The Beautiful and Undesirable

Sonny started working for Jared in the surf shop immediately, and he taught him all the ins and outs of the business; from the shop floor to the accounting to negotiating with stockists and maintaining their website and social media. Sonny was working long hours and eager to learn it all. He didn't know yet about the bands tour: Jared assumed John would've told him, and John was busy making sure he didn't tell him. He didn't know why exactly; things all seemed to be going so well. He was enjoying Sonny's bright presence in his life, and the teen seemed to be truly happy. John couldn't bring himself to risk ruining that yet. He'd wait until Sonny was more settled and confident in his abilities at the shop before he told him.

The bell on the front door rang as Sonny was grabbing some more t-shirts to display and he jogged down the stairs to see a group of men there.
"Hey guys." They all made mixed noises of grunts and murmurs that echoed towards a greeting, only one of them bothered to shoot him a half smile and say "Hi."

Sonny sat behind the till, deciding not to get in their face with offers, they didn't seem like the friendly kind of customers that would appreciate it.

"Hey man how much are these?"

"Those ones...sixty-five dollars." He ignored the fuss the man made to the others.

"Could you help me with the zip?" Sonny smiled and headed for the changing room; the only friendly one out of the group had been trying on a wetsuit.

"Sure, mind your hair." The customer reached back and held his blonde curly hair up, Sonny tried not to let his eyes or hands linger on his muscular, tanned back.

"You surf or..?"

"Yeah sometimes but I'm more into windsurfing and paddle boarding."

"Nice!"

"Yeah...what do you think?" Sonny took a step back, enjoying the opportunity to stare at the attractive man, and nodded.

"Looks...yeah, great." The man was smirking gently when Sonny finally looked back up at his face and he took another step back, laughing shyly.

"Uh, I'll leave you to it-"

"Could you..?" He gestured to the zip and Sonny nodded, feeling very flustered all of a sudden, and cursing himself. 'Pull yourself together, man.'

"You get out on the water much?"

"I haven't done much to be honest. Real amateur."

"Well I'm out there most days, I work evening shifts so if you're ever free I could teach you...whatever you wanna learn..." Sonny felt his jaw slacken a little as he struggled to find words in response to the blonde god's blatant flirting.

"I-uh, sure, yeah- sounds good."

"Cole what the fuck are you doing in there? Come on man."

Sonny headed back to the till and Cole redressed quickly and left with his friends before the two even had chance to introduce themselves.

John greeted Sonny that evening when he burst in the front door with a huge grin on his face.
"Good day?"

"So good!"

"How come?"

"Just a good day."

"Come on, you're not normally THIS happy."

"I met this guy in the shop today." John's heart sank a little and he nodded.

"Oh...cool."

"Yeah he is - he's really tall and blonde and muscly and I just friggin died I almost thought he was joking when he hit on me!"

"Good for you." John tried to sound enthusiastic as he turned round to get water from the fridge.

"He said he's down at the beach most days and he'd teach me to paddle board and stuff."

"Oh nice, I didn't realise you wanted to learn I would've taught you."

"Well he's more into other watersports you're better at surfing - I'm not sure surfing would be my thing. So yeah I'm gonna go down there tomorrow and see if I can find him." John nodded.

"Sound great Sonny, be careful though." He walked up the stairs for a shower and Sonny called out to him:

"Sure thing pops!" John rolled his eyes and cursed himself mentally for being so pathetically jealous. And for letting the age comment actually offend him rather than take it for the kind hearted joke it was.

John drove two towns over to surf there the next day, wanting to ensure he wouldn't have to witness Sonny and this random guy's date. He was so caught up in his activity he didn't realise he'd missed five calls from Kennedy - he also didn't realise it was nearly three pm.

"Hey! Why didn't you answer?"

"Sorry I was on the water - what's up?"

"Great - we were meant to be getting all our shit ready for New York today man!!"

"Shit!! Kennedy I'm so sorry!"

"Don't worry - can we do it tomorrow instead?"

"Definitely."

"So what's up with you?"

"What?" He sat down next to his board, grateful for the rain as it had driven most of the other people around inside.

"You never forget stuff like this or go MIA unless you're upset. You're really artsy like that." John chuckled.

"Nah it's nothing I just got distracted."

"Is it Sonny?"

"What about him? We're not dating jeez!"

"I know but you haven't shut up about him since he moved in so I'm kinda thinking you like the guy." John sighed.

"He met some guy in the shop and I think they were having a first date kinda thing today."

"Oh man, John I'm sorry. Are you on our beach? I could come down?"

"No I'm over at the bay, I'll see you tomorrow- It's fine. Anyway I'm gonna head back out there I'll see you later." He bid him goodbye and headed back to the sea despite his frozen hands and feet and the fact the weather was turning bad enough for the amateur surfers to start heading in.

"We'd better head back in! It's getting pretty rough out here!" Cole called to Sonny and paddled powerfully back to him in his kayak.

"Yeah you're right." They headed in and pulled their kayaks up the beach.

"Thanks for taking me out I had fun."

"Yeah me too...you're a cool guy, Sonny." He smiled and he almost thought Cole was going to kiss him but then he started dragging his kayak up to his van and Sonny followed.

They got the kayaks up on the roof rack and suddenly Cole pushed him up against the van door and kissed him. Sonny was so flustered he just kissed back. He was pushed away suddenly and Cole coughed and gestured over Somny's shoulder. His friends were up the road.

"Oh...they don't know you're..."

"What?"

"...into guys?"

"I'm not gay."

"Right, ok. Whatever."

"Yo! You guys have fun?" Sonny forced a smile at his loud friends.

"Hey guys. Yeah Cole taught me how to kayak. Was great."

"Nice. So you coming out with us tonight little man?" Sonny swallowed his irritation and glanced at Cole who looked panicked.

"I would but I'm not much of a drinker I'm just gonna-" He was cut off as he walked backwards by a heavy arm round his shoulders.

"Come on Sonny boy we like knowing our Cole's friends." Cole and the man over him shared an intense stare.

"I have a thing with my roommate, sorry guys - next time though yeah?" They were all quiet and mildly pissed.

"See you round - slay some pussy tonight!" That cheered them all up and while they were all laughing and cheering, Sonny shot a grateful Cole a quick wink before heading home - wondering why such a hot guy had to come with so much shit.