Outside his door stood Christopher Walker a man well into his 40’s with short black hair that was growing grayer each passing day (but don’t let him hear you say that) and russet brown skin with light brown eyes. He was shorter than Zane, standing around 6’0 with broad shoulders that were even more intimidating thanks to his favorite leather jacket that he always wore. Regardless of that, he always had on a charming smile, one that made people realize he only looked scary.

Ok, so Zane knew he could be scary seeing as he was the man that raised Zane from the age of 16. Zane moved out at eighteen; two years didn’t seem like much but, it was enough for Chris to understand Zane to an extent and enough for Zane to respect the man more than he let on, so it wasn’t at all shocking that Zane let him in.

“Shouldn’t you be busy tonight?” Zane asked, opening his fridge to offer Chris a beer, which he took. There wasn’t much food, there never was so Chris didn’t bother asking and Zane didn’t bother offering.

“Detectives don’t mess with dumb, drunk college kids,” Chris replied with a proud smile that Zane rolled his eyes at. He followed Zane to his futon where he took a seat as if he owned the place. With how often he visited it wasn’t all that shocking. He was the only person Zane allowed over.

Chris wish he could say that made him feel special but it only saddened him when he realized that he was the only person in Zane’s life. He tried to get the boy to go out, make friends, date, something but, he was as unsociable as they came.

Zane plopped onto his own side of the futon and flipped on the TV, searching for whatever he wished to watch.

“Oh, what do detectives do then? Sit around on their asses all day eating doughnuts?” Zane got a whack to the back of his head for that. His smirk remained though.

“Real funny you are, kid.” Chris left his hand on Zane’s head for a second before roughly ruffling his hair. Zane simply shut his eyes and let it happen because Chris was an old man so why the hell not. At least, Zane constantly told him that to piss him off because it was funny. “Thought I would come by for a visit, see what you’ve been up to.”

“You were here just last week,” Zane reminded him and, with his same evil smirk, went on to ask. “Going senile, old man?”

Chris’ grip on Zane’s scalp tightened until the poor boy was cringing and kicking out his left leg like he wanted to fight back but knew better. He squinted his eyes but, kept on his grin as Chris spoke in a low voice, “I am 46. I am not old.”

“Sounds like senility to me.”

Chris proceeded to pull Zane into a headlock that he didn’t bother to fight out of. As if he had the energy to do so. Chris squeezed and ruffled his hair and swung him around like a rag doll. Zane just let it happen until the old man was satisfied and he was pushed back into place. Chris shook his head with laughter while Zane attempted to fix his mussed up hair. Chris pretended not to notice the small smile on Zane’s face and Zane pretended like he didn’t know Chris saw it.

“You know, you should be out tonight too,” Chris said, changing the subject to one that they had thousands of times before. Zane’s smile disappeared in an instant and, though Chris didn’t like that, he knew he had to try and talk to Zane about his lack of socializing, among other things.

Zane proceeded to ignore Chris, keeping his eyes on the TV as he attempted not to reply.

“It’s Halloween, you live in a college town with people your age. Zane, come on, go out, make friends…go on a date?” Chris tried to look for any type of change in Zane. Part of him desperately wished that Zane was just keeping secrets and actually had someone in his life but…nope. No response, no embarrassment or act of hiding. He was as alone as Chris feared him to be.

“I don’t go out.” Zane grunted, deciding not to say anything about those other two suggestions, most specifically the last one.

Zane didn’t date. Caring about another person sounded exhausting. Putting effort into a relationship was the most troublesome thing on the planet. Zane was down for a one nightstand (because he got something out of it) but, he sure as hell wasn’t ok with committing to someone who would likely bitch at him on a regular basis.

Chris frowned then brought his hand up to scratch at the back of his neck. Biting his bottom lip, Chris let out a long sigh before saying softly, “I worry about you, Zane.”

“I know.”

Zane got up, having successfully finished a beer far quicker than he had expected, mostly because of the conversation. He knew that Chris didn’t just worry about his social life. There were a lot of things to worry about and Zane got the gist that Chris meant more than that. It was why Zane desperately wished to inhale another beer then another then another.

Zane noticed Chris was nearly done with his beer as well so he would grab him another too. Chris watched Zane slowly make his way to the fridge. He lingered there, hand on the handle hesitating to open it before he finally did. He was taking his time and, although Zane was sloth like by nature, it was clear he was doing it as an act of avoidance. He always avoided serious topics.

“I’m fine…really.” But to Zane fine wasn’t actually fine. He simply had low standards.

Chris’ face was scrunched up in a mixture of worry and annoyance but, rather than continuing to pry, he nodded slowly and asked, “You best not be lyin’ to me, boy, but…everything is fine, right?”

Zane kicked his fridge closed. Though there were some developments that Chris should know about, Zane didn’t want to tell him so he lied.

“Yeah, everything is fine.”