I'm Freezing

"There you go, officers," I said as I set both their burgers and fries down in front of them. Officer Sachs just grunted, which for him was very friendly. He never really liked me all that much, but I didn't blame him. The man had always been a true-blue cop, done everything to the book. That is until he caught me.

Officer Banks, his partner, the man sitting across from him and a good friend of my father's as well, had convinced him to look the other way. Sachs had made a promise that day. He vowed that if he ever caught me again, he wouldn't look away, no matter what Banks said.

"Thank you, Perce," Officer Banks beamed up at me. I gave him a smile in return. "Say, I hear you're studying Marine Biology now." I nodded my response at the man. "How's it going?"

"Well, at least I'm not flunking anything," I said, and he responded with a chuckle.

"You see, I always knew you were a good kid." Officer Sachs looked up at this point with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah," he said through a mouth full of burger, his eyes returning to his plate. "It just goes to show what can happen if you don't whore around."

"Oliver..." Banks started, but I cut him off.

"He's right," I said, and both officers gave me strange looks. I gave them a smile in return. "No use denying it." I shrugged. "Now can I get you, fine gentlemen, anything else?" Sachs narrowed his eyes at me, shoving his empty glass at me as his request for another soda.

I walked back to the kitchen, to get Sachs his refill. At least they were the last people in the diner, filling their tanks just before their nightshift. My dad was already waiting by the fridge.

"Is Sachs giving you a hard time again?" he asked with concern, eyes glued to the two policemen's table.

"No more than usual," I said as I filled up the glass and made to go back. My father held me back, though.

"Ty, would you be nice enough to finish up Percy's table?" he asked as he took the glass and pushed it over the counter to a groaning Tyson.

"Why?" Tyson whined, already putting his discarded apron back on, knowing he was going to lose the battle.

"Because he has to unpack, because you love him and because I said so," Dad said, and Tyson huffed as he took the soda. "I'll bring dinner up," Dad said as he squeezed my shoulder. It was his way of dismissing me.

I took off the apron and placed it on one of the hooks below the stairs before I bound up them. I was met by a 'practically dying of boredom' Ella next to a 'pleading to the gods to kill him for losing to a girl' Jason on the couch, playing Xbox. A smile spread on my face as I leaned over the back of the sofa to get close to Superman's ear.

"You winning?" I whispered, and he jumped. He spun his head around for a second, giving me the fiercest glare I have ever received.

"Does it fucking look so?" he nearly screamed while Ella yawned.

"It isn't fair, though, right, Ella?" I asked, and a smirk grew on her face. Jase paused the game to look at us. We kept our eyes on the screen.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he nearly squeaked. I shrugged and started walking to my room.

"Ella has an eidetic memory," I said over my shoulder as I reached my door. I turned back to him, leaning on the doorjamb. "Also, she has completed the game before, which means she knows precisely what to do and when and where." I watched his mouth fall open before a pout set in. He looked back at Ella.

"If it makes you feel any better, I made some of the same mistakes you did my first time playing it," she said with a smile. Jason threw the controller onto the couch next to her before he crossed his arms and full-on sulked right there and then.

"Come on, Superman. You can help me unpack," I threw him a wink before I backed into the room. He threw Ella a glare, which had her rolling on the couch laughing, before coming with me. He closed the door behind us just as I spotted our two empty bags on the bed.

"I figured you'd be tired when you got back, so I unpacked for you," he muttered, still upset, leaning against the wall next to the door. "I just didn't know what to do with the bags."

I took the bags, crouched down and tossed them under the bed, catching a glimpse of that loathed, old trunk. I made a mental note to be the one to get them out again.

"So," I started as I made my way to where he was leaning against the wall. "I owe you a thank you for being the best boyfriend in the world," I said, stepping right into him, pushing one leg up between both of his and resting both arms on the wall on either side of his head, which was still down. "Oh, come on. You can't be this upset about a girl beating you." His eyes shifted towards the bed.

"You know, my first instinct was to put the bags under the bed," he whispered and then he looked up with the most hurt expression on his face. Oh, fuck! I took a step back. "Have you ever..." he dropped his eyes again, clearly uncomfortable with what he was going to ask "...have you ever used anything in that trunk?" I was horror-struck.

The one thing I didn't want him to find out, the one thing I wanted to forget was beginning to stick its ugly head out of the closet. I gave him a nod as I bit my lip. I wasn't going to lie to him. He didn't deserve lies. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and looked back up, eyes glistening with unshed tears.

"Okay," Jason said as he pushed off the wall and past me to the other side of the room like he wanted to get as much distance between us as he could. "Next question. How many people have you been with?" he asked in a steely voice.

"Please, don't do this, Jase," I pleaded.

"Why not?" he practically screamed.

"I don't want to lie to you," I whispered. I just wished this had never happened. I wished Jason had just come in to help me unpack because then we would have been making out on the bed until it was time to eat.

"Then don't," he said in a cold voice. "What's your magic number, Percy? I'll tell you mine. It's one!" he said, livid, thrusting a single finger into the air. I stood frozen all but for my shaking head and felt the first tear roll down my cheek. I was going to lose him.

"Is it under ten?" I slowly shook my head as I kept my eyes on him. I could see something crack behind those sky blue eyes. "So it's a double-digit?" I looked down at my feet as Officer Sachs's words echoed in my head...'Just goes to show what can happen if you don't whore around'. I looked back up at him, determined to have at least enough decency to look him in the eye.

"No," I said with the loudest voice I could manage without it cracking. Jason's eyes widened, and a look of pure hurt and then disgust crossed his face before he spun around hands going to his face as he fell to his knees. I would have gone to him, took him into my arms if it wasn't for that disgusted look on his face. "Jase..."

"Triple digits?" he asked in a muffled voice, his back still to me.

"Yeah," I answered in an almost whisper. Jason's back shook with silent sobs before he took a deep, shaky breath and got to his feet. He turned around, eyes red, and just stood there looking at me for a while.

"You're fucked up," he said with disgust. "Get out."

"What?" I asked, and he snapped.

"I want to pack and get as far from you as I possibly can!" he shouted. "Now get out so I can at least pack alone!" his voice broke a little at the end.

"Jase," I started, my world crashing down around me. He grabbed me by the shoulders and threw me out of the room before slamming the door in my face. I was met with Tyson and Ella, wide-eyed on the couch, and my father froze on the top step.

"I don't want to hear it," I said as I fell back against the door, sliding to the floor, resting my head on my knees as I let the tears take me over.

"You haven't told him?" Dad asked, snapping out of his frozen state and putting the dish of burgers on the coffee table.

"Does it look like I told him?" I asked, looking up at him to see him kind of flinch away at first. He had never been good with handling tears. Even when I was small, I was always the one who had to comfort Mum when she was upset, and she would comfort me when I got sad. Dad always gave the best advice, though, after we've calmed down enough to talk.

"You have to tell him, Perce," he said softly. He still stood there awkwardly, as if deciding whether he should hug me or make me hot chocolate.

"I'll lose him if I do!" I screamed as a fresh wave of tears crashed over me. The door flung open, and Jason all but kicked me out of the way. I watched him hurry across the room and down the stairs.

"I don't know, Son. Looks like you're already losing him." I looked at him kind of shocked. "What do you have to lose?" he shrugged. Of course, he was right. Dad always was. I sat there for about five seconds, dreading the look on his face, but I just had to tell him, explain that it wasn't by choice.

I bolted down the stairs and out the door. I could see a figure at the end of the pier. The waves were crashing, rain pouring, and somehow, it gave me new strength because I felt like it wasn't just my life crashing down anymore. I ran to the end up the pier, the boards creaking under my feet, the rain at my back as Jason kept walking. I finally got to him, spun him around and swallowed the words that left his lips with a kiss.

I poured everything, my whole heart and soul into one kiss, one moment where he might just realise what I feel for him. My chest filled with hope, hope that he might know I loved him before I never get the chance to kiss him again. I let him go, both of us breathless. He looked at me, and for one blissful moment, it looked like all was forgotten. Then he pushed me away, and I stumbled back.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing, Jackson?" he spat as he wiped at his mouth.

"I just needed to kiss you once before you disappear," I said as I straightened out. "And I wanted to tell you the truth."

"The truth?" Jason said in disbelief. "Honestly, Percy, I don't care. At least now I understand why your body isn't worth anything," he said coolly as he turned to walk away again. It literally felt like fifty tons of ice and water fell down on me in that very moment. In other words, it hurt a lot.

"He was a pimp," I shouted, my head falling to the floor, watching his feet move, afraid that if I didn't get it out now, he would never know. His feet stopped moving.

"What?" he asked as he turned back around. "Has someone actually fucked you senseless?"

"Gabe was a pimp," I said lifting my head to look him in the eyes. He looked confused like his brain just couldn't process it. "He had me working as a male prostitute for two years and eight months." It came out barely a whisper, but somehow he heard me over the waves, the storm, everything. I saw his eyes turn shiny again, but if a tear fell, it would have been lost in the rain on his cheeks.

"Percy..." he said, raising a hand over his mouth.

"That's why I'm good at sex, why I've been with one hundred eighty-seven people, excluding you, and why I don't like bottoming, because I don't have a single good experience of it." It was like a dam wall breaking, and now everything was flowing out with the rain and the waves. "I excluded you because you don't belong with them," I shouted.

"You're my first," I said as I stepped forward to cup his face. My tears were flowing freely now, mingling with the rain on my cheeks. "You're the first person I've ever fallen in love with." I rested my forehead to Jason's as my breath hitched, stopping the rain just enough to see that tears were indeed flowing down his cheeks as well.

"Your dad had burgers, right?" he asked in a raw voice. I nodded. "Good. I'm going to need food if I'm going to have the strength to process this." I gave him a smile, and he returned it. "Get me inside. I'm freezing."