Page 19 of Freshman

Alfie shook his head and rested the picture on his clipboard. He glanced over the edge of the walkway and saw Marie and Glen staring worriedly through the bars.

He drew the biggest pair of Botox lips he could, then shoved the paper back through the edge of the hatch.

Nate laughed, then hummed in pleasure in a low voice.

A shiver rattled Alfie’s spine, and he stood quickly, then rolled his shoulders. He felt Nate’s hum vibrate through his whole body, and his heart hiccupped.

“Blow job lips, big, moist blowjob lips,” Nate drawled.

Alfie took a step back, glaring accusingly at the door. He had been hooked and pulled in by Nate’s allure and was left floundering at his crude comment…again.

Alfie didn’t say another word. Instead, he turned sharply on his heels and marched across the landing to the stairs. Disappointment stung, and Alfie didn’t know whether it was at himself, Nate, or the fact roll call had finished. He enjoyed the slow hiss of Nate’s voice and the tingles it invoked, and he enjoyed Nate trying to make him laugh in their brief encounters, but he shouldn’t have. All he had to do was click the next page of Nate’s file, and he knew he’d never want to speak to him again. He would grimace and shudder at his name like everyone else. Alfie didn’t want that, and he hated himself for not being strong enough to end whatever it was between them.

Flirtation. Fun.

Were they really so terrible?

He hadn’t crossed any lines, not really.

But he’s a murderer, Alfie’s conscience screamed at him.

Nate killed people, and Alfie was too cowardly to read about what had happened.

Henry startled awake when he slammed the door of the office.

“What the hell?”

Alfie rolled his eyes. “I didn’t wake you, did I?”

Henry snorted and shook his head. “I wasn’t asleep, was resting my eyes, Fish.”

Alfie tapped his foot to the floor with a grimace. “Does Nate go to an art class?”

Henry narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, I hate to say it, but some of his stuff’s pretty good. You can actually tell what he draws, unlike the rest of them, where it’s a complete mystery.”

Alfie huffed and dropped his gaze.

Henry’s limbs groaned in protest as he stood and stumbled toward the coffee machine. “You’d know he did art if you read his damn file.”

Alfie raised his head and looked at Henry. He immediately spotted the wrinkle eyes on the back of Henry’s head. The threads of white hair looked like un-styled eyebrows, and the horizontal crease at the base looked like a mouth. Alfie struggled to hold his laugh and turned to stare out the window.

The twins were pacing the lobby, fingers twitching at their sides and heads lolling on their shoulders. They were already craving their next cigarette after returning moments before in a cloud of smoke. Marie and Glen were together either in the toilets, storage cupboard or outside in the smoking area. They liked to mix things up.

While Alfie tried to control his chuckle, he realised Nate was his own rule break. The twins spent more time smoking than working, Henry spent more time sleeping, and Marie and Glen spent more time cleaning themselves up in the toilets.

He looked forward to roll call just to hear Nate speak.

It was his own way of dealing with the boring graveyard shift. As soon as the moment passed, he sagged, and the last few hours dragged by, digging their claws into Alfie’s eyes until they watered with the need to sleep.

He laughed when Nate said Dan and Ben reminded him of Playmobil men with their matching mullets and facial features. He listened with a disbelieving gasp when Nate swore Marie had got with all the men on G-wing’s day shift and that was why she was moved to nights.

When he mentioned Ryan’s strip of facial hair looking like a smeared arse crack, Alfie didn’t try to muffle his laugh and Queenie joined in too. The good feeling of being around Nate always came to an abrupt stop when Nate told him to open the hatch or steered the conversation towards sex.

Alfie told him his sex life was none of Nate’s business and strolled away. He said to himself if he ever opened the hatch at Nate’s say so, then he would have to quit.

That was the line.

He swore never to open the hatch.

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