Eames had been talking. He didn’t even notice his mouth
was still wide open until Ari put a hand under his chin and shut it for him.
Arthur felt his cheeks burn at losing concentration, but he still couldn’t take
his eyes off Eames and that reason was very simple.
Eames was fucking hot.
And yes that need repeating twice. He was talking about his days at their
school which Arthur was only half paying attention, choosing instead to stare
at Eames’ mouth as they formed the words. They were the kind of lips you
expected to see on a girl and they should’ve looked out of place on a guy,
instead they suited him perfectly and filled Arthur with the urge to trace the
shape of them with his thumb. The only detail Arthur had gotten right was the
jumper, a flattering shade of maroon with a white collared shirt peaking out of
the sleeves, the jumper was tight enough that Arthur could see the outline of
some definite muscle tone underneath.
Despite the clean outfit though the day old stumble and the poor slicked backed
hair gave that untidy impression that usually was unattractive to someone like
Arthur, now though he was beginning to think he’d seriously missed out.
He was so absorbed in staring at Eames eyes - he couldn’t see what colour they
were from this distance, hidden behind the mans glasses and he was exceedingly
curious - that he missed the fact that Ari had been whispering into his ear
“...genius or something like that.”
Arthur finally managed to drag his attention away from Eames and back to Ari
“What did you say?” he winced internally at how dazed he sounded.
Ari just looked thoroughly amused with him, a little smirk playing on the
corners of her mouth “I was saying that apparently Rachel’s brother was in the
same year as him, he was supposed to be this party guy, real ladies man but got
average grades until he started writing these creative stories and they
discovered he was like a literary genius or something like that,” he gave the
man on stage a once over again. With the glasses, jumper and the way he’d
reddened slightly at the praise Mr. Jacobs interjected with, the guy before
Arthur didn’t seem like some swaggering lothario though Arthur imagined he
could pull anyone he wanted.
Looks could be deceiving though, maybe that open smile was a mask and hiding
behind it was something very different.
Still. “I really need to go to the bookstore,” Ari snickered at that, earning a
shush from someone behind them.
“I told you he was hot!” she whispered deliberately louder than usual.
“Actually you didn’t, your exact words were ‘Arthur have you ever seen a
picture of this guy?’”
“The implication was there!” she hissed. “And you can cancel your trip to the
bookshop, our library has his books times three,” at Arthur’s look she
explained. “He’s one of the schools success stories, of course there going to
parade him.”
“This school has more than one success story?” he asked in disbelief. Their
school wasn’t exactly in the ‘nice’ part of town...or actually in the ‘alright’
part of town, that someone got even slightly famous after coming from here was
slightly unbelievable.
“Well there’s that one woman who became a famous lawyer or something, I think
she was here for a year?”
“I’m not counting that one,” he dead-panned, the other girl rolled her eyes,
blowing a stray chocolate coloured lock off her face.
“Plus he’s also one of the school’s main benefactors; he helps funds our art
programme or something like that,” Arthur hadn’t known that. To be honest he
didn’t pay much attention to stuff going on at their school, not to be arrogant
or anything but he had more important things in his life. Now though he was
starting to wish he’d paid more attention to it all.
“I’m beginning to understand your interest in English Lit now—“
“Ssshhh,” Ari interrupted him. “He’s about to do the Q/A I’ve got my questions
down here somewhere,” she rifled through her backpack like a woman possessed.
He took the opportunity to give Eames his full attention again.
Eames cleared his throat. “Well that’s enough of just me droning on, d’you guys
have any questions?” the man had such a welcoming air about him but with an
undertone of cheekiness that just drew you in closer. Immediately after asking
the question five hands went up. It was the most enthusiastic Arthur had seen
the rest of his school mates about a speaker since the guy who did a freelance
job for the FBI one time.
“Ok how about you there in that dapper blue shirt.” Dapper?
“Hi there,” the voice that answered sounded positively gleeful. “I wanted to
know um, in your book ‘Stranded’ where the inspiration for Anna came from?”
Eames paused for a moment, seemingly choosing the right words. “Well a lot of
the inspiration for Anna comes from my twin sister Morgan, she’s basically the
embodiment of the character. In fact when I had trouble with the dialogue I
badgered her to come round and help me. But she hates it when I go on about her
like that,” he admitted a little sheepishly, a few laughs echoed through the
audience.
“Next question then?” He was almost hit in the face with Ari’s hand as it shot
up. “You with the headphones,” Ari huffed disappointed next to him.
“About your latest book, ‘The Secret Life of Chameleons’, at the end of the
book it’s open ended with the character of Frank getting a chance at
reconciliation with his ex wife and daughter but at the same time the beer is
still in the fridge indicating he could relapse, why did chose to end the book
this way?” Wow Arthur was beginning to sincerely wish he’d read some of this
guys books.
“It’s like real life,” Eames answered instantly this time. “Frank had been an
alcoholic since he was 25 relapses often occur in those situations, it would’ve
be rosy if the story had ended with Audrey forgiving Frank completely for what
his drinking did to their marriage but honestly, she’d been through so much
that she was willing to extend the bridge slightly but not let him back in
immediately. Frank has a choice to make, he can either embrace the purpose of
the road trip which was to have the chance to reconnect with his family and get
his life back, or he can sink back into the simple oblivion of drink, like real
life he has to make that choice himself.” Eames face lit up when he was talking
about his work, if Arthur had been expecting a stuffed shirt intellectual who
gave stiff impersonal answers he was proven severely wrong, Eames talked as if
the characters in his book were real people, old friends. The profoundness of
it was ruined slightly for Arthur by Ari muttering something along the lines of
‘Crap!’ and dropping her bag back on the floor.
“Will there be a sequel?” the student piped up again.
Eames chuckled “I don’t have any plans for one, and honestly I think sometimes
it’s best to let the reader come to their own conclusions,” the student seemed
satisfied with this answer. “Any more questions?”
Ari’s hand shot straight up in the air again, this time Eames gaze swept across
to her and he pointed. “How about you with the yellow scarf?”
She practically bounced in her seat. “Hey, wow ok um, I was um, curious, most
first time writers end up getting a load of rejection letters and wait years
before their book is picked up by a publishing house but you did it within a
few months! So my question is, what sort of magic did you have use to do that?”
a wave of small laughter rippled round the room and Eames for his credit
chuckled too.
“No magic I’m afraid. What happened was I was really lucky...and ridiculously
persistent as my publisher will tell you, he was an up and comer too and when I
got rejected from everywhere else including there I badgered and badgered him,
even waited outside the building a couple of times, until he finally caved and
agreed to read it himself. He rang me a few days later and I really thought he
was going to put a restraining order on me,” another ripple of laughter. “But
he ended up saying he believed in me and the boom and put all his efforts into
making it a success...well him and my agent wonderful woman she is,” he smiled
fondly at that. “So I guess the answer is if you believe in your work then
fight for it, and hope the place doesn’t get a restraining order on you.”
Ari joined in with the chorus of laughter, everyone seemed to be thoroughly
charmed by this guy, Arthur included, when he turned his attention back to the
audience Eames suddenly caught Arthur’s gaze and stayed there. For a moment it
was like the rest of the room disappeared, as Eames’ eyes stared straight at
Arthur and Arthur stared back feeling heat rise into his cheeks. Then suddenly
Eames’ gaze flicked away as if he stopped for a moment and looked directly at
Arthur, Arthur himself began to doubt that had ever happened, maybe he’d simply
imagined Eames’ look?
The other man went on and answered a few more questions; Ari even got one more
in before Mr. Jacobs interrupted him and took the centre stage again.
“I’m afraid that’s quite enough for today you all have lessons to get to,”
Arthur hadn’t realised how much charisma Eames had oozed, the minute Mr. Jacobs
stepped in his place it was like the spell that had been cast over everyone
disappeared and they got up from their seats, concentration transferred back to
their phones or gossiping with each other.
Ariadne for her part was still buzzing with excitement, the moment they stood
up she looped her arm through his and gripped tightly, talking a mile a minute.
“Wasn’t that cool?!” she gushed happily, practically skipping at this point, he
smiled at her reaction.
“I didn’t know you were such a fan,” she blushed the same shade of maroon as
Eames’ sweater had been.
“He isn’t one of my all time favourite authors, but come on how often do we get
the chance to ask to ask a real writer questions about the business?! And it’s
also well...” her body tensed slightly and she bit her lip, a nervous habit
Arthur had come to recognise. “...well if Eames can make it out of a place like
this and get published maybe I can too y’know?”
He unlooped their arms and instead put his arm around her shoulders. “Of course
you’ll get published, they’d be stupid not too,” she looked a little more
reassured at that. “You realise though that when you’re rich and famous I
expect to get, at least a wing of your castle,” she laughed happily.
“You can have the basement; I’ll even make sure there are no cobwebs down
there,” the tension disappeared from her body, and the cheeky smile returned.
“Plus, I told you he’s hot,” Arthur shrugged feigning nonchalance.
“He was ok,” he had to laugh at the utterly incredulous look on Ari’s face, as
if he’d just insulted her mother.
“Ok?!” she yelled, horrified. “He’s famous but likeable, and has that British
nerd slash cutely vulnerable thing going on! He’s like a young Hugh Grant!”
that description was surprisingly accurate. “And you totally have to read his
books, there’s only three at the moment and ones a short but I cried during
‘The Secret Life of Chameleons’!” she started waxing poetically about the
themes of the novel. If he had the book he’d probably spend at least twenty
minutes stuck on the authors photograph. That whole thought process distracted
Arthur substantially so it took him a minute to realise that they’d lost the
rest of their class and were heading in the opposite direction to their lesson.
He stopped and Ari gave him a weird look. “Um I think we’re going the wrong way
Ari,” he explained.
She looked around surprised at how far they’d gone. “Oh yeah, sorry. We better
hurry, its Steane on Physics today and I swear he is just looking for a reason
to give me detention!”
“Well maybe if you hadn’t dropped a record amount of beakers this term,” she
rolled her eyes.
“I told him he should get handles for those things!”
He made to head back to their class but Ari suddenly froze so quickly Arthur
almost fell over. “Ari are you ok?” her eyes were wide open and staring
directly in front of them. “Ari,” he waved a hand in front of her face.
Just as suddenly as she’d stopped, Ari sprung to life and pulled him to the
side behind some lockers, before Arthur had the chance to protest she’d slapped
a hand over his mouth without taking her eyes off whatever she’d been staring
at down the hall.
“Whsdhsjwasthaesgasaborbs?” he mumbled behind her hand.
“Shh,” she hissed. “The Hugh Grant writer hottie is down the hall!”
“Washhsjrealkgjtnesnshu?”
“What?”
He slapped her hand away. “I said was that really necessary?!”
“Jacobs was with him, I panicked! You never know the guy could have secret
ninja bodyguards everywhere!” Arthur rolled his eyes at her and manoeuvred
round Ari to look down the corridor. Sure enough Eames was in the entrance
hallway with Mr. Jacobs, Eames was smiling politely and nodding, but even from
where they were hiding Arthur could see the glazed and distracted look in his
eyes and the way they kept flicking to the doors.
“He looks like he wants to make a run for it,” Ari whispered giggling. It was
true, poor Eames, one thing Arthur had learned early on was that Jacobs loved
the sound of his own voice and only the invasion of Nazi zombies could make him
stop talking before he was ready. “Look at his arms Arthur! That doesn’t just
come from typing all day, boy goes to the gym I bet you,” For the second time
in the space of an hour Arthur found himself admiring Eames’ arms.
“Not that this isn’t fun and all but I’m starting to feel creepy spying on him,
was there another reason you went all Mission Impossible on me?”
“Duh! This is the perfect chance for me to ask a couple more questions, as soon
as Mr. Jacobs is out of the way.”
“We may be here for a while then,” but apparently life had decided not to be an
ass today, as just as Arthur was about to throw in the towel and leave, Miss.
Jenkins came over to Jacobs. Actually there were two things that could stop
Jacobs from talking, and the second, was the Miss. Jenkins small sweater
effect...seriously.
Jacobs attention immediately directed to her and after a nod, he made some an
apology to Eames -who looked actually looked pretty grateful - and left with
Miss Jenkins down the opposite corridor. Eames was left standing at the
entrance hall, looking at his phone with a small frown on his face.
“Come on,” he slipped out from their hiding place and headed towards the still
stationary figure of Eames, until he realised Ari wasn’t following him. He
turned to find her biting her lip, still sheltered behind the lockers. “You
coming this is your chance to ask him those questions.”
“But,” a blush crept into her cheeks. “...what if he thinks they’re dumb and
laughs?” his heart softened and he moved back towards his friend.
“Ari you are many things, but dumb is not one of them,” she rolled her eyes.
“Gee thanks,” but a small smile threatened her lips.
“Plus,” he added. “If he does do that I’ll punch him ok?” she laughed happily
and nodded. Finally stepping out from behind the lockers, she strode, with new
determination and confidence to where Eames was standing, Arthur actually had
trouble catching up with her.
When they got closer though, his own nerves began to falter, his mind began
forming an escape plan for them both when Ari called out. “Hey Mr. Eames!”
cutting off any exit Arthur had.
The other man turned at the sound of his name, confusion on his face, but also
which came as a shock to Arthur a defensive stance which disappeared as soon as
he laid eyes on the two of them, turning into a smile of genuine curiosity.
“Hey yourself yellow scarf.”
Ari giggled slightly and blushed like a star struck teen, which she kinda was
but Arthur found it amusing and made a mental note to remember it for later
teasing.
“Sorry to bother you,” she played with a strand of hair. “I know you must
racing to get out of here.”
Eames chuckled softly. “Not at all, It’s nice to see the place I spent so much
of my time in, though it does make me feel a bit old I’ll admit.”
“No way!” Ari waved her hand “Your only twenty-six that’s not too far off us!”
great Ari way to make it sound like we’re creepers.
Eames didn’t seemed to notice the creepy though because he grinned. “Trust me,
that just makes me feel older,” he moved his hands to the front pockets of his
jeans and Arthur defiantly did not glance down. “Was there anything specific
you wanted to ask or say?” Ari seemed to snap out of her goo goo eyeing and
slapped her pockets.
“Oh crap yeah,” she turned to Arthur. “I left my note book with the questions
in my locker, Mr Eames would you mind if I just ask you a couple of questions?”
to Arthur’s relief the other man seemed thoroughly amused by the whole
situation.
“As long as you don’t plan of selling my answers to the press,” his tone was
serious but Arthur could see the humour in his eyes, which now he could see
were blue-grey.
Ari didn’t seem to get the joke and nodded her head eyes wide. “I promise.”
“Then that’s fine,” he grinned. “Also it’s just Eames, I may be older, but I’m
not my father yet,” the smile that Ari gave him could be described as mega watt
“Kay,” she thrust Arthur her bag. “I’ll be back in two seconds don’t go
anywhere,” with that she ran off at light speed down the corridor.
It only then occurred to Arthur he was now trapped with an, albeit small,
celebratory who he hadn’t spoken to at all in the exchange they’d just had, and
suddenly found his usually capable brain, completely empty with nothing to say.
Luckily Eames started talking first. “Is she always so....energetic?” Arthur
smiled, Ari certainly knew how to make a lasting impression.
“Yeah,” Arthur slung Ari’s bag over his shoulder, he found he had to look up at
Eames slightly as he had a few inches on him. “Sorry to kind of ambush you like
this, the last thing you probably want is two more teenagers to deal with
today,” Eames looked almost taken back by Arthur’s comment.
“Not at all, I didn’t mean that comment about your friend in a bad way, it’s
very flattering. I guess I’m still not really used to it,” that was a surprise
considering Ari said he got published months after leaving school.
“So, are you interested in literature?” Arthur shuffled uncomfortably, weighing
the truth and bluffing that he loved it, in the end it was easier and less
complicated to just tell the truth.
“I’m alright, my passion is more architecture,” he admitted a little
sheepishly, to his surprise instead of switching off, Eames nodded as if he
were actually interested.
“Really? That’s great I know they were wavering on adding that to the
curriculum here, it’s nice to see it taken advantage of,” he smiled a little
wistfully. “A lot of things have changed since I was here, except for
the...interesting colour choice for the entrance here.”
“Don’t worry I bet this hideous shade of green will still be here for years to
come, the way Mr. Jacobs pawns over it I think they’re having a secret affair,”
Eames let out a bark of genuine laughter and Arthur glowed with a certain
pride, that he’d made someone like Eames laugh.
“You’re a cheeky bugger y’know that,” he smiled warmly at Arthur.
He just shrugged. “It’s been said,” secretly thrilled.
A strange expression of fondness came over the other man’s face. “I’m sure of
it,” a small lull came into the conversation, Arthur searched his brain
desperately for something intelligent to say, eventually coming up short.
“I liked your presentation today,” he settled on, hey at least it was honest.
“You’re way more interesting than most of the speakers we get here and your
book the Chameleon one sounds great Ari’s been telling me all about it,” some
of the warmth left Eames’ face, he was still smiling but this one didn’t quite
reach his eyes.
“Thank you,” he said with certain air of stiffness, Arthur wondered what he’d
done wrong. “To be honest I was pretty nervous coming here,” the admission took
Arthur by surprise again.
“Really?” he asked doubtfully. “But you seemed so confident up there.”
Again something was devoid from his expression, the openness that had been
there before lessened slightly. “That just comes from practise, I loved this
place for the most part but there’s also some crappy memories here as well,”
for a second a dark look passed over Eames’ face but it cleared so fast Arthur
doubted he’d seen it. There was no way it would take Ari this long to get to
her locker, he said as much out load.
Eames waved it off. “I’m not in any rush, not like I’m going anywhere for a
while,” that took Arthur by surprise.
“You’re staying in town?” the surprise must’ve shown on Arthur’s as Eames
seemed to realise what he’d said and he looked a little pained.
“Yeah I’m actually going to be in town for a while; I’m trying to write a new
book,” he explained a little reluctantly.
“Really?”
Eames nodded stiffly. “Yeah, don’t spread it around though,” he gave Arthur a
weak smile.
The whole thing had peaked Arthur’s curiosity, he couldn’t stop himself from
asking. “Just..why here? If you’re looking for inspiration it’s not exactly the
nicest part of town,” Eames seemed to consider what to say, a number of
emotions flittered across his face, too fast for Arthur to read.
Eventually he answered. “I just....I needed a change. My life kind got turned
on its head recently,” Ari had mentioned that he’d had a break up, was that it?
“Which in turn gave me the worst writer’s block of my life, getting away it all
seemed such an easy solution to my problems. To be honest I kind of just ran
off to escape for a bit,” he huffed in cold amusement, there was more story
there, but Arthur tactfully bit his tongue and didn’t push. Eames ran a hand
through his hair, dislodging the some of the locks from their slicked back
style. “I probably sound like a bratty kid,” he admitted, and shuffled
uncomfortably.
“No I get it!” he spoke so quickly that Eames looked a little taken aback, he
blushed at his outburst, he’d just wanted to reassure the other man. “It’s
just....upping and going I mean, it always seemed like such an easy way to
solve everything,” he lowered his voice, looking round to make sure they were
alone. ”I sometimes want to do that, just run off to New York or somewhere like
that, go to school with no one’s but your own expectations on you,” it was
something he’d never admitted to anyone before, not even Ari, the thought had
always made him feel ashamed, he couldn’t explain why he told Eames.
It seemed to be the right thing to say though, since the tightness in Eames’
face relaxed and he his smile this time, Arthur realised, was completely
genuine. “Trust me” he began. ”From personal experience I wouldn’t recommend
running off to New York without a plan of where to live first,” he fished in
his back pocket, bringing out a well worn black leather wallet. He took
something out of it and handed it to Arthur. “Here, if you ever end up in NYC
give me a call just to put my mind at rest that you’re not homeless or anything
like that” he seemed sincere in his request and Arthur took the thin strip of
card. It was a business one the top corner in black fancy writing read
‘Fredrick Eames’ followed by a phone number, it was a black and white stylish
card, but not what he’d imagined, Eames seemed like he would have
more...colours. But what did Arthur know about the guy, apart from he was
gorgeous.
“Thanks,” he replied sincerely, hoping that his eyes expressed his gratitude.
Eames probably handed these out to everyone he met, and he probably would
forget about Arthur the moment he left those doors, still it was a nice
gesture.
“You’re welcome,” Eames spoke softly, still holding Arthur’s gaze. Like before
it was like there was nothing else in the world. Eames’ eyes removed everything
else but the two of them, and Arthur found himself unable to look away, nor did
he want to.
But the moment, or whatever it was shattered when the sound of Ari’s shoes
slapped on the floor of the corridor. She was red faced and panting by the time
she reached them, clutching a small leather bound note book his her hands.
“Sorry,” she wheezed, doubling over. “I swear Mr. Jacobs mad clones of himself
so he could monitor us, I nearly ran into him three times getting back!” Ari
recovered after a moment, pushing the hair off her face she straightened up,
all business, notebook and pen and everything. She began asking him questions,
well over two. Arthur tried to pay attention, but it was a lot of questions
about different aspects of the business and Arthur found it hard to follow.
He was still holding onto Eames’ card, the edges poked uncomfortably in the
palm of his hand. For a minute Arthur dithered on whether or not to just leave
it on the table, Eames and Ari were too distracted talking they wouldn’t
notice, or just fold it up and put it in his bag to be forgotten. No false
hope, he wasn’t going anywhere soon, perhaps ever, this weak reminder of a life
away from everything, in some other city, in another place, it would just be
painful after awhile. The safe thing to do would be to just leave it.
Arthur slipped the card into his front pocket, he could just bin it when he got
to work, or home, there was no rush. He’d probably forget about it and it would
get ruined when he washed his jeans. Ari had finished her questions, looking
satisfied as she flipped through the hastily scribbled answers within her
notebook. “Thank you! You have no idea how much help this was, I loved your
second book! I was in bits at the end of both, but especially in ‘Stranded’
when he’s stuck in the mental hospital still dreaming of Anna.”
Eames smiled again; he looked flattered and slightly embarrassed with the
praise Ari was giving him. “It’s really alright, I don’t have another card on
me now but I’ll be down for the art exhibition next week and we could talk some
more then if you have other questions?”
“Really?!” Ari looked like she wanted to somersault. “That would be amazing.
Thank you!” Eames flushed slightly, but offered his hand to her.
“I’m so sorry but I really have to go now, but it was lovely meeting you
miss...?”
She looked ridiculously pleased at the ‘Miss’. “I’m Ariadne, oh and this...”
she grabbed Arthur’s hand and pulled him back towards them. “Is Arthur,” she
declared, still holding his hand.
Something seemed to flicker in Eames’ eyes at the movement, it looked like
disappointment. “Well Arthur,” he began, and held out his hand. “It was very
nice meeting you,” his words were slightly cooler this time, more professional
for some reason it made Arthur’s heart sink.
He took Eames’ hand. “It was nice meeting you too,” the handshake was formally
and over quickly, but the just through that few seconds Arthur had been able to
feel that surprising warmth of Eames’ palm. He gave a final nod to both of them
and left through the double doors.
Ari dropped his hand and gave Arthur a smile which seemed way too big for her
small frame. “Wasn’t he brilliant, that was so sweet of him to answer so many
questions! Did you notice, he’s even hotter the closer you get, can’t believe a
guy like that’s single!”
“You mentioned he broke up?” Not that he cared, not at all.
“Oh yeah, I heard from Rachel he and his girlfriend spilt up like a few weeks
ago, it was supposed to be like really ugly,” she looked up at him curiously.
“Why d’you ask? Trying to catch the sexy author because I think you’ll have to
join a line,” she winked, Arthur blushed furiously.
“Don’t be stupid of course not! We just chatted for a bit and it came up,”
alright so that wasn’t strictly true but it was close enough. Ari looked even
more curious, she opened her mouth but was abruptly cut off by the loud shrill
of the bell.
Two seconds afterwards the hallways filled up with students, he and Ari were
jostled into one of the door ways. Arthur sighed deeply. “You realise that if
Jacobs hears about this hewillhave our asses,” she wrinkled her nose.
“Can’t have that now you’re saving yours for sexy writer guy,” she grinned
wickedly.
Arthur glared at her. “Can we please just get outside and try to avoid Jacobs
for the rest of the day,” she huffed in amusement.
“Good luck with that, guy’s got eyes everywhere!” Just as soon as the words
left her mouth, the figure of Mr. Jacobs cut through the stampede of pupils.
“Hansen, Page!” he yelled. “Why were the two of you absent from first period?!”
“Well its official,” Ariadne muttered. “We’re dead,” that was defiantly an
understatement.
~
After creating some flimsy explanation about Ari about feeling sick which he
seemed to swallow, Jacobs let them go after a few minutes, but he went so far
as to walk them to their next lesson, under the pretence of ‘having to go that
way anyway’. After the excitement of the morning the rest of the day was
uneventful, Arthurs late night homework rush meant he managed to hand in his
essay on time, saving him from any reprimation or detentions.
He called Lisa during lunchtime, she sounded hung over and more than a little
sick but she remembered about picking up Will, Arthur pretended he didn’t hear
a male voice in the background swearing viciously at something. When he rang
off it was with the pit in the bottom of his stomach that always formed when he
spoke to her, Ari noticed his mood but didn’t ask, Arthur was incredibly
thankful for that.
He went to see his guidance counsellor fourth period, she asked the same
questions with the same worried expression that she had on every time Arthur
visited her.
“Arthur are you alright? You look tired,” she asked, brow pinched in concern.
“Yes miss fine,” was his stock response to every question like that. She looked
disappointed but she let it go. Arthur knew he looked like tired, he’d thought
about resorting to make up in order to hide the growing dark circles under his
eyes, more than that it was getting harder to hide the exhaustion from the
people close to him, even Will had commented on it. She let him go, she seemed
disheartened like the end of every session, he felt bad sometimes, letting her
down but it was his life and no matter what anybody else though, he could
handle everything.
At the end of school she kissed his cheek and gave his shoulder a squeeze, he
returned what he hoped was a reassuring smile before she rushed off to meet her
dad. The dinner was almost full up by the time he’d arrived, Frank was dashing
around the kitchen doing ten things at once, the minute Arthur stepped in he
began barking orders, poor Luke looked haggard.
From the moment Arthur started to the moment the dinner was near closing time
Arthur was run off his feet without a break, the effects of a series of late
nights was seeping in, he ended up splashing cold water on his face more than
once. The end of the shift came as blessing, Arthur felt dead on his feet and
must’ve looked it, since Frank pushed a black coffee into his hands.
“Thanks,” he mumbled, body feeling heavy and stiff.
Frank gave him the once over looking concerned. “You gonna be ok kid?”
“I’ll be fine,” he shot him a weak smile. “What about you old man? You’ve been
here all day,” Frank waved his hand.
“You sound exactly like my daughter,” Frank muttered. “She insisted on coming
to pick me up so we can have some ‘family time’”, his voice was gruff but he
couldn’t hide the pleased expression threatening his face. Arthur wondered
wistfully what that was like, having someone who would worry and pick you when
you were exhausted, what ‘family time’ was like.
He finished his coffee and waved said goodbye to Frank and Luke who almost
looked as bad as he felt. A chill had set in the last few day, when Arthur
stepped outside his breath immediately swirled in the air, at least it woke him
up a bit he thought as he jogged to catch the bus just pulling in. At this time
of night there were only a few brave souls out, tonight, a woman who’d been the
bus everyday his week and her baby who always sat near the back, a man two rows
from the front was nose deep in a book and two teenage girls Arthur vaguely
recognised from school had the seats right at the back and were giggling over
their phones.
Arthur took a seat in the middle and pulled his hood up to indicate he wasn’t
looking for conversation, not that anybody would be likely to. The bus pulled
away and Arthur watched the building and street lights flit by, the gentle hum
and motion of the bus was actually quite soothing, he caught bits and pieces of
the conversation from the teenagers. Arthur’s eyes felt heavy, the exhaustion
of the last few days rolled over him in waves, combined with the sounds around
him, he felt himself sinking into blackness.
“Hey!”
A sharp shake jolted Arthur up, the bus driver was looking down at him with
beady black eyes “Last stop kid, you gotta get off now” Arthur looked round in
surprise, the bus was completely empty.
“I..umm..I,” he stammered panic filling him up, the bus driver raised an
eyebrow looking at Arthur as if he was an idiot. “I’m sorry!” red with
embarrassment he grabbed and darted out of the bus as quickly as he could. It
was only once he was off the bus and halfway down the road before he looked
around and realised he had no idea where he was.
“Shit!” he swore loudly. “Shit!” Arthur got out his phone, it was almost
midnight! A text from Li flashed on his screen, for a minute Arthur felt relief
thinking she’d noticed how long he’d been gone and was worried, but the relief
disappeared once he read the text.
‘Hey Artie :D You weren’t answering your phone, you must still be at the dinner
or having some ‘fun’ for once ;) Anyway Shade’s having this party at his house,
it’s meant to be brilliant! Will’s in bed I’ll leave the key under the plant
pot, don’t wait up!
-Li xx”
“Shit!” he yelled. The message was sent at 11:30pm, knowing Li she would’ve
left by now, god Will was alone in the house, it didn’t matter if he was asleep
or not! What if something happened, a fire or something like that, god it’s
like she didn’t care that Will could get taken away! Actually it was more like
the thought just didn’t occur to her! God he was so pissed at her, at himself
for being and idiot and falling asleep! If something happened he’d never
forgive himself! Will was so sweet, and that would disappear in care, god! Will
was alone and it was his fault!
His face felt wet and it took Arthur a moment to realise that hot tears were
spilling down his face, he wiped his cheeks roughly, despising himself for
crying so easily. He needed to focus, he needed to get back to Will but first
thing first he needed to figure out where the hell he was.
He looked around for a sign, anything, the only thing around him was a group of
grungy block of apartments, he searched around for an indication of where in
town the bus had taken him. Eventually he found a battered street sign with a
substantial amount of graffiti covering it, he managed to make out ‘Stratton”.
“Shit!” he swore for the fourth time, Stratton block was famous in their town
for being the roughest area, it was even worse than Arthur’s section. Any crime
reported the officers immediately went to Stratton, the place had more
stabbings than anywhere else, not to mention it was on the other side of town
from Arthur’s house. Great he was trapped in the worst part of town, with no
way to get back, that was the last and only bus that ran at this time of night.
He searched his brain for someone who could help, Ari? She didn’t have a car
and gone midnight would be dead to the world. Frank was at his daughters and
Arthur didn’t have his mobile, Li didn’t have a car and it was very likely none
of her friends would be in a sober enough state to help. That was it, there was
no one else, he didn’t have any other friends apart from Ari, Frank, Li and
Will and none of them could help him.
There was no one.
He didn’t have money for a taxi and he didn’t know any buses, hell he didn’t
even know which direction to walk to get home, he was stuck.
A particularly cold wind decided to make the moment even more depressing by
blowing at that point. Arthur shoved his hands into his jean pockets and
shivered at the biting wind. Something poked his fingers, he pulled the
offending item out to find Eames’ name and number staring back at him.
He couldn’t, could he?
Eames probably wasn’t even awake and even if he was he wouldn’t be too happy to
have some kid he took pity on badgering him at such a late hour.
But at this point Arthur didn’t really have a lot of options...well he
basically had two, wonder round aimlessly with the possibility of being stabbed
in a dark alley, or risk embarrassment and rejection by calling Eames. He
honestly considered the former.
What the hell did he have to lose? With shaking fingers he punched in the
number, his thumb hovering over the call button for a few moments “Fuck it” he
muttered and pushed the button.
The first few rings Arthur was crapping himself, sweating even in the freezing
cold wing. When the third ring came around Arthur considered hanging up and
just braving the walk, when the phone line crackled and a voice which still
gave him goose bumps came through. “Hello?” Eames didn’t sound as if he’d been
sleeping.
Arthur took a deep breath to calm his nerves, it didn’t work but still, good to
try “Umm hi” he answered, wincing at how weak his voice sounded. “Look I don’t
know if you remember me but I’m Arthur from Bates High School?”
There was a moment of silence where Arthur heart literally stopped until Eames
voice came through again. “Hi Arthur, of course I remember,” he didn’t sound
mad, or like he was thinking ‘why is this weirdo calling me at midnight?’
Arthur inhaled deeply again, before blurting out everything in one breath. “I’m
so sorry I don’t even know why I’m doing this It’s only cause I have literally
no other way to do this but I fell asleep on the bus and now I’m trapped miles
away from my house and my nephew needs me and there’s no one else I can call
and I’m sorry again if I’ve wasted your time or woken you up,” he tried his
best to breathe normally.
There was another moment of silence and a rustle of something, that sounded
like papers. “Arthur do you need a lift?”
Arthur closed his eyes, face burning with shame. “Yes...I’m sorry to have
wasted your time,” he apologised weakly.
“Wait Arthur!” Eames interrupted. “I was just going to ask where you are, I’ll
come get you right now.”
“Really,” the sick feeling that had been weighing in Arthur’s stomach suddenly
eased and he released a breath of pure relief, unable to believe Eames had
agreed but feeling such intense gratitude that he had. “Thank you, thank you so
much! You have no idea,” he bit his tongue before he rambled on “I’m at
Stratton Heights.”
He heard a sharp intake of breath from Eames’ end and the sound of something
hitting the floor with a bang. “Stratton?! You’re in Stratton! Arthur stay in
the shadows and whatever you do, don’t engage anyone I’ll be five minutes,
don’t move!” he rang off before Arthur could launch into the litany of thank
you’s on the tip of his tongue.
He actually could believe it when he slipped his phone back into his backpack,
he was still stuck for a few minutes and Will was still on his own for the
moment but things didn’t look as bleak as they had. He took Eames advice and
moved into the shadows by the entrance to the flats, anxiously keeping a look
out for people. The sound of voices was gradually getting closer and Arthur
moved further into the shadows in response. A group of hard looking adults
rounded the corner, a couple of which, Arthur recognised as Lisa’s friends from
yesterday, the blue haired Mohican guy was there, with a bottle of vodka in one
hand. They all had some alcohol which they passed around between them, giggling
and laughing, they passed Arthur and he shrunk back, holding his breath.
Nothing happened though and the group walked past without noticing Arthur, he
left out a sigh of relief and stepped forward, a twig crunched nosily under
him. The group turned around and obviously caught sight of Arthur hiding in the
shadows.
“Ahhhh what have we got here then,” one of the guys, ginger with a taunting
smirk grabbed Arthur’s collar before he could run and yanked him forwards into
the group, who surrounded him like hyena’s. The blue Mohican guys eyes black
eyes lit up in recognition.
“Hey,” he moved in front of Arthur. “it’s the buzz kill from yesterday, Lisa’s
baby brother Artie,” the group snickered, Arthur tried to move but the ginger
guy had a firm hold of his collar.
“He’s pretty,” one of the girls interjected, sizing Arthur up as if he was
struggling prey.
Blue Mohican guy smirked, not like Ariadne did, this one was nasty he gripped
Arthur’s chin roughly. “Yeah he is isn’t he,” he murmured eyeing Arthur in a
way that made him feel physically ill. “We should all have some fun together,
would you like that pretty thing?” Arthur couldn’t move his head with how blue
Mohican was grasping his face, the other boy smirked again moving close to
Arthur’s lips, laughing at how he tried to move away. “I wonder if you give as
good head as your sister?” Arthur spat in his face, growling as another boy
seized his arm.
Instead of being angry, blue Mohican looked pleased. “Ohhh pretty things got
some spunk,” the punch came so quickly Arthur didn’t have time to react, it
left him reeling and his vision blurred. “We’ll make sure to ‘deal’ with that,”
he purred, running a finger over the cut on Arthur’s forehead, the burst of
pain made Arthur hiss.
“Yeah we’ll have a good time,” the blonde sneered.
The blue haired boy nodded to the guy who had Arthur by the collar. “Zeke, come
on, let’s have some fun with this pretty thing,” Fear burned through Arthur’s
blood as the situation sunk in, he kicked and struggled as he was dragged
backwards.
“Let me go you fuckers!” he screamed. The only answer was the groups cruel
laughter. “Leave me alone! You bastards just let me go!”
A bright light blinded Arthur, he heard a slam but was still too busy trying to
escape that he didn’t see the figure until he’d walked up to the group.
“Eames!” blue haired guy cried. “Welcome back man!” he stopped moving towards
Eames when he saw the deadly look on his face, Eames looked like he wanted to
kill something.
“Let him go,” there was no room for argument in Eames’ tone. Arthur felt a
shiver of fear run down his spine at his voice and he wasn’t even the
recipient.
The blue haired guy held his hands up. “Look Eames’ man, this pretty little
thing stumbled onto our turf, we’re just going to teach him how to have a good
time, you understand,” Eames took a threatening step towards blue hair.
“Let. Him. Go.” Blue hair took a step back, obviously unnerved. “Or do you want
a repeat...”, he leaned in close to whisper the next part, whatever it was blue
hair’s face went white.
“Enough of this shit, come on this guy ain’t worth it,” the blonde let out a
grumble of protest but blue hair gave her a look that made her shut up quickly.
The guy holding Arthur dropped him roughly and the group glared at Arthur as
they left, scuttling away cackling.
Eames was immediately in front of him, hand on his shoulder. “Are you alright?”
Arthur focused on trying to get his heart beat to slow down, he shrugged off
Eames’ hand. “Yeah I..I’m fine,” his voice sounded shaky to his own ears. The
reality of what could’ve happened was fresh in his mind, he stuffed his hands
in his pockets to stop the trembling, he hadn’t cried in front of strangers
since he was a kid and he wasn’t about to know.
Eames looked unconvinced, he made no other move to touch Arthur but his eyes
searched his face, Arthur didn’t want to see the pity in them so he turned to
look at the street light next to them. Another cold gust of wind left his teeth
chattering, his cheap hoodie was useless against the cold.
“Jesus Arthur you must be freezing,” he shucked off his leather coat and
wrapped it around Arthur’s shoulders, he was going to protest, but the coat was
so damn warm. “Come on, we better get you home,” Eames led Arthur to the car
whose headlights were still on full beam, he even opened the door for Arthur
ignoring his protests.
The car was a welcome relief to the cold, he unconsciously relaxed into the
ridiculously comfortable seats, but the moment Eames got in the car the
atmosphere grew heavy. Eames didn’t say anything but his grip on the wheel was
white-knuckle tight, his face was pinched and tight, Arthur shrank down in his
seat. Eames was pissed at him, he drove faster than was necessary, he probably
just wanted Arthur out of the car, get away from the kid who dragged him out at
midnight and had to rescue him.
“Where are you?” he asked stiffly.
“East end,” Arthur muttered, shame lacing his voice.
The tension radiating from Eames grew and grew until Arthur was so unhappy he
couldn’t take it anymore. “I’m sorry,” he muttered. Eames seemed to snap out of
whatever deep thought he’d been in and snapped his head to look at Arthur.
“Why are you sorry?” the tone of his voice took Arthur by surprise, Eames
sounded shocked at Arthur’s apology which Arthur hadn’t been expecting.
“I..I..um I’m sorry..for all the trouble,” the astonishment on Eames’ face,
made Arthur shuffle uncomfortably, he’d thought Eames would’ve been dismissive,
not shocked.
“Arthur...” he took a deep breath, eyes closed briefly before answering, when
he looked at Arthur again the heavy atmosphere dissipated. “...you have nothing
to be sorry for.”
Arthur struggled, this was not going the way he expected. “But..I mean you were
angry?” Eames shook his head in disbelief, annoyance flared in Arthur.
“Arthur, I’m not mad at you. I’m pissed at those guys back there! People who
would do that are scum and I you have no idea how much I wanted to punch that
guys lights out.” Eames’ voice was tight with anger. Despite that Arthur was
incredibly relieved Eames didn’t see him as some kind of burden, that he wasn’t
the reason for his anger.
“I’m all right,” he reassured him gently, rising up in his seat. “If you’d have
hit them it would’ve just made things worse,” they might’ve not have walked out
unscathed, drunk people were unpredictable its why Arthur dealing with more
than one of them.
“I still wish I’d done it,” Eames muttered bitterly, the tension was seeping
back into his shoulders, Arthur didn’t want him to get angry on his account.
“Thank you by the way,” he murmured softly. “For saving me,” the tension
disappeared and Eames took his hand of the wheel for a moment and tentatively
gave Arthur’s shoulder a squeeze.
“That’s ok,” he moved his hand back to the wheel, slowing down the speed as he
did. “Just wish I’d gotten their sooner.”
“I wouldn’t have minded that too,” Arthur teased, the two shared a smile and
Arthur finally relaxed again. The car ride was much more pleasant, even
peaceful. Eames was the first to break the comfortable silence.
“Just a shot in the dark here,” he began hesitantly. “You wouldn’t happen to
have a sister called Lisa would you?” A pit starting forming in the bottom of
his stomach at the question. Lisa liked to party, and developed a reputation
for it and certain...other things that. Her reputation had followed Arthur
round in Freshman year until, after months of putting up with it, he’d snapped
and punched some guy who called his sister a ‘slut’, they’d left him alone
after that. But Arthur could just imagine Eames’ face distorting and then
ditching Arthur as soon as he could.
“Yeah I’m her younger brother,” his tone was deliberately offensive, no matter
how attractive this guy was if he said anything about his sister they’d have
words.
To his surprise, Eames expression cleared with recognition. “I thought you
looked familiar! I can defiantly see the resemblance now,” so that’s why Eames
might’ve looked twice at him, cause he looked so much like Lisa. It was true
they had the same lean and skinny build, sharp features and dark hair, for some
reason figuring out the reason put a weight on his chest. There was still
something about expression that seemed amiss but he seemed cheery enough.
“She was close with my sister for a while,” that must be Morgan he remembered
Eames mentioning her in his presentation. “Does she still paint?” Arthur
blinked in surprise, Eames must’ve taken it the wrong way since he turned a
little red. “I..I only remember because she used to win all those shows we had
at school,” he stammered eyes locked on the road.
“Not it’s not that,” Lisa had been good, really good but she hadn’t picked up a
brush in years and they hadn’t brought it up in forever, even he’d forgotten
about Li’s paintings. “No, um she doesn’t paint much anymore since she had my
nephew.”
Eames did a double take, “Li’s a mom?!” he uttered in disbelief. “I thought you
said something about having a nephew but I wasn’t sure.”
Arthur just nodded in response, Eames ran a hand through his hair, dislodging
the slicked down locks. “Wow, sorry I just never pictured her in that role.”
“It was kind of a surprise thing,” he added awkwardly.
“So why isn’t you sister at home watching him?”
Arthur flushed a little at the implication in Eames’ tone. “She had to go to
the hospital.....emergency,” the excuse sounded weak to his own ears.
Eames nodded. “I hope she’s ok,” again his voice told Arthur he knew he was
lying, but thankfully he didn’t push instead changing the topic. “How olds’
your nephew?”
“Seven,” Arthur smiled proudly. “He’s really bright, and love to paint. The
spitting image of Lisa,” He paused before breeching the question on his mind.
“Do you have any kids?” he hoped his tone was nonchalant.
Eames huffed in amusement. “No, no kids here, it may have been on the cards
before but not anympre,” Eames voice was wistful, Arthur sensed this was a
sensitive topic. Eames again changed the conversation, something seemed amiss
in his expression. “How’s your girlfriend?”
Arthur frowned confused. “Girlfriend?” Eames shuffled in his seat.
“Y’know the little one in the yellow scarf, Ariadne,” Ari! Eames thought Ari
was his girlfriend! That was like saying he was dating his sister!
The expression on his face must’ve read the shock his internal monologue was
feeling, because he looked taken aback. “Ariadne’s not my girlfriend,” he
hurried to explain. “She’s just my friend, I’m not interested in her. At all,”
he added with emphasis on the last part, he looked at the window, it had begun
to rain. “Or any other girl,” the implication was there.
Eames frowned a moment before his expression cleared with understanding. “Ah,”
Eames didn’t say much, but when Arthur turned to gage his reaction in case he
needed to bail, the stiffness that had clouded his eyes was gone, and he seemed
a little..pleased. “Boyfriend then?”
Arthur raised an eyebrow. “Do you think there are many options at Bates?” Eames
chuckled.
“I suppose not,” they lapsed into silence. Arthur didn’t read any sort of
disapproval from Eames, he took the opportunity, since they were so close to
his house to risk probing.
“So how long d’you think you’ll be staying in town?” Eames shrugged
noncommittally, not taking his eyes off the road.
“I’m in no rush to go back let’s just put it that way,” he muttered. “Besides,
I kind of miss this place, despite everything.”
“You are defiantly not staying in my part of town then,” Arthur deadpanned.
Eames chuckled. “It’s not that bad.”
Arthur raised his eyebrow at him. “Eames you do realise we’re basically in the
ghetto,” Eames laughed in surprise, Arthur felt a flush of pleasure that he’d
been able to make Eames laugh again.
“No one who lives in the ghetto could make it sound so posh,” he gave Arthur a
wink. “And your wrong you know,” Arthur frowned in confusion before Eames
clarified. “My hotel’s actually quite close to here, the Riverside?” Arthur’s
eyes widened in surprise.
“Riverside?” he checked to make sure he’d heard right. “You’ve got those five
star hotels uptown and you go for Riverside! Are you ill?!” Eames laughed
again, nudging Arthur softly in the arm.
“Cheek,” Eames was grinning though. “I just prefer low key, those five star
hotels are way too fancy, they make me nervous. Reminds me of my parent’s
house.”
“Please don’t tell me you were a debutante,” their laughter filled the car,
Arthur pointed out his house and Eames pulled into the sidewalk.
Now that the moment was here, Arthur was reluctant to leave the car. “Thanks
for the lift and...everything,” he chuckled nervously, a thank you didn’t seem
to cover it.
Eames gave Arthur’s shoulder a gentle squeeze, with Eames full attention the
contact sent sparks through Arthur. “I’m glad you called,” Arthur’s heart gave
a little jump. “I’d much rather you called for a lift than have you walk
through Stratton, it’s not safe for someone your age.” At that Arthur heart
sank, Eames saw him as a kid who needed rescuing, his charitably act for the
day. He probably thought Arthur was this random dumb and immature teenager, who
he happened to get stuck with at midnight. Plus there was the most important
fact; that Eames was straight, that he’d just broken up with his girlfriend,
who he’d been looking at having kids with.
Still that didn’t mean Arthur couldn’t dream.
He opened the door and stepped out onto the pavement, turning back to murmur a
final ‘thank you’ and ‘goodbye’. Eames smile was soft, and his eyes were full
of warmth when he said. “It was nice talking to you Arthur,” the other boy
hoped in the darkness that Eames couldn’t see his blush and nodded quickly,
holding Eames’ gaze for a second to long before closing the car door and
stepping back.
Remembering the whole reason he’d been so desperate to get back home, Arthur
rushed through the falling down wooden gate and too the door. True to her word
Lisa had left the spare key under the door, Arthur had lost his a few months
ago and they he hadn’t had the time to get another one made. As he worked the
lock, he was confused by the hum of Eames’ engine indicating he had yet to
leave when he realised that Eames was probably waiting to make sure he got in
safely, and involuntarily smiled happily.
He jiggled the lock and it finally gave, he opened the door but before stepping
through he turned to give Eames a wave to let him know that he was fine, Eames
smiled and gave a small nod before pulling off. Arthur watched the car until it
disappeared round the corner, it was only once he’d sighed crossing the
threshold and closed the door, that he realised that he was still wearing
Eames’ coat. It was a little big for him, hanging long on his sleeves and over
his hips.
The house was dark, and slightly chilly, Arthur ducked into Will’s room to find
him fast asleep, oblivious to the fact that he’d be in any danger. He sat down
lightly on the end of Will’s bed, he really was the spitting image of Lisa,
dark hair, big eyes with features that would probably sharpen over the years,
he was so small as well. Arthur felt a surge of protectiveness and love as Will
slept, his nephew needed him, and he defiantly wasn’t going anywhere whilst
that was a factor, he would never abandon him.
Arthur sighed and ruffled Will’s dark mop of hair, and left his room as quietly
as he’d come in. He tiptoed down the corridor to his own room and left the door
slightly ajar in case Lisa needed him when she came home and collapsed heavily
onto his bed.
He should get changed out of his work clothes, but he was too tired to care at
that point. He closed his eyes, immediately feeling relief wash over him. He
brought his hand to his face, the sleeve of Eames’ coat rubbed against his
face, he could smell spice, leather and something that was just Eames, there
was no other way of describing it. Arthur inhaled deeply, letting the scent
fill his head as he succumbed to sleep.
------
Something was poking Arthur’s forehead, hard. He batted the source of the
irritation away and rolled over muttering, they didn’t give up though and this
time they shook his shoulder.
“Arthur....Arthur,” a familiar voice called in his ear. “Arthur daddy, time to
wake up,” Arthur grunted and blinked his eyes open lazily, squinting with the
bright light...why was it so bright? He rolled back over and came face to face
with Will, big eyes blinking confused.
“Arthur,” he poked Arthur’s shoulder. “You need to wake up, Lisa’s asleep and I
the clock says my school’s already started, are we having a day off?” the words
took a few minutes to sink in. What was Will talking about, and why was it so
bright?
Then his brain registered. “Crap!” he leapt out of bed and sprinted to the
clock in the kitchen, it read 10:45. “Crap!” he yelled again. He dashed back to
his room, Will was standing in the middle looking more confused than ever, he
was dressed though which was a small blessing.
“Listen Will, you need to eat your breakfast as fast as you can, we have to be
out of here in ten minutes, ok?” he grabbed his school bag; the clothes he was
wearing would have to do.
“I had my breakfast daddy Arthur,” Arthur span round to see Will’s toothy
smile. “Lucky charms and orange juice at 8:05 like always. “Did I do good?” god
Arthur loved his little nephew.
He ruffled Will’s hair. “You did great munchkin, you ready to go?” Will nodded
happily. “Ok go wait on the porch. Remember don’t talk to strangers!” he called
out in warning as Will rushed toward the door. For the second morning in a row
Arthur ignored his growling stomach.
He looked in on Lisa, when she wasn’t in her room a cold silver of fear ran
through him, he checked the living room, relieved to find her fast asleep on
the couch. She was dressed same clothes as last night and Arthur could tell she
was going to have one really bad hang over. He grabbed a couple of aspirins and
a bottle of water from the fridge putting it down next to her. A multicoloured,
faded old blanket covered their ancient couch; it belonged to their grandmother
when she was a girl back in Italy. He pulled the top of it over Lisa, she
didn’t stir, even when they were kids she’d always been the heavy sleeper.
Arthur took one last look at her before running to the front door, outside he
grabbed Will’s hand and they ran as fast as they could to the bus stop. He
scribbled a note for Will on the bus about him having a doctor’s appointment,
and signed it Lisa. Didn’t matter the signatures didn’t really match, all of
the school notes had be written and signed by Arthur, he’d even had to call in
a few times after he and Ari perfected his ‘female tone’.
He walked Will to the gate and saw him off; by the time he got to school it was
already nearly the end of second period. Arthur, he went straight to the bike
sheds. A couple of the usual guys who cut class were there already passing a
joint between them, they nodded at Arthur as he came round, and offered the
joint to him, he shook his head and rested his body against the wall. For once
November provided a slightly warmer day.
He checked his phone, there were eight messages, all from Ariadne along the
vein of ‘Where are you?!’ He texted her back to meet him outside when second
period was over.
He should’ve gotten something to eat before he left, at least it was almost
break and he could share some of Ari’s food. He was getting thin, too thin,
even he could admit that it was starting to show, and Ari and Frank had taken
to passing him food at every opportunity.
Just for a few more years, then he could slow it down, work less hours and try
college, Lisa may even get back on her feet.
He just had to keep telling himself that.
The shrill ring off the bell disturbed his piece, grudgingly he moved off the
wall. Nodding goodbye to the pot guys he made his way straight to the patch of
grass on the field that he and Ari reserved for the less chilly days.
She arrived a few minutes later; he sometimes forgot that someone that small
could move so quickly. “Arthur,” she dumped herself down gracelessly beside
him, wind wiping the curls in her hair across her face. “Where were you? I had
to spend fifteen minutes with Jacobs insisting over and over again that you
were sick!”
He felt a little guilty, but he just hadn’t had time to tell Ariadne that he’d
be in late. “Sorry,” he apologised sincerely. “I slept through my alarm it was
a total made rush this morning,” she cocked her head frowning, her stare made
him feel scrutinized. “What?”
She bit her lip. “Arthur, I know I keep asking but...have you, been sleeping
enough?” she asked, her voice was gentle but wary, as if she was dealing with a
small child on the verge of a tantrum.
“Yes Ari, I’m fine. I just got back a little later than usual last night and
must’ve just ignored my alarm. It happens y’know,” he shrugged it off. Ari
looked entirely unconvinced but she let it go, for now at least. “By the way,
you know how we’re great friends and friends share—“ she had passed him a
sandwich before he was half way through the sentence. Arthur made to protest
about the fact she’d given him her whole sandwich, but she brought another one
out of her bag.
When Arthur raised an eyebrow she shrugged. “I figured you might not have
eaten,” he really didn’t deserve a friend like her, when he said as much out
loud she just gave him a weird look.
“We’re friends Arthur, it’s what they do, plus it took me all of five minutes
y’know,” she chastised him lightly.
They relaxed on the grass, Ari complained to him about her parents over
protectiveness, they never let her stay out past nine thirty on a school night
and boys were a definite no-no. It wasn’t even about the boy thing it was about
the fact they just didn’t trust her, or did trust her but not other people as
they put it which was basically the same thing really!
He listened to her talk about how strict her parents were; it’s true they did
hold the reins a little tight, but Ari was their only child and they also doted
on her. He suspected it was also a guilt since Ari’s mother was a surgeon and
her father a neurologist, which meant they didn’t have much time at home.
Still, as Ari went on about her parents it got him thinking about his own
mother, he wondered where she was, what she was doing right now. When he was a
kid he liked to think she was somewhere like New York, living in a glossy
apartment in Manhattan, maybe she’d be this sleek business woman, with the
ponytail slicked back and the elegant beige suit with pointed heels. A skinny
mocha cappuccino in one hand and the latest phone in the other, striding
through the elevators as everyone parted to let her through.
Or maybe she’d be the opposite, maybe she’d be this bohemian styled chick
living in San Francisco, with a loft that was filled with canvases. Some of
them painted with bright splashes of colour, some half done with just the hints
of what could be, and some blank ready and waiting for a that first brush
stroke. Maybe she had dreadlocks, or brightly coloured hair to reflect her
paintings. She’d shop at flea markets and dollar stores because she loved
things that were no longer loved themselves. She could pick up and take off
whenever she wanted.
As a child Arthur used to go through dozens of possible scenarios that his
mother could be in. He wasn’t an idiot though. When he got older he could admit
that had just been a dumb exercise to make him feel better. His mother was
probably miles away with a new family and new kids, hell she probably didn’t
think about the family she’d had fourteen years ago. The thought probably
occurred to her once or twice every few years as she held her new toddler on
her knee.
He wondered if she thought that what she’d done was abandonment or whether she
thought they were better off. Grandma refused to mention his mother after she’d
left them, and whenever he’d brought it up with Lisa she’d just get upset and
storm off. Grandma had dismissed him when he told her that he remembered when
she’d left.
“How can you remember such a thing when you were just a little babe?” she’d
mutter to herself over the stove or in front of the TV. He did though, even if
it was patchy. Didn’t matter anymore now, after Grandma passed away and Lisa
got pregnant, their mother became an absolutely taboo subject with Lisa.
The only thing they had in the house that was hers was a folded up and faded
photo of when she was a teenager in her last year of high school. She had a
bright smile on her face, dark, perfectly straight hair blowing slightly in the
breeze. The tell-tale bump was already visible under her thin dark blue
sweater. Lisa, little more than three months on, their mothers face was aglow
with the hopes and possibilities that the future presented. The girl in that
photo probably never envisioned she’d end up living with her mother for twenty
two years, in a small house on the wrong side of town, the same town she’d been
born in, the town she’d wanted so desperately to get away from.
“Arthur?” Ari whispered, breaking him out of the spell he was in, he realised
at some point he’d closed his eyes, he had to blink the bright spots from his
eyes. An apology was already on his tongue for zoning out on Ari, but he
stopped when he saw the look on her face.
“You were thinking about her?” his silence was enough of a confirmation for
her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think,” she murmured softly.
He shook his head, feeling guilty for putting a damper on things Arthur put on
his best smile. “It’s fine, trust me,” his stomach gave a definite grumble,
breaking the sombre mood and causing Ari to burst into fit of giggles. “Thanks
for the sandwich,” he grinned taking a bite and feeling immediately better.
“Chicken salad! Ariadne you are an angel,” he threw an arm around her shoulder.
“Yeah, yeah whatever,” she muttered but her cheeks were flushed with the
praise. It was always a relief to know that Ari had his back; she and Frank
always kept an eye on him. Besides he had family, he had Lisa and Will, he also
counted Ari and really asking for more would just be selfish.
“By the way...” Ari began, a curious tone to her voice. “..when did you get
that jacket?” Arthur immediately blushed, dates on her calendar she’d forget
the minute she looked away, but clothes and her memory was suddenly perfect.
“Oh..it’s just an um, piece I found when I was digging around the attic,” he
stammered, please buy it, please buy it! He was so crap at lying to people he
knew, strangers were mostly ok, but Ari and Lisa immediately saw straight
through it with his nervous eyes flicking about everywhere.
Ari looked considerate. “It’s nice,” she concluded. “looks good on you.” she
probably didn’t understand why that would make Arthur turn even redder. “I feel
like I’ve seen it somewhere before,” she mused, a small frown marking her face.
Arthur hurried to change the subject. “So, done anymore work on your story?”
Students around them were starting to move back towards the school, they
gathered up the stuff whilst Ari answered.
She sighed deeply. “No, I’m stuck at a crossroads. I was thinking of asking
Eames for advice when he comes to the exhibit next week.”
Arthur’s chest gave an involuntary jump at Eames’ name, he just kept drilling
the simple thought into his head ‘He’s an adult and he’s straight. He’s an
adult and he’s straight’ over and over again.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing him again,” she gushed. “He was so cool
to answer all those questions, you wouldn’t believe Rachel’s face when I told
her about it, she’s totally angling for him. I told her anything after a
relationship that long would just be a rebound, but did she care? Not a single
bit,” she winked at Arthur. “I bet you’d love to be his rebound.”
“Shut up!” he pushed her gently. “That’s not even...I mean he was
alright...but...” the weird look Ari gave him was enough to tell him he was
getting to touchy about it, he immediately stopped that train of thought. He
did think this was a good time to fish for info though. “So what supposedly
happened with this girlfriend of his?”
Ari immediately started at lightning speed, he never knew how she had such a
memory for celebrity gossip. “Well you know the actress Tallulah Fischer?” he
nodded. “Well they were supposed to be dating for like three years,” Arthur’s
eyes widened.
He did a double take. “He dated Tallulah?!” Tallulah Fischer was supposed to be
one of those famous up and coming actresses. He’d seen pictures of her in
Lisa’s magazines, and on the ‘Thirty People to Watch Under Thirty’. She was the
epitome of the blonde bombshell, perfect figure, hair everything! His heart
kind of sunk with the knowledge that that’s the kind of person Eames would
choose.
Ari grinned in response, she loved her gossip. “Yeah, they were really, really
close, apparently he was planning to propose to her,” so that’s who Eames had
been talking about kids with, maybe that’s why he needed a change, the whole
life-turned-on-it’s-head person.
“What happened?” he pressed.
“No one knows for sure, one minute they were fine then the next they were just
never together anymore, to be honest he kind of went all reclusive for a while.
Rachel says our schools the first time I’ve seen him do a public appearance in
weeks!” he raised an eyebrow at the news.
“I think Rachel may know too much,” she hit him in the arm but giggled
muttering ‘cheek’. She gave him another weird look.
“I swear I’ve seen that jacket before,” the frown of concentration appeared
again, and Arthur had a moment of panic.
“You probably just getting old,” he pointed to her forehead in mock concern.
“Yep defiantly getting some wrinkles there.”
She laughed and pushed him off. “Asshole!” but she looped her arm with his in
their familiar gesture. They strode back to the school, with a full stomach he
was feeling better already, even if he did have to play at espionage for the
rest of school to avoid Jacobs.
That proved harder than initially planned, he was beginning to think that Mr.
Jacobs really did have clones roaming the halls. The third time Ari pushed
Arthur behind a locker, or a bathroom door, and really she seemed way too
excited by all this, Arthur had firmly decided that espionage work was not for
him.
His thoughts, almost inevitably despite his determination drifted back to
Eames. He’d been kind last night, helping Arthur when he didn’t have to bother
with some random kid he only met for over an hour, now Arthur had his coat.
He wondered about what to do with it, for a wild moment he thought about just
keeping it. Maybe the smell of Eames would cling to it and a few years time he
could think wistfully back to the briefest moment when he thought he could have
a chance with the writer Fredrick Eames.
No, that wouldn’t be right. Like he said, Eames had been kind to help Arthur,
maybe the jacket was sentimental thing to him, or expensive. It was only polite
of Arthur to give it back to him, he could go there after work...just to give
him his jacket back. He would only see him for a few minutes and then turn his
mind from the man forever.
It was only the polite thing to do, repaying him a little for the whole debacle
last night. Right it was the polite thing.
Nothing at all to do with any kid of ulterior motive Arthur may or may not have
regarding a desire to see a certain writer’s smile again.
~
Come near the end of his shift Arthur kept looking up at the clock, counting
the minutes that went past, it had been a slow shift to begin with, now Arthur
was sitting at the counter tapping his fingers impatiently.
Frank came over and passed him a plate of curly fries, when Arthur practically
inhaled as he began to eat. “You got somewhere to be kid?” Frank inquired.
Arthur looked up from his plate of chips, the question shown on his face. “You
keep looking at the clock like it’s insulted your mother, I would guess you
were just impatient from end of shift but y’all ain’t got that type of look.”
Arthur paused before he grinned at Arthur, humour lighting up in his eyes.
“Y’got a girl waiting?”
Arthur blushed at the question, in truth, Ari was the only person who knew
about him, and that’s only caused she’d kissed him when they’d been playing
spin the bottle at a party and guessed by it that he wasn’t into girls. He
didn’t tell people because it was none of their business who Arthur wanted to
date, but he hesitated on how to answer Frank, he chose the cowardly version of
honesty.
“No, just a friend, I borrowed something from them and I just need to give it
back,” Frank’s grin grew a few sizes.
“I can tell you kid that no one looks like that when they’re gonna meet a
‘friend’. I may be an old man but I was young and single once,” he smiled and
rubbed the wedding ring on his finger. “You can early, on the condition you
bring her round sometime,” yeah like that was ever likely to happen, guilt
pooled in the pit of his stomach, he felt bad lying to Frank but it was too
late to back track now.
“Thanks,” he took off his apron and hung it on the hook next to the kitchen
doors, and unhooked Eames’ jacket. He should really carry it, but his excuse
was the jacket was really warm, and he’d gotten attached to the coat in the
short time he’d been in possession of it. He could always take it off when he
got to Eames’ he assured himself as he pulled the jacket on, the smell of
spice, leather and Eames filling his senses again, for the last time it seemed.
He called out a goodbye to Luke who looked a lot more settled and relaxed than
he had a couple days ago, and made to walk out of the door. “Hey kid!” Franks
voice caused him to stop midway through the door and turn.
“Yeah?” he answered, worried he’d messed something up. But Frank’s expression
was kind.
“Nice to see you excited,” the unsaid ‘about anything’ hung in the air, implied
but Frank had too much tack to say it.
Arthur smiled gratefully. “Thanks Frank,” he slipped out the door, a chill
hitting cheeks when he stepped out of the pavement. He rubbed them and walked
down the street to the bus stop. The bus driver raised an eyebrow at Arthur’s
request of Riverside, he always got the same bus around the same time, almost
everyday for the past year and a half, today counted as an adventure by
Arthur’s standards, which was....kind of sad in a way.
The same woman with her baby was on today, this time the baby looked like it
was being fussy, she held him in her arms and rocked him gently. He watched for
a second, a pang of something like longing hit him like a ton of bricks, he
blinked harshly when he felt hotness behind his eyes and sat down, face firmly
on the road ahead.
He set his mind instead, on what he was going to say to Eames when he randomly
turned up outside his hotel room, when he found out which one it was. God the
guy was going to think he was some kind of stalker, maybe he’d think that
Arthur stole the jacket on purpose to stalk him again. What if he was pissed
and freaked out and slammed the door in Arthur’s face?
Then he pictured Eames immediately coming to get Arthur once he told he was
stranded, the way he’d laughed with genuine amusement at Arthur’s smart ass
comments, which usually worked as a way to deter people from him only made
Eames laugh. Finally his smile, soft and kind, eyes that inspired trust and so
often filled with warmth. Eames wouldn’t slam the door in Arthur’s face, if he
was alarmed with Arthur returning his jacket, the worst he’d be was overly
polite and stiff.
His phone beeped with a text, his heart sank when he saw it was room Lisa, then
relaxed when he read. ‘Sick in bed, been throwing up all day! Defo staying in,
could you bring medicine and some more vodka’ –Li xxx
Something banged at the back of the bus and Arthur turned to see a baby bottle
rolling down the bus, he grabbed the bottle before it kept rolling down the
bus. He walked up to the woman he’d seen almost every day for the last week,
but never really noticed. When Arthur gave the bottle back to her, the smile
she gave him in return was radiant.
“Thank you,” she sighed gratefully. The woman was utterly beautiful there was
no denying that, short brown curls hung around her face which was pale as
alabaster, just a shade darker then Ari’s, they framed a pair of big blue eyes
highlighted with black eyeliner.
The baby in her arms wriggled and gurgled in displeasure. She hushed it softly
and took the bottle from Arthur’s outstretched hand. “Sorry, I don’t why he’s
being so fussy tonight, this usually soothes him,” despite the desire to
gracefully exit and go back to analysing the upcoming situation over and over
again, curiosity took hold of Arthur at her statement.
“What’s ‘this’?”
She looked up from her baby at him, a sheepishly tilt to her lips, “The bus
ride, it’s the only thing that really makes him sleep at night, I’ve tried
cars, trains and everything else but nothing works like the bus.” he voice had
a slight accent to it, which got stronger the more she talked.
He sat on the seat opposite her. “I never thought buses could be soothing.”
She grinned, it brought a mischievous glint into her eyes. “My husband and my
eldest hate it; they feel like their missing out on something.”
“How many kids do you have?”
Her smile grew fond as she rocked the baby in her arms. “Two,” she answered
looking down at the boy .“This is James, my baby and I have a little girl
Phillipa, that’s all so far. We’re only here till tomorrow, visiting a friend
of ours. I’m Malorie,” she held out her free hand.
Arthur smiled and took it. “Arthur.”
Malorie looked happy. “A pleasure to meet you Arthur. Thank you for rescuing
James’ bottle.”
Arthur blushed. “It was no problem,” she looked amused at Arthur’s reaction.
Malorie seemed like a kind woman; Arthur could see the gentle yet protective
way that she held her baby in her arms, like she’d take on the world for him.
He wondered if his mother had ever held him like that. Ever sang a lullaby,
like Malorie was doing now, and rocked him gently.
The bus slowed to a stop and Malorie quickly stepped op, altering James’
position so his head was on her shoulder, she looked back to smile at Arthur
again. “Nice meeting you Arthur,” he nodded.
“Same too you,” she looked at him a little inquisitively, her gaze flicking to
his arms. Herer eyes seemed to widen then soften.
“Y’know Arthur,” she began. “I have a feeling we will see each other in the
future. By the way, the jacket suits you,” she gave one last mischievous smile
before rushing to the front of the bus and bidding goodbye to the driver, and
disappearing.
That was odd.
He didn’t have much time think over it though as he recognised his stop coming
up. He pressed the button and ducked out when the bus came to a standstill.
Riverside hotel was exactly what it said on the packet, it was hotel by the
side of the river. It was their towns version of a travel lodge, lots of rooms
and lots of people, easy to be anonymous. He stopped briefly outside the
sliding doors and looked up at the various windows sticking out from the white
washed brick, his nerves faltered slightly.
‘You’ve come this far’ he reminded himself. It would be two minutes, knock on
the door, give the jacket back, maybe exchanged a few pleasantries and then he
would leave, simple. He strode through the door, shaky resolve filling him. The
front desk area was filled was plastic fake plants, squishy purple chairs and
little tables, even this late a few people were still sat up, a couple in
hoodies and t-shirts but the majority where in suits with laptops and coffees.
He walked straight to the front desk, tightening the strap of his backpack over
his shoulder. The woman behind the desk looked tired, she too had a coffee and
the closer Arthur got he saw three discarded cups on her desk. Her blonde hair
was scraped back into a tight ponytail, which flicked over her shoulder as she
moved her head around, when Arthur approached a bright false smile – obviously
perfected over years of practise – appeared on her face.
“Hey there, can I help you?” the false cheeriness also infected her voice.
“Hi, I was wondering if you knew the room number of Fredrick Eames?” she looked
a little suspicious when she checked the computer, and for one moment Arthur
panicked in case Eames was signed in under an alias. But after a few minutes
she clicked on something and turned back to Arthur.
“It looks like Fredrick Eames is in room 267, is he expecting you?”
Arthur tried to sound authorative. “Yes he is,” from her raised eyebrow he
guessed that she didn’t believe him, but she seemed too tired to care at that
point.
“Third floor, the lift is just down there to the left,” she instructed. The
moment she finished directing Arthur, the smile slipped and she her attention
back to the glossy magazine on her desk. He moved down the corridor to a wooden
door marked. ‘Stairs’.
Like the woman on the desk had said, the lift was at the bottom of the stairs.
He stepped into the open doors. The time it took for the elevator to get to
reach the third floor gave Arthur another minute to plan what he was going to
say. He removed the jacket; reluctantly he had to admit, and folded it over his
arm. He ran his fingers over the leather, feeling the smoothness of it, like
butter over his finger tips.
He just had to play it cool, the elevator dinged when he reached the floor, he
stepped out into the cream collared hallways. He found hotels always smelt of
lemons and strong cleaning fluid. The doors flitted past
‘263’...‘264’.....‘265’.....’266’ he stopped in front of ‘267’ nerves wavering.
He could run away now, the bus would come by soon, he could get and be home in
half an hour and say goodnight to Will, work on his homework and go to bed for
a few hours, he didn’t have to do this.
But he wanted to, he could see Eames one last time and then that would be it.
He took a deep breath to steel himself and knocked.
~                                                                                                                                                                                                     
For a long moment there was no reply and Arthur’s stomach dropped thinking
Eames was out. Then there was a bang followed by a loud curse. After some
stumbling on the other side and the sound of a lock clicking and the door was
wrenched open.
Eames eyes were narrowed when he opened the door, Arthur wanted to step back
but inside straightened up, when Eames focused on him however, a soft smile
appeared on his face. “Arthur, hi.”
He looked drained, his hair was ruffled with some strands sticking up, there
were shadows under his eyes and he had a five o’clock shadow. A white t-shirt
was stretched across his chest, and sweatpants hung low over his hips. It was
completely unfair that he was even hotter now.
He was aware his mouth was open when Eames smile grew slightly wider, his
cheeks burned with embarrassment. “Ummm...coat,” he held the jacket out.
“Yours,” Apparently the power of words was an allusive skill.
When Eames saw the jacket, his eyes light up. “Oh brilliant, I was wondering
where I left it,” he took the jacket from Arthur’s outstretched hands. “Did you
come all the way here just to give this back?” there was something odd about
his voice but Arthur couldn’t tell exactly what.
Arthur was pretty sure his cheeks turned an even darker shade of red and nodded
mutely, itching to get away before he made an embarrassment of himself. Eames
expression turned fond as his hand reached towards his face, and for one moment
he thought Eames was going to touch his cheek but at the last minute he his
clapped his shoulder. “Thanks man,” Arthur hoped the disappointment didn’t show
on his face. “Come on in,” he welcomed as he walked into his hotel room.
For a few seconds Arthur just stood there. This was not going the way he
thought it would, Eames was supposed to say thanks and bye then part ways. The
logical thing to do was politely say goodbye and then swiftly make his exit.
However the logical part of his brain seemed to be disconnected to his legs,
which after those few seconds followed Eames into the hotel room, closing the
door behind him.
Inside Eames’ room was kind of messy, there were a few items of clothing lying
on the floor and bottles were littered on the table in front of the couch
surrounding a small laptop. It looked like he’d raided the mini-fridge,
suddenly the off tone to Eames’ voice made sense as Arthur counted the empty
bottles. Eames looked more than a little sheepish as he surveyed the room.
“Sorry,” he rubbed his neck. “Cobb my Literary Agent keeps on at me to get an
assistant.” He picks a few loose clothes off the floor. “Wasn’t expecting
company and I just got some shitty news,” the closer Arthur he could see Eames’
eyes were a little glassy and he looked tired.
“Wanna talk about it?” he ventured. It was stupid but he wasn’t sure what else
to say.
At first Eames laughed weakly running a hand across his face. “No and yes, god
I don’t know...” he sighed into his hands, and sat down heavily on the couch.
“I got a call from my ex.”
Arthur tentatively sat beside him, he wanted to reach out and comfort Eames who
looked utterly miserable, but instead he asked. “Did she say anything to upset
you?”
Eames huffed coldly. “No ‘she’ was perfect and composed as always, calm and
controlled never showing any bloody emotion. Even when we were together despite
three years every time we argued he’d always treat me like a child having a
tantrum,” the question was out before Arthur could hold his tongue.
“He?” Eames didn’t look away from the wall in front of him, but he also didn’t
correct Arthur. He let that information sink in for a second.
Eames breathed in deeply. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you that. Well I guess
it’s out there now,” he gripped his hands in together.
“I thought you were dating Tallulah Fischer?” Eames shook his head, the shadows
seemed more pronounced.
“That was what we told the media, Tallulah was a darling about it but then, she
would’ve done anything for her brother,” Arthur’s was pretty sure his eyebrows
were near his hairline.
“Robert Fischer’s gay?” Arthur had seen pictures of him in the paper, heir to
the Fischer empire, prime to be one of the youngest CEO’s in history. The only
reason he’d recognized Tallulah when Ari had mentioned her was because she’d
been in a few of the photos with Robert. Nothing in any of the articles had
indicated that Robert Fischer was anything but a player, a new girl on his arm
every week. Well, this explained a few things at least.
“Oh no no no.” Eames shook his finger, words slurring and undercut with
bitterness. “He’s not gay, ‘Robert Fischer can’t be gay, the heir to Fischer
Corps is not gay Eames!’ I could never wrap my head around that. How he could
love me and hate that fact at the same time.” The pain in Eames’ statement was
like a stab in the chest, he looked completely raw.
“What happened?” Arthur asked softly.
Eames was still looking straight forward at the wall; from this angle Arthur
could see the redness rimming his eyes. “I met him at one of those fancy
parties they put on when you’ve got a book to sell. It was right after my first
got published and I was nervous as hell, stumbling over my words and downing
champagne. Then all of a sudden there’s a guy at my elbow telling me to ‘slow
down, that’s not water your throwing back’. I turn to give him a piece of my
mind and ended up spending the rest of the party with him, and that was it.”
He rubbed his hand across his face. “Three years later and one day everything’s
fine, and the next evening I come home from dinner with my friends an hour
early and he’s in bed with one of the women from his office.” For the look of
sheer pain and humiliation that crossed Eames features Arthur couldn’t decide
whether or not he wanted to hold Eames or punch Robert Fischer.
“What a bastard,” Arthur muttered. Eames chuckled but it was weak, he ran a
hand through his hair.
“Yeah well you can understand how it could be a considerable knock to ones
confidence,” he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “I always
wondered why someone like Robert would be interested in me, he was always put
together, so mature and sophisticated. Then there was me. When people looked at
me I knew they saw ‘Charity Case’ stamped on my forehead.”
Sometimes I think Robert felt it too. I mean you should’ve seen this woman, big
blond hair; obvious breast implants with these baby blue eyes and a figure that
could only be bought. I’d seen her before, at one of Robert’s social
gatherings. She was a private school, blue blood just like him and flawless in
social situations, she and Robert are considered ‘The Perfect Couple’ so I
hear. I sometimes think ‘no wonder he picked her when faced with my ugly mug’.”
Arthur couldn’t stand the self pity in Eames’ tone, the fact that any person
would chose some silicone filled bimbo over someone who looked like Eames in
the first place was confusing to him. But that they could hurt Eames and leave
him so insecure after three years together with said silicone woman! Well, that
was just plain cruel.
“If it helps at all,” he began slowly. “I’m kind of wishing Dante has a new
level of inferno that’s reserved for your ex.” Eames looked at Arthur, eyes
wide with surprise then his face started to crumble, for one horrible moment
Arthur though he was going to cry, but then he suddenly burst out laughing.
It was a deep, rumbling laugh and after a minute Arthur began to giggle with
how infectious it was. They laughed like crazy people for a minute, the sound
ringing off the walls. Eventually Eames calmed down and wiped his eyes.
“I have no idea why I found that so funny,” he admitted with a sigh. He’d eyed
Arthur oddly. “You’re just such a kid.”
Arthur frowned. “I’m not a kid! I’m more mature than you think,” Eames didn’t
look like he believed him but Arthur ignored the other man. “Plus I work six to
seven days a week, I balance it with school work, which by the way, I’m getting
straight A’s and looking after the house, my nephew and my sister, I’m
defiantly not a kid!” he declared annoyed.
Eames held up his hands in surrender “Oh I didn’t mean it like that darling,”
his voice had taken on a soothing tone. Wait, did Eames just call him darling?
“I just meant, well you’re so sweet. There’s no ulterior motive behind what you
say, you’re just honest and open.”
Arthur frowned again, this time in confusion. “Why wouldn’t I be?” Eames looked
at him a little sadly.
“When people get to a certain age they stop being open and sincere, they become
jaded and bitter and it turns them into suspicious old men.”
Arthur smiled at him. “I don’t think your bitter and jaded, and you’re
defiantly not old,” Eames cocked his head as if considering Arthur, his eyes
running over his face.
“You really are so sweet,” he murmured softly. Just like that, the jokey and
depressing mood was broken, replaced by something much heavier. Arthur’s smile
disappeared as Eames’ hand moved, sometime during the conversation they’d
gotten closer together, meeting in the middle of the couch. This time Eames’
hand didn’t defect to his shoulder as Arthur feared it would, Eames fingers
tucked under his chin, and Arthur’s breath hitched as Eames’ thumb traced his
bottom lip.
It was like time had frozen, everything around them disappeared. It was only
the two of them and the point of contact sending shivers down his spine.
“You’re so sweet,” Eames repeated softly, he moved slowly closer, Arthur
followed his eyes flicking down to Eames’ own lips which he wanted to kiss
until they were red.
“You should go,” Eames murmured but he moved closer, eyes half lidded staring
straight at where his thumb was brushing over the dip of Arthur’s bottom lip.
Arthur nodded but didn’t move, his lungs felt like they had an iron bar
restricting them. “You should really really go,” Eames whispered. Arthur could
feels his breath against his lips, Eames thumb moved to sweep across Arthur’s
cheek bones.
“Make me,” Arthur spoke softly against Eames’ lips a challenge lacing his
words. That seemed to snap something inside Eames and his lips crashed against
Arthur’s. It was rough, teeth furiously clacking together and Eames’ free hand
around the back of Arthur’s neck, pulling him closer. Arthur had never had
this. He’d never been the sole receiver of this kind of attention. He revelled
in it, running his hands desperately across Eames’ body. When he scratched his
nails through Eames’ hair, the other man growled and Arthur found himself being
pushed down on the sofa, and Eames’ body on top of him stealing his breath with
his kiss.
Arthur opened his legs instinctively and Eames moved in-between them, the
movement brought their clothed erections together. Arthur groaned with the
burst of white hot pleasure and arched his hips, desperate for the contact
again, his nails clawed at Eames’ back, making him growl. Eames broke the kiss
and Arthur made to let out a noise of displeasure which turned into a choked
off moan as Eames lips trailed hotly down his neck, just above the dip of his
shoulder to pay particular attention, sucking roughly at the spot.
Arthur wound his hands in Eames’ hair, pulling him in closer, gasping when
Eames bit down on the sore spot. He wrenched Eames head back up to his lips and
kissed him again, he was pretty sure his lips would be bruised the next day,
but when Eames ran his tongue along the seam of his lips, Arthur opened without
protest.
They wrestled for dominance for a moment; Arthur did it more out of principal
before submitting and Eames’ tongue explore every inch of his mouth. The kiss
made him greedy for more, feeling brave he slipped his hand under Eames’ shirt;
the first touch of skin was like physical relief. Eames thrust particularly
hard and Arthur scratched his nails down his back, moaning so loud he was would
be surprised if the neighbours didn’t complain.
Eames pulled back to pull off his shirt, exposing the flat plane of his
stomach, mapped by inky black tattoo’s and Arthur had never been more turned on
in his life. He wrenched Eames back down to him, Eames chuckled but didn’t give
Arthur want he wanted, instead, he pulled Arthur’s t-shirt and hoodie over his
head.
Arthur’s hands got tangled in the arms, but when he tried to move to free
himself Eames pushed him down, using the hoodie to hold Arthur’s hands above
his head. He leaned over Arthur “Keep your arms there darling,” Arthur could
only node mutely, his throat felt raw and scratchy. Eames grinned wickedly; his
lips immediately went to the dip in Arthur’s collar bone, then down further
latching on to Arthur’s nipple. He arched his back gasping at the electric
sensation; he’d never really thought about nipples were erogenous, now he was
beginning to think he had seriously been missing out.
Eames sucked and bit at the bud, whilst Arthur writhed under him, he kept his
word not to move his arms but he wanted desperately to run his curl his fingers
in Eames’ hair.
When Eames moved off Arthur let out an involuntary whine of protest, Eames
chuckled against his skin kissing down Arthur’s stomach. As he moved down,
Arthur realised that the little moans and gasps he’d been hearing were coming
from him. When Eames unzipped his jeans Arthur began to get a little nervous,
but then Eames mouthed his sharp hipbones and Arthur forgot about everything
but that mouth.
He pulled Arthur’s jeans and underwear off in one smooth motion leaving him
totally exposed, before Arthur could ask what he was going to do Eames took
Arthur into his mouth. If Eames wasn’t going to get a noise complaint before he
was defiantly going to get one now, as Arthur particularly screamed with
pleasure. The was the first time anyone had done anything like this to him, he
understood know why people talked about sex so much, why had he waited so long
to do this?!
In the heat of the moment, Arthur forgot about his arms and wound his trapped
hands in Eames’ hair, pleasure was building in the base of his spine,
threatening to undo him. Then Eames pulled off, the sound it made was obscene
and Arthur made a desperate noise of protest. Eames chuckled, crawling up
Arthur’s body and kissing him deeply so Arthur could taste himself on Eames’
tongue, it was way more erotic than it should’ve been.
“Don’t worry darling,” he murmured when he pulled back. His thumb ran across
Arthur’s parted, wet lips again. “I’m not done with you yet,” Arthur shivered
and Eames smile grew.
His thumb was still pressed to Arthur’s lips, Arthur took it into his mouth and
sucked greedily, never breaking eye contact with Eames. The other man’s eyes
grew darker than Arthur thought possible, pupils blown wide. He yanked the
hoodie of Arthurs hands and wound his arm under Arthur’s back to hoist him up.
Arthur hooked his legs around Eames’ hips instinctively as he stood up taking
Arthur with him.
They stumbled in the direction of what Arthur hoped was the bedroom, they took
a little while to get there however as Arthur was pushed up against a number of
surfaces, as they kissed furiously.
Eames dropped Eames ungracefully onto the sheets, Arthur scrambled up on his
elbows to get a good view of Eames stripping his trousers off, his cock hung
thick and heavy between his legs and Arthur’s mouth actually watered at the
sight.
Eames lips twitched as he took in Arthur’s expression, he leaned over Arthur’s
body and kissed his thoroughly, their two erections rubbing together, the naked
contact was a billion times better.
Eames lips moved to Arthur’s ear, his breath stuttering “What do you want
Arthur?” Arthur groaned as Eames’ wrapped a hand around their cocks “You’ve got
to tell me what you want darling.”
“Fuck me.” Arthur breathed immediately. In any other situation Arthur would’ve
felt embarrassed but he was too far gone at that point, all he could think was
moreand now.
Eames huffed in amusement. “As you wish darling.”
He rooted around in the bedside cabinet, still moving his hand expertly up and
down their erections, the friction itself was driving Arthur crazy. He was so
focused on how good Eames hand was making him feel he didn’t notice the other
man slicking up his finger, the first press at his entrance made him tense
instinctively.
“Relax,” Eames whispered, his voice layered like honey. Eames rolled the condom
on and put some of the lotion on his hand and stroked Arthur’s erection again
until he calmed. Slowly Eames’ finger breeched his entrance. “Very good
darling,” he praised working his finger in and out.
“God you’re tight,” he hissed.
It wasn’t painful, just a little strange; Arthur thought he could defiantly get
used to it. He shifted his body slightly and that made Eames finger push
against something, that had Arthur seeing stars and moaning loudly.
“Do that again,” he demanded. When Eames didn’t move for a second he whispered
“Please,” Eames grinned and bore down on the spot until Arthur was writhing on
the sheets. During his assault Eames added another finger and scissored them
inside Arthur making him yell out in pleasure, and his hands tear the sheets.
He hoisted Arthur’s legs over his shoulder and when he added a third Arthur
winced, he never thought he could be stretched this much but Eames just kept
pressing on that spot and Arthur was lost to pleasure he’d never experienced
before. “Please Eames,” Arthur begged. “Please just fuck me.” Eames growled
removed his finger causing Arthur to whine in protest, but instead it was
replaced by the head of Eames’ erection.
When Eames pushed in it did hurt, Arthur hissed with the pain, instinctively
flinching away but Eames held fast, slowly filling him, inch by inch until he
was completely inside Arthur. They both were still for a moment as Eames was
buried as far as he could go in Arthur, who felt like he couldn’t breathe. But
then Eames was there whispering filthy words and encouragement, Arthur could
feel his arms trembling with the effort to keep still and breathed out deeply.
After a minute his body adjusted to Eames and he began to get impatient again
“Move.” His voice was ragged and he wondered if he looked as utterly wrecked as
he sounded. He just wanted Eames to fuck him so badly.
That confirmation was enough to make Eames pull his hips back and thrust in
again gently, it still hurt, but on one stroke Eames hit that spot inside him
again and he clawed at his back in an effort to get him to move god damnit!
All the careful control and restraint collapsed and Eames snapped his hip
roughly, slamming into Arthur, his grunts audible over the sound of skin
slapping on skin. Arthur was lost to it, he couldn’t focus on anything pleasure
with an edge of pain making his head and dulling his other senses, when Eames
reach down to jerk Arthur off matching the rhythm of his thrust it was almost
too much.
He just sobbed and groaned and took it, hands twisting white knuckled in the
sheets, he was faintly aware he was begging Eames for more, more of everything
he arched and bucked his hips to try and get him even deeper.
The heat in the base off his spine built and built until he thought it was
going to burn him up from the inside. Then he was arching completely of the bed
actually screamingas his orgasm hit him like a ton of bricks, white bursting
behind his eyelids. Eames thrust in a few more times, gripping Arthur’s hips
hard enough to leave bruises before he growled as he came.
Eames collapsed on top of Arthur and the other boy welcomed the weight of him,
he ran a hand through Eames’ sweat slicked hair the absolute high giving way to
overwhelming exhaustion. He watched blearily as Eames rolled off him and
disposed of the condom in a nearby bin. Eames disappeared for a moment and
Arthur panicked, but he returned with a warm wash cloth. Arthur didn’t have the
energy to protest when Eames cleaned up any mess, before dumping the cloth and
moving back to Arthur. Eames drew the blankets over them and flung a hand over
Arthur’s chest.
He probably should’ve left or text Lisa that he wasn’t coming home, but he
rejected those ideas when the required moving away from the warmth of Eames’
body and his breath on the back of his neck. Arthur closed his eyes with the
promise he would leave in an hour, and succumbed to a deep sleep.
~
Light streamed onto Arthur’s eyelids. The sensation was weird; his window was
on the wrong side of the house to ever have the direct sun light in the
morning. He rolled over; his bed seemed larger than he remembered. He stretched
out his arms feeling more space and bed sheets. Then the events of the last
night came flooding back in a rush and he jerked upright, eye wide.
The bed was empty and cold, the clock by the bed read 6:45 am. Arthur wrapped
the sheet around his body and padded into the living room. After a quick
exploration Arthur found the rest of the hotel room was completely deserted,
Eames was nowhere to be found, he sat down on the sofa for a few minutes.
Maybe he was just a reception, a private phone call? Or maybe he just needed to
run out to the shops and get something? Even he had to admit those excuses were
weak, after ten minutes with Eames as a no show and the clock nearly at seven
Arthur settled on the fact that Eames had just freaked out and run away.
At first Arthur was hurt, then he got angry. Eames came onto him not the other
way around! He was the adult in this situation and he’d acted like a coward,
freaking out and ditching him. Well screw Eames! He wasn’t going to hang around
like an idiot.
Arthur snatched up his clothes, pulling them on roughly, cursing Eames every
name he knew. Hot tears threatened to spill onto his cheeks, he wiped his eyes
the back of his hand roughly, he was so pissed off he couldn’t stand it.
When he was dressed and he grabbed his bag and marched towards the door,
intending to slam it behind him but at the last minute out of the corner of his
eye he caught sight of the leather jacket that started this whole situation. It
was laid over the back of the sofa chairs, Eames must’ve put it there last
night before everything happened.
Thinking to last night, the way he’d begged Eames to fuck him, how he’d moaned
wantonly for him made his face burn in shame. They say your first time was
supposed to be special or something like that, and whilst Arthur didn’t really
go for that crap it still meant somethingto him to have sex for the first time.
To Eames though it was probably nothing, he was one in a long line of fan boys
Eames had probably slept with, the thought made his blood boil.
He couldn’t say what impulse made him do it, whether he was just pissed at
Eames for leaving, or at himself for the amount of self pity that was circling
him right now. Whatever it was Arthur muttered, “Fuck it” and grabbed the
jacket off the back of the chair, leaving the hotel room with a firm slam of
the door. Unfortunately it wasn’t really a slam since the hotel had one of
those things that slows the door before it shuts, which made Arthur even more
frustrated.
He took the stairs two at a time, just wanting to get as far away from this
place and Eames as possible. At the front desk the girl from last night had
been replaced by an older woman, thank god for small mercies at least.
He didn’t see Eames outside, or when he walked down the street to the bus stop,
he meant what he said before he wasn’t going to wait around, he’d be late
taking Will to school and Will was more important than Eames the coward.
He caught the bus back to the house, opening the door with the key under the
plant pot. The minute he stepped through the door, he was nearly bowled over as
Will threw his arms around his legs.
“Woah munchkin, what’s the matter?” Will looked up at Arthur, his big eyes
blinking, he was all dressed but some of his buttons were mismatched. Arthur
detached him and started redoing the buttons.
Will bit his lips. “You weren’t here, you’re always here,” he mumbled
nervously.
Arthur felt a stab of guilt. “Sorry munchkin I was just round at Ariadne’s
doing homework and it got so late I ended up staying over, y’know like you have
sleepovers with Robbie?”
Will nodded, he cast his eyes down. “I thought you might be out like Lisa,” the
look on Will’s face made Arthur’s heart shatter. “I thought maybe you’d left
me,” he felt like such a bastard for lying to Will and for making him feel like
Arthur would do that to him.
He wrapped him up into a tight hug, trying to make sure Will understood how
much he loved him. “I’m never going to leave you munchkin, not now, not ever. I
promise you,” Will wound his little arms round Arthur.
“Love you daddy Arthur,” Arthur pulled back, keeping his hands on Will’s
shoulders.
“I told you munchkin I’m your uncle Arthur not your daddy,” he reminded him
softly.
Will shook his head vigorously, eyes wide. “We learnt in school that your
‘real’ daddy is someone who does everything you do, your my real daddy.” The
amount of love in Wills eyes and his easy, open smile, meant Arthur didn’t have
the heart to correct him.
He stood up and ruffled Will’s hair. “I love you too munchkin, you know that
right?” Will nodded happily, grinning his wide, gap-toothed smile.
“Families are honest with each other right daddy?” Arthur nodded. “Then you
should probably have a shower before we go,” Arthur laughed with surprise.
“Alright munchkin, I’ll go have a quick shower and then we’ll go, have you had
breakfast yet?” Will shook his head. “Alright, go and have some breakfast and
I’ll be out in ten minutes.”
“Ok daddy,” Will dashed into the kitchen, and grabbed a bowl off the counter.
Arthur walked down the hallway, stopping outside Lisa’s door; he got the
surprise of his life when he looked in and she was up and partly dressed. She
had a bra but no top on, Arthur averted his eyes but she usually walked around
the house looking for things like that, more than once Arthur had to close the
curtains to shield her from ogling neighbours.
“Oh so your finally home,” there was something off about Lisa’s tone, but
Arthur was tired, angry and guilty all at once, and he just didn’t have time
for one of her moods.
He leaned against the wall next to the door. “You’re up early. Feeling better?”
she shrugged, fishing around her bed for something.
“Not really, I threw up last night and this morning, but Will came into my room
and poked me till I got up. He started wobbling because you weren’t back yet,
so someone had to take him to school. Pass me that jumper will you?” she
pointed to the radiator; he restrained the urge to throw the jumper at her
head. He passed it to her and she pulled it over her head.
She then turned to him, hands on her hips, dark hair flowing down her shoulders
like an inky waterfall; it reminded Arthur of Eames’ tattoos. She raised an
eyebrow when a silence followed. “Well?”
“Well what?” Arthur replied in confusion, Lisa scoffed and shook her head
exasperatedly, it grinded on Arthur’s already fragile nerves.
“You know need your help in the mornings! We have a deal you do mornings and me
or Mrs. Crenshaw babysit him till you get back. I get that you’re a teenager
but maybe after you screw someone you can come home afterwards, you have a
responsibility here,” Arthur’s flushed, coming from her that was so
hypocritical he didn’t even know where to begin.
“I don’t go around screwing people,” he hissed.
Lisa wrinkled her nose. “Please Arthur, you practically reek of sex,” he turned
an even darker shade of red, and crossed his arms. “By all means go out and get
laid, but remember you have responsibilities to Will. He needs a positive male
influence in his life, so just try not to fuck too many people and get a
reputation,” she stated plainly, leaning down to the mirror to put a pair of
silver earrings in.
Arthur bit back the response on the end of his tongue Like you? He didn’t say
that though. He wasn’t in a fit state to rationally deal with Lisa right now.
“I’m gonna take Will to school,” he replied through gritted teeth instead. Lisa
straightened and flattened down her jumper - which was cut just above her belly
button, showing her midriff - and her black leather mini skirt.
She picked up a bag and strode towards the door, how she could stay upright in
heels that high he’d never know. “I’m off to meets some friends, I might be
back this afternoon but I’d call the old Crenshaw bat,” she kissed him on the
cheek and strutted through the door.
In that brief moment Arthur could smell the alcohol on her breath, either she’d
started early, or she was she’d been at it at home last night, the idea that
she’d could’ve been drinking around Will pissed Arthur off the most.
The door closed before he could pull her up on it, he shook his head to clear
his head, he couldn’t focus on anyone but Will right now, he needed to get him
to school. He went to the bathroom and striped off his old clothes, Arthur
stepped under the hot spray. The shower peace of the shower gave way to
thoughts about Eames, at first they were the same angry ones that he’d been
thinking all the way home, but thoughts about Eames’s dumb face, led to
thoughts about Eames’ lips, and those thoughts led to Arthur remembering those
lips around his cock, liquefying his brain.
He turned the heat up so it was practically searing, and scrubbed hard at every
place Eames touched, determined to wipe away the memory of his touch.
When he got out of the shower though and turned to the bathroom mirror he
realised that plan had been useless, there were marks the size of hand prints
dotted on his hip. Just above his hip bone a dark mark was blossoming and an
even larger one was on his neck, obvious in comparison to his pale skin.
He ran his fingers over the mark on his neck, tracing the soreness. When he
realised what he was doing he dropped his hand roughly. Arthur grabbed a towel
and went into his room to get dressed, he also picked up some work he hadn’t
been able to finish last night, he’d just have to do it during lunch period.
When he stepped out he walked straight to Lisa’s room and grabbed some
foundation from her make-up bag, he’d never been so thankful that he and his
sister shared the same pale tone to their skin.
He dabbed some on his neck until the mark was completely invisible, Arthur
smiled at his handy work, but at the same time a small, traitorous part of him
missed the mark and it symbolised. That for one brief moment, he’d had Eames.
Not something that would happen again, if this morning was any indication he
reminded himself harshly and left Lisa’s room, shutting the door behind him.
Will was finished and waiting by the door when Arthur came out, he stuffed the
work into his bag and slung the leather jacket over his shoulders. Though any
reminder of the night before was still considered a bad thing in Arthur’s mind,
he had to admit the jacket was really fucking warm.
By the time they got to Will’s school he was actually on time and Arthur only
ended up being a few minutes late. When he walked in and sat down next to Ari
she passed him a cupcake, he actually leaned over and hugged her, relieved to
have someone who had his back.
She scoffed in mock irritation. “Seriously Arthur are going to be like this
every time I give you food?” but she smiled, obviously pleased.
Arthur devoured the cupcake in a matter of seconds, whilst Ari watched on
looking both impressed and just that little bit repulsed. “You seriously need
to fatten up, else you’re going to be skinner than me in our prom photo’s,” he
shuddered, prom had been the last thing on his mind, he was trying really,
really hard to forget about it. Thank god it was months away.
When he said as much to Ari she rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Come on,
we’ll hang out by the food table and make fun of the popular kids, whilst we
wish we were them.”
Arthur grinned. “Well when you put it like that,” his phone buzzed in his
pocket, it was an unknown number. Arthur frowned, nobody ever called him, he
pressed the receive button and pressed the phone to his ear. “Hello?” he asked
cautiously.
“Arthur,” he froze at the sound of Eames’ voice on the other end of the line.
His mouth opened and closed like a fish. He couldn’t come unable to come up
with a single syllable. “Arthur? Are you there?” God he loved the way Eames
said his name, it sounded sexy when Eames said it, less like a librarian. He
sounded rough though, his voice had a scratchy quality; that was the thing that
stopped Arthur hanging up immediately.
He made to reply when the phone was yanked out of his grip, he looked up to
snap at whoever had done it, but stopped short when he saw Mr. Jacobs raised
eyebrow .“So glad to see your taking your education so seriously Mr Hansen,” he
clicked the end call button, ignoring Arthur’s noise of protest. “Your social
life will still be around at the end of the day Mr. Hansen when you collect
your phone from my office.”
His stomach plummeted. “But sir—“
“After school Hansen, now if will humbly be permitted to return to my
registration,” the class snickered as Jacobs returned to sit behind his desk,
glasses drooping down his nose.
“Asshole”Arthur muttered under his breath. He was still in a state of shock, of
all the things he’d expected to happen with Eames – namely that he’d just
disappear from Arthur’s life as swiftly as he came into it – he never expected
for the man to call him. Now worry began to knaw at his stomach, a part of him
wanted to just be pissed at Eames and wallow in self pity about the whole
situation, but another part of him wanted to hear what Eames had to say. That
part of him...might like Eames a little bit.
All right that was bullshit, that part of him liked Eames a lot. The person
he’d seen last night was different to the guarded persona Arthur had witnessed
on stage, open and raw, he’d had his heart ripped up and stamped on by the
sounds of it.
He was curious, he knew Robert Fischer from newspaper articles featuring him
and his father. When calculus rolled around they were in the computer labs, it
was one of the few lessons he and Ari didn’t share since he’d been put in
advance placement a year ago. She had Economics during it, according to her to
be a successful writer you had to understand the financial side of side of
things to, they shared Business Studies for the exact same reason.
He logged onto the computer, the teacher was busy with another student who was
having trouble entering in some equations, so Arthur took the opportunity to
answer the questions buzzing in his head.
First of all he googled Fredrick Eames, the first hit he got was a Wikipedia
page about Eames, he clicked on it, it felt a little creepy as if he felt like
he was spying on Eames, it didn’t stop him though. His eyes widened when he saw
the page, the guy had written six short stages and three novels and he’d won
the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Awards for his second novel
‘Stranded’, and a bunch of other awards for his third ‘The Secret Life of
Chameleons’. He’d even been nominated for a Pulitzer! Arthur seriously needed
to read these books. Apparently ‘Stranded’ was in talks to be made into a
movie, with Ryan Gosling for Christ’s sake. No wonder Eames had run out on him,
why would a famous writer be interest in some school kid from a small town. The
picture on the page was of Eames on the red carpet for god’s sake!
He went back to google and scrolled down, there were a number of fan sites
dedicated to Eames, as well as some news pages. He clicked on one of the fan
sites, it was mostly filled with pictures of Eames; apparently he wasn’t the
only one who’d recognised Eames had really nice arms.
He checked some of the other sites, one was about Eames and Tallulah. Them on
the red carpet at premiers, award ceremonies and out together, on the surface
they really did look good together, but Arthur could see the stiff smile, and
the guarded expression in his eyes, the way the just seemed so practised
together. Comments were on the vein of how cute they were together and how
jealous they were of Tallulah, he went back to the wiki page.
It continually surprised Arthur how a person’s entire life could be found on
the internet and summed up with a few paragraphs. Apparently, Eames and his
sister had been born in England but went to live with their uncle in America
when they were fourteen, it listed the man’s name, Arthur recognised him as the
local mechanic.
It didn’t say much about his life, just that his parents were considered
wealthy and that he was implied to be in a relationship with Tallulah Riley
that expired about a month ago.
He clicked on Tallulah’s wiki, pretty standard for an actress. She had a much
more descriptive account of her life growing up as an heiress, moving away from
the family business to Hollywood blockbusters. There was also a page for
Robert, Arthur hesitated before clicking it. The page made Arthur feel even
more intimidated, top of his class at Princeton and one of the youngest CEO’s
in the country.
When he looked for images he found Eames was defiantly right in his description
of Rob being put together. Almost every image was him wearing a suit with him
looking immaculate, it was like the guy had someone following him to brush his
suit between camera flashes.
To some he was probably handsome, if you like that sort of thing, blue eyes and
sharp cheek bones with the perfectly styled hair. He almost resembled a James
Bond like character, Arthur found his face way too smug and arrogant to like.
There was one photo were he wasn’t dressed to the nines, he and Eames were
together in a photo, obviously as a request from the photographer. But Arthur
could see the way Eames’ hand rested against Robert’s lower back - not obvious
if you weren’t looking – and the way he looked at Robert with genuine
affection, grinning broadly. It made him even more antagonistic towards Robert
Fischer, how he could possess that much affection from another and throw it
away.
The more recent photo’s were of him and a blonde woman, maybe she was the woman
Eames described, she didn’t hold a candle to Eames.
Doesn’t mean I’m not still pissed at him though he reminded himself. But he
clicked on Fredrick Eames google images. There was one, obviously from one of
those social media sights of Eames on the sofa’ an arm around a girl with long
mahogany coloured hair, with gentle curls that spilled down her shoulders. He
thought for a moment she was another ‘girlfriend’, when he noticed the similar
cheekbones and facial features, this must be his sister Morgan.
A big dog was in the middle of them, licking Eames’ face, he looked happy,
young. For some reason that made Arthur’s chest ache. He rubbed the sleeve of
the leather jacket, a scent still clung to it.
This was all getting a little too much, Arthur immediately closed the webpage’s
and focused his mind on the equations he was supposed to be doing. Every so
often though his thoughts would drift back to Eames, the way he seemed so
guarded around people, as if he expected them to jump at him.
What made him like that he wondered?
The information also served to remind Arthur that Eames was an adult and a
famous writer and Arthur was a teenager who treasured his calculus book more
than any other possession.
But still...Eames had called. Probably to tell Arthur that the night before was
a mistake, but a tiny part of Arthur hoped that maybe it was something else.
That thought, as annoyed as it made him, had Arthur rushing to Jacobs office at
the end of the day. When he saw Arthur barrelling in, the guy looked even less
inclined to give Arthur his phone back. He did however, after a ten minute
lecture on the evils of the mobile phone and how it detracted from decent
education, he begrudgingly handed Arthur his phone back.
The moment Arthur left Jacobs office he slipped into the nearest bathroom,
after checking all of the stalls were empty he pressed the button for Eames’
number. The phone rang once, twice, three times on the sixth Arthur was
beginning to berate himself when the phone clicked “Hello?” Eames voice sounded
out of breath, like he’d been running.
Any residual anger dulled at the sound of Eames voice. “Hi,” Arthur breathed.
“It’s....it’s Arthur,” he winced at how shaky his voice sounded.
There was an inhale on the other end. “Arthur hi, how are you?”
Arthur shuffled. “I’m um...I’m ok” he replied.
There was a moment of awkward silence before Eames cursed. “God, look could we
maybe meet up and talk?” There was an edge of desperation to his voice, maybe
he was just worried Arthur would do something like go around telling everyone,
the thought renewed his anger.
“We’re talking now,” he replied stiffly. There was a grunt of frustration on
the other end of the line.
“Arthur this is not a conversation to be having on the phone,” his voice was
firm this time, chastising Arthur as if he was a small child.
“I’m busy,” he shot back.
Eames sighed again, still sounding edgy. “Arthur—“
“I work remember,” he interrupted harshly. “I can’t afford not to,” Arthur
added for effect.
“When do you get off?” God this guy did not quit.
“I don’t finish until ten.”
“I’ll pick you up,” Eames replied immediately. Arthur went rigid in annoyance
“I don’t need you to pick me up,” he gritted out.
“Arthur, please, just please can I just pick you up?” he sounded tired; Arthur
had the unexplainable urge to make him laugh.
He ignored it, but Arthur felt himself cave anyway “Alright” he sighed “You
know Franks Dinner on fifth?”
“Yeah.”
“Meet me outside at ten,” Eames made a noise of confirmation. Arthur
interrupted him before he could hang up.
“Eames!” the rustling at the end of the phone stopped.
“Yes?” Eames replied cautiously.
“I didn’t hang up before,” he couldn’t explain why it was important Eames knew
that, he just had to make sure he did. “I got caught with a phone by Jacobs and
he took the liberty of hanging up for me,” he heard Eames chuckle. Some of the
tension bled out of the conversation.
“I know, I heard,” Arthur smiled despite himself.
“I’ll um, well I’ll see you tonight,” he winced at how awkward his voice
sounded.
Eames breathed deeply. “Yeah, I’ll see you,” Arthur rang off, wondering if he’d
made a big mistake.
He didn’t get much time to dwell on his decision though, it was his turn to
pick up Will. He caught the bus before it left and got off at Will’s school, he
was sitting on one of the benches, leg swinging. The moment he caught sight of
Arthur his face lit up with a huge grin and he raced across the playground to
Arthur, almost knocking him over.
“Arthur look!” he bounced up and down with excitement, waving around a mustard
yellow rectangle piece of paper in front of Arthur’s face. He took it and read
the page. “I got top marks on my times tables, so Mrs. Altman gave me a
certificate!” he puffed happily.
Pride swelled in Arthur’s chest, he picked Will up and swung him round whilst
the little boy giggled happily.
“Arthur?” that voice almost caused him to drop Will in surprise. He span round
and the gawped in absolute disbelief. Eames was standing there, hands in his
pockets, a frown on his face until he saw Arthur and then he looked completely
taken aback.
Will tugged on Arthur’s sleeve, he’d timidly retreated behind Arthur, he’d
always been wary of strangers. “Daddy Arthur whose that man?” Eames gives him a
look at the ‘Daddy Arthur’ but Arthur shakes his head and Eames seems to get
the message.
He ruffles Will’s hair soothingly with his free hand. “Just someone from
school,” he reassures him. He hates lying to Will, but explain the truth would
be really hard to a kid his age.
“Hi there,” Eames wiggles his fingers at Will and gives him his most charming
smile. Will moves a tiny bit from outside Arthur’s legs and nods with those big
eyes of his. Eames kneels down so he’s closer to Will’s height. “My names
Eames, Arthur’s told me a lot about you. Is it true that you love to paint?”
Will grins and shuffles shyly, ducking his head nodding.
Arthur nudges his shoulder slightly. “Will why don’t you go play with Jeanie
for a bit while Mr Eames and I talk?”
“Kay,” he nods, stepping out fully from behind Arthur. “Bye Mr Eames,” he waves
before running off in the direction of the red headed girl.
As soon as Will is out of ear shot Arthur glares at Eames, immediately on the
defensive. “What?”
“Nice jacket,” crap. He shucked off the leather coat quickly, red faced with
embarrassment, this must be what it’s like to run into an ex. Crappy soap opera
said it would go something like this, although they also usually involved in a
dramatic shooting or water in someone’s face because they slept with the others
sister.
“Why are you here,” he asked. “I thought we agreed to meet after I’d finished
word,” he continued, unable to keep the suspicion out his voice. Looking
someone up on the internet was a little creepy, stalking was a lot creepy.
Eames rolled his eyes at Arthur’s tone. “I run a programme here Arthur, I’m not
following you around.” Arthur blushed in embarrassment, wrapping his arms
around himself. Despite everything, Eames looked really hot today, he was
wearing this horrendous jumper that clung to his muscles, and odd trousers,
they would’ve look odd on someone else, however they, for some reason make him
more attractive.
“You run a programme for little kids? About what, how to get crayon drawings
published?”
The corner of Eames’ mouth twitches involuntarily, but it’s replaced with his
previous stony look. “I come to talk to the slightly older one about becoming
writers and the possibilities involved,” of course he had to work with small
children too, because he wasn’t nice enough already.
“Hey I should be the one with the moral high ground here!” he remarks. He felt
a stab of self satisfaction at the look on Eames’ face.
He sighs and rubs his face. “Perhaps we should go somewhere more private?”
“I have to take Will home,” he bristled.
“I’ll drive you,” he replies back immediately. Arthur racks his brain for a
reason how to avoid it.
“You offer that a lot, you ‘drive’ guys home a lot,” putting suggestion on the
guys. Eames rolls his eyes as if Arthur was a silly child throwing a tantrum.
“Dolores!” He calls over one of the teachers with large round rimmed glasses,
and a long dark brown braid in her hair, she comes over beaming at Eames.
“Would you mind keeping an eye on Will Hansen whilst his brother and I have a
chat quickly?”
She nods, twisting her braid around her finger. “Oh sure no problem Mr. Eames,”
she giggles. He smiles at her charmingly, Arthur rolls his eyes at how clichéd
it is.
“Are you coming or not?” he asks, annoyed. Striding off before Eames can
answer, leaving a taken back teacher behind him.
He goes through the glass double doors, inside was much like their own school
except brightly painted with primary colours and pictures dotted along the wall
from art class and some of the students. Halfway down the corridor Eames
catches up to him, he radiates frustration and tension but doesn’t comment as
Arthur leads them down the winding corridors to the school’s library. Arthur
can smell Eames’ cologne from here, it was the same as last night he had a
flashback to the night before, Eames mouth crashing against. He shook his head
viscously and walked faster into the library. It seemed appropriate for them.
Arthur span on his heels, body defensive and arms crossed across his chest.
Eames looks around curiously at the completely empty library.
“A library really?” Eames questions, eyebrow raised.
Arthur shrugs. “You’d be surprised, the amount of stuff on computers now,
libraries are almost pretty much dead.”
“I hate that,” Eames remarks with a mixture of annoyance and frustration.
Arthur nods. “Me too, but it helps us,” he fixes Eames with what he hopes is a
hard stare, wishing he wasn’t so attracted to the man in front of him. “Alright
I think we were at the fact I should be the one with the moral high ground and
throwing books at you.”
He looks around the room. “Yes, perhaps it was a mistake to give you
ammunition.”
Arthur’s nerves were already frayed, it’d been a really weird couple of days.
All he wanted to do was get Will home and go to work where he could turn his
brain off and focus on something other than the man in front of him. “What do
you want Eames, I may be seventeen but even I know an empty bed the next
morning is a clear enough message.”
“Fuck,” Eames whispers, his shirt is crumpled and some of the buttons are done
up wrong. The dark circles under his eyes have only grown and they’re a little
bloodshot. Good. “Arthur I...I just wanted to apologise.”
Arthur’s stomach feels like it’s been cut open and filled with stones, the
apology makes his skin feel dirty all over again. “Please don’t,” he meant to
say it clearly but it comes out as a pleading whisper.
“No I have to,” Eames persists. He bites his lips, clearly searching his mind
for the right words to say, not that there really are in this situation, how
much easier life would be if it came with a script for the difficult
conversations. “I was extremely drunk and upset about my personal life and I
was just so in appropriate. I should neverhave pushed you like that, it was
completely wrong of me and I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to report me.”
Despite his words, Arthur can see the fear rise up in his eyes with the last
statement. To be honest it hadn’t crossed his mind, something like this could
destroy Eames’ career and probably his life, Arthur was pissed at him but Eames
wasn’t a bad person and didn’t deserve that.
“I’m not going to report you Eames, in case you don’t remember it was
consensual,” he reassures the other man. A little tension leave the others mans
shoulders, but his posture is still rigid and there’s remorse scrawled across
his face. “Plus it’s not like it’s my first time,” he lies, he’s gotten good at
doing that lately. Something flashes across Eames’ eyes, but it’s gone in a
second, masked by that look of shame again.
“It was still me taking advantage of you,” he continues. Arthur rolls his eyes,
thoroughly reaching the end of his tether with this entire situation, he didn’t
want an apology, he just wanted this awkward situation to be over so he could
move on.
“Eames please stop talking or I’ll waste a perfectly good copy of ‘Dune’ by
throwing it at your head.” The corner of Eames’ mouth twitched up and the heavy
atmosphere was lifted slightly. He was compelled though to ask the one question
that had been circling round his brain. “Just answer me one thing. Why’d you
leave? It wasn’t that bad was it?” He jokes but his throat catches midway
through.
Eames eyes go comically wide and he seem s to forget himself for a second
putting a hand on Arthur’s shoulder and staring at him intensely. “No, god no.
Darli-, Arthur. It wasn’t because of you, your bloody brilliant. Sorry that was
inappropriate.” He apologises, running his fingers through his hair and mussing
it up even more. “It’s just, when I woke up and saw you, well at first it was a
good thing, right up until the moment I remember that I’d taken advantage of a
minor and could go to jail I went up to the roof for a cigarette.”
“You were gone for more than twenty minutes,” he reminds him, eyes narrowed
sharply.
Eames rubs his neck. “It may have been more like three cigarettes,” he admits
guiltily. “When I came down you were gone and thought you’d realised you’d made
a huge mistake and left.”
“And it took you over an hour check?” He asks scathingly, arms still crossed
defensively across his chest.
“I was gathering courage,” he admitted shame faced. “I’d be lying if I said I
hadn’t been a little relieved, but mostly I felt like a dirty, sleazy old man
and I was sure the police would be knocking at my door.”
Arthur shuffled, toeing the carpet with his foot. “You obviously don’t know me
very well,” he mumbles, keeping his eyes on his feet.
“No,” Eames sighs above him. “Which is a shame, I think we could’ve been
friends.”
Arthur frowns. “Why couldn’t we be friends?” he asks.
Eames sighs as if Arthur is a petulant child pestering for sweets. “It wouldn’t
be right,” he explains slowly.
“Why?” Arthur persists, unwilling to let Eames just bail like he had before, at
least without a reasonable explanation.
Eames growls in frustration. “Because, you don’t need an old man like me for a
friend, you should be hanging out at the mall, or playing basketball in the
park, or whatever the hell typical American teenagers do nowadays...” He trails
off, seeming to run out of reasons. Arthur rolled his eyes and opened his mouth
to tell Eames exactly what he thought of that when Eames phone started buzzing.
“Shit,” he mutters, rummaging around in the pocket of his, very nicely fitting
jeans. Arthur frowned, he recognised the song from somewhere.
“Is that, Dolly Parton?” he asked incredulously.
Eames didn’t look up from the screen to reply. “She’s a top lady, I will have
nothing bad said about Miss Parton.”
“Nine to Five though? Really?” Eames actually grins at that.
“Seemed appropriate at the time,” he muttered, amused. “Crap, Dom keeps on
about this damn assistant.” An idea formed in Arthur’s head, once the thought
was born it spread like a wild fire until he couldn’t hold back the question
from his lips.
“I could be your assistant,” the moment he says it though Eames’ head snaps up
so fast Arthur surprised it didn’t hurt himself. Eyes narrowed he pockets the
phone and crosses his own arms.
“No Arthur,” frustration bubbled up in Arthur’s chest.
“Why not?!” This was a great idea, a second job would bring in more money, plus
if he was Eames assistant he could cut back at the restaurant and be able to
spend more time with Will. Plus work experience with a celebratory would look
awesome on his resume, so the literary world wasn’t exactly Arthur’s forte it
still couldn’t hurt.
Eames clearly didn’t seem to agree though because he was currently glaring at
the suggestion, shoulders rigid with tension again. “Arthur, I am not hiring a
seventeen year old as my assistant. I don’t even want an assistant,” he replies
annoyance and frustration filling his voice.
“But it’s a brilliant idea,” he argues, his stubborn streak willing him not to
give up. “I’m really good at organising and it would give me some great work
experience to put on resume, working for a celebrity could seriously increase
my chances of getting into a descent college.” Eames still looks unconvinced,
arms crossing across his chest and an doubtful eyebrow raised.
“Please Eames,” he continues. “Look If your schedule is as much as a shitty
mess as your room was you obviously need someone to help out, come one I
organise my little brother everyday, make sure he gets up and ready for school,
breakfast, clean and tidy homework, fed, bedtime stories,” he rattles off his
fingers. “Plus I help Lisa, make sure she gets home ok, that she’s alright in
the morning and I take care of all the things around the house. I can do this,
ask any of my teachers for a reference I guarantee they’d agree!”
Eames rolls his eyes at the statement. “Sure and they won’t be asking why I’m
employing you.”
“It’d be work experience,” he reminds him eagerly, plan forming in his mind.
“They know you at the school it’d wouldn’t be like a strange author asking for
work experience, your known and well liked here,” he points out. “Plus, Mr.
Saito, our Vice Principal will be ecstatic. He argues that I need more practise
in the business world.”
Eames’ still looks unimpressed but his stance wavers, and he sees a flicker of
agreement in Eames’ face. “Just for a week, a one week trial run and if your
still not happy then you can fire me and we never have to see each other
again.” A silence hangs after the statement, but he can feel Eames’ resolve
crumbling and even Arthur can tell that he’s making some sort of sense. It’s
the best of both worlds, Arthur gets experience and being close to Eames is
never a bad thing, and Eames gets an assistant.
“Well,” he says into the silence, nerves fluttering in his stomach. “What’d you
say?”
End Notes
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