Finding August

Chapter Six

Vincent let out a sigh as he put the can of sweet corn he'd been inspecting back in its respective shelve. August still hadn't replied to him and two whole days had already gone by- 48 hours without a reply to a simple question. Vincent tried not to let it get to him, but it was starting to become hard to keep the conspiracy theories out of his mind. He couldn't wrap his head around a valid reason why August hadn't replied to him yet.

He walked through the aisle, picking up items here and there as he went. There was really no reason why he was shopping at a convenience store. He'd just needed a reason to wander further from his neighborhood street in an attempt to clear his head.

Vincent took the items to the counter soon after, the woman behind it losing her smile at the sight of him. Vincent smiled at her like he hadn't noticed, probably irritating her further. She was acting like doing her job by attending to Vincent was going to kill her. She mumbled under her breath as she scanned each item. Vincent could just catch the amount she muttered at the end. He took out some bills from his pocket, handing them over to her as she slid his receipt across the counter. Vincent looked at it just in case the lady had scanned something twice. He nodded when he saw there was no fault before leaving the store with his grocery bag.

Trekking the distance to his home Vincent's mind wandered to an incident that had happened while August was still around. They'd visited the exact same convenient store together, holding hands as they walked about the store together. Vincent had noticed the stink eye the lady behind the counter had given them when August had placed their basket on her side of the counter. He hadn't read much into it and had given August a peck on the cheek before excusing himself to look for something he'd forgotten to get.

He'd returned to find the woman muttering something to August with a frown on her face. August had looked genuinely confused and uncomfortable. He'd keep running a hand through his hair and his creased brows spoke volumes. Vincent didn't approach them just yet. He'd watched with curiosity as August directed a nod the woman's way before lifting the basket of the side of her side of the table to stand in line behind the girl that was being attended to by the woman at the other side.

A feeling of disgust had rushed over Vincent when he'd put two and two together. He hadn't comforted August or the lady about it, but the incident had bit at him so hard that he just had to say something when he and August had left the store with their grocery bags.

"Why didn't you insist?" Vincent had asked, making August turn to him with a puzzled look as they walked side by side.

"Don't look at me like that. I saw what happened. She refused to attend to you, didn't she?" Vincent had said, earning a shrug from August.

"It doesn't matter. She explained something about it going against her religion or something... I'm not sure. To be honest, I was b****y confused, but if that's the case I guess its okay," August had mumbled, reaching into his pocket with his free hand to get his phone.

Vincent had stopped in his tracks, startling August by holding him still by the shoulders.

"That is not okay," Vincent had said firmly as he looked into August's eyes. August had started at him, squinting at under the hot sun as they stood in the middle of the pavement.

"But—"

"Look, I know you're into respecting other people's opinions and what not, but refusing to attend to somebody because of their sexuality is just as bad as refusing to attend to somebody because of their race or religion. It is not okay," Vincent had said all at once as August looked on at him. August had then looked away, moving his gaze to the floor before nodding in agreement.

A sigh had left Vincent's parted lips as he'd reduced the force he had been using to hold on to August's shoulder.

"Next time just ask to speak to the manager," Vincent had muttered earning another nod from August. They'd continued on their way home with Vincent holding on to the sleeve of August's shirt to make sure the man didn't walk into something as he was using his phone.

"I don't still get it," August had muttered out of the blue. "Like, I don't understand how her not attending to me is a big deal. If it's her opinion I feel like asking her to attend to me is kind of trampling on that."

Vincent had sighed, realizing August didn't still get the full picture.

"Her religious beliefs don't align with that of people from other religions and nonreligious people and I'm sure she's still attending to them, why should it be any different with you? The 'I'm religious' cover is just a shitty and low way of getting away with bigotry. I won't even be surprised if she's not religious at all," Vincent had tried to explain. August had let out a small 'oh' and hadn't anything else in concerns with the topic.

Vincent had visited the same convenient store a few days after by himself, intentionally dropping his items on the woman's side of the counter. The lady had tried to feed him with the same argument but Vincent had just called on the manager of the store. He couldn't hide the grin on his face as he watched the woman do her job as she grumbled under her breath.

August might have had a tolerance for her opinion regardless of how demeaning and degrading they were, but Vincent was certainly not going to stand for that.

Vincent reached his front door soon after, reaching into his pocket for his key. He could remember what had happened vividly. He was guilty of continually visiting the same convenience store just to piss the woman off, but he couldn't help himself. Watching the woman work as if she was being tortured by fire was pretty amusing.

He let out a groan when he realized his keys had somehow tangled with the loss threads of his pockets. It took a while to undo the mess, and when it was finally done Vincent let out a sigh of relief before unlocking the door.

He walked into the tattoo parlor before heading up to his apartment above to drop off the groceries he was carrying. He ran his hand through his curly head of hair, feeling the increase in its length. He'd kept mentally reminding himself that he needed a haircut but he'd never gotten around to get one.

Getting out of his clothes, he changed into homier comfortable ones. He wandered about his apartment, settling down to watch TV for a few minutes at a time. Nothing interested him; he just needed a way to round of the day.

On one of his TV watching sessions, the buzzer downstairs went off furiously multiple times without stop. Vincent rolled his eyes as he put aside his popcorn bowl, he knew only Chuck would press the doorbell like that. He got up on his feet, dusting the crumbs of popcorn of his shorts before heading downstairs to get the door.

"Hey Vin!" Chuck yelled, throwing his hands up in the air as he made his way into the tattoo parlor. Vincent gave him a stern look, watching as the man in front of him try to stay up on his feet as he muttered nonsense. Chuck was definitely under the influence of alcohol and not the fruity sweet kind.

"What happened?" Vincent asked as he finally made to help his friend stay on his feet. Chuck still had an obviously forced smile on his face as he continued to mutter nonsense under his breath.

Unlike most of Vincent's friends, Chuck couldn't handle alcohol. The generic big scary man got drunk after a few glasses and avoided it as much as possible. Vincent wondered what could have happened to lead Chuck to a bottle of alcohol in the first place. Vincent only got more alarmed when the large man started to let out a string of cuss words.

"I f*****g lost! I can't believe it! I worked hard for that shit...T-they obviously cheated... I... I never lose a game-e-e... Nope, it just doesn't happen!"

Vincent was able to put the broken sentences together and realized that Chuck probably lost a gambling game. The bloke was a sore loser and would never admit defeat.

"I told you to stop gambling with your money. Put down your watch or something next time," Vincent muttered as he helped his friend up the stairs to his apartment. Chuck opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something but closed it before rubbing his aching head with the base of his palm. His drunkenness might not be obvious on his dark skin but it was completely obvious from the stench of his breath and the redness of his eyes.

Vincent eventually got both of them into his apartment. He thanked the heavens that the door was already open so he didn't have to struggle with that. He led his friend into the sitting room, making him take a sit on the sinking sofa.

"You're making me sleep on the couch?" the drunk man asked with a hiccup as he rubbed at his sore eyes.

"If you want a bed you can walk all the way to your own place. I'm not giving a free bed to an i***t," Vincent said, earning a low hiccup trailed chuckle from his friend.

"You got me there, so this is some sort of punishment, eh?" Chuck chuckled, pointing in the direction he felt Vincent was standing. Vincent rolled his eyes at the man, he was pointing at thin air but he decided not to point that out.

"Get some rest, and use the guest toilet when you want to throw up tomorrow," Vincent said with a small smile before leaving Chuck behind in the living room and heading for his bedroom. He got there, falling onto his bed with a tired yawn.

He let his eyes glance towards his phone that was sitting on the bedside table and decided to check if August had replied. He rolled over to his side, reaching out for his phone before unlocking it and tapping the email icon. He looked through his inbox with a disappointed look — nothing. August has still not replied. He let the phone drop beside him on the mattress with a sigh. He couldn't work out why August was still ignoring him.