#sleepage

A blush found its way onto Rich’s cheeks as they quickly walked over to the table. The man with the sunglasses moved over on his seat and patted the spot next to him. Rich sat down where they were instructed to, but distracted their eyes in a search for Patton.

“Babes, you got a name?” The man next to them asked. Rich forced themself to maintain eye contact, coming off as rude was one of the last things they wanted.

“Rich,” they said. “they/them.” 

“Oooh, you’re valid, I’m Remy, this bitch is Janus.” Janus gave a small wave. Rich hadn’t noticed it before, but Janus had one brown eye and one yellow. While Rich was familiar with the idea of heterochromia, they’ve never seen it in person.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, but I’m leaving once we get our order” Remy had an unexplainable expression when the words left Rich. Frustrated? Rich knew that he didn’t seem angry, but yet again, they also didn’t know what Remy looked like when he was upset. A sense of unease crept to him as Rich shoved their hands into their jacket pockets

“C’mon babes, spill. Tell us a ‘lil about yourself.” Remy took a sip out of his coffee, holding eye contact with Rich. Although Remy made them slightly uncomfortable, there was something about him that made them want to stay.

“17. My future really isn’t much, just school at the moment.” Remy nodded along to Rich’s words. Janus glanced up from his phone.

“What school?” Janus asked. The way the two men were looking at Rich made their heart flutter and their stomach spin in circles. Although they were sure the blush was prominent on their face, they didn’t want to look like a flustered mess as a first impression.

“Uh, Pine Hills.” 

Janus raised an eyebrow, “Us too, homeroom?”

“Clarkson, yours?”

“Edmunds,” Remy chimed in. 

Rich looked around the room. Although they enjoyed talking to Remy and Janus, they were a little concerned about Patton’s whereabouts too.

“What’s on your mind, hun?” 

Rich talked towards Remy’s direction but kept their eyes searching. “Looking for someone. He should’ve been done by now…” Rich let their voice get quiet at the last few words. 

Remy took another sip of his coffee. “What’s he look like?”

“Brown hair, blue shirt, uh… jeans? I don’t know, maybe khaki. Oh yeah, glasses too.” Rich rubbed circles into their jacket pocket as their worries intensified. Maybe he already left? No- Patton would leave without them… Unless Patton was just pretending to be nice and-

“Blue shirt brown-haired bitch! Rich misses you and to me, I don’t know, that seems pretty gay!” People around the coffee shop either sent Remy glares for disrupting the quiet or looked around for the man described. 

“What. The. Actual. Fuck!” Rich’s face burned from embarrassment. They would’ve usually rolled it off, or be the one to yell that out, but they didn’t exactly want to cause a scene in front of a hot- totally average guy they just met.

Within seconds, Patton walked over to their table, holding a drink in each hand. “Sorry, Rich! I was talking to this guy and- oh can I sit down?” 

Janus silently scooted over, a subtle blush forming on his face.

“Thank you! Anyway- I’m Patton, and brew are?” Patton took his place next to Janus and put down the two drinks, nudging one a little closer to Rich. Rich rolled their eyes at the pun and grabbed their coffee, attempting to look casual but everything around him seemed far from that. They tried to distract themself, instead deciding to focus on Patton.

Janus looked at Patton with a look Rich could only describe as a gay panic that they’ve totally never experienced. After a few seconds of silence between the four, Janus caught onto how Patton was asking for his name.

“O- oh yeah, my name is Janus. What’s yours?” Janus realized at that moment, Patton had already answered the question just seconds before. “Actually, I’ve jussst remembered, how has your day been?”

Anyone could tell you that Janus despised small talk, but a normal conversation was too straight for him right now.

Patton attempted to hold back a giggle, but it didn’t quite work out in his favor. “I- I’m sorry, well, uh- good, it’s been pretty good. Y’know good like good- but not very good, like this isn’t the best day of my life, but this day has been pretty good.” 

While Patton was good at small talk, he wasn’t a master at the feelings Janus gave him. Patton awkwardly did some finger guns, which did little to ease the tension in the situation.

“Babes-” Rich looked away from them and over to Remy, “hey uh, what’s your number?” Rich could’ve sworn that Remy was blushing, but they must’ve been seeing things- right? They pushed the thought aside, not wanting to give himself any false hope. Remy probably had a girlfriend anyway and this chat was a one-time thing.

Rich pulled out their phone and took a sip of their coffee. The dark chocolate left a bitter aftertaste, but it wasn’t horrible. Rich pulled up their contacts and slid the phone over to Remy.

“Thanks, hun.” Remy appeared to be typing his number into their phone. It suddenly dawned onto Rich, Remy wanted to talk more in the future. 

Rich started coughing on their coffee, which caused Remy and the other two men to glance up. 

Janus let out a dry, quiet, chuckle and Patton didn’t exactly know what to do, but Rich’s coughing sent him into a wordless worry.

“S-sorry I-” Rich was cut off by their own coughs, “I-” Rich’s coughing wasn’t put at ease by speaking. Their face turned red, but they would never tell if it was from embarrassment or the lack of constant air. 

“Take it easy, hun.” Remy gently, but firmly, patted Rich’s back. Soon enough, the coughing stopped, but that definitely didn’t mean their gayness for Remy did, symbolized by the remaining red on their face. They would’ve thanked Remy, but the words never seemed to come out. Instead, they opted for drinking their coffee. 

“New to coffee?” 

Rich nodded. “Yeah, energy drinks are way better.” They were now aware of how Remy’s arm transitioned to their back to resting on the back of their neck. They somehow blushed more at the thought of what that could mean.

“Oh no-” Janus said quietly, looking over at Remy’s direction.

“You did not just say that.” Remy pulled down his sunglasses, narrowing his eyes at Rich. He held his coffee in front of them. “You may have picked out a shitty coffee, but you can never insult a pumpkin spice latte.”

Rich was not about to let their pride squashed by a man with bad taste. “Do you even have taste buds? Coffee isn’t easy to drink, chug, or buy in bulk. Face it, they’re superior to coffee on every level.” Where this confidence came from Rich didn’t know, but they were sure glad that it was there.

Remy laughed at the thought of that. Out of nowhere, he pulled Rich closer, making their faces only inches apart. Rich let out a small squeak at this, but Remy only smirked in response.

“Same time next week- I’ll show you what’s better than an energy drink,” Remy whispered, slightly tilting his head so Rich could hear better. Rich’s face was as red as a tomato by now. Remy sensed the unease, and slid his arm away and scooted back to his spot. They almost whined at that, already missing the contact- but Rich’s mind was occupied with thoughts of next week.

“Sound good or you busy?” Remy innocently cocked his head to the side, taking a sip of his coffee. 

“T-that um- sounds good. I could probably make time for that, just to show you how stupid coffee is.”

“Sure,” Remy put his glasses back over his eyes. 

“How about you? Don’t worry- Janus will come too,” Remy winked at Patton. 

Patton slightly blushed but responded nonetheless, “That sounds wonder-awesome!” Patton had meant to say that the plans sounded wonderful or awesome, however, his mouth decided to betray him at that moment.

He stood up from the table, “Well uh- this has been super fun, but Rich and I gotta go do… school stuff that we’ve been procaffeinating- uh I mean procrastinating! Yep, we’ll be going now!” Between rushing his words and speaking higher and higher, he was barely coherent. Janus smirked as he covered his mouth and looked away. 

Rich held back a sigh from Patton’s pun, but also stood up. “Yeah, we’re going. Seeya- or n-not I don’t really care.”

Remy seemed to deflate when Rich said that. But before they could even ask about it Remy looked away and said, “Seeya around, babes.” 

Rich walked into the café, they rarely stopped at places like this, but Patton was eager to go. The place had a cozy aesthetic, with its dark gray walls and mint green accents. They walked over to the counter, assuming that’s where they would order. An African American man walked over to them, with a name tag that read, ‘Caleb’. Caleb would’ve blended into any crowd if he didn't have blue tips of hair that stood out from his ordinary uniform. 

“Good afternoon you lovely gents, what can I get for you today?” Caleb smiled at both of them as he pulled out a notebook and pen. Rich cringed from the masculine word applied to them but they brushed it off. Their eyes scanned the menu as Patton made his order.

“I’ll have a… Smoked Butterscotch Frappuccino, in your smallest size please,” Patton said, tapping his fingers onto the counter, which slightly jiggled his blue bracelet. 

“And your name is?”

“Oh, it’s Patton.” 

Caleb scribbled down the order onto the paper and looked over to Rich. “And what are you having today?”

“Well-” Rich didn’t quite plan out their order, so they chose something random from the board “-how about your Dark Chocolate Mocha.” 

“Alright, the size of your drink and your lovely name?”

“Medium, and Rich”

Caleb wrote down the order, “That will be nine dollars and 43 cents, is there anything else I can get you?”

Patton shook his head and pulled out a ten-dollar bill from his pocket. Rich knew that they couldn’t debate with Patton on who was going to pay, so they let it slide.

“Alright, it’ll be right up, you can take a seat while you’re waiting.” Caleb flashed both of them a lovely smile before slipping the leftover change into Patton’s hand.

Alright, where to go? As soon as the thought entered Rich’s mind, Patton said something that slipped their attention and started walking away.

Curse their short attention span, curse it to hell.

Maybe it was to sit down? That sounds like something Patton would say. Rich looked around the room. It seemed like every table was full. Rich noticed a booth that only had 2 men in it, each sitting at different sides. The first man wore a black leather jacket with a white shirt underneath. Even though the room wasn’t that bright, he had sunglasses on. 

The person sitting across from him was wearing a black shirt that Rich couldn't see the front of. Both of the men had brown hair, but the first man's hair was a little lighter.

The man with the sunglasses looked over to Rich, but they immediately changed their view. The warm feeling of unease crept onto Rich’s neck. They focused on the wall of art that was a few feet away from them. People look at art, right? Whatever it’s a few more minutes and Patton will be back.  Just a few minutes and Patton will be back, just a few more minutes, just a-

“Hey, hot stuff with the MCR shirt, wanna take a seat?” Rich looked back at the table and saw both of the men looking over to them. They pointed to themselves with a questioned expression. They didn’t want to walk over to the table to find out he was calling someone else.