Tonight seemed longer than usual. After doing the routine checks on all equipment and fixing up whatever needed to be adjusted or cleaned and a quick fire drill at 2am most of the guys were either having some food or lounging around the rooms and chatting. Abe had decided to go to the impromptu fitness and get some exercise in to keep himself awake, having spent most of his 12-hour break looking over the workers who had finally agreed to come and finish up his bathrooms, promising a fix in a week.
Another firefighter walking in took him out of his zone and he got up from the mat, nodding. "I'll free up the equipment," he said, focusing enough to recognize the person. Another face he mostly knew of rather than know, from what he had heard the others discussing he had been away for a while and now was assigned the grave shift as it was the one to have free slots in the schedule for the month.
Having another fight in another night of many, so many and yet she always found herself feeling guilty and sad, and remorseful, but also she felt like she wanted to run and to hide, and to just escape somewhere where she'd either be forever alone or would just be able to see others and them to not see her.
Those were the thoughts that were going through Helen's head as she had woken up, eyes puffy after Alexander and her had had a fight before he had gone to sleep in the morning, arguing over the fact that she seemed to be the one with issues and unable to get pregnant, while in fact she had tried to explain that the doctor had told her everything was perfect in her. And he had broken another one of the new lamps she had bought to brighten up the place and he had bruised her wrist which she now slowly massaged as she walked through the street, a bag over her shoulder in which the pie she had managed to finally get almost perfect last night was wrapped up and ready. She had a list of a few faces and names she had wanted to give one to, Xiomara for one, who she had not spoken to in a while but still was thankful for, she also would have liked to do something for Maya who had been so kind to share a few recipes with her and to Abraham and his lovely Andalusia. She was sure there were others but her phone consisted only of so few names and the first she had tried tonight had received a response and so this is where she was heading now.
She also had with her one of her jars of lemon, ginger and honey which she made for herself as she often got sick, something she found odd but realistically, with her way of life and the frequency with which Alexander fed on her, it wasn't so strange that her body wasn't in peak condition. So she carried the bag, trying to find the address she had been given, her long dress twisting around her ankles as she hurried, aware of the fact that it was late afternoon and Alexander would wake up soon enough.
As she finally found the correct street number she took out her brick phone from the pocket of her cardigan and looked at the message again to confirm the correct doorbell, however someone opened the door of the building before she could ring it and held the door for her so she smiled and thanked and awkwardly walked into the building then slowly walking up the stairs until she again found what she was looking for, knocking and patiently waiting by the door, really hoping she was not imposing despite being assured over the texts that she was not. "Hello! I do hope I didn't wake you if you fell asleep," she said as the door opened and the man showed, looking sickly but not as much as she had thought in her head. Which made her sigh in relief. Instead of a shake of hands or something that may be more appropriate she took the bag by its handles and lifted it towards him, in her head thinking that she would just leave her thank you gift and her get well gift and be on her way home.
"I did bring.... uh, it's a remedy for sickness, it's filled with vitamins and it can really help if you eat a spoonful from it," she said as she smiled.
Tagging → Miles Sterling & TJ Bray [ @theodorebray ]
Timeframe → Friday afternoon
Location → Outside on campus
Notes → A quick chatzy para that was started a while ago and we just now finished. Miles and TJ run into each other on campus — TJ is akin to a rude middle schooler, Miles is dumb and impulsive, and a realization occurs. COMPLETE. tw: violence
Miles was tired. That was all he really knew. After three full hours of class with no breaks in between, he was simply exhausted. He was ready to go back to his room and take the longest nap of his life. He stopped for a coffee first, of course, because what else was he going to blow all his money on? Certainly not books or other useful things. He sipped at the large coffee as he headed back out to go toward his dorm, pulling his hoodie tighter around himself. It was getting cold around campus but Miles wanted to milk not having to wear a winter coat as long as he could. During the walk, he finished off the coffee and headed toward the closest trash can to throw it away. As he neared it, he noticed TJ a short distance away. The bastard. Miles hated the guy; he always had. TJ felt the same way, though, so they had this easy sort of mutual hatred for each other. Miles felt a pang of disgust as he got closer to TJ, who was talking to someone Miles didn't know. He kept his head low so he could pass peacefully and without some annoying confrontation that the two of them usually had. He pulled out his phone, pretending to have something very important he needed to pay attention to.
TJ was coming back from work when he ran into a friend from one of his classes. They talked about the homework and then just about their lives in general. TJ usually hated small talk but he felt bad for the guy, he didn't have many friends from the looks of it and he was always trying to talk to TJ. So he made an exception, letting the guy say whatever it was he wanted to say and trying to focus. But soon, he looked over to see none other than Miles Sterling coming his way. THe two of them did not get along by any means. TJ wasn't sure when exactly they first met but from the first conversation he could tell they weren't going to be friends. He actually enjoyed it, it was amusing to have someone who hated him so much because anything TJ said got under Miles' skin. When Miles got closer TJ saw an opportunity he couldn't miss. He wanted to make him angry, he wanted confrontation. He thought up the thing that would most make Miles angry and remembered how everyone in the school had whispered rumors about his best friends. TJ cut off his friend. "So you know those Bellamys?" He asked, loud enough for Miles to hear. "Kind of a fucked up bunch right?" He knew how close Miles was with the siblings (though TJ didn't know them, not at all really) and had heard everything others had to say. He knew it would really get to him if he was talking about them.
Miles stopped for a second when he heard TJ start talking about the Bellamy's. He caught himself, though, not wanting TJ to know that he was listening. So he focused intently on his phone, turning away from TJ. He walked slowly in the opposite direction, but he didn't go far enough that he wouldn't be able to hear anymore. Miles found it a little strange that TJ just happened to bring up his friends as he got closer. Then it occurred to him: it was probably on purpose. There was no one else around them, really, as everyone else was either in class, in their rooms, or eating somewhere. Plus, most people in school were so focused on the showcase or the film festival that they didn’t notice anything else. Miles didn't even know why TJ was out here with this random kid in the first place, but at the same time, he didn't care at all. All he cared about now was why TJ thought it was okay to talk about Miles' friends like this. Miles half wanted TJ to say something that Miles could make him regret.
TJ grinned to himself when he noticed Miles had stopped and was suddenly looking at the phone. He had trapped him. TJ's friend didn't seem to know who he was talking about so he took it upon himself to elaborate and introduce them. "You don't know them? Well they're these siblings who go here, but they all should be somewhere else if you ask me. They've got enough problems for all of us." He said. He usually wouldn't do something like this. Sure he was often a douche for no reason, but there wasn't much fun in talking about people behind their backs. In TJ's eyes, if he was going to mess with someone it was going to be straight to their face. But this was a sure fire way to make Miles angry. Hearing his best friends talked about behind their backs and right in front of him. TJ didn't really know any of them, but boy had he heard things. There were the rumors and of course he had seen the gossip blog. And he was going to use those rumors to his advantage. "The older one, no one even knows what team he plays for. The youngest one has just got big issues he needs to work out. The girl I heard is just weird and living in some sort of fantasy world. They’re fucking weird man, I don’t even know. I mean Jesus. How can one family be so fucked up?”
Miles tightened his grip on his phone as he listened. He wanted to say something, but that was what TJ wanted. He wanted a reaction out of Miles, something to pick on him for. But TJ was digging deep. Of course, it was nothing that Miles hadn't heard before; people really liked to personally attack Nick, Noel, and Nathan for some reason. They saw them as easy targets, which Miles hated. Everyone had problems, so why focus on the problems of three innocent people? He’d gotten his fair share of gossip, just as everyone had, but the shit people had to say about his friends was endless. In any case, he had heard everything before, but this time, it was different. Even though TJ sounded like he was in middle school, he was trying to make Miles mad. He didn't even know them! He wanted Miles to get angry and say something. And at this point, despite his attempts to be above TJ and act like an adult...Miles couldn't stop himself. He shoved his phone back into his pocket and spun on his heel, walking toward TJ and looking him dead in the eye. "Excuse me, but has anyone ever taught you to mind your own goddamn business and keep other people's names out of your mouth?"
TJ was delighted to see Miles finally deciding to come over to him. Perfect, this was his goal. Miles was going to come try to be the hero and TJ was going to laugh in his face. "Oh, here comes Super Miles." He said to his friend, a smile forming on his lips. He crossed his arms and held up his head. When Miles spoke, TJ almost choked from laughing. "You're one to talk about minding your own business. I was here having a simple conversation with my friend and you decided to listen in the whole time. Why don't you take your own advice?"
Miles rolled his eyes, folding his arms across his chest to match TJ's body language. "Oh, grow up," he spat. "You tell me I act like a twelve-year-old and you're out here gossiping like a teenage girl just to make me mad." Miles was more annoyed than angry. TJ was just a genuinely obnoxious person that he had no interest in being around. But he kept showing up in Miles' life, and as long as they went to the same school, Miles wasn't going to be able to completely ignore him. Especially not when he was talking about things and people he didn’t know about. Miles didn’t like the idea of letting it continue to spread. "You don't even know who the hell they are. You know nothing about them, so you have no right to be talking about them like that.” He shook his head. “Get a life. Stop concerning yourself with other people's. Maybe then you’ll stop being so miserable and having to drag everyone else down with you.”
TJ scoffed. The worst part about people pointing out why he was such a jerk was the fact that they were right most of the time. But TJ wasn’t going to give Miles of all people the benefit of knowing that. “Like I said, you wouldn’t know I what I was talking about if you minded your own business as well. But while you’re here how bout you hop into the conversation?” He offered, holding out his hands. “You can help me get to know them! All I know is rumors, but I mean I’m not wrong. The little one is strange, right? Somethings going on up there none of us can quite understand. I don't even know his name. What's going on with him?”
Miles clenched his jaw, already wanting to punch TJ in the nose and call it a day. But he was trying to be a less violent person. It was one of his worst qualities. He didn’t want to stoop to the level of someone like TJ and hit people simply because he couldn’t control his anger. “He’s just a kid.” Nathan wasn’t really a kid, but it was how Miles would always see him, and it helped with his point. “You have no right to say anything about him,” he said angrily. He didn’t even want to touch on the name thing. That wasn’t any of TJ’s business. “Where do you get off picking on someone just out of high school who’s still much better off in life than you are?”
TJ narrowed his eyes. He didn’t know much about Nathan or what happened to him, so all he could say was what he had heard, which was that he was a weird kid with some real issues. Miles’ arguments were valid as he obviously knew him much better than TJ did, so TJ needed to steer the conversation elsewhere to make Miles angrier. “And the girl one. Noel right? I know that one, she's hot. Shame she’s got a boyfriend but we know that can’t last long.. She won’t even put out for him? Ouch. Is it that she’s stuck in her little fantasy world or is she just too busy with you?” He teased. He had heard that too. He knew it probably wasn't true but he couldn't resist.
Miles could feel the fire within him rising. TJ was saying all the right things that he knew would piss Miles off. He felt like he was in high school, dealing with some bully that wanted to make him cry or get him into trouble with a fight. It would be easy enough to walk away, but really, Miles wasn’t that smart. Not only that, but he wanted TJ to feel the need to walk away first. “She can make her own choices and she doesn’t need scumbags like you worrying about those choices,” he said through clenched teeth, contorting his face in disgust at the comment about himself. “And again with acting like a fucking teenager. Grow up, man.”
TJ was enjoying himself. He knew how immature he seemed, but this was how he was. This was what his life had come to and he didn’t know how to not get enjoyment from things like this. Miles just seemed to be getting madder but he responded to everything TJ tried to throw at him with answers he couldn’t argue with. But something had gotten Miles angry enough to come over in the first place and something was keeping him from leaving. TJ hadn’t even noticed his friend was now gone, and didn’t know how long ago he had left. Not that he cared. “Well there’s always the older one. I don’t think I know his name either.” TJ shrugged. “All I know for sure is he’s bad at pretending to be straight. Like really, even in the short time I‘ve been around I can see it. And I've heard things.” He shook his head. “Shame, that even the most normal seeming of them all is still a fuck up.”
Miles wasn’t sure why, but the second TJ brought up Nick, his hands balled up into fists. He clenched his teeth again, trying to regain his composure. Something about that really pissed him off. A fuck up? Where had that come from? Of course TJ was slightly homophobic on top of everything else. Miles listened to him speak, doing everything in his power to hold himself back. But he had heard enough. He had heard enough making fun of his friends for no reason when other people already did it all the time. He had heard enough of people wondering what happened to Nate. He had heard enough of people concerning themselves with Noel's life. He had heard much more than enough of people debating Nick’s sexuality, which was weirdly confusing enough for Miles as it was and likely upsetting for Nick himself. Miles was simply fed up. Talking about Nick was the trigger, because Miles was already mad at him and something about TJ’s words put him over the edge. Before he could stop himself, he reared back. As soon as his fist connected with TJ’s jaw, he seemed to come back down to Earth, blinking.
TJ wasn’t expecting to be hit. He should have been, because usually when he did this it ended up that way. But he didn’t prepare himself for the possibly beforehand. He stumbled backwards, his hands coming up to cover his face. He stood still for a moment and turned and spit, seeing blood on the ground. He was suddenly very angry, forgetting all about how his face hurt, and he straightened up to punch Miles directly in the nose, grunting as he did so from the sheer force of it.
Miles was still trying to recover from what he’d done when TJ retaliated, hitting him right back. Miles actually fell to the ground. It was partly from how hard TJ had hit him, but mostly because he was already feeling dizzy, as he couldn’t believe he actually had stooped to his level. And only after he had talked about Nick. And the only other times Miles had actually hit someone were... Okay, now he was back to being confused and upset. He quickly got to his feet, dragging a hand over his face and taking a deep breath. “I hope you’re satisfied,” he said in a low voice, glaring at TJ. He tried to ignore the throbbing feeling pulsing from the center of his face. He squared his shoulders and continued to stare at him with a dark gaze. “Fuck off. And mind your fucking business now.”
TJ watched as Miles got up and seemed to calm down dramatically. His voice was a lot lower and he seemed to be a little disoriented. TJ didn’t know what else to say because now he had an injured face to attend to. And all because he found it funny to be immature. He gave Miles one last look before brushing past him and stalking off toward his dorm.
Miles watched him go, wondering what the hell he was supposed to do now. He knew he had to talk to someone, and he knew exactly who he wanted to talk to, but had no idea how that would go. Why did TJ have to act like a kid on the playground teasing him, and worse — why did Miles have to fall for it? Every goddamn time? He was going to have to start ignoring the guy and his high school mentality. But he had a feeling this wasn’t the end. He finally started toward his dorm again, not nearly as tired as he was fifteen minutes prior.
It had been stupid of her to think there would be school today, despite the snow. Snow days were relatively common in Massachusetts, but Violet just hadn't been paying much attention. She was used to the routine of going to school, and hadn't thought of the possibility of her entire schedule for that day cancelled. She hadn't expected to come to an empty parking lot... and she definitely hadn't expected to be making a detour with a freshman, a freshman she had seen and talked to before briefly. His name was Theodore, if she recalled correctly, and he seemed sweet. Endearing, adorable. She didn't have a sibling, but she'd always wanted one, and her time teaching younger girls had convinced her that she would be a great older sister.
It was in her nature to want to take care of those younger than she was, and it was the same way with Theo. The way he had taken her hand and began leading her to Dolphin had been cute, naive, innocent. Violet was drawn to that sort of innocence, the purity. Although she herself was considered rather innocent and pure herself, her motives weren't, her inner being wasn't; Tainted Secrets had made that clear. So she liked being around such brightness. It made her feel a little more comfortable, as strange as that sounded.
Once they were at Blue Dolphin, Violet opened the door for Theodore, smiling down at him. "Here you go," she said brightly.
Blaine had barely been in Paris for a week and already, so much had gone wrong. Nick and Jeff, the inseparable Niff, had fallen out and he had no idea if they could even fix things this time. He had tried to make things better, but he just ended up making everything worse and now he had lost not only his tentative friendship with Hunter, but his friendship with Jeff, too. It really hurt him that Jeff didn't want to be his friend anymore, especially since Jeff had been one of the first people to befriend him when he had arrived at Dalton. But now... He had screwed up and he didn't know how to fix it. He had wanted to go out for a drink, but now Nick had stood him up... Despite their beautiful location, this week just kept getting worse. So, instead of going out, he wandered aimlessly around his hotel, counting the numbers on doors.
