"Are you really gonna' wear your cap backwards?" Gary taunted, smirking at Rob as he retouched his outfit in the floor-length mirror.
"Sorry does this annoy you, nose stud?" Robbie huffed. "Yeah I'm wearing it backwards."
Gary shook his head and laughed. "You coming?" He waved a fresh cigarette in the air and Rob practically pounced into the doorway, following his friend outside into the fresh Manchester air.
The early morning breeze snapped at Gary's bare neck and he shuddered, moving slightly closer to the large figure beside him. It had been weeks since Gary's outburst, and nothing had been said since. Rob didn't react too rationally, running away to his room like a scared child was not particularly the response Gary had hoped for, though he wasn't entirely sure what he was expecting to happen anyway so he wasn't too shaken, or so it seemed.
The pair began to smoke at the side of a small studio as they awaited an interview. The cold air pulled the hairs on their bare arms to a stand and they shivered in unison, blowing smoke into the silent air in between them.
Gary turned his glance towards Rob. The centimeter gap between his moist, plump lips allowed the smoke a smooth and slow departure, creating grey swirls around his clean shaven face.
"Rob, what is that?" Gary nodded towards the long, neatly rolled cigarette replacement balancing between Rob's thumb and forefinger.
The teenager checked his shoulder cautiously, before addressing Gary with a nervous look. "Marijuana." He mouthed. "It calms my nerves, I hate doing interviews when it's just a couple of us, all of us is fine and I don't need it so much."
Gary's eyebrows headed north and he dropped his mouth in astonishment. "What are you doing that for? What if he finds out?"
"Gaz, you're smart and it's taken you two years to realise, imagine how long it will take a dipshit like Nigel to find out." Rob rolled his eyes, taking a long and slow puff from his joint with a satisfied smile.
There was silence. Gary hesitated, soaking in the information and slowly accepting Rob's decision. He watched the tension in Rob's body slowly be absorbed by the smoke of his Marijuana, admiring the relaxation swim through his veins as Rob became more at ease with every smoke.
"Is it any good?" He stammered, barely audible.
Rob turned, shocked at the words coming from the pompous, judgmental popstar that stood beside him, his eyes eagerly fixed on Rob's hands.
"You're not telling me you want some?" Rob squinted, a small smirk twitching in the corners of his lips.
Gary simply shrugged. Confused as to what was happening, he stepped into Rob. Stroking long fingers over Rob's small hand, he priced the joint free, holding it up between the very narrow gap between the two bodies and examining it closely. There was a moment silence, a mere amount of centimeters separating the two men as Gary slipped it between his lips, his eyes floating shut as he inhaled deeply, allowing the smoke to flow through his lungs and back out through a sigh. For a second or two there was a smoke infused mask over Rob's face, allowing him to stare at Gary deeply without him noticing anything. He absorbed every inch of the young man's face while he could, the slim nose above those moist, pinked lips. Rob admired the sharpness of Gary's jawline as it continued to roll smoke with such smooth grace. His tight, V-neck shirt perfectly defined the muscles in his chest as they rocked back and forth with each breath Gary took.
They remained in silence for a long while, taking it in turns to smoke the gloriously calming substance before it reached its end. They stood side by side with their backs leaned against the cold brick wall, every second they spent not talking was another second they allowed peace to take over their whole body and relax them from their core - out.
Time passed. Gary blinked. They were almost done with the interview.
He struggled to stay concentrated and although he had his sentences already constructed internally, the words were falling from his mouth too gently, as though time had been slowed down. He could feel Rob looking at him intensely every time it was his turn to speak and sweat began to peel off the powder that various make-up artists had furiously insisted on him wearing.
"The image that we put out in England is not the drug-taking; smoking; drinking. It's complete health that we - we put on show."
Rob sniggered. Had he not been high, it probably would have been audible and might well have got him into a serious case of trouble. But as it stood, his mouth barely even moved the muscles were so incredibly relaxed, and his sarcastic chuckle was almost completely internal and shared only with himself.
Hours after the interview, the pair were sat in Gary's large Manchester home. It wasn't a mansion, but it was private and out of the way, with a lot more bedrooms and bathrooms than Rob had ever seen in Stoke-on-Trent. They sat on opposite black leather sofas, Rob holding a Golden Ale and Gary a red wine.
"I can't believe you let me get high." Gary pushed out a laugh, stroking a hand through his darkening blonde hair.
"I let you?" Rob returned a short, high pitched laugh. "Am I your daddy?"
Gary's eyes flicked upwards with a shot. He dragged his teeth painfully through his bottom lip, choking on thin air as he tried to swallow the moisture that frantically filled his mouth. Taking a shaky sip of his wine, he dropped his gaze nervously to his knees and kept them there for as long as he could. Desperately trying to shake off the feeling that Rob was staring at him behind twinkling eyes.
