Dillon Buck and Junior Stellano | MENatPLAY’s Office Junior
“I’m going to the bathroom,” Stelios grunted. He stormed out of the office. His face was red to his collar bone. “Oh lord,” Greg muttered. He pointed at Lee. “You stay there.” He left the office and chased after Stelios.
“Stel!”
Stelios was just pacing in the empty hallway clenching his fists.
“Stel,” Greg said as he jogged up to him. “Don’t – don’t punch anything. You know how your hand is.”
Stelios huffed loudly and threw his jacket half off his back. “Just – fuck! We’re right back at the start aren’t we? I actually thought we were making progress. After all that therapy, all that time we spent, that it was actually getting through to him.”
“It was working, and it was helping,” Greg reminded him.
“Well, clearly it wasn’t!” Stelios shouted. “And it’s fine now, he’s 16. But this is how it starts, Greg. Lee’s going to get some form of suspension, I just know it. He’s going to be disconnected from his studies. Maybe he’ll catch up. But we’re not going to be there when he’s 18, 19, 20. Off at college. He gets into another fight, he goes to jail. If we can’t control this now we …christ, Greg, we’ve failed him.” Stel’s voice hitched. He covered his mouth and turned to the wall.
Greg parted his lips but only a sigh came out. He walked over to Stel and pulled him back around and into a hug. The man’s body was hot against his. “We haven’t failed him. Lee has been doing amazing. He’s happy, he’s got friends, he’s making good grades. We made it through puberty without him putting us in the hospital. Or biting us. He even likes his therapist.”
“Yeah. I guess.”
“You need to give us credit for what we’ve accomplished,” Greg said in a soothing voice in Stelios’s ear.
“But what if it’s for nothing?” Stelios whispered.
“It’s not for nothing. Are you telling me we adopted him for nothing, that we didn’t change the course of his life for the better at all?”
A pause. “Well…no.”
“And remember how the principal told us that this wasn’t unprovoked. He was defending a girl being bullied.”
“That doesn’t excuse it though. We don’t want to tell him some fighting is acceptable.”
“No, but we can discipline him without it signaling a collapse of his therapies. Actually, I think it’s a sign his therapies are working.”
Stelios scoffed.
“How?”
He stepped back from the hug, but he was standing only a foot apart from Greg.
“Because Lee tried to get them to stop with words. He told someone to get a teacher. He took steps to try and resolve the bully picking on that girl. But the bully shoved him, and so he swung. An over reaction? Maybe. But he didn’t just hit that kid unprovoked. It’s progress.”
Stelios exhaled. “Maybe, but it’s still fighting. I dreaded this call would come. If that bully…what’s his name? Ryan? If his nose is really broken, it could be expensive.”
“We have good health care and insurance. We could make Lee pay back the co-pay installments, to help teach him the impact of this.”
Stelios looked at his husband. “Why are you so good at this parenting thing?”
Greg snorted. “Cause I have a good partner I can trust to do it with me.”
Stelios lowered his gaze to the floor. “I don’t feel like a good partner right now. I just feel mostly angry.”
Greg folded his arms. “Like you could fight someone?”
“What?”
“Like Paul Costanza?”
Stelios got a deer in headlight look and then the color came back, not up his neck, but just on his cheeks. “Nope. Nothing. Nada. No recollection.”
Greg chuckled. “You don’t remember how you thought he was assaulting me in that bar? Cause he was fucking me pressed me against the fence in that alley, and I was wailing like I was in distress?”
“I plea the 5th.”
“You never met me, yet you tried to protect my honor. It was cute, although your intentions were a tad misplaced.”
“Greg,” Stelios said helplessly.
Greg chuckled to himself. “Can’t believe that’s how we met.”
Stelios nodded. “Me neither. I remember next time I saw you at that bar, I apologized and asked how I could make it up to you. And you told me I needed to finish off where I got interrupted.”
Greg tilted his head. “Ok I forgot how slutty I was back then.”
A smile appeared on Stelios’s face. “The right amount. Also you still sound like you’re in distress sometimes.”
Greg coughed. “Hush.”
“The only time you’re quiet is when I kiss you. Remember that, us standing on the patio of that bar?” Stelios put his hand on Greg’s shoulder and caressed him down over his pecs. “You ran your fingers up my neck when we kissed, and you drove me nuts.”
Greg pressed his hand to the back of Stelio’s neck and moved his fingertips into his hairline. “Like this?”
“Y-yeah…”
Stelios leaned forward as Greg kissed him. The white hot anger dissolved away, and soon his muscles relaxed. When they parted for air, Greg pushed forward, seeking Stelios’s lips and the taste of him. Stelios couldn’t remember the last time they really just made out like this, like they used to. Sex seemed to be so brief these days. God, it had been so good back then, when they were young and naive and horny. They’d fuck and then splay on the bed, talking and dreaming of starting a family. And now here was the future, and they did have a family. A happy, functioning one. Greg was right. This fight really wasn’t that big of a deal. Lee would be fine, and they would be fine. This was just a hiccup of raising a teenager with a rough start in life.
They parted again. Greg moved in, but Stelios put his hand on his chest. “We’re um, making out in the hallway of our son’s high school.”
It was Greg’s turn to blush. “Oh. Right. The principal is probably wondering where we went.”
“We should get back,” Stelios agreed. “But um, we should pick up where we left off when we get home.”
“Can I undress you out of your suit?”
“Only if I can undress you.”
“Deal.” Greg smiled and straightened Stelio’s jacket. “Feel better?”
“Yeah. I’m glad I didn’t punch a wall.”
“Me too.” Greg snuck a little kiss in. They walked back to the principal’s office, holding hands, to go sort out their son and bring him home.
When they walked back into the office, Lee was sitting in a chair outside the principal’s office. He looked up at his parents. “Are you going to unadopt me?”
Greg shouldn’t have laughed, but it was just so unexpected.
Stelios palmed Lee’s shaved head. “Not on your life, kid. Sorry, we love you, you’re stuck with us.”
“Even though I screwed up?”
“Even though you screwed up.“
“Screwing up is how we met actually,” Greg added.
“Really?“ Lee responded.
“Yep. Come on, let’s go find out what your punishment is, and then we’re going home ok?”
“Ok,” Lee nodded. He looked exhausted. Defeated. His stomach grumbled.
“You wanna get McDonalds on the way home?”
“Yes,” Lee squeaked. His eyes were all wet.
“Ah, kid. Come here.”
Lee stood up and Greg hugged him. Stelios patted him on the back, then went go to talk to the principal. It was just a hiccup, he reminded himself. Life would go on, and he had a good evening ahead to look forwarded to – French fries and French kissing.
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Captions are fictional.