Friday, late evening

     Daniel bit his lip while his eyes—for the hundredth time that evening—scanned the crowd. He expected Frey to be there, but so far, he hadn't shown up yet, and Daniel wondered why.

Normally, he wouldn't even be thinking about the other boy's absence, but today, he really wanted to see what he was up to.

All because of Mitchel.

All because of the fact that bastard told him he had met Frey and asked him out on a date.

It sparked jealousy in Daniel, and he couldn't exactly tell if he was jealous over Frey—for going out with his ex, that he secretly still liked in some way—or that he was jealous over Mitchel, because he showed the guts and asked Frey Sanders out on a date.

Daniel didn't even believe Frey would be into guys, at all, but Mitchel had assured him Frey was very interested in 'getting to know' Mitchel a little better. He still didn't fully believe it, which was why he wanted to see Frey and know what he was up to that night. If he would be here, hitting on a girl like usual, Daniel could safely assume Mitchel had been lying.

But wasn't Frey's absence some sort of confirmation? What if Frey was with Mitchel, right now?

Daniel groaned at the mere thought of them together and he still didn't know why it bothered him that much.

He hated Mitchel more than he liked him, and he never felt jealous over any of the girls that had been with Frey before, so that surely couldn't be it.

"What's going on with you, cutie?" Lacy asked him in a humming tone, tickling his head with her long nails. "You are taken by your thoughts, and you keep groaning in annoyance."

"Did you know Mitchel asked Frey out?" Daniel asked her without sugar coating things or bringing it to her carefully.

"What?" Lacy laughed and shook her head in disbelief. "What an idiot. Frey isn't into guys. He hates them, remember?"

"Or he pretended to, because he wasn't ready to accept it. Because if I'm supposed to believe Mitch, Frey was interested. And Frey isn't here today, of all days."

"Frey is here, Danny-boy." Lacy cocked her head, before she nodded to a customer to tell him he could order, pausing their conversation.

Daniel—subconsciously—scanned the crowd again, but didn't find Frey. He shrugged it off, and resumed working, while discussing with Lacy how unlikely it was for Frey to accept a date with Mitchel, but both agreeing to the fact at least Mitchel had nothing to whiny about when it came to Frey's financial status.

And after gossiping about them for a while, with Lacy and later Jenna and Michelle too, he felt a bit better.

He was a little more convinced Frey wasn't going out with Mitchel, but there was still a nagging feeling since Frey hadn't once showed his face behind the bar. He hadn't once came near the bar even.

That was, until Daniel's shift was close to ending, and Frey suddenly appeared in front of him while he was in the back room of the club to change into his regular outfit.

Daniel jumped a bit, because Frey had slammed the door shut behind him. He was fuming, and Daniel swallowed at the sight of it.

"F-Frey?" He stuttered, while Frey stared daggers. If looks could kill, they would be having Daniel's funeral next week.

"How dare you to suggest for that disgusting fag to flirt with me?" Frey hissed, right before he grabbed his collar. "Is this your idea of a fucking joke?"

"Wh-wh—" Daniel tried to get Frey to release his hold on his collar. "I didn't do—"

"Just back the fuck off and stay out of my life, okay? You know I don't need any help when it comes to sex, so stop sending your disgusting ex after me, got it?"

"I didn't!" Daniel called out, feeling a bit confused. "Besides, he said you're interested so what's the prob—"

And Daniel shouldn't have ever said that to a fuming in anger Frey, because the next moment, Frey's fist already collided with his face, and Daniel stumbled back until he hit the wall.

Daniel stared at Frey in shock, and saw the boy was coming down from his anger to realise what he just did. His eyes widened, his fist lowered, and his shoulders slumped down a bit.

"What the hell!?" Daniel called out, covering his painful jaw.

"Shit..." Frey stepped back a bit. "I didn't want to actually hit you..."

"Yeah, but you did!" Daniel pushed himself up from the floor, pushing Frey with both his hands. He knew hitting him back wouldn't help him in any way. Hitting Frey was too much of a risk of losing this job. But he wasn't just going to let Frey hit him like that. "Fuck you, Frey. I hate you."

Saturday, midday

     Daniel was still fuming the day after, and his jaw was now swollen and bruised. He couldn't even properly chew his food, so he hadn't eaten any solid foods yet, resolving in smoothies from the fruit he had bought from the last money he had—because they didn't have anything at home that would make a smoothie bearably for breakfast.

He had stormed out of the club before anyone saw what happened and went straight home without informing any of his friends. Jenna had called a couple of times, Lacy did too, and even Jordi became worried and shot him a text to ask him if he was okay.

He eventually told all three of them he had been tired and went home early, agreeing to Jenna to come over the next day.

So, after getting fruit, making a smoothie and making sure his mother would be fine without him at home, he went over to Jenna.

Lacy and Michelle had already been there by the time he arrived, and all three stared at him in shock as soon as he entered Jenna's bedroom after her mother let him in.

"What happened to you!?" Lacy jumped up and hurried over to inspect his jaw from up close. "Who did this? Mitchel?"

"It was Frey." Daniel pushed her hands away and slumped down on the two-seater sofa that Jenna had in her room.

"What!? Why?" Michelle stared at him full of disbelief and Daniel knew despite her being used by him twice, she still admired him.

What was it to Frey that made girls admire him even after he used them for his own pleasure?

Sure, he was hot, even Daniel was willing to admit that much. But other than his appearance, there really wasn't anything attractive to Frey.

But he too had a weak spot for the boy until a short while ago, so maybe Michelle would soon come to realisation he was anything but decent soon enough.

"Because apparently Mitchel has said some indecent stuff, suggested 'disgusting' things and Frey wasn't too pleased because Mitchel told him I suggested for him to hit on Frey. I never did that! I only said they would get along fine.

"That's it, I'm going to kill him." Lacy crossed her arms, when Samuel appeared in the door opening, with a frown on his face.

"You're going to kill who?" He asked, taking a bite from his apple, until he noticed Daniel's swollen jaw and his eyes widened. He stopped eating mid-bite. "The guy who did that?"

"Frey Sanders." Lacy grumbled under her breath, turning to face Samuel. "Someone really needs to teach him a lesson."

"That's what I said to Jenna the other day." Samuel gestured towards his sister. "So, let's teach him a lesson. I'll beat him up."

"No violence, please." Daniel protested, and Michelle nodded along with him, staring at his jaw and making him feel uncomfortable.

"No violence, agreed, but what if we humiliate him?" Jenna spook up, looking thoughtful. "It toned you down, Sam. The humility of throwing up because Frey beat you in a drinking game."

"Can we stop talking about that?" Sam whined, while his face flushed again.

"There's hardly anything that Frey feels humiliated over. He has no soul." Lacy sat down on the bed next to Jenna.

"One thing is..." Michelle whispered insecurely. "I think he'd be humiliated if someone would actually turn him down."

"She is onto something." Samuel nodded, pointing towards Michelle. "He only cares about keeping up his rep as a player."

"So, we'll try to humiliate him by getting him turned down?" Daniel frowned and winched as the movement of his facial muscles caused a jolt of pain.

"That might be a challenge, because he's actually really good with words, and we need him to be the one to ask a girl out, not the other way around." Jenna bit her lip, overthinking everything.

"There's actually a lot of girls that still want his attention, so if it happens in the club, he'll just find someone else." Lacy muttered, and they all fell silent for a while, thinking of a way to humiliate Frey in front of enough people to actually make him feel shitty for once.

"Wait, he uses Sparkl, right?" Lacy perked up. "He gets a lot of his one-night-stands on Sparkl. At least, if the rumours are true."

"Those are true." Daniel nodded. "He showed me some of the conversations a while ago."

"So, what about it?" Jenna voiced the question that Daniel had in his mind too.

"We'll catfish him."

"We will?" Michelle sounded like she disagreed, and Daniel wondered if coming up with a plan to set Frey up and humiliate him in anyway, in her presence, made her a liability to their plan.

"That's... perfect." Samuel gestured towards Lacy with a devilish smirk on his face. "We'll set up a fake profile, send him one of those Sparkling Likes, and wait for him to take the bait. Than we'll wait until he suggests meeting and go over to film how he is stood up by a non-existing girl."

"That could work." Daniel told them without too much excitement. He wasn't the revenging type, but he did want some revenge on Frey for getting punched. "He usually suggests meeting within a few days, because he isn't on Sparkl for chit-chat."

"That guy has a serious problem..." Lacy rolled her eyes, Michelle giggled forcefully, and Jenna still seemed emerged in her own thoughts.

"So, do we all agree on catfishing him?" Samuel asked casually, throwing his left-over apple in the bin while Daniel internally grumbled for him to throw away half an apple why his sister had gone to bed hungry two days ago.

"Who'll set up the account?"

"Daniel seems to know most about Frey's conversations on Sparkl, so he might have the best idea on what to say?" Lacy turned to face him, and Daniel's eyes widened. They wanted him to set the bait?

He swallowed, but then again, he would maybe get a bit of a look inside Frey's mind, and no matter how much his disliked Frey, he still was interested in him as a person. He just wished he could turn off a switch and stop feeling enchanted by him.

"I'll do it." Daniel agreed, even if it was for all the wrong reasons. Catfishing anyone, even a jerk like Frey, was never a courtly thing to do. He might as well handle the part of setting the bait, to make sure he could always call everything off if it would get too bad.

He knew Samuel had a way with blowing the simplest things up into huge fights, so it was best to keep him away from the bait-account.

And Daniel could always ask Lacy and Michelle for advice on what to respond to certain things. He wasn't alone in this.

He just needed to make sure he wouldn't allow his heard to fall for the things Frey would respond, and that would probably easier said then done, even if Daniel knew Frey wasn't talking to him, and he would never say such things to him either.

Words: +/- 2030