Page 15 of The Freshman

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

“You’re not wrongthere.”

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

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

Queenie howled with laughter, andAlfie smiled smugly.

“No, I drew you a picturein art class.”

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

“Nate,” he said inwarning, but the crinkle of paper continued. The folded piece fellto the grated walkway, and Alfie hesitated before kneeling to grabit.

He was expecting a hastily drawnpicture of a cock and balls, but he froze at the picture ofhimself. There was no colored detail, it didn’t have his brownhair, or his green eyes, but he could tell it was him by the shapeof the face, the spacing of his eyes, and the narrowness of hisnose. Nate had used biro and easily recreated the texture of hishair. There was one feature missing from the portrait, and Alfieraised his eyebrow.

“This … this man has nolips.”

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

Alfie shook his head and rested thepicture on his clipboard. He glanced over the edge of the walkwayand saw Marie and Glen staring worriedly through thebars.

He drew the biggest pair of Botox lipshe could, then shoved the paper back through the edge of thehatch.

Nate laughed, then hummed in pleasurein a low voice.

A shiver rattled Alfie’s spine, and hestood quickly, then rolled his shoulders. He felt Nate’s humvibrate through his whole body, and his heart hiccupped.

“Blow job lips, big, moistblowjob lips,” Nate drawled.

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

Alfie didn’t say another word.Instead, he turned sharply on his heels and marched back down thelanding to the stairs. Disappointment stung, and Alfie didn’t knowwhether it was at himself, Nate, or the fact roll call hadfinished. He enjoyed the slow hiss of Nate’s voice and the tinglesit invoked, and he enjoyed Nate trying to make him laugh in theirbrief encounters, but he shouldn’t have. All he had to do was clickthe next page of Nate’s file, and he knew he’d never want to speakto him again. He would grimace and shudder at his name likeeveryone else. Alfie didn’t want that, and he hated himself for notwanting that.

Henry startled awake when he slammedthe door of the office.

“What thehell?”

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

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

Alfie tapped his foot to the floorwith a grimace. “Does Nate do an art class?”

Henry narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, I hateto say it but some of his stuff’s pretty good. You can actuallytell what he draws, unlike the rest of them where it’s a completemystery.”

Alfie huffed and dropped hisgaze.

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

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

The twins were pacing the lobby,fingers twitching at their sides and head lolling on theirshoulders. They were already craving their next cigarette afterreturning moments before in a cloud of smoke. Marie and Glen weretogether either in the toilets, storage cupboard, or outside in thesmoking area. They liked to mix things up.

While Alfie tried to control hischuckle, he realized Nate was his own rule break. The twins spentmore time smoking than working, Henry spent more time sleeping, andMarie and Glen spent more time cleaning themselves up in thetoilets.

He looked forward to roll-call just tohear Nate speak. It was his own way of dealing with the boringgraveyard shift. As soon as the moment passed, he sagged, and thelast few hours dragged by, digging their claws into Alfie’s eyesuntil they watered with the need to sleep.

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