vingt quatre

The pizza shop door rang when opened. Michael didn't look up from his phone, "Hello, Welcome to—Oh, sup, Loser." His eyes gleamed as his boyfriend walked in.

"I thought you were off shift today?" Luke leant against the counter, taking in the strong scent of greasy pizza.

Michael furrowed his eyebrows, "Were you coming to just hang with my mother?"

"No, I wanted to take you on a date, but you're working." Luke rested his head on his hand as his other traced over the red counter tops.

"Mom doesn't trust the DVR so she goes home to watch whatever it is she does at this time every Thursday night." Michael looked up at the screen above his head, realizing an order was in need of preparation. He took the red smock (matching the counters), turning around for Luke to tie the back.

Luke's hands were soft as they ran over the hairs on Michael's neck. "That is my future right there," he said, talking about Mike's mother's fear of the DVR.

Mike laughed as he entered the back, taking out the dough and prepping the large pizza. "I close up tonight, so you don't have to stick around."

"Are you here alone?"

"Dad is in the back office, but I think he's watching something on the TV in there." Michael turned around, finding the right ingredients. "There should be more workers here, but they all decided to call in sick."

Luke sat on top of the front counter top, his feet swinging back and forth. "I have nothing else to do but sit here and complain." His eyes watched the older boy make the order as casual conversation fell from their lips.

Luke felt a little guilty. He hasn't come out to his parents, and he wasn't planning on anytime soon. He didn't think his parents would be negative about a subject like his sexuality, but it didn't stop him from being scared.

It was just one thing making him further from being normal.

"So, here's something I wanted to talk to you about." Michael put the pizza in a cardboard box before stacking it on the metal tray waiting for pick up. "I don't think I'm coming back to school next year."

Luke tilted his head to the left as his dark eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean?"
"I hate school, Luke, I'm dropping out." Michael pulled out a wooden stool they kept under the counter. He sat across from Luke, his feet up on the counter next to the blonde boy's bum.

"What?"

Mike sighed. He's explained this to his parents dozens of times, he figured he was supposed to be better at this whole thing by now. "I'm not happy in this school or any school. There's not much more for me to do. I don't need a degree to run a pizza shop."

"You could get, like, a business degree and run this place to the very top." Luke grew up with parents who made it very clear that all of their children were going to college and getting a degree. Luke never thought about going through life any other way.

"Nothing is final—I'm still trying to get my parents on board—but, I'm just giving you a heads up."

Luke couldn't quite feel his breath as he thought of his only friend leaving him alone in public school. It made his head ache, his stomach cramp. He didn't want to go through this all alone.
Michael became his security blanket the last semester, he didn't want to lose him. Sure, Luke only has two years left, but that's two entire years left.

That's eight hours a day for almost four hundred days without Michael. That's a lot of alone time.

"So, are you just going to hang around the pizza shop all day?"

Michael didn't like his condescending tone, yet he ignored it for now. "Pretty much. I already own 1/3 of the business, so I'm just going to actually be an active member in all the things we do."

Luke looked down at his fingers. "I guess that's kind of cool."

Michael stood up, leaning over Luke. He put his hands on either side of Luke's body, their foreheads pressing together. "Yeah, it will be. Your little boyfriend will be making real money in a real job, yeah?"

Luke smiled as he placed his hands on either sides of Michael's freshly shaven face. "Yeah, he'll be making me even more proud."

Michael could feel Luke's breath on his upper lip. "Can I kiss you?"

Luke nodded, gladly accepting the warm lips to his own.