Avoiding Future Boyfriends (mr. Robot , Male)part 1/3

[thegreatpretender]

I love Mr. Robot. It’s an amazing show and Rami Malik is like my new favorite actor. He has a gift for making his character come to life and boy is Elliot the kind of person you just wanna tuck away and shield him from himself. So this story is set before Angela got with her Boyfriend in the show Ollie, and around the time she got Elliot a job at Allsafe. So Elliot/Angela friendship fluff and Elliot/Shayla fluff because they deserved each other. Also he might be a bit more angsty than need be but I know he has a social anxiety and someone that has that, these are some of the things that go through my own head.

Rating: PG13

Warning: There’s drug use and adult themes. I don’t condone the use of drugs. If this bothers anyone feel free to skip over it. I’ll mark at the part with **. It’s small but still I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable. If this needs to be moved because of it though, feel free to move it.

 

oOo

Elliot was practically trying to curl into himself in the corner of his couch. His nose and eyes itched and were running but he didn’t have the will anymore to anything about them. And he had run out of the little packs of tissues that Angela had thrust at him on the way back to his apartment. He knew he had to get up, get supplies and wash his hoodie which was still on him and covered in cat hair. Speaking of cat hair-

“Ehh-Hesshhiooo! Eeeehhiisssooo! Heh-”Elliot rubbed his nose and silently begged for the sneezes to go away, “EEEESSSHHHIIOO!!! HHEEEPPPPSSHHIIUU!!!” The last one took his breath away and he coughed into his fist. He tried to sniff only to realize breathing was out of the question and rubbed his nose on the back of his hand. He left his knuckles under his nose feeling only slightly disgusted with himself at the mucus collecting on his hand.

He should have said no. All the other times it was so easy to come up with an excuse for him not to meet up and hang with Angela’s boyfriends. She had just caught him by surprise this time. She definitely wouldn’t push him too hard for a while.

Angela wanted him to go with her to meet her current boyfriend’s mother. Craig. Very loud, cruel, arrogant and a moron. Hacking him wasn’t too hard. His password was nak3dch1cks and he had three other girlfriends aside from Angela with a number of prostitutes in his back pocket. He screwed his way through college and only got his current job at Evil Corp as a low level Financial Advisor because the hiring manager was one of his side girlfriends.

Elliot knew from Craig’s emails and texts that the only reason that he was bringing Angela home to meet his mother was because she was the more presentable of his women. Angela was too good for him. At some point he would mess up. And when he did, he wouldn’t be seeing Angela anymore. Not if Elliot could help it.

Elliot’s nose twitched against his hand and he tried to sniff again. “ehhh… hehhh…”He rubbed his knuckle hard against his nose but the feeling wouldn’t leave. No more, he begged silently, everything hurts.

“Ehhh…” He pinched his nose, “Hxxxst! Hiixst! Hgnxst!” That wasn’t smart. It just gave him a headache. He groaned. Of all creatures for Craig’s mother to have, it had to be a cat. A cat that liked him. He couldn’t blame Angela. She didn’t know because Craig never brought it up. And there wasn’t any evidence of an animal in the house when Elliot hacked his mother. Lauren. An honest woman, who spent her time volunteering at clinics and working part-time at a restaurant since her husband passed away several years ago. She liked to indulge in wine with her friends once and awhile and was on several dating sites though it seemed like she was only on there for her friends’ benefit. Elliot had to respect that.

After his appointment with Krista in the morning, where she spent most of the time trying to convince him that going with Angela would be beneficial to helping his social anxieties, Elliot went home and felt his throat start to constrict. Four hours until dinner. It was a small get together. No more than six people if that. But that was still four more than he was used to being around.

Elliot held himself together. Literally. He could feel his arms shaking and he cursed at himself for feeling so overwhelmed over something a normal person would be able to do easy. Before he could drop even more into self loathing, he fell into his alternative. Morphine.

**

Elliot began his ritual of crushing his pill and wondered if there really was something wrong with him. Would Angela know? Would he act even more withdrawn in front of another person? Would they know? The more he pondered, the more his hands shook as he prepared the line. Without analyzing it more, he did it. He slowly sniffed and leaned back against his couch. Relax. Just relax.

Elliot sat in a daze for exactly an hour. He looked at his phone. Three hours until dinner. He hid his supplies in the top drawer near the kitchen sink. He then went to his bathroom to rinse out his nose and wipe his face.

**

Should he get a shower? He took one in the morning to wake up but did he smell? What about cologne? He doesn’t have anything to bring with him. Should he have gotten something? Don’t normal people bring gifts to house when they first meet people? He should really stop trying to analyze things while on morphine.

Elliot shook his head. Why was this so difficult? He looked at himself in the mirror for a moment and cringed. He had deep rings under his eyes from countless sleepless nights and he was too thin. He looks like something is wrong with him. He should call Angela. Say he’s sick. He doesn’t want anyone to catch it. He got lost because the cab driver didn’t know where they were going. Another time maybe-

“Elliot!” Came the yell from out his front window. Shit. Angela’s outside. There goes the getting lost in a cab idea. “Elliot! Buzz me in!” Shit, shit, shit… He walks over and presses the button. Angela is already coming up the stairs.

Angela knocks with purpose at his door. He unlocks the chain and stands aside for his best friend. She’s holding gift bags and her purse. She’s wearing a light purple blouse and pinstriped pants with black heels. Her blonde hair has butterfly clips that he bought her from when they were younger. It warms him up a bit knowing she kept them all these years. Angela smiles at first when she sees him but it fades a bit as she examines him more.

“Elliot, are you ok?” She reaches up and touches his face gently. If it was anyone else, he would try and dodge. Instead, he leans into her palm. It grounds him a bit.

“Yea I’m fine. A little tired from work.” Not a complete lie. “What are you doing here so early?”

“I thought you might wanna smoke a bit before we go. Calm you down a bit,” So she’s smoking again. She shrugs and moves to touch her forehead to his, “Well, you don’t have a fever. I know this is a lot for you. I’m happy you’re trying for me. You nervous?”

Elliot smiled at her. “Yea.” Terrified is more like it. But he liked the loving smile she gave him when she knew he was doing something for her.

Angela pulled away and finally steps foot inside. He shuts the door and locks it. Angela sets her packages down on his table and goes right to his closet. “What are you wearing?” What was he gonna wear?

Angela saw the blank look on his face. “Don’t worry. I’ll pick something out for you.” She rummaged through his hanging clothes and then huffed, shutting the closet. “You should really get into the habit of putting your button downs on hangers so they don’t wrinkle.”

Elliot shrugged. What did he care if they were wrinkled? He hated going to his job anyway, why bother looking presentable? Angela opened his drawers and pulled out a powder blue button down that must have been shoved all the way to the bottom. She snapped it out to get a better look at it.

“I like this one. Do you have an iron?” He shook his head. “Well I’ll just ask your neighbor. What’s her name again?”

“Shayla.” His neighbor and supplier. Not that he would tell Angela that.

She nodded and looked at him. “OK, I’ll ask Shayla if she has an iron and you hop in the shower.” He looked down at himself. Did he smell? “You don’t smell Elliot, it’ll calm you down though. Just try to relax.”

Elliot did exactly as he was told. He stood in the shower for a bit and willed himself into calmness. It worked a bit. And when he pulled back the curtain, he saw that Angela had laid out boxers, socks, black dress pants that he didn’t know he owned and a white t-shirt. Instead of feeling awkward that she had literally gone through all of his clothes, he was relieved.

Walking out, he watched as she concentrated on ironing his shirt on his small table. It was all very domestic. He could see doing this with her. Maybe only her.

“You make a comment about this being women's work and I’ll punch you,” She joked. Elliot chuckled.

“I wouldn’t.” Elliot moved to sit next to her as she finished. Angela smiled at her work. She set the iron upright and clicked it off. She held the shirt in front of her a moment and stood.

“Stand up,” Elliot stood and she tried to put it on him.

“I can do that Angela,” He protested but her look said don’t fight me, so he let her do what she wanted. The shirt was still warm and he smiled at her. “Thank you.”

Angela smiled back. “So what do you wanna do for an hour and a half?” What? “Craig didn’t want me using a cab to get to his mother’s house in North Jersey so he’s coming to pick us up here. I think it’s more of a reason off show off his new car.” Shit. He was gonna have to sit in a car with Craig. An hour and a half isn’t enough time to mentally prepare himself for Craig and his mother.

Angela touching his cheek pulls him back to the present, “Stop thinking of something else when I’m talking to you.”

“Sorry,” he mumbles and looks down. She sighs and scoops up the iron.

“Sit down. I’m gonna give this back to Shayla.” Angela leaves him and he sits. He hates bothering her. Angela comes back to see his kicked puppy face and it breaks her heart. She grabs his laptop and curls on the couch next to him. “Wanna watch Finding Nemo?” Elliot can only smile.

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Comments are always welcome along with helpful critique. Until the next Part!