Frank arrived back to his room to find his friend, Jepha sitting on the floor and playing a game of solitaire. He stood in the doorway for a moment watching as he concentrated on the game at hand before realizing Frank was back. He looked up and smirked.

“Hey, how’d it go? Are you a broken boy?” He asked, knocking the cards aside, eager to hear his roommate’s story.

“Not bad.” Frank walked in, grabbed a magazine from his side table and rested on the bottom bunk. “He’s funny.” 

There was a pause as Jepha tried to register what he had just heard and sure enough, Frank was doing the same. “He’s funny?” Jepha repeated; getting to his knees and leaning in on Frank to look at him; unsure of whether of not he was kidding. “He’s funny?”

“Yeah, that’s what I said.” He continued reading, not paying any attention to the bewildered look on his friends face. Really, he was surprised he wasn’t mirroring the expression, he had just complimented Mr. Way, the man who had near on badgered him with nonsensical and sexual questions, that wasn’t funny!

“I don’t get it. How was he funny? You know what he said to me this morning?” Jepha ripped the magazine from Frank’s hands, giving a double take to the title ‘Seventeen’ before throwing it to the ground.

Frank sighed. “No Jeph I don’t, enlighten me.” He lent down from the bed, trying to scratch his reading material back.

“He said that I look like a pet fish he has. Said her name is ‘Tonka’, ‘cause the male fish ride her like she’s a truck. He‘s a dick!”

Frank laughed. “Are you serious? Come on man, that’s funny. Tonka fish.” He laughed again.

“NO! It’s not Frank. He supposed to help us, not tell us we resemble his female pets!” Jepha bounced up from the bed, almost distraught by the mention of the insult. Frank simply shrugged, still smiling and went back to his magazine. “And why are you reading that?” 

“I’m learning about periods and how to kiss boys.” He turned the magazine to show his friend an article in specific.

Jepha squinted at the page, reading it’s heading before pulling back away. “Yeah Frank ‘cause I’m sure you need to know where your ovaries are located.”

“Might come in handy. Beside this shit is real informative; I’m convinced I’m almost female.” He got off the bed, threw the magazine down and stretched his arms out whilst holding a toothy grin. Jepha just stared blankly at him. “Oh, I still like girls of course.” He scoffed as his friend made to leave the room and he followed suit, mumbling to himself… “maybe I’m a lesbian.”

-----

It’s was almost one o’clock as the boys made their way to the dining hall. It wasn’t an overly large room, but it appeared huge because of the lack of division throughout and it’s high-rise ceilings; which caused every voice inside to sound at least ten times louder as it flew to the roof and screamed back down. The two entered through the swinging doors, Jepha instantly making his way over to the table where Bob and Pete were sat and Frank slowly strolling along; finding himself curious if whether or not there were actually any rooms within the whole building that were not gray. He’d only been there five days and it was becoming so depressing that he thought he would soon blend in. 

Before joining the other three, Frank made is way over to the food counters. They were ran by the typical old, fat and sweaty ladies that you would see dishing up kid’s cafeteria lunches in movies. He cringed slightly; watching as one of them pushed her fringe out of her sloppy face whilst stirring a tray of bubbling mince. The food was off-putting enough, let alone having some wench mixing it up and loosing strands of hair during the process. But he figured they served a purpose; what would happen if the center were to employ cute, young girls to dish out there meals? 

He made his way further down along the bain-marie, peering through the steamed up glass to find what he wanted for lunch. It all looked so distasteful; everything was either deep-fried or just didn’t look edible. How do they honestly expect people to survive on this shit? He thought, inspecting a tray of food that he recognized from yesterday. Then again they probably didn’t care; after all it was your fault you were even there in the first place.

Deciding he’d rather starve for the remainder of the day, as opposed to spending it swapping his ends over a toilet seat, he opted for what he’d gotten the past four days, a butter sandwich and a bowl of fruit salad, which was the preferred option for almost all the delinquents. He took his tray over to the table and sat it down before quickly making his way to the self-serve bench for coffee, terribly glad he could make his own; he didn’t know what sorts of bugs those woman would poison them all with, given the perfect chance.

Staring through an over-sized window that was facing outside to the yards, Frank had to admit, although the food was indeed putrid and the overall look of the center was quite run-down, it really wasn’t that bad for a place that was supposed to scare him out of ever breaking the law again. Everything was routine. Throughout the week there was a rotating roster set in place for classes, counseling and random bouts of community service the government allowed the center to take care of. Frank was grouped together with his roommate in Stage B, which meant during their classes and community service time they were always together. They had an hour for each breakfast, lunch and dinner and in between they had to refer to their timetables. Not that bad. Much like a boarding school really, with the exception of guards and low voltage electric fences.  

Frank made his way back to his table, sipping at his coffee. He took a seat at suddenly felt the eyes of the other three set on him.

“Alright. What?” He sighed placing his drink down.

“How’d you go this morning Frankie?” A grinning Bob asked him.

“Fine.”

“Fine hmm?” Bob repeated sarcastically, stroking at his light beard. “I say; you didn’t happen to find Mr. Way ‘funny’, by any chance, did you?”

“Actually Bob, now that you mention it…” Frank mumbled, biting into his sandwich and letting a piece fall back out of his mouth. “…he was quite a character.”

Bob hummed again, looking off into the distance.

“You know he’s a fag right?” Pete added like it was common knowledge and would all of a sudden make Mr. Way not so humorous.

“Pfft! He is not and besides, even if here were to find one of the guards more attractive than those dish pigs…” He turned and indicated to the kitchen ladies. “…that doesn’t mean his jokes are stillborn.” He raised his eyebrows to the other three each in turn whilst shoveling a mix of fruit into his mouth. “So Pete, if what you’re saying is true then personally, I wouldn’t blame him.” He continued to chew his lunch.

They all went silent, Jepha seeming to be in deep thought. “Frank, how come you never told me you were gay?” He looked at his friend a little hurt, causing more food to roll out of Frank’s mouth.

“Ahh, mostly probably cause I’m not.” He picked his piece of pineapple up and shoved it back in his mouth as Bob and Pete whispered the word ‘ denial’ between themselves.

“Oh come on man. I just fucking caught you reading ‘Seventeen’, straight guys don’t do that.”

“You didn’t ‘catch’ me Jeph, I was reading it openly. I don’t care what you clowns think, I like to keep an open mind.”

The all fell silent again and Bob and Pete returned to muttering together.

“Okay Frankie, we have an idea.” Pete piped.

“Oh really? What’s that?” He asked, mockingly dishing back his excitedness.

“Ask him.”

“Ask him what?”

“Oh if he likes grapes…” Bob scowled. “…if he’s gay you idiot.”

“Shit Bob, I’m sorry. I wasn’t aware I should have used my magical skills to tune in and listen in on your snickering.”

Jepha and Pete laughed. Bob just glared evilly at him. “Will you just ask?”

“No!” Frank near on squealed. He looked between the three and they appeared to be more than disappointed with his decision. “You guys are shit. What’s in it for me?”

“An open-minded relationship with your counselor of course.” Pete smiled, leaning across the table so Frank could note the flutter of his eyelashes.

“Oh goodie. Fine. I’ll ask him, whatever.” Frank shrugged and stood from the table. “I’m going to have a shower now. I’m also going to drop the soap.” He smirked and walked off, placing his tray back on the counter and exiting the hall, leaving the other three still seriously questioning their friend’s sexuality.