Page 18 of Freshman

“O…kay?” Marie asked.

He nodded.

Alfie hated to admit, even to himself, that he enjoyed Nate’s flirty side.

The other side of him was dark, the seducer that reminded Alfie of both a purring lion and a coiling snake ready to strike. As soon as Nate mentioned opening the hatch, or the door, Alfie backed away quickly.

He closed his eyes in an extended blink and thanked God it was his last shift of the week. He needed to escape Nate and gather himself for another week of suggestive comments.

“Have you ever noticed the back of Henry’s head looks like a face?”

A smile tried to spread itself across Alfie’s mouth. He bit into his bottom lip to stop it.

“When he worked on days,” Nate continued, “and I was tired, I had a whole conversation with the back of his head, made eye contact and everything.”

Alfie stopped the laugh from his mouth, but he couldn’t stop the snort of amusement from his nose. Nate laughed too, and Alfie gave up the pretence.

“How can you have made eye contact?” He chuckled, ticking Nate’s name.

“The wrinkles are so deep, I swear they look like eyes, and he’s got this horizonal one that looks like a mouth. The back of his head looks like a melted face.”

“I’ll tell him you said that, shall I?”

“You’d need a megaphone,” Nate mumbled, and Alfie snorted.

“You’re not wrong there.”

“I’ve got something for you,” Nate said slowly.

Alfie tutted. “Let me guess, it’s two inches long and it’s in your pants.”

Queenie howled with laughter, and Alfie grinned.

“My dick is a lot bigger than two inches,” Nate replied.

He didn’t sound raging, so Alfie pushed his luck some more.

“Three inches then?”

He set Queenie off laughing again.

Nate hummed. “Open the hatch, and I’ll sho—”

“Nate,” Alfie said firmly.

“You were the one that turned this conversation dirty. I only wanted to tell you I drew you a picture in art class today.”

There was a rustle at the hatch of the door, and Alfie took a step back with his hand on his radio.

“Don’t do whatever it is you’re doing,” he said in warning, but the crinkle of paper continued. The folded piece slipped through the edge of the hatch and fell to the grated walkway.

Alfie hesitated before crouching to grab it. “What is it?”

He was expecting a hastily drawn picture of a cock and balls, but he froze at the picture of himself. There was no coloured detail; it didn’t have his brown hair, or his green eyes, but he could tell it was him by the shape of the face, the spacing of his eyes, and the narrowness of his nose. Nate had used biro and easily recreated the texture of his hair. There was one feature missing from the portrait, and Alfie raised his eyebrow.

“This…this man has no lips.”

“Man?” Nate chuckled. “You know exactly who that is, and I couldn’t remember how they looked. Thought you could help me out. Open the hatch, let me see you smile.”

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