Smoke and Mirrors
Four
Alex's next shift isn't until Wednesday, or technically Thursday, the 10pm-6am graveyard shift which will probably become a regular feature on his roster, being the shift that everyone universally hates.
So he's got two days to psych himself up for drinks. He looks up the bar online, happy to find it looks to be a casual, quiet joint with a distinctly modern feel and not the western biker club type vibe he was secretly dreading.
He doesn't know what to wear, dress up or down or in between but somewhere during his sixth outfit attempt Alex thinks screw it, he's going to wear what he likes and everyone can take him or leave him.
Alex uses his free time to give his apartment a spring clean of sorts, dusting his bookshelf and finally cleaning out the weird, crusty gunk from inside his microwave, as well as changing his sheets and vaccuuming his prized piece of deep purple off cut shag carpet he'd found for five dollars at a yard sale. He likes to think it adds class to his abode.
He even makes another attempt at cooking, peanut butter stir fry sauce straight out of the jar, a mish mash of assorted vegetables he'd found in the sale bin at the grocery store. It ends up a little burnt, but acceptable eating quality.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Five-thirty Tuesday afternoon finds him selecting his outfit for the evening, one of his favourite blue plaid button downs, black skinny jeans and Vans that match his carpet almost exactly. He straightens his hair and sets it with good dousing of hairspray to make sure it stays in the fashion he's carefully coiffed it into, decides on clean shaven and his favourite body spray.
It might be cocky, but Alex knows he looks good, that this outfit could easily pull him a cute boy for the night in the right place, maybe two. He'll just have to hope it'll work on girls as well if need be.
Alex paces until six-thirty, assigning himself fifteen minutes to drive across down, twenty if he catches the red lights near the freeway interchange, and the rest of the time as being fashionably early or rather, time to scope out the venue.
He slides his wallet into his back pocket, makes sure he's got his ID, money and a condom or two – you never can be too prepared , this Alex knows from experience, and heads down to the garage, spinning his keys around his finger as he makes his way down the stairs, the only downside to living where he does, no elevators. But running up and down them makes for great cardio, so Alex can't complain too much.
The streets are pretty quiet, the interchange lights all green and Alex considers driving around the block a few times because there's fashionably early and then trying too hard early but he quickly remembers that it's highly likely someone will recognise his shitbox of a car, and so he finds a park a little down the road from his destination.
He takes his time rolling up his window, tugging his keys from the ignition and wedging them into one of his front pockets, phone into his other back one before getting out of the car, looking around to see if he can spot Merrick's Skyline but coming up short.
Merrick doesn't seem like the kind of guy to come out for social drinks, but Alex imagines that it comes with the job, being team leader and all.
Alex makes his way down the side walk, dodges a patch of something identifiably disgusting and pushes open the glass doors to the bar, the heady and familiar scent of well, Alex isn't sure but it's a bar thing, scanning the softly lit room for any of his team mates.
“Hey, rookie!”
Jack appears in front of him, beer in hand and with a grin on his face as he opens his arms for a hug and whilst confused, Alex obliges.
“Try not to scare him away, will you” Comes another voice, Flyziks.
Jack, with no other word for it, pouts. “I can't help that i'm affectionate” He whines, and Flyzik laughs.
“We've got a table out back, if you wanna help me grab another round before you head out there”
“Sure” Alex says agreeably, following Flyzik up to the bar, ordering himself a Jack and Coke as Flyzik recites an impressive list of drinks to another bartender before turning towards him,
“You'll get along well with Zack if that's your drink of choice”
Alex frowns, trying to remember who Zack is as he shows his ID and pays for his drink, name still not coming to mind. He sighs, and resigns himself to asking.
“Who?”
“Zack?” Flyzik looks confused for a moment, before he seems to realise Alex's dilemma in only knowing everyones last names.
“We tend to go by first names when we're out, so Merrick is Zack, Kirkendall is Evan and obviously Jack and Rian are Jack and Rian.”
Flyzik pauses, and then “and i'm Matt” He adds.
“Ah” Alex says, setting his drink onto one of the metal trays with everyone elses, picking one up as Flyzik-now-Matt picks up the other.
The idea of getting along well with Merrick is laughable at this point, but Alex refrains from pointing this out to Matt as they make their way out onto the deck, towards a crowded table off to the side.
“Hey, you made it” Rian greets, arm around a very attractive girl and nearly finished drink in his hand.
Without giving him a chance answer, Rian continues on.
“Introductions are in order once again I suppose, everyone who hasn't met our rookie here, his name is Alex and this is my fiance Cassadee, Evans girlfriend Tay, our resident spinster Zack of course, and the lovebirds here”
Rian gestures to Matt and Jack, and Alex's mind comes to a stuttering halt. What? Matt and Jack?
His change of expression doesn't go unnoticed, and Jack comes to stand next to Matt, taking the tray of drinks and setting them on the table before sliding his arms around the other mans waist, pressing a sloppy kiss to his cheek.
“We're sort of deeply homosexual” He announces, and Alex just keeps staring.
Merrick clears his throat, and Alex jumps. “Are we going to have a problem, Gaskarth?” He says slowly, and Alex shakes his head, tries to back-pedal to an appropriate response.
“No!, of course not, it's totally fine, it's just I-I”
The news that he's not going to be the only gay person at the station is a mild shock, but an absolutely welcome one, provided Alex hasn't fucked everything up completely and made everyone think he's homophobic or something.
“It's just what?” Merrick drawls again, as if daring him to say something offensive.
“Ijustthoughti'dbetheonlyone” Alex says in a rush, gaze fixed on the chewing gum stuck to the wooden decking below him, deciding that honesty is the best policy to go with here.
“Oh.” Merrick says, and a silence settles over their group and Alex doesn't dare to look up.
“All aboard the dick train!” Jack cheers, breaking the ice, coming round to hug him again and Alex lets a tiny smile creep onto his face, and when Jack pulls away Matts standing there with a fond expression on his face.
“What Jack is trying to say is as you can see, it's not going to be a problem”
“What's going to be a problem is that there's not a single cute boy here we can try to set him up with” Cassadee interrupts, and the table bursts into laughter and Alex laughs with them, surveying the room.
“You know, she's absolutely right” He says, and everyone just laughs harder.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Three drinks later, Alex is pleasantly warm and just slightly buzzed, elbows sprawled on the table as he listens to the hum of conversation around him, not really paying attention to anything but swirling his straw through the ice in the bottom of his glass.
“You want another?” Evan offers, “My shout”
“Sounds good” Alex hands over his empty glass.
Everyone seems to have broken off into little groups, Tay, Cassadee and Jack giggling away about something that no doubt involves finding him a cute boy, judging by the glances they keep sending his way, and Rian and Matt are bent over Matt's phone, faces intent.
Once again, Alex's only option for conversation is Merrick. It just doesn't seem right to call him Zack. But Alex can try.
“So Zack,” He starts, “Like anything other than Skylines?”
Merrick affixes him with a glare that if it were physically possible, Alex is sure is meant to wish death upon him and Alex is fully prepared for his attempt at conversation to be ignored completely.
Merrick's fingers reach for his drink and he downs the rest of it, clunking it on the table as he swallows, gaze not leaving Alex's for a moment.
“Dirt bikes” He says eventually, “and American muscle”
“Awesome”
Alex also isn't expecting Merrick to actually continue their conversation.
“What about you?”
“I'm a sucker for the Japanese imports” Alex confesses, “Love to get my hands on a Supra, or even a Skyline of my own”
Merrick nods thoughtfully, and for just the smallest second his lips twitch into what might be just the tiniest hint of a smile and Alex is forced to take a mental step back and look at Merrick all over again.
It feels like he's committed some hideous crime by not realising until just now that Merrick, or Zack as Alex can suddenly see him, is quite an attractive guy with his muscled physique and sort of wavy, tousled hair. And his eyes, deep, dark and mysterious and shit, maybe Alex should ditch his career fighting fires and sign up to write romance novels instead.
Alex opens his mouth to speak again, when Zack stands abruptly, chair scraping as he steps away from the table, face in it's usual stony expression. Alex blinks, confused.
“I'm heading out” Merrick says, loud enough to be heard by all at the table and Rian stands up as well.
The only thing mysterious about Zack Merrick is that he's kind of an asshole, attractive or not.
So he's got two days to psych himself up for drinks. He looks up the bar online, happy to find it looks to be a casual, quiet joint with a distinctly modern feel and not the western biker club type vibe he was secretly dreading.
He doesn't know what to wear, dress up or down or in between but somewhere during his sixth outfit attempt Alex thinks screw it, he's going to wear what he likes and everyone can take him or leave him.
Alex uses his free time to give his apartment a spring clean of sorts, dusting his bookshelf and finally cleaning out the weird, crusty gunk from inside his microwave, as well as changing his sheets and vaccuuming his prized piece of deep purple off cut shag carpet he'd found for five dollars at a yard sale. He likes to think it adds class to his abode.
He even makes another attempt at cooking, peanut butter stir fry sauce straight out of the jar, a mish mash of assorted vegetables he'd found in the sale bin at the grocery store. It ends up a little burnt, but acceptable eating quality.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Five-thirty Tuesday afternoon finds him selecting his outfit for the evening, one of his favourite blue plaid button downs, black skinny jeans and Vans that match his carpet almost exactly. He straightens his hair and sets it with good dousing of hairspray to make sure it stays in the fashion he's carefully coiffed it into, decides on clean shaven and his favourite body spray.
It might be cocky, but Alex knows he looks good, that this outfit could easily pull him a cute boy for the night in the right place, maybe two. He'll just have to hope it'll work on girls as well if need be.
Alex paces until six-thirty, assigning himself fifteen minutes to drive across down, twenty if he catches the red lights near the freeway interchange, and the rest of the time as being fashionably early or rather, time to scope out the venue.
He slides his wallet into his back pocket, makes sure he's got his ID, money and a condom or two – you never can be too prepared , this Alex knows from experience, and heads down to the garage, spinning his keys around his finger as he makes his way down the stairs, the only downside to living where he does, no elevators. But running up and down them makes for great cardio, so Alex can't complain too much.
The streets are pretty quiet, the interchange lights all green and Alex considers driving around the block a few times because there's fashionably early and then trying too hard early but he quickly remembers that it's highly likely someone will recognise his shitbox of a car, and so he finds a park a little down the road from his destination.
He takes his time rolling up his window, tugging his keys from the ignition and wedging them into one of his front pockets, phone into his other back one before getting out of the car, looking around to see if he can spot Merrick's Skyline but coming up short.
Merrick doesn't seem like the kind of guy to come out for social drinks, but Alex imagines that it comes with the job, being team leader and all.
Alex makes his way down the side walk, dodges a patch of something identifiably disgusting and pushes open the glass doors to the bar, the heady and familiar scent of well, Alex isn't sure but it's a bar thing, scanning the softly lit room for any of his team mates.
“Hey, rookie!”
Jack appears in front of him, beer in hand and with a grin on his face as he opens his arms for a hug and whilst confused, Alex obliges.
“Try not to scare him away, will you” Comes another voice, Flyziks.
Jack, with no other word for it, pouts. “I can't help that i'm affectionate” He whines, and Flyzik laughs.
“We've got a table out back, if you wanna help me grab another round before you head out there”
“Sure” Alex says agreeably, following Flyzik up to the bar, ordering himself a Jack and Coke as Flyzik recites an impressive list of drinks to another bartender before turning towards him,
“You'll get along well with Zack if that's your drink of choice”
Alex frowns, trying to remember who Zack is as he shows his ID and pays for his drink, name still not coming to mind. He sighs, and resigns himself to asking.
“Who?”
“Zack?” Flyzik looks confused for a moment, before he seems to realise Alex's dilemma in only knowing everyones last names.
“We tend to go by first names when we're out, so Merrick is Zack, Kirkendall is Evan and obviously Jack and Rian are Jack and Rian.”
Flyzik pauses, and then “and i'm Matt” He adds.
“Ah” Alex says, setting his drink onto one of the metal trays with everyone elses, picking one up as Flyzik-now-Matt picks up the other.
The idea of getting along well with Merrick is laughable at this point, but Alex refrains from pointing this out to Matt as they make their way out onto the deck, towards a crowded table off to the side.
“Hey, you made it” Rian greets, arm around a very attractive girl and nearly finished drink in his hand.
Without giving him a chance answer, Rian continues on.
“Introductions are in order once again I suppose, everyone who hasn't met our rookie here, his name is Alex and this is my fiance Cassadee, Evans girlfriend Tay, our resident spinster Zack of course, and the lovebirds here”
Rian gestures to Matt and Jack, and Alex's mind comes to a stuttering halt. What? Matt and Jack?
His change of expression doesn't go unnoticed, and Jack comes to stand next to Matt, taking the tray of drinks and setting them on the table before sliding his arms around the other mans waist, pressing a sloppy kiss to his cheek.
“We're sort of deeply homosexual” He announces, and Alex just keeps staring.
Merrick clears his throat, and Alex jumps. “Are we going to have a problem, Gaskarth?” He says slowly, and Alex shakes his head, tries to back-pedal to an appropriate response.
“No!, of course not, it's totally fine, it's just I-I”
The news that he's not going to be the only gay person at the station is a mild shock, but an absolutely welcome one, provided Alex hasn't fucked everything up completely and made everyone think he's homophobic or something.
“It's just what?” Merrick drawls again, as if daring him to say something offensive.
“Ijustthoughti'dbetheonlyone” Alex says in a rush, gaze fixed on the chewing gum stuck to the wooden decking below him, deciding that honesty is the best policy to go with here.
“Oh.” Merrick says, and a silence settles over their group and Alex doesn't dare to look up.
“All aboard the dick train!” Jack cheers, breaking the ice, coming round to hug him again and Alex lets a tiny smile creep onto his face, and when Jack pulls away Matts standing there with a fond expression on his face.
“What Jack is trying to say is as you can see, it's not going to be a problem”
“What's going to be a problem is that there's not a single cute boy here we can try to set him up with” Cassadee interrupts, and the table bursts into laughter and Alex laughs with them, surveying the room.
“You know, she's absolutely right” He says, and everyone just laughs harder.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Three drinks later, Alex is pleasantly warm and just slightly buzzed, elbows sprawled on the table as he listens to the hum of conversation around him, not really paying attention to anything but swirling his straw through the ice in the bottom of his glass.
“You want another?” Evan offers, “My shout”
“Sounds good” Alex hands over his empty glass.
Everyone seems to have broken off into little groups, Tay, Cassadee and Jack giggling away about something that no doubt involves finding him a cute boy, judging by the glances they keep sending his way, and Rian and Matt are bent over Matt's phone, faces intent.
Once again, Alex's only option for conversation is Merrick. It just doesn't seem right to call him Zack. But Alex can try.
“So Zack,” He starts, “Like anything other than Skylines?”
Merrick affixes him with a glare that if it were physically possible, Alex is sure is meant to wish death upon him and Alex is fully prepared for his attempt at conversation to be ignored completely.
Merrick's fingers reach for his drink and he downs the rest of it, clunking it on the table as he swallows, gaze not leaving Alex's for a moment.
“Dirt bikes” He says eventually, “and American muscle”
“Awesome”
Alex also isn't expecting Merrick to actually continue their conversation.
“What about you?”
“I'm a sucker for the Japanese imports” Alex confesses, “Love to get my hands on a Supra, or even a Skyline of my own”
Merrick nods thoughtfully, and for just the smallest second his lips twitch into what might be just the tiniest hint of a smile and Alex is forced to take a mental step back and look at Merrick all over again.
It feels like he's committed some hideous crime by not realising until just now that Merrick, or Zack as Alex can suddenly see him, is quite an attractive guy with his muscled physique and sort of wavy, tousled hair. And his eyes, deep, dark and mysterious and shit, maybe Alex should ditch his career fighting fires and sign up to write romance novels instead.
Alex opens his mouth to speak again, when Zack stands abruptly, chair scraping as he steps away from the table, face in it's usual stony expression. Alex blinks, confused.
“I'm heading out” Merrick says, loud enough to be heard by all at the table and Rian stands up as well.
The only thing mysterious about Zack Merrick is that he's kind of an asshole, attractive or not.