injuries are nothing new, the boy long trapped in a life of misery & pain. life at home had never been simple, but a broken bone was the next level, was something he hadn’t dealt with in a long time. every movement is paired with a grunt of PAIN, though there’s an attempt to hide it. sure, he could trust scott, but that didn’t change the intense desire to hide his pain. bryce is the only person who really knows the extent of his home life, & even that was only by chance. opening up, admitting to things, that wasn’t something monty did. VULNERABILITY, even with the people he cares about most, was near impossible. a broken arm is entirely the last thing he needed; beyond having to come up with an excuse, there was the issue of baseball. he can’t play with a broken arm, can’t be a useful member of the team like this. his entire future hangs in the balance, anything he can get from sports being his only shot at college, & so quickly it’s all come tumbling down. perhaps worse is that monty knows he’s going to have to deal with the consequences when he next goes home. his father’s the one that broke his arm, his father’s the reason he can’t play sports, HIS FATHER is the one to blame for all of this, & yet he’d lash out the moment monty got home. as if it was monty’s fault, as if his entire future had been put at risk because of his own actions & not because of a shitty parent. shrug is given, quickly followed by a groan of pain. ❛ ’s NOTHING, you know how it is. ❜ a shitty response, considering scott clearly has no idea. there’s a slight sniffle, hand of non-broken arm raising to wipe at his face. vulnerability is monty’s worst enemy, but it seems he’s got no escape from it. ❛ you— you really think it’s BROKEN? ❜ there’s a slight quiver in his voice, the slightest sign of fear. he hates it, more than anything, & if it was anyone other than scott he’d let the fear come out as anger. but he can’t do that to scott. the team is his family, & scott’s a part of that.
