Wednesday morning Frank woke up in a hot sweat. All that talk of sperm yesterday at lunch had him thinking about how long it had been since he saw his own and apparently it stayed on his mind all night also. He threw his blankets off of himself and stood up, shaking his legs a bit at the feeling of his boxers, moist and sticky on the insides of his thighs. He looked down at his slightly stained sheets and made a mental note to remove anything from his room with his name on it, so that when the cleaners came the next day they would not know who’s cummy bed linen they were changing. Noting Jepha was up and gone already he realized he must have slept in a little. He peeled off his shorts and wrapped a towel around his hips, heading for the showers, he had his second counsel session first thing today and he thought being late was probably not a good idea.

                                                                                                               -----

Frank knocked softly on his counselor’s door. After his first session on Monday, he hadn’t really given this next one too much thought. He was expecting Mr. Way to be strange again; it seemed it was just a part of his demeanor, but other than the fact he was twenty-four, hated turtles and his career could possibly be based on forged documents, he really didn’t know anything else about the man, so it would have been a lie for Frank to say he wasn’t a little anxious; especially with the question he’d agreed with his friends on asking.

He waited at the door for a moment and after getting no response he knocked again a little louder, earning himself an angered ‘get in’ from the man on the other side. He walked in and smiled politely, before taking his seat; noticing the look on Mr. Way’s face changing quickly from annoyed to somewhat creepish.

“I was going to yell at you for being late Frank, but your wet hair indicates to me that you’ve just had a wash and I much prefer the thought of how you look naked in a shower block as opposed to the thought of how you look frightened.”

Frank paused for a second, though he wasn’t doing anything so all that actually stopped was his breathing. He wondered if Mr. Way had thought about the pun in his sentence before saying it, but it was a pointless thought. Whether he did or not, it obviously didn’t worry him, he still said it. He squinted at the man, not sure what to say back to the statement, which was probably a good thing; Frank was sure that no matter what his reply was, Mr. Way would come back with something even more nihilistic.

“It seems you’re frightened anyway…” His counselor smiled, reading into the boys gaze. “…but don’t worry, I wasn’t planning on locking you in my closet just yet.”

Frank scoffed at him, a sly smile remaining on his face. He was beginning to see why it was the vast majority of boys in the center thought Mr. Way to be an asshole. Assuming he acted like this toward them all, or at least most, it must have just been his sexual innuendoes that made them feel terribly uncomfortable and therefore they considered him nasty. It was a smart tactic, and he was indeed good at it, but Frank knew instantly it wasn’t going to work for him. Mr. Way could say whatever the hell he liked about him being naked; he really couldn’t care. As long as it wasn’t a direct insult, the man was going to have a hard time breaking him down.

“Well I hope it’s soon, anything’s better than the rooms they give us.” Frank fidgeted in his chair as his counselors eyes shuffled up from his papers, smirking at the boy’s cheeky grin.

“So Frank, what’s happened since the last time I saw you? How are you holding up here?”

“Now come on Mr. Way-”

“-Argh! Call me Gerard. ‘Mr. Way’, where did you get that?” Gerard near on shuddered at the formal use of his name. “But please continue what you were saying.”

“Okay, Gerard. Why don’t you ask me questions you really want to hear my answers to? I know you don’t care about how I’ve been holding up.” Frank shuffled in seat again, lifting himself up to cross his legs and get comfortable.

Gerard let out a sharp breath and lent forward in his chair, rubbing at the back of his neck and if Frank wasn’t mistaken, he could have sworn the man looked a little embarrassed. Maybe he was mistaken.

“Frank…” He looked up through his long fringe. “…If I ask you a question, then that is the question I want to hear your answer to. So tell me, what’s happened since Monday?” He sat back in his chair, grabbed a folder and pen and waited silently for Frank to reply.

Harsh, he thought, glaring into the top of the man’s head. He scoffed mentally. So what, Gerard could dish out sexual comments and questions, but he didn’t like them in return? Prick.

“Well…”He started, drawing in a long breath. “My mom came to vis-”

“-Yeah alright that’s enough…” Frank was silenced, his mouth once again hanging open in confusion. “…seems you’ve had fun.”

“No actually it wasn’t fun-”

“-QUESTIONS!” Gerard belled, cutting Frank off for the third time in the past ten minutes and by the irate expression creeping over the boys face he really didn’t appear to happy about it.

“Will you stop cutting me off?! What the fuck is wrong with you? You seriously don’t give a shit do you?”

“No, not really.” He smiled mordantly, shaking his head. “I’m going to ask you ten questions again Frankie, do you think you can cope?”

“Depends. Does that count as question one?”

“Quiet! One. How many fingers am I holding up?”

Frank looked up quickly. “None. You’re an idiot.”

“Two. How many fingers are you holding up?”

“Gerard this is stupid.”

“I will sing. Two. How many fingers are you holding up?”

“Twelve.”

“Three. Was it the ginger cat or the gray cat that impregnated my cat Millie?”

“Ginger.”

Mr. Way stopped and looked up at Frank over his papers, a smile tugging on his lips.

“Good. Four. Describe yourself in five words or less.”

“Umm-”

“-Isn’t a word, hurry up.”

“About to laugh at you.”

“Five. Why?”

“Because I find you mildly funny.”

“Aww, that was nice Frankie.”

“Not the good kind of funny.”

“Oh. Six. What color eyeliner do you think better suits my complexion, black or red?”

“Black. Seven. Are you gay?”

Gerard stopped upon hearing Frank’s own question for him. He looked up from his, blank, piece of paper and laughed. “Of course I am! I love my life…” His face straightened. “…But if you mean ‘gay’ as in ‘homosexual’, which I correct you, is the right terminology, then I cannot answer directly. Homosexuality is considered a sin and I will not be frowned upon; therefore I commit such activities behind closed doors. But, I don’t like…limit, the doors. I mean I do it behind bathroom stall doors, office doors…” He paused and looked to his office door before looking back to Frank and sending him a wink. “…umm, Lego house doors-”

“-What?! You can’t have sex in Lego houses.” Frank blurted. Considering what Gerard was going on about, doubting the places he had had sex was clearly not the most concerning question, Frank didn’t think of it like that though; he was somewhat enjoying his counselor’s confession.

Gerard sat back in his chair and folded his arms, speaking with conviction when he said. “Well, I have a homemade video that can prove you wrong.”

“You had sex in a Lego house?” Frank’s words were slow as if he were just trying to take it in himself, rather than get confirmation. Really though, he didn’t doubt Gerard was lying, he did seem like the type of person who would manage something that strange.

“No. But the people I was filming did.” He grinned.

“Oh so you’re like a gay, amateur porn director?”

“I take offence to the word ‘amateur’.”

“But not to the word ‘gay’?” Frank pulled his feet out from under his legs and dragged his chair closer to the desk, grinning almost wildly; he really just wanted Gerard to keep saying stupid things.

“Why’d you move closer?” The elder asked, jutting his chin a little forward.

“I like how you smell.” Before that moment Frank hadn’t even noticed Gerard’s scent, but after moving that fraction closer to the man he could taste it in his throat and for that second it was all he was thinking about. “It’s kinda sweet…” He leaned further forward, sniffing almost in his counselor’s personal space. “…like, cotton candy…” A little further again. “…and-”

“-Frank…” The teen looked up, only just noticing he almost had a leg on the table. “…shoo! Get off my desk.” Gerard waved a hand in his face; brushing him away and mumbling to himself about how weird the boy was.

“Sorry, I just wanted to eat you.”

Gerard shot him a look. “I’m going to pretend that I only imagined you saying that.”

Frank half smirked, biting his bottom lip. Though it didn’t show, he actually felt kind of embarrassed about what he said. It was just an after thought; he didn’t mean to say it. Really, he didn’t even mean to think it. Oh god! He didn’t even want to think about the fact that he had thought about it. He glanced at Gerard, trying to gather a reason as to why he had even thought it in the first place, but of course he couldn’t find one. The man was still talking about something as he sat there; playing mind games with himself. Frank nodded to his knee, agreeing with the side of him that was functioning properly that it was just a joke and that it came out in the moment. Yes Frank, just a joke. He was convinced, deciding to pay attention to his counselor; he caught the tail end of what he was saying.

“…start off with why you’re in here?”

“What? Sorry, I half missed what you were saying.”

Gerard let out and exasperated groan. “Pay attention. Stop thinking about your girly problems and think about me, about what I’m saying. I hate repeating myself.”

Suddenly, Mr. Way’s desk phone rang, scaring the both of them into a body jolt and saving Frank from apologizing again. Gerard pressed a finger to his lips, indicating for the boy to ‘be quiet’ and picked up the phone.

“Yelloo!” He chirped into the receiver, pulling a ‘he he, I’m so funny face.’ “Oh, Mikey hey man…” His face quickly straightened. “…ah, can you hang on just one sec?” He took the phone away from his ear and covered the mouthpiece, looking back up at Frank. “You can go now, we’ve only got a few minutes left. I’ll see you next Monday.”

Frank looked suspiciously at him for a moment before his counselor started rushing him out even more. He got up from his seat and made for the door, stopping just as he opened it with the thought of a quick question. He turned back to Gerard, still with his hand over the receiver and waiting impatiently for him to leave.

“Could you bring in that Lego video next week?” He smirked, shifting his feet slowly out of the office as he did so.

Clearly Gerard didn’t find the need to answer; instead he threw a stapler towards Frank’s head, looking more furious than ever. Frank quickly closed to door to save himself from the flying object and made his way to class with his laughter filling out the quiet corridors.