@rosekillermicrofic — July 4 — Loud — word count: 326
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His whole life, Barty had been told he was loud, obnoxious, annoying, too much. He always laughed it off, you know, pretended it didn’t affect him. But it did, of course it did. Why did he have to be too much for everyone? If he could change it, he would, but it was just natural.
Sometimes he tried to just sit still and be quiet by himself, but it didn’t last long. He couldn’t sit still for long, he got twitchy. He couldn’t stay quiet for long, he got restless. He hated it.
Today, he and Evan were just sitting in the Slytherin common room, lounging on a couch. Barty was rambling on about who knows what, his hands moving with his words as if it made the story more real. He glanced over at Evan and he saw the other was just zoned out, not really paying attention. The grin sort of faded from his face and he shut up, staring at his hands and twisting his rings around.
Evan looked up. “What’s wrong? You stopped talking.”
“I was being annoying, wasn’t I? Talking too much.” He muttered. “Sorry.”
Evan rolled his eyes, reaching up and flicking Barty on the forehead. “You weren’t being annoying. I like the background noise, it’s grounding. I might not be fully listening but it’s nice to have something going on while i’m in my own world.”
Barty seemed surprised, he blinked and stared at Evan for a moment, feeling his cheeks heat up a bit. “Really? I’m not, like, too much or whatever?”
“Nah,” Evan said, shaking his head. “You can keep talking, I don’t care.” He stretched out his legs to cross over Barty’s, raising an eyebrow. “You good?”
Barty nodded. He was good, actually. He’d never been given permission to just talk for no reason. But he wasn’t going to argue, he just launched right back into his story, not missing the faint smirk on Evan’s lips.