A Spanish Rose has Thorns

Nicolas 'Nico' Rosales Seventeen | Male | Homosexual Written by Cory | 27 | He/Him | CST Senior at Broadripple Academy

[nicolasofscratch-blog]

emmahayashi‌:

@nicolasofscratch;

Parties aren’t Emma’s scene. Plain and simple. She’s gone to a few in her time, back in Portland, but that was mostly due to the insistence of her best friend who so happens to be the complete opposite of Emma and loves parties. If she had to rate her interest in high school parties, it would be ‘little’ to ‘none’. But this time around, things are different. For one, she goes to this party willingly. Or she’s inspired to because of the ever-growing headache that is her living situation for the duration of the ski trip.

Her normal routine upon arrival at any high school party is: find a clean cup, fill it with something to dull her senses of the loud music and even louder people, and roam. But this time around, that routine changes to: find a clean cup, fill it with something to dull her senses of the loud music and even louder people, and knock it back so you can fill the cup up again. It’s unwise of her, but the only way she’s going to sleep peacefully (or sleep at all tonight) is if she’s slightly inebriated. And since she doesn’t drink normally to begin with, it should be an easy enough task. She stops after her second glass though, knowing full well that she doesn’t understand her limits and maybe two glasses might be enough. She tops her glass up with only soda the third time around before she, after deviation from her normal routine, returns to it and roams.

She does that for a bit. Then at a point, she definitely feels the alcohol kick in and becomes much friendlier than she normally is. Friendly enough to go “why the fuck not” to an offer of 7 Minutes in Heaven – a game Emma normally despises and deems as childish, a pitiful excuse to makeout with strangers at gatherings such as this. But this isn’t Emma normally. This is Emma on two glasses of whatever the fuck she put in there, and this version of Emma thinks 7 Minutes in Heaven sounds like it’ll be an okay time. She mostly wants to see the audacious pairings and be part of the crowd as they go ‘oooh’ and ‘ahhh’ at whichever two gets matched and has to be shooed into a bathroom. With her mind less on edge like this, it’s easier for her to admit to herself that she misses human connection and being a part of things.

She barely registers when it’s her turn to be one of the two to be pushed into the hotel bathroom. More importantly though she thinks, she has no idea who the fuck she just got paired with. Does he even go to Broadripple? Of the group that’s playing, she recognizes the God Squad guy, the dude she ran into naked that one time, Poster Bitch, Penny, Speech and Debate Captain, Bitch in D1, her roommate, the quiet dude she sits with at lunch sometimes when she’s not sitting with the unofficial Murder Club, Jamie (Obviously. Also, what the fuck is he doing here?), Flick, and the jacked dude who she cannot believe for the life of her is a Junior with the muscles he’s packing.

“Okay–” Emma starts, laughing a little once the door shuts. She’s in a surprisingly good mood despite being exiled to a bathroom with an absolute stranger for the next 7 minutes. “–not to be rude, but like, who are you, dude? I swear I’ve never seen you before.” Unsurprising since she barely interacts with people if she doesn’t have to. “Are you like, new?” Bold of her since she’s new herself. “Or just, I don’t know, super low key at BA?”

“Oh. Wow. Tell me how you really feel, Miss...Hayashi? Did I get that right?” Nico let the question linger, since he hadn’t exchanged a word with her his entire year and a half at Broadripple either. It wasn’t like she was any more popular than he was. “My name is Nico,” he extended a hand to shake, “Nico Rosales. And no. I’m not new. I play a lot of sports. And I think I’ve seen you skulking in Cinema Club.” Nico wasn’t 100% sure they shared the same club, but the whimsical black hair looked familiar enough to him that he figured he’d mention it. Cinema club often involved people sitting quietly in the dark watching a movie, though, so to miss him there was at least understandable. Still, being ignored kind of hurt his fragile self-esteem. “I picked the movie in October. Cabin in the Woods? Any of that ring a bell?”

Nico was not usually a partier. Much like Emma, he rarely went all out, and most of the time, he definitely would not have joined a game of Spin the Bottle or Seven Minutes in Heaven. Usually he just hung around the edges, a wallflower who enjoyed watching other people make fools of themselves. He didn’t drink almost ever and he tried not to do drugs because of his medication, so smoking was as hardcore as he got, despite being a troublemaker. To be one hundred percent honest, he’d joined the game hoping to get paired up with one of the cute boys once he saw they were playing. It was bound to happen, right? Odd number of people play and maybe he gets stuck with them in a bathroom. Hormones got the better of him and his imagination did the rest, thrusting him into the game in a show of unusual boldness for the hispanic athlete.

“Anyways...we got, well, seven minutes. We don’t have to if you don’t want to,” he said, understanding that kissing a stranger was not usually what you signed up for in these games. Emma probably had her eye on someone in the circle too, and they weren’t Nico, that was for sure. “I totally get it if I’m not who you were expecting. We could just..talk about movies, if you want.” Then he looked down, his voice mumbly and indistinct, “But if you want to, then we could, and maybe then you’ll remember me next time, hopefully for being a good kisser?” Nico chuckled as he said that, shyly rubbing one of his forearms, a hopeful little smile on his face. The boy said he had no game, but it was as good a line as he had ever heard, and he tried to meet her eyes to see how she’d react. Kissing a girl shouldn’t be much different than kissing a guy, right?

[gwescott]

+ @nicolasofscratch reacted for a starter!

So far, the most exciting thing about the boy’s lodge was that it had boys in it, and even then, Gwen couldn’t find too many to get excited about. ( Before she remembered she was really only supposed to be excited about one. ) Sighing, she watched on as some of the guys played pool, her boyfriend included, rolling her eyes when one of his friends tried to ride his cue like it was a mechanical bull or something. Boys were so dumb sometimes, it literally hurt to be around them.

“If this is what goes on in here every night I’m telling you now, one of you might find my body at the bottom of a cliff by the end of the week.” She joked, dark humor flaring. “Hello?” She said after a moment, looking at Nico. “You haven’t said something in like thirty seconds, what, are you brain dead for guys playing with balls?”

[nicolasofscratch-blog]

Nico snapped out of his reverie, shaking his head as the world finally penetrated the fog over his thoughts. “Well I do love guys playing with balls,” Nico answered, lip quirking just enough to know he was smiling, “No, I think it’s just me. Hard to focus.” Nico didn’t often go into how his brain was less than functioning. It was uncomfortable, and people tended to give him those ‘we should baby him’ kind of voices. “I studied ultra hard for Trig the night before we came here. Didn’t sleep well. Probably just tired.”

Nico noticed where her gaze was pointing, to her boyfriend and his jock buddies. “But tell me about you. Nailed one down? I wasn’t sure anyone was ever going to be good enough for you. You know you’re terrifying right?” Nico smiled for real this time. Gwen played all the same sports he did. She was tough. And any guy she dated needed to be at least half as tough...which was a high bar. “Also, you’re more likely to dump all of them into a ravine than jump yourself. We both know it.”

[nicolasofscratch-blog]

jaysster‌:

+ @nicolasofscratch reacted for a starter!

The boy’s house was dope, it was the kind of lodge he could imagine himself booking out with a bunch of friends over winter break if his old friends from school were ever this organized. Though, it wasn’t so much the house that was awesome as it was the energy. Put a pile of boys in one lodge together and suddenly, the moment any faculty stepped outside, it was a madhouse.

Rooting through drawers, Jay was currently underlining one with his latest investments. A few bottles of Jack, cigarette packets ( he owed Hugo like five at this point ) some edibles he was saving just for JJ since he was being such a good sport about the Flick thing, and essentially, whatever else he’d brought that he didn’t exactly want other people getting into. Mostly though, he had to hide this shit before Matt got in. Otherwise, who knows what he’d have to bribe the guy with to get him to keep a secret.

Hearing footsteps at the door to his room, he suspected it might have been Matt to start with. Quickly shoving a sweater over the contraband, he looked over, instead, seeing Nico. Despite their last encounter, Jay actually kind of felt relieved. “Oh. Hey dude,” He said casually, shoving hands into the drawer and layering it up. “You got your room all sorted yet?”

“Yea, all moved in. Unfortunately,” Nico said, having discovered who his roommates were. He’d been hoping for a repreive from sharing a room with Izzy, but it seemed like he wasn’t that lucky. And he was in a room with Jamie, which didn’t seem too bad since the moment their stuff was put away he vanished. But eventually they’d all have to sleep in the same space together, and that was going to be interesting no matter how it shook out. “I’m just wandering now, trying not to be in that powder keg of a room.”

Then he quirked a smile up, “Whatcha hiding?” he asked, inviting himself into the room, plopping down onto a bed.

“You kind of give yourself away, with the ‘unpack the moment I arrive’ thing.” The spanish boy said by way of explanation, “Most of us won’t unpack at all and will live out of our bags the whole trip, and the rest of us immediately went exploring to see what there is to do, because putting clothes away is about as much fun as folding laundry,” Nico gestured at himself doing the latter, “Only Damian is anal enough to put his clothes away immediately, so that means you’re up to something.”

[nicolasofscratch-blog]

Shut-In

[nicolasofscratch-blog]

cassiahale‌:

Cassia couldn’t help but find his attitude refreshing. It was lighthearted and entertaining and not many things were lately. She smiled and scoffed. A laugh escaped her at the comment towards Robert Frost and the girl took a few steps closer. “Jeez. ‘Can’t really argue with your flawless logic, Nico,” she joked.

His question made her sigh. She plopped down against the wall beside her fellow classmate and put her bag down in front of her. “This. I’m sitting down… right here after aimlessly wandering the halls looking for something to do. There was a full moon tonight,” she grumbled. “I was planning to go outside and take pictures of dusk over the forest for graphic design. Then maybe listen to my new Spotify playlist and yet…”

Another heavy sigh as she trailed off. “So. You’re thinking it’s some teenage psycho from here that killed the bunny?” Her brows furrowed and Cass looked over at Nicholas in amused disbelief. “Not another animal? I mean, it doesn’t even have to be a bear. It could have been a… coyote or something.”

Nico nodded, scooting over to make room for Cassia. He seemed pleased by her decision to join him, like he’d won something. Then he grinned openly, putting the ball into her hand. “Go on. Throw it. You know you waaaaant tooo...” The battered boy let his sing-songy words do the convincing for him, trying to get Cassia to totally give in to the Nico way of life.

Either way, he addressed her concerns. “It didn’t get eaten. Very few, if any, animals kill just for the sake of killing. I think like, some spiders and wasps do, because they’re assholes.” He gestured grandly at the halls around them, as if that was indicating something, “Only humans kill for sport, or for no reason at all. That’s reason enough for me to know it was a student. Or at the very least, a human.” “I like spotify playlists, though,” he said, tugging a phone free from his pocket inside his blazer. He opened the spotify app and handed her the device. “Play something. We’ll listen to it together.”

[nicolasofscratch-blog]

jaysster‌:

Jay was usually pretty oblivious to everything short of free food and who was offering it, then, he had a nose like a hound. So Nico staring at him would have usually gone by undetected had he not been so obvious about it. Jay felt his jaw go slack for lack since for once in his annoying life, he actually didn’t know what to say. He’d never been stared at like that before, or that he was aware of anyway, it was kind of… Well, now he got why girls were so freaked out by it.

“Uh.” Was his genius reply to the dirty thoughts comment, feeling like either he should peel his actual skin off to escape the awkward encounter or maybe start charging for it. How much could he make? Twenty bucks for staring? Fifty to cop a feel? He’d have to run the numbers by Drea later. Kat was too mathematically challenged. “Sorry?” He apologized for inflicting the guy’s perversion, though not sure it was exactly his fault, or if he should really apologize, or what to even reply, to be honest. “Thanks,” He said, grateful for the blazer, using it to cover himself and throwing the sock over his shoulder. “Oh you know, just swim team stuff. I got one of the guys good last week so… Guess it was my turn this week. I think I’ll just have to take my chances, you know?”

“So there is a prank war going on!” Nico exclaimed, back still turned to him, “I knew it! Raquel kept saying I was crazy, but the spraypaint, and now the nudity, and the bunny...” He turned back around and saw his jacket wrapped around Jay’s waist, realizing that a lot more of the boy was still...bare, and his words faltered a little as the ball of buzzing hormones tried to keep his mind on track. For all the staring he had just done, he was now working very hard not to look at Jay at all now. It was arguably more awkward, but at this point  “I want in. I’m great at pranks. Who are we getting back? Who are we paying it forward to? I make a great distraction. I’m good for way more than just my ability to supply a blazer to a guy in need.” “Also, sorry,” he said, turning sheepish, running a hand up and down his long-sleeved white shirt, “For totally freaking out just now. I’m not usually. I don’t usually. I’m...it was a moment of weakness. Surprised, that’s all. I’m not a creep I promise.” Nico chuckled at that, eyes briefly alighting on Jay’s face, and only his face, to see how he reacted. Nico hadn’t hung around with Jay nearly at all since he arrived at BA, and he didn’t want this moment to be what Jay thought of when he thought of Nico. He wasn’t...a pervert.

[nicolasofscratch-blog]

Shut-In

[nicolasofscratch-blog]

ofkatherinebishop‌:

She still wasn’t entirely sure how wealth and privilege equated to the slaughtering of animals but instead of arguing, she pressed her lips to the rim of her mug and took a small sip, contemplating the male’s words. “Who?” she asked, she could think of some pretty unpleasant characters among the ranks of Broadripple Academy but psychopath was pushing it a little far, even if she was fairly confident she’d accused Hugo Bankson of being a sociopath at some point during recent history. “Like Jamie, maybe?” psychopath might have been a good word for him, now that she thought about it but she didn’t like to give Ward that much credit, “He’s just a weirdo with an ego the size of Wisconsin and an obsession with making people feel bad,” she shook her head, “Calling anybody at this school a psychopath is giving them too much credit for being assholes,” she decided.

“How hard can it be to find a bear?” she wondered, though she knew that Nico was purely humoring the bear idea and didn’t seem to believe there was much weight to it if any at all. “What if it wasn’t a student at all? What if some creepy guy came in from Nighmore or Greenfield? Or maybe it’s an ex-student?” she theorized without putting much more than a brief thought into the concept.

“Yeah, finally, thank you, Kat announced in agreement with Nico’s claim. While he may not have meant it sincerely, she’d latched onto it immediately, tired of people calling her stupid and pleased to hear some praise for her intellect for once. “Um,” she thought back to the last time she, Maddy and Andrea had booked out a study room, not for the purpose of studying but for the purpose of planning how to smuggle booze into the dorms for the weekend. She pictured the elaborate diagram they’d produced and all the colors Andrea, the resident artist in their group, had used to design their scheme, “Red and blue, I think orange,” she shrugged her shoulders, “I can just grab all of them for you,”

“Jamie’s a posing emo. He would sooner cry at a bunny than kill it,” Nico said confidently, waving his hand through the air. After an...illuminating...conversation outside the nurse’s office he was sure the boy was harmless. “The problem is that we don’t know. Everyone here is so buttoned up and hides behind money and religion and virtue that any one of them could be just pretending.” Nico moved to grab the white board, which had some math equations and a few announcements scribbled on it, which he immediately wiped off with the threadbare eraser, disregarding whether they were important or not. “But if society has taught me anything, its that the kids of rich people tend to be the least stable. Myself included. So strike out all the scholarship students and work from the richest down. You’ll find more than a handful of targets for sociopaths.” Nico started to block out the comic frames with the black marker provided already, nodding at Kat’s theory. “100% plausible. Ex-students would know how to sneak on and off campus without getting caught. We all do. And we have more reason to hate Broadripple than anyone. We suffered here.” His voice was dry and ironic. Nico enjoyed his time at BA and probably preferred it over many of his schools. But he still had plenty of frustration tears and angry thoughts about the workload and several teachers. He perked up, though, at the mention of colors. “Yes! Colors! Go go go!” he was grinning now, enjoying the thought of actually doing something with all his pent up energy. But before he could really begin...Nico started to unbutton and shrug off his maroon blazer. An then began to unbutton the shirt that was underneath it. He stripped that off too until he was standing in khaki pants and a white tank top, turning back to Kat as if to explain, “You can’t make good art with long sleeves. It just can’t be done. But don’t worry, I’ll keep my pants on.”

[nicolasofscratch-blog]

Fortnite at Night

[nicolasofscratch-blog]

izzydesantis‌:

“Hey!” Izzy barked as the headphone was lifted from his ear. He pushed the headset down so that it hung around his neck, the faint sounds of a teammates voice and shots being fired nearby were buzzing softly as he turned in his desk chair to face his roommate. “I was talking to somebody,” he announced defensively as if it had been a leisurely phone call rather than the consistent back and forth between him, a friend and two decidedly incompetent additions to their squad of four. 

A second later, Izzy felt that familiar rumble of his controller, informing him before he even looked at the screen, that a bullet had pierced his shield potion and killed him immediately. His gaze snapped back to the screen without hesitation, only to confirm the fact that he’d been sniped from 103 m and that his team would have to go on without him, “F-Fiddlesticks,” he cursed bitterly, slamming the controller down on the desk as he had done a million times before, “That was your fault,” he informed the other male with a pointed finger right in his face when he stood up. 

He sighed and moved to his bedside to retrieve his water bottle, “Now I have to wait until the next round,” he complained, mostly thinking aloud. It wasn’t as if he wanted the rest of his team to fail but if they lasted another fifteen or so minutes, Izzy would spend it waiting impatiently for the next opportunity to jump back into the game. “What are you studying?” he asked, looking over at the pile of books that had been dumped on the other boy’s mattress.

“Math. Bane of my existence,” Nico said, pulling away from the other boy as soon as his message had been delivered. He didn’t feel bad about Izzy dying. That’s what he deserved for being so loud an disruptive. “I just..don’t understand reverse trig functions. I thought I had a handle on the sin and cos stuff,” he pronounced them as *sin* like biblical sin and *cohs* like Koss, “But then I have to do it backwards and now it just doesn’t make any sense at all.” Nico threw himself facedown on his bed, bent at the waist to avoid the pile of notebooks and homework. It wasn’t comfortable, but for a brief moment the world went blissfully dark, his face buried into his covers. “I hate maaaath,” he complained, but the words were muffled into his bedspread to the point that they were incoherent. “I wanted to get this down before the ski trip,” he said, picking his head up and arranging himself on his bed in a way that was actually productive, “Because we both know nobody is going to be studying when there’s skiing and hot chocolate and potential cuddling to be had. But it looks like I’m bringing homework on our mini vacation...gross.” He frowned down at the math, wanting to chuck it all out the window. “And your yelling...wasn’t helping.”

[nicolasofscratch-blog]

Fortnite at Night

@izzydesantis​ gets a plotted starter!

Nico shut his eyes, eyebrows furrowing while he tried to keep his breathing steady. Because he’d just re-read the same sentence for the third time in a row. And as much as he liked to know that “a unit rate is the equivalent rate when compared to 1″, he didn’t need to know it three times over. But every time he tried to move on, Izzy would loudly exclaim, mostly in anguish, declaring how something was rigged against him. That guy was cheating. The controls were laggy. He had so finished building that wall in time! The FPS and his Ping were against him, whatever that was.

It all spelled out a major headache for the boy on his bed, who was trying to relax. He was already stressed about his upcoming tests. He studying math for crying out loud. You can’t even study math! He was hoping that looking back over problems he got right, doing them again in his head, would help him get ready for a test he was not prepared to take. So after the third interruption, he released an angry augh! before slamming his book and notebooks down onto his mattress. It wasn’t very dramatic. They were soft mattresses.

But he uncurled from his sitting position, dragging his sweatpants and muscle shirt clad self to the opposite side of the room, where he angrily lifted one of the headphones covering Izzy’s ears. “Hello!? Do you mind not yelling every sixteen seconds? I’m trying to study.” He wasn’t very nice about it. He was rarely very nice to Izzy. At best they were contentiously opposed.

[nicolasofscratch-blog]

benmartos‌:

Why was it that every time Ben had finally convinced his body to settle and allow him to sleep in the past couple weeks, something came along to jar him back awake? He grunted incoherently when the screen of his phone lit up, buzzing on top of an empty Doritos bag and rattling a neighboring pen off of the side table and onto the floor. He turned his face into his pillow, biting back a groan of frustration, and pulled his top blanket over his head. It was Saturday. Saturdays were for late starts. But as soon as Ben lulled himself into a fall sense of security, his phone went off again. And then again. Years of dealing with the dire consequences of not replying to his sister’s or mom’s texts fast enough were what caused him to finally reach out and grab his phone with a muttered curse.

Turning onto his back, he held the screen above his face, squinting up at the notifications. His eyes narrowed further when he spotted that they were from Nico, then crossed when he read the messages themselves. “Fuuuck,” he whispered. Swiping at the most recent text and opening their text conversation, he quickly typed out ‘bro gimme a min’ then let the phone fall on top of his comforter. Rubbing a hand over his face, he sighed. Well, he was awake now. In quick succession, he rolled out of bed, changed his clothes, grabbed his hydro flask and two granola bars from his desk, and left his room as he tucked his phone into his coat pocket. Spotting Nico outside, Ben tossed one of the granola bars at his chest. “Think fast,” he said around a yawn, jogging down the set of steps in front of the building.

Nico’s phone went off with a buzz in his hand, a short text alerting him to the fact that he clearly woke Ben up by the abruptness of the message. He felt bad about it for maybe three seconds before remembering that Ben had done it to him several times. Instead, Nico’s hands flew up into the air as he did an impromptu victory dance, turning a quick circle on the steps of the Aloy Wing. The wait was more bearable now that he knew someone was coming, and he took a few moments bouncing from one foot to the other to keep warm while he waited for the familiar face to poke out. When Ben finally arrived he did not, in fact, think fast. The granola bar slapped into his chest and tumbled limply between flailing fingers. He thought for a moment he would recover, but his fingers closed over thin air and the package crinkled as it hit the ground. “It’s too early in the morning to think fast, Ben,” he complained, scooping up the granola bar from the concrete. It was still sealed so it wasn’t ruined or anything. Besides, not like there was rabbit blood on these stairs. All honesty, Nico would’ve probably eaten it if it had been open before it fell. Five seconds, right?

“Good morning princess,” he smiled as he munched the top of the granola bar, swinging an arm affectionately around Ben’s waist, “I was getting stir crazy in my dorm. I live in a building with Damian.” Nico said as if that explained everything about his predicament. “So, thanks for rescuing me.” He pointed the half a granola bar down the sidewalk, kicking into a slow jog. He wasn’t pointing at the gym. Nico had terrible sense of direction. He merely intended to get them moving. “Leggo!”

[nicolasofscratch-blog]

Hello, Nurse

[nicolasofscratch-blog]

jamesonward‌:

Jamie stared at Nico as he went off again, his barbs sticking into Jamie like needles but he’d grown thick skin. Growing up in in devastating poverty left his upbringing largely obscured to most of the kids who get sent to Broadripple so it didn’t hurt him much when it came to references to stuff he never owned, but he got the point. Everyone thought he was sad and yeah, okay, maybe he was sad and angry and upset at everything around him, including the circumstances that brought him to a school three states over and the hormones that made him misty during Bambi. Being a teenager sucked and he cried about it sometimes. He just didn’t know why it was anyone else’s problem but his own.

He made a face when Nico said something about pretending to want to be alone like the #MeToo movement just came and personally punched him in the face. Pressing down the impulsive need to spit that he wasn’t pretending in fear of checking every box of teenage cliches, he served him a look instead that asked whether he was done.

“If you know it, then why do you suck so much at it?” He glanced down at the patchy red splotches on Nico’s collar. “We’re not friends and if you think that we’re going to build camaraderie and skip out of here holding hands just because you’ve got it all figured out, then you’re dumber than I thought.”

“I am on at least two high contact sports teams. I might in fact be brain damaged,” Nico shot back, that amusement brushing off the insult, “So yes, the likelihood that I am dumber than you imagine is incredibly high. Because, you know, the bloody nose and busted knuckles scream Rhodes Scholar from the rooftops. I happen to be terrible at math, though, so there’s that to comfort you.”

Now that he knew. Now that he saw what was happening, the insults didn’t sting. Jamie didn’t mean any of them. He just wanted Nico to go away and quit talking to him. To see him as whatever dark, lonely person he saw himself as and want nothing to do with him. Which meant, in order to get back under his skin, all Nico had to do was not give him what he wanted. Petty revenge.

“And I mean, you can choose not to be friends with me. I can’t force you to like me, although, again, when I’m not bleeding I’m delightfully attractive looking and you should reconsider. But know that there is a person on campus now who knows your act is full of shit. Who isn’t afraid to do...” Nico impulsively leaned over and ‘booped’ Jamie on the nose with a single finger, “...that, and chuckle about it.” He grinned again. “So you can unsuccessfully try to keep pushing me away, but know that it will never work now. Or maybe accept that you’ve failed at being a dark thorny castle and finally reveal that you have actual feelings to someone, because being a teenager is way too fucked up to go it alone.” Nico felt like that was a good note to end his tirade on, but he would have to, because he vaguely heard the clicking of a woman’s shoe coming down the hallway. The nurse?

[nicolasofscratch-blog]

Not Again

[nicolasofscratch-blog]

mattveras‌:

Matt normally stuck around on the weekend since his dad started dating again. On occasion his grandparents would pick him up, or send him money to take the train to Boston, but on this particular Saturday, he didn’t exactly complain about being outside the confines Broadripple had a tendency to act as. It was a major plus alone he hadn’t spent the entire trip alone, thankful Nico seemed to be a genuine presence. “Totally agree with you there. I kinda didn’t know what to expect.” 

Although Matthew usually tried to keep to himself in really any sense where he felt uncomfortable and unfamiliarized, he found himself somewhat loosening up around Nico. He didn’t feel as if talking and enjoying time with the other boy posed any imminent threat, and he started to think on what his mom said on actually letting his guard down and having fun every once in awhile. This had to account for that, at least he hoped it did.

More than happy to take the offered finger sandwiches, he figured since he was already out and trying to extend himself into normalcy, what was the sense in waiting to get back to school to eat? Matt nodded his head as he dusted his hands from the crumbs of the sandwich before answering. “That’s a lot of the reason why I don’t see movies often. Oh wow, sure. That sounds like a genuinely enticing spin on that trope. I’ve never seen the first one, is that okay? I have seen Groundhog Day, though. I love that movie. I always think about it whenever I hear I Got You Babe by Sonny and Cher.”

“A genuinely enticing...” Nico’s voice trailed off as he repeated the boy’s words. Then he laughed. It rang out, not at him but still because of him. “You sound like a thesaurus with legs, man.” He playfully swatted at Matt’s shoulder. “It’s adorable. I love it. But the kids these days? They say it sounds ‘dope’ or ‘cool’ or even, if you’re okay being cringey, ‘lit’. Please don’t say lit.” He shoved a sandwich in his mouth in one bite, cheeks puffing out as he munched down on it. He saw his reflection briefly in the water and his shoulders bounced in silent laughter. But it didn’t stop him from eating. Then he plucked one out, grimaced at it, and through sandwich stuffed cheeks, pronounced, “Egg Salad. Don’t trust it,” before flinging it off into the water, where turtles and ducks could eat it in peace. Finally, he swallowed his latest sandwich before returning to the topic at hand. “I just want to warn you, this movie is likely to be awful. Its a sequel of a thriller movie that barely broke even at the box office. But if you’re really down I’d love the company. Say...this Friday? After classes it’ll be officially weekend and we can head off campus. Back in time for whatever thesauruses do on the weekends?” Nico seemed to be getting excited, “Oh! There’s this sweet burger place right by the movies, so come hungry. They do one with bleu cheese that will put these fancy finger foods to shame.”

[nicolasofscratch-blog]

Shut-In

[nicolasofscratch-blog]

ofkatherinebishop‌:

“Was he?” she asked, genuinely surprised by the fact. Charlie seemed like a sweet kid, a nice guy but Katherine was finding herself surprised by his antics on a regular basis. According to Al, Maddy and now Nico, there was a side to her classmate that she was completely ignorant to. “You really think somebody would kill a rabbit for a joke?” she was evidently skeptical, the thought of killing anything, let alone a fluffy bunny made her stomach churn and she abandoned her sandwich for a moment, finding it difficult to eat. “Okay,” she conceded, Nico made a good point about that at the very least, it did seem odd that the bear had managed to slaughter an innocent animal but not alert a single person on campus, “-but who would find something like that funny? I don’t think anybody is laughing,” she still found it difficult to picture the type of person who would get a kick out of something like that.

She sighed at the thought of her weekend freedom being revoked by the presence of imminent danger, alleged danger, anyway. While she could understand that school’s reasoning, it didn’t make it any easier to digest the thought of being stuck on campus all weekend long, even if she did have some Netflix shows to catch up on still. 

“Killed?” she repeated, her voice a little squeaky, “They won’t kill it,” she insisted, stating the matter as fact rather than opinion, despite having little to no evidence to support her confident claim. “That’s horrible,” she was either talking about the killing of the bear still or the idea of all work and no play on the Broadripple campus, perhaps both but it remained unclear. Another sigh passed her lips as she picked up her plate again, taking a small bite as she mulled over everything Nico had said, “Why don’t you drag one of the wheelie whiteboards into the common room and use it for an art installation? You could do a mural paying homage to our loss of freedom- is that the kind of art you do?” she offered thoughtfully, despite most of her attention being used to decide whether her tea was still too hot to drink or not.

“A school full of at least moderately wealthy kids of privilege?” Nico paused there like that answered her question about who would mutilate a rabbit. When she didn’t immediately seem on board, he elaborated, “You think there’s not at least one psychopath among us, willing to hurt an animal for a lark? Or someone cruel enough to do it knowing that it would freak someone the everliving fuck out and finding that to be worth the disgusting job?” Nico could think of at least one person for each category immediately, but there had to be more if he thought about it longer.

“The killing could go either way. The ‘bear’ hasn’t hurt anyone yet so they might just ship it to a zoo someplace, but they’ll be armed and ready when they go looking for it,” Nico paused, “Not that they will find it, since my theory is that the bear doesn’t exist and this was a student all along.” Nico threw the ball a few more times in the silence. Ca-chunk. Ca-chunk. But he stilled when Kat mentioned art. A soft smile quirked his lip

“My dear Bishop you might, just might, be a genius.” Nico said in triumph. “I don’t usually do abstract concepts like freedom or tyranny, but if I make a superhero with a Broadripple uniform, and he’s trapped inside some dorm-room looking jail.” The boy was off in his head for a few moments, giving Kat time to finally eat or drink her tea unmolested. He kept muttering and moving his hands like he was conducting some spectral orchestra. “Hey how many whiteboard colors do you guys have? It’ll be a shitty mural if it only has black and that lime green.”

[nicolasofscratch-blog]

Hello, Nurse

[nicolasofscratch-blog]

jamesonward‌:

Jamie stared at him, implying that yes, he was in fact always this rude and worse if he wasn’t struggling to remember how to breathe out of both nostrils. He wasn’t proud of the fact but he wasn’t about to deny it and delude himself into thinking that he’d sprouted tact alongside patchy facial hair.

He blinked in the face of Nico’s tantrum, watching it unfurl with all of the enthusiasm of a corpse and wondered if this was what he was supposed to act like. That if he hadn’t spent years clamping down his emotions and squeezing himself into the tightest box possible to avoid detection, if he’d feel entitled to look like an asshole with no fear of repercussion too.

Jamie had his fair share of eccentricities but homework wasn’t a hill he was willing to die on. If a tiny fraction of the school populous thought that he could afford Netflix and not doing his homework, then he’d take it.

He waited until Nico was finished until he spoke again or even moved, for that matter. Jamie appeared to be practiced at sitting very still, like a statue or an overly judgmental cat. “Yet. You haven’t attacked me yet. How am I supposed to know if you won’t attack me tomorrow? Or the day after that? Or if one day it’s between you and me and you pick you over me?– which I assume is what people do in those situations because I certainly would.”

From the look and sound of it, this was something Jamie thought about a lot. He wasn’t particularly argumentative about it, but rather clinical, like his paranoia was in fact a wise old professor with a Ph.D in how not to make friends and not just disordered thinking shrouded in pseudo-intelligence. 

“Thing is, we’re born alone and we’ll die alone so you ought to get used to being alone,” he said. “Also, I wouldn’t put yourself on that high of a pedestal. It’d take more than a temper tantrum to ruin my life, you just have abandonment issues.”

“You’re insufferable!” Nico said, emotions still on edge, “Because one day someone might, in some world, under some influence, side against you, nobody is good enough? That is some classic 2001 emo sadboi nonsense! Go grab your black parade album and whine about how the world hates you so you need to only rely on yourself while doodling spikey hearts in some trapper keeper with a pentagram on it. Then write ‘get over yourself’ in it until the message sticks.”

Nico hated this. That Jamie got under his skin. Made him angry. He prided himself on not being angry. He always insisted his fighting had nothing to do with anger, and it didn’t. Even now he didn’t want to fight Jamie. He was trying to be friends with him. But Jamie just...would not. They couldn’t even have a halfway decent conversation because talking to Jamie was like talking to a brick wall. He thought maybe he’d be getting someplace with the cute animals and the bag cat...and then Jamie shut him out for no reason.

“Because this...act...you put on? Not cute. Not even remotely. You got all these crazy fake walls because somebody hurt you in the past, and so you lash out at everyone so they’ll give you physical pain instead of emotional...” Nico trailed off, realizing that he was describing himself. Having a minor epiphany in the chairs outside the nurse’s office. “You’re me,” he finally said, sounding incredulous, “We’re the fucking same. Except I try to let everyone in so nobody ever wants to hurt me, and you pretend that you want to be alone so you can be rude and push everyone away.” Nico smiled, the anger replaced with something like amusement. Now it was a game. He knew why Jamie riled him up so much. It’s because they were so similar, using different strategies to get to the same place. “I got your number now, James Onward. I know your game.”

[nicolasofscratch-blog]

@benmartos gets a surprise starter!

[Psst! Ben!]

Nico texted while standing outside Ben’s dorm building,

[Beeeeeeeeeeen]

He kept staring down at his phone, hoping the boy would answer or let him in. After a few moments of his fingers freezing, he chuffed and tucked it away, keeping a hand wrapped around it to feel the telltale buzz of a text message. Nico and Ben had gone on runs in the morning for as long as he was on a sports team. Usually they just met outside the buildings, but with the whole ‘we encourage you to go directly to your destination’ policy currently in place, loitering and hoping your buddy showed up didn’t exactly fly. For obvious bear-related security reasons, they had also made the forest off-limits for now, which meant that he could no longer go running in the mornings. Which was great for not being attacked by bears, but terrible when it was 6am and you were trying to get your run on...or at least whatever passed for a run when the forrest was off limits.

Getting no reply, Nico fished his phone out of his shorts’ pockets, firing off a swift text.

[Downstairs. Bored. We can’t go for a real run. Come to the gym with me?]

The gym was, technically, in bounds. It was indoors and safe (assumably). It was a destination he could go directly to and from. It would give him some place to do something physical. He just didn’t want to go alone. He waited for a few more moments, shoving his hands back into the pockets of the maroon zip-up hoodie, trying to keep his fingers warm. He was dressed for working out, but leggings and shorts didn’t keep you very warm while you waited outside for someone to hopefully be awake.

[nicolasofscratch-blog]

Shut-In

[nicolasofscratch-blog]

cassiahale‌:

Cassia liked to pretend the problem wasn’t as big as dramatic teenagers were making it out to be. Dead animals were not on her list of favorite things, nor were ghost stories about places she lived in. She had grown resigned and accepted that life was just going to get worse so bears killing bunnies and staining the campus in blood might as well happen, right?

Cass was walking down a hall to her common room when the sound of a rubber ball and disdainful muttering nearby caught her attention. Her brows creased as she made her way over to the boy causing it - a fellow senior and graphic design classmate.

“Nico…,” she begun, raising her eyebrows and stopped a few feet away. “Are you talking to yourself?” Cass scoffed once in amusement and came closer. “Not that I don’t agree… but moping and bouncing a ball’s not going to solve anything.”

“I disagree. It solves many things,” Nico said, petulantly launching the ball, ca-chunk!, as if to make a point. “It makes me feel better. It expends my cooped up energy which I cannot spend otherwise. It made somebody come over to talk to me...” he paused, “...well, that last one might have been the moping, but either way, it worked!”

He looked up from his spot on the floor and smiled, bouncing the ball again...but happier? Ca-chunk! “Now, if you meant solve the issue of the very obviously not a bear scenario, well you’re right. But I don’t intend to spend my time finding whatever psychopath killed a bunny and thought it was funny.” Nico skipped several of his principle deductions in his answer. He did, however, chuckle at his intended rhyme. “Killed a bunny...thought it funny...I did it Cass, I’m a poet. Eat me out Robert Frost!” He chuckled again, followed by a brief ca-chunk! again.

“What about you? If throwing a ball and moping isn’t appropriate or productive trapped-indoors-because-broadnipple-thinks-we’re-irresponsible-and-reckless behavior, what are you doing to pass the time before they tell us the world outdoors is safe?”

[nicolasofscratch-blog]

albcrtlawrence‌:

Al knew there wasn’t any point an arguing, but that wasn’t going to stop his drunken sass and usual rambling. “A disease? Nah. I’m good on that. That was a good one though.” He ran his fingers through his hair, a common action for him when he was heavily under the influence. “I’ve had way more to drink than I probably should…but that’s an issue for another day.” His statement had hidden meaning that was not intended. “Not worth my time? You’re going to take the cake for some of the nicest things I’ve ever heard.” Al smiled, patting his friend on the back once he was being supported by Nico. “Bebere agua, mi amigo.  Mi cabeza me va a doler manana. I’m not ready for it.” 

His own feet were not his friend at the moment, without Nico this would have been a big struggle. The last thing he needed was to get hurt which would affect his sports playing along with having to hear about it from the both of his parents. “Thank you for helping me, Ni ni.” Al chuckled at the pet name, something he really only said when he was fucked up. “Ustedes son buenos amigo.” The entire world felt bigger to him, and this walk was going to be cake and without complaints because drunk Al could do it without fault.

Being helped by Nico was nothing new, and Al was thankful to have him because he’d really be struggling. “Dancing is awesome. I’m happy you had that experience.” He was trying his best to make sense with his words but things tended to come out differently at this point. “You danced with a boy too? Look at you. Please tell me you got his number. If we need to do some searching tomorrow, I’ll do it after I wake up from death. Aren’t you glad this happened? for someone that doesn’t like parties you had a good night.” Al had nearly fallen on his own accord but thankfully had Nico helping him. “Uhm. That felt like an attack. I demand a complete apology!” He laughed. “Yeah, do you want to be in it to piss him off?”

“Absolutely I wanna be in it to piss him off,” Nico said, grinning. He already looked pretty wrecked. Sweaty hair, scuffs under one of his eyes that were still healing. But he could do better. “Here, just...we’ll get to that picnic table.” He pointed one out that wasn’t too far away, just far enough to get them away from the central party. He reshuffled Al’s weight on him, ignoring the little kid nickname he was called on the way. Nico didn’t like feeling small or little, and the nickname, under any other circumstances, would’ve made him withdraw or get pissed off. But Al was a hobbling alcoholic mess with no idea what he was saying, so he let it go. For now. “But no, I didn’t get his number. I barely even got his name. You know I’m shit at flirting. Kevin,” was all he answered about the boy, “He was only so-so at dancing but so was I so it was fine. And the secret, my incapacitorily drunk friend,” he used the hand not wrapped around Al’s back to turn his face in to stare at him. Then he spoke low and slow, “is that I don’t dislike parties. I dislike partying. Subtle difference.” They kept moving as he spoke, inching across snow covered ground towards the picnic table; an island in an ocean. “I have fun at parties all the same. I just don’t like doing all the crazy stuff parties are known for. Getting drunk. Hooking up. Doing drugs. Not my style. Sit.”

Nico lowered Albert down onto the bench, fished Al’s phone out of his pocket, and then started taking off his clothes. Not all of them, just his jacket at first, but then he pulled his arms into the sleeves of his shirt and pushed it up until all the fabric was gathered around his neck like an awful scarf, the boy suddenly naked from waist to collarbone. He hastily messed up his sweaty hair until he resembled a much drunker, fuckboy version of himself, fully aware that it was cold as nuts outside and he had just willing taken off half his clothing. But then he dropped down next to Albert, swinging a cheerful arm around him and holding up the phone, making sure it caught his bared skin and the mounds of snow. “Say hi to dad!!!” Nico announced cheerfully.

[nicolasofscratch-blog]

jaysster‌:

Jay had never really been all that interested in playing sport, but given that his skateboard had been taken off him before the first period of his very first day along with his phone and earbuds, it was clear he’d need to find something else to occupy his time than being modern Tony Hawk. That’s when he’d been signed up for the swim team by one of the priests under the grand impression he might be good at it. ( Or it might just be challenging enough to keep him from getting into trouble. ) Oddly enough, they hadn’t been wrong, but Jay would be the first to admit it wasn’t the swimming that entertained him the most. It was the jockish camaraderie with the team that made him feel like he was a part of something. Something fun. Even when the guys got cocky and decided to fuck around with each other.

And he supposed he deserved it. Last week, he’d swapped one of the guy’s shower soap with some of that hair removal cream he’d found in Kat’s shit and all about turned him bald. This week it was Jay’s turn to become victim to a prank. So while washing himself of chlorine he was none the wiser until shortly after, he noticed that his dry uniform was gone with all but a single sock left behind. “Nice. Assholes,” But he was grinning as he grabbed the sock, taking a look around the empty showers. Not even a towel, awesome. 

At least it wasn’t far back to the dorms. Well no, it was really far, but what else could he do, he only had a sock? Cupping a hand around the crown jewels, he decided to brave the outside corridor, hoping that if he was going to run into anybody, it wasn’t going to be a teacher. He’d had enough detention this week and it was only Tuesday. However as he looked down the hall one way, and then the other, he came out the door just in time to bump straight into somebody rounding the corner. A press of wet skin to someone’s uniform and Jay fumbled to keep himself from accidentally groping either the other person or himself in the process. “Shit, sorry,” He sure had a habit of running into people. “Uh, so this —” He glanced down at himself, feeling the cold straight on his ass cheeks and not loving it. His broad-nipples felt like they were giving Madonna a run for her money. “Is basically exactly what it looks like. Hey, I don’t suppose you feel like lending a blazer?”

There were a number of feelings you didn’t expect to run into outdoors in the middle of February. Warm and wet was definitely on that list. It took Nico several moments to realize what happened, something moist and very warm pushing into his back, the faint echo of a sauna very unusual in the cold air. He finally turned around, if only to see what was going on, and was immediately greeted by Jay. A lot of Jay, to be precise. Mocha latte colored skin was on display everywhere, and he was very clearly trying to keep himself as hidden as possible, only a sock keeping him for being entirely nude. Nico isn’t proud...but he stared. Jay was gorgeous. Like, Nico had no idea just how gorgeous, drop dead, salivating a little gorgeous. And he was, impossibly, naked in front of a boy who despite knowing he was gay had never done much more than dance with and kiss on other boys. With all their clothes on, usually. Nico turned red. “Oh!” he finally managed a monosyllabic reply, realizing he’d been much more than a little lingering in his gaze. It took a few more seconds for the question to come through, and Nico just nodded, undoing the buttons on his blazer, sliding it off of his arms, still red in the face. He coughed once, trying to cover his obvious reactions to a hot, naked boy in front of him. “Yes, please cover yourself before my thoughts get any dirtier or your nipples put someone’s eye out.” He held out the blazer and dutifully turned away so Jay could put it on. Not that it would help anything from the waist down anyway. “Um, I can’t help but ask...Jay, why are you naked right now?” Nico spoke while turned away from him, not trusting himself not to keep memorizing the lines of his body if he watched him put the clothes on. “Barts pretty far away. I uh, don’t know a good route back where you won’t get seen...like this.”