To See You - 1. A New Start

His eyes zeroed in on a little box on his desk next to the computer. Taking his time, he carefully unwrapped the gift, and not even in his wildest dreams could have guessed what was inside.

****

It was still very early, even for Andrew, when he woke up that morning. He didn’t have to look at his clock to know that. It was still very dark outside. Yet, he got up and went to the bathroom. Getting back to his room, he crawled back into a warm place in his bed pushing away some of his many pillows. Holding one of them very closely, he quickly fell back to sleep.

**

When the radio started to play, waking up wasn’t high on Jamie Miller’s list of priorities, even lower was getting up. It wasn’t by choice when he finally got up and got dressed. He barely had the time to get his shirt on when there was a soft knock on the door to his room.

“I’m coming!” the eighteen year old said just loud enough to be heard without waking every other soul in the house.

Jamie took one last look of himself in front of the mirror and, after briefly brushing his hair, he stared at his reflection and saw a good looking boy fitting quite perfectly in his clothes. Going downstairs, he made sure not to disturb his younger brother who was still sleeping soundly with his door open. Mrs. Miller waited at the front door, winter coat on, until Jamie finally was ready to leave. The short ride to work was a quiet one, Jamie crushed his mother’s questions with short answers, Jamie was still too sleepy to talk with anyone. After the car came to a stop in front of a coffee shop, he got out of the car. Mrs. Miller watched as his son got inside before driving away to work herself.

After getting into Starbucks, Jamie went to the employee lounge to take his coat off and fell into one of the recliners, only to look up when his boss walked in moments later.

“Morning Jamie, how are you?”

“I’m good, and you?” he answered wearily.

“Good. Listen Mark called in sick earlier, I’ve called Carlson to fill in, he’ll be coming later. But Mark was supposed to show the new guy around. Can I ask you to do it?” Thomas Garcia asked.

“Yes, of course Tom, no problem. Do you know his name?”

“Ummm, Not sure, I’ve got it somewhere in my office, I have to get back to you for that. Thanks.”

Jamie always liked Thomas Garcia. When Jamie was hired, Thomas showed him how the all the secrets of the job. A few years later, Mr. Garcia got promoted to store manager, and Jamie couldn’t think of a better guy for the job. Always fair and there to help his employees, there are very few better bosses.

**

It was eight in the morning when Andrew got out of bed, knowing that his parents were off to work, he didn’t bother to get dressed and went downstairs and to make himself breakfast. A few pieces of toast with nutella on it would do the trick, he said to himself. He made himself some hot chocolate then sat at the table and he started to read the newspaper left open by his parents earlier this morning.

After finishing his breakfast he went back upstairs and woke up his computer. Once open Andrew fired up his chat applications and looked to see if someone had, for once, sent him an e-mail. Fat chance, nothing. Bored and with still some free time, he opened a hidden folder in his computer to find his porn and did what horny eighteen year olds do with too much time on their hands. Methodically, he surfed the net for more pictures and had dirty chats with other guys online. Finally, almost an hour later, he finished.

Then he only had the time to get dressed, find his bag, put a towel, his swimsuit before leaving running to catch the bus at the corner of the street. The bus ride went without any interruption. With his iPod touch on, he simply, as always, cut himself off from all the weird passengers on the bus at this time of the day; from crying babies, crazy people talking to themselves to an ugly Quasimodo-like being who seemed to be wearing only a very large wife beater. Andrew was thankful the shirt went down to the man’s knees.

Getting closer to his school stop, a tall dark-haired guy came and sat on the seat next to him. ‘Great with all the empty seats all over the place why does he have to sit right next to me’ Andrew thought to himself. It wasn’t until the unattended guest nudged him in his side that, with Andrew at the ready to make a viperous comment, he looked up to see who it was.

“Brendan! Sorry I didn’t see you coming in” said Andrew taking his headphones off. “How goes things?”

“It’s good, man.” The very handsome looking guy answered him. He then looked at his watch and with an evil smile added “I’m glad, tho, that I won’t have to wait for you at the pool this time around.”

“Hey, that only happened twice!” Andrew said trying to make his best offended face. “Beside, it was a slow morning and I thought that I’d might as well off be waiting at school than sitting at home.”

“So, you’re telling me that you’d rather be bored at home alone than to hang out with me? That’s low… it hurts.”

“Hush, you know that’s not what I meant.”

“Oh, so I take it that this morning, you struck out, wasn’t enough guys to keep you long enough.” Said Brendan, with a little wink. Having only for answer a tongue sticking out at him Brandon remarked “Next time you do that, you better be prepared to use it!”

Deciding that he’d play along, Andrew commented “Brendan! It would be good, I didn’t know that you’d be interested.”

“First of all, it wouldn’t be good, it would be great but that’s something that you’ll never know.” And getting more serious he added “But now, shut up it’s our stop.”

It not like they could have missed the stop as at least half the people on the bus got off.

In the locker room they were nearly the only ones there. Only a couple of other regulars old guys who had already changed into their suits sat around chatting about weather and politics. Brendan and Andrew where in the back to find their lockers. Obviously, being simple human nature, Andrew couldn’t help but to steal a quick glance at Brendan as he was about to put on his speedo. He had the same speedo really, all tight going down to just a little above the knees, Andrew’s just had different colors. They had bought it together a few weeks earlier before they started going swimming at school on a regular basis.

“It feels good to be appreciated and wanted!” suddenly said Brendan.

“What are you talking about?!?” answered Andrew knowing full well at what he was making reference to.

“C’mon, you don’t really think that I haven’t realized that every time you come here, well, lets just say that you have wandering eyes.” Seeing Andrew blushing, his face dangerously red, he added “As much as the red is nice on you, like I said it feels good to be appreciated that way by someone else other than your mother!!!”

“hummmmmm”

Brendan looked funny at him “What? You think I should punch you ‘cause you keep looking at me naked!?! Or ‘cause you’re gay?”

“Well, of course no, it’s just that I dunno, you surprised me, caught me off guard a little.”

Knowing that it was a touchy subject, Brendan quickly recovered and said “Hey lets go, it’s already open.”

**

Jamie was at the front, cleaning the tables when he saw Tom coming toward him with a teen boy tailing behind him, that Jamie pegged as the new guy.

“Jamie, I’ve told you about the new guy, well this young guy is Nicholas,” Mr. Garcia stepped aside for Nicholas to get closer and talking to Nicholas “Nicholas, this is Jamie, he’s one of our best, oldest employees, he’ll be showing you the ropes, and like I said before, if there’s any problems just come to me I’ll be happy to help.”

With that, Mr. Garcia left back toward his office at the back leaving Nicholas and Jamie alone.

“So, Nicholas, have you ever worked at a coffee shop before?”

“Well, I’ve helped some at my aunt’s place back home, but never on a regular basis.” Nicholas said.

‘Back home’ combined with the little accent was enough to pique Jaime’s interest in his new co-worker. He had this little feeling that made him want to know more about him but didn’t ask about it just yet. Jamie made a sign for Nicholas to follow him to the employee lounge.

“Nicholas, I see that Mr. Garcia already gave you your uniform, maybe you can start by changing into them… There’s a bathroom in the front.”

Nicholas didn’t really care about where he could find the bathroom. He took off his t-shirt in front of Jamie and began to change. “Ummm, Jamie, you can call me Nick, I mean if you want to.”

“Yeah, sure thing Nick.” Jamie couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Nick had an above the average body and Jamie was appreciating the sight greatly even though he tried not to stare. “So, you’re new around here?” Jamie asked as he put his polo shirt on.

“Well, me and my mum, moved around here a while back from Montreal. She got transferred here.” Nick said.

“Well, I think you’re all set up, lets get back in to the front and I’ll show you how to use the coffee machines.”

**

Andrew always liked swimming, it was the one thing he could always do to release his bad energy and his bad stress. Having his friend Brendan to keep him company was just a great bonus.

With what happened just moment earlier in the locker room, Andrew had some bad stress to let go. It wasn’t like it was a big shock, a big coming out. He always have been fairly open with Brendan. They always acted like it was all out in the open, yet Andrew never officially came out ‘Hey, by the way, I’m gay.’ Never, until that morning, had the word ‘gay’ had been used in the same sentence as ‘Andrew.’ All this made him nervous.

After a number of laps he decided to take a break in the shallow end, waiting for Brendan to swim back to him. Seeing that his friend was taking a break, Brendan decided to do the same thing.

Brendan a little exhausted “What are you doing? Tired already?”

“Oh! Hush!”

“What time is your class today?” Brendan wondered.

“Umm at one. And before you ask, no, I’d rather not go.” Andrew answered back with a smile.

Brendan chuckled at that “Tell me something that I don’t already know!”

“Come back home with me and skip your classes today?”

“Andrew! Don’t try to tempt me. Do you really think that I wouldn’t rather come back to your place, heck I’ve an exam today, remember?”

“Oh, yaaa, that’s right, you did tell me that.” After a little quiet moment with both of them looking at each other, Andrew announced “You know, I’m kinda tired, I think I’m done here.”

Brendan’s answered by simply getting out of the pool, and giving Andrew a good sight of his butt in the process. Andrew followed him. Having some free time, they walked directly into the empty sauna.

After a few minutes of doing nothing, sitting in silence, Brendan noticed that something was preoccupying Andrew. “Won’t you tell me what’s on your mind?”

“What are you talking about!?!”

“Andrew, I’m not stupid you know. There’s something on your mind, shoot!”

Andrew sighted “It’s stupid, I know, but it’s about what we said earlier. I mean, it’s stupid, I know, but it doesn’t matter to you that I’m gay?”

That last question really surprised Brendan “Don’t tell me that I’ll have to slap you silly. What do you think?”

“Well…”

“Of course it doesn’t, not to me! How long have we been friends? … like forever, you could be the worst of you and I’ll still be your friend. Beside it was kinda obvious for a long time that you were.” Continued Brendan.

That being said, they went back to the locker room to take a shower and to change back into their clothes.

**

By the end of the working day, Jamie felt like he had finished his work; Nicholas could fend for himself and barely needed any supervision and should be able to work his next day by himself. At least, that’s what Jamie told Tom when he asked how Nick was doing.

Seeing that he had left before him, Jamie was surprised to see Nicholas in the parking lot of the coffee shop. But he wasn’t by himself, he was standing right next to the front door of a red car, visibly arguing with the lady that was in the driver’s seat. Jamie could, in fact, hear a word here and there, although, it wasn’t making any sense to him with them arguing in French. It seemed like they had been going at it for a little while. Yet, Nick was showing little sign of wanting to get in the car.

Granted, Jamie didn’t know Nicholas for a that long period of time, but he liked the guy, they had talked about a lot over the course of the day, and Jamie could simply read an expression of exasperation on his new friend’s face. It was like seeing a deer caught in headlights, or so he thought. Jamie decided that he would give him an easy way out.

“Hey Nick!” shouted Jamie before jogging to Nicholas.

The interruption certainly had the desired effect on Nick and his mum. Both of them were looking at the teen coming toward them, and their facial demeanor softened.

Jamie noticed their change in attitude and was silently proud of himself. Now that he was right in front of his friend, he realized he had to make up a reason for calling out to him. “Nick, I was thinking that maybe you’d want to come back with me and hang out for a while?”

“I can’t I have to go with mum, we have things that need to be done.” Seeing that he came off harsher than he wanted Nicholas continued, “I’d really like it though, we’ll have to do that another time alright? We really need to go now, I’ll see you on Monday.”

After saying that, Nicholas got in the car, leaving Jamie standing there looking at the car driving away. Walking back to his house, Jamie did hope that his interruption didn’t make things worse for Nicholas.

**

The rest of the school day went fairly well without any problems. Despite not really wanting to go to his class, Andrew did show up, thanks to much pressure from his cute friend. It was just before three in the afternoon when he finally got back home. Tired, he got back upstairs to his room threw his bag on the bed, logged onto his AIM then went to the bathroom. When he got back he barely had time to sit at his desk that he heard the distinct noise asking for a video conference. His expression brightened as he clicked to accept.

An even bigger smile appeared on his face when the feed started, displaying the cute boy on his screen. “Hey!”