lune comes up and jabs nick in the side, making him jump.
"?????????????? of c-course i am-- !"
"well, i wasn't sure, with your face in the blankets like that! what's your problem, anyway?"
he misses his boyfriend.
"oh, barry, right?"
yeah. since they dropped out of school they haven't seen each other at all.
nick whines. birch comes in, red in the face, also seemingly slightly intoxicated.
i didn't know you drank, birch.
"ther'e s afirst time for eveiyrhting..."
i roll my eyes. you've have too much, clearly. what would may think?
birch makes an awful whining noise all too similar to nick's. he falls onto the bed and rolls over next to nick. if they start cuddling--
lune grimaces. "jeeze, you guys are hopeless! liking people is stupid anyway-- !"
nick bolts up. "hey! y-you d-don't know anything, okay... ! besides, i d-don't just like barry, i love him and he's... ugh... go..n...e..."
birch turns his face and glares at lune. "yeah, what do you know abotu love?"
"oh come on, you are not serious! you aren't even in a relationship with may, how can you love her?!"
"how can i not?!"
lune's just bitter.
"am not!"
yea, you kinda are.
"Hate to say it, but I must agree with Amanda on this one."
thanks? i think... it's hard to tell with lunick.
he leans back in his chair, pushing it back so it rests on the back two legs of the chair. "None of your emotional attachments have really worked out and have just left you brokenhearted in the end--" here, everyone turns to look at bren, who actually goes into my closet and just sits on the floor ok bren, "so you feel the need to project you disappointments with relationships on others who may be perfectly happy. Because you clearly cannot stand to see people happy."
"look who's talking, captain jackass! besides, what do you know?" lune's fuming at this point. i didn't realize he was so hot headed. "your relationship with solana is a total flop AND you haven't even broken up with her yet!"
that's not really his fault -- madj's been really busy lately, i haven't really talked to her at all. as far as i'm concerned, we can just push back the date on it and say it happened before.
"what!! that's not fair!"
why not? you guys aren't real...
lune frowns really hard at me. i shrug and look back to nick and birch -- i think they fell asleep.
"Do you think Nick is going to tell Barry about this?"
about getting drunk?
"What else would I mean?"
doubt it. hopefully this will just be a one time thing. he knows how much barry doesn't like it, and plus -- he's breaking a promise right now.
"What Barry doesn't know won't hurt him." Lunick puts his hands behind his head and closes his eyes. He's acting like he doesn't care -- hm. I wonder if he doesn't want Nick and Barry to break up because he's worried about Nick in that situation or if he's worried about dealing with him in that situation.
i suppose you're right. i'm surprised you care at all.
Lunick opens his eyes and looks at me. "I'm not totally heartless--"
"then why do you act like you are?"
lunick starts. he -- and honestly, i -- forgot he was there and was listening to our conversation. he blinks slowly at his alternate self and shrugs. "Easier that way, I suppose."
lune looks away, glancing down at birch and lune, and then to the closet where bren still is hiding, and then finally to his hands that rest in his lap. "i gotta agree with you on that one, buddy."
"I'm not your buddy."
"i'm trying to connect with you here."
"Please don't."
jeeze, cut him some slack! he is agreeing with you, you know. something that doesn't happen with nick ever.
"Fine. If you insist. It's very easy to act like you don't care. Besides, that way when it's revealed that you do, people like you more after the ordeal."
i don't think that's how that works.
"yeah, i mean-- it's okay to not care about some aspects of your life, like with romantic relationships or uh... i dunno, but... you have to care about something!"
what do you care about?
"helping people, duh."
i look long and hard at lunick.
what do you care about, lunick?
he stays quiet for a long moment, silently knitting his hands together in his lap. He gets up suddenly and heads for the door.
hey, i asked you a question!
"I'll get back to you."
"he's weird."
tell me about it.