Testing My Patience(Open)

[Deleted]

The school sure felt empty right now....

No, shit. Everyone(not everyone) was on the retreat. Out camping. Bonding. Having fun.

Without him.

Without Oriel.

Because he was too....

Oriel shook his head, trying to keep himself from finishing that thought, but it came nonetheless. Fuck.

Oriel lost his concentration on the choreography he was in the middle of practicing and ended up fumbling over his feet, effectively tripping forward and landing hard on his knees. He dipped his head, allowing tendrils of his long, curly bangs to fall forward, free from the hair-tie he'd put the rest of it in. His shoulders and back heaved up and down, the boy completely out of breath. He hadn't taken a proper break in...fuck, he forgot how long. But he'd gone over this choreography shit so many times he'd lost count. And even more frustrating was that it was always at the exact same part where he messed up. When he messed up. Which was about 60% of the time.

"Graaaahh!!" he growled, crouching over himself and pounding the glossy, wooden floor with his fists. Not hard enough to break anything, but still enough to make a very satisfying thud. In his frustration, Oriel had completely forgotten that he'd left the door open for all to see him throwing this little hissy fit.

[Oth Gillis]

Oth hadn't gone on the school's retreat; he saw so little of his Dad that he saw the whole thing as a sort of free vacation. He still stayed in the dorms, the whole 'no bears in the apartment' thing was still on, but being able to go over whenever he wanted was pretty cool. Having a break this soon after school started was cool too, gave his brain a chance to regroup.

While he knew Oriel was going through some Stuff, and that he was kind of in trouble somehow, it didn't affect how he felt about the older boy. Sometimes people's lives got complicated, and when you were a teenager it all messed up faster than usual. Besides, Oriel could be fun. Sort of douchey sometimes, but still fun. They were so different, and Oth could sense they'd still be that way, him serious and his bro... not... if they'd been raised together. On a scale of one to ten, like a volume control, Hairboy seemed to live life either at 2 or 27.

Today he'd been home a bit in the morning, and his Dad had driven him back to school with enough lunch for both him and Oriel, if the older kid could be found. Oth looked into the training room after following the thumps and sound of feet pattering just in time to see his brother trying to kill the floor. A rolled up grocery bag dangled from one hand, and an amused smile curled his lips.

"That a new dance?" he asked, walking in. Oth wore cut off jean-shorts (he refused to call them 'jorts', seriously) and a white t-shirt. A pair of light tan knee braces velcroed to his legs, and his right hand sported a wrist brace. "You hungry? Dad made us meatloaf sandwiches 'n potato salad."

And because he couldn't resist, not when he could reach it, Oth leaned over and tugged Oriel's messy ponytail.

[Deleted]

Oriel should take a break. His body screamed for it, in fact. But his spinning head and tingling nerves urged him to keep going, like some jackass kid harping on another to cross the highway in busy traffic. He knew he shouldn’t, but he couldn’t stand the sense of failure and inadequacy that came with it even more.

Just…five minutes though…then he’ll get back to conquering this shit…

He was half ready to simply plop on the floor like a flopping feline when that young, familiar voice interrupted his melodramatics. Oriel lifted his head, drops of sweat streaming down the side of his face and falling to the floor, and he blinked several times to bring the kid’s face into focus. “Oth…” It felt weird saying his name…it felt weird addressing him as anything other than ‘twerp’.

He couldn’t help it, though. He couldn’t very well treat his brother like…like…well, like he did everyone else. “The fuck’re you doing here?” he breathed through his apparent exhaustion. “Thought…thought you’d be enjoying fucking marshmallows and kumbayas by now.” Oriel slipped upright, his balance slightly unsteady, and crossed his legs in front of him.

Right, there’d been a question there somewhere. “Yeah!” he answered with much delay and a little bit too much enthusiasm. “We’re uh…getting ready for our first performance…” Oriel smirked. “‘Course, while everyone’s off getting eaten by bugs ’n wiping their asses with fucking poison ivy, I’m here getting this shit done to perfection!” Oriel lifted his chin proudly. Yeah, he didn’t need to go on some stupid camping trip full of fire-hazards, mosquitos, and boring things like fishing….

Oriel hadn’t realized, but yes, he was hungry. Incredibly so. And his stomach gave the answer that Oth was looking for. “Sounds good, fork it over, squirt.” Yeah, that felt weird too.

Oriel grunted in faux annoyance at his hair being pulled. “Hey!” he growled. “What’d my hair ever do to you! You treat that shit with respect!” Yeah, Oriel was full of it.

[Oth Gillis]

'Twerp' wasn't so bad, not with how dirty Oriel's mouth was. Oth didn't mind, he knew the kid didn't mean any harm. Or, much. If Hairboy wasn't screwing with you somehow, something was wrong.

The younger boy shook his head. "Nah. There's a lake here, 'n who wants to spend a week sharin' a room with eleven other dirty dudes who're probably bigger than you? Besides, can you imagine the smell? 'F you want marshmallows 'n singing I'm sure Dad could figure something out. Being mostly alone here is pretty nice." Stepping closer, speaking of smell... "Ew. You're dripping."

Finding himself a seat a sensible distance away for spreading out the food, Oth placed himself across from his bro. "...There's a part of your dance thing where you pound on the floor?"

When Oriel acquiesced, Oth opened his bag, and then smirked as Hairboy objected to the tug. "Your hair's attached to you, and you... you shouldn't be saying all that sweary stuff in front of a kid."

But he was grinning, and he laughed a little as he took out the grub. Three meatloaf sandwiches with ketchup and onions on buns - two for Oriel, since Oth wouldn't eat more than one - a Tupperware of homemade potato salad topped with hardboiled eggs (and a pair of plastic spoons), and two smaller containers, one of pretzel sticks and one of raw peeled carrot chunks. Two bottles of water, and a packet of Oreos, too. Oth figured Hairboy would go for the cookies first; he didn't care. He opened up a sandwich, himself, and dug in.

"So what'd you get stuck on? I heard a lot of shoe squeaking 'fore I came in," he said.

[Deleted]

Oriel scowled. Maybe it was because he had such a good time last year, but Oth’s diss towards the retreat didn’t sit well with him. “It ain’t that bad…” he grumbled. “….I went last year. It was a lot more fun than I thought it’d be.” It was pretty much the first time he’d attempted to get involved with the masses of Hammel. And he was glad he did it! Truth or Dare. Fishing. Scavenger Hunts. Calvinball(the best game ever, by the way). And having so many people to sleep “with”(basically sharing a cabin with a bunch of people) helped ease a lot of his nighttime anxiety so he actually got a full nights rest. “I’d go again in a fucking heartbeat,” he mumbled.

He wiped the sweat from his brow as he settled himself on his knees. “Comes with the territory, better get used to it.” Oriel didn’t mind sweat or stink. That’s what showers were for.

Oriel scowled again when Oth pointed out his tantrum. “….you weren’t s’pposed to see that.” His own fault for leaving the door open though.

“Yeah, my hair’s attached to my head, like an accessory. You got a problem with me, you take it up with me, not the hair.” Because that made a world of sense. “And, fuck, you really that delicate that you can’t handle a couple of curses?” Of course, now that he’d said something, now Oriel was going to be a little paranoid about his language and actually watch it. Damn.

Oriel watched as the kid unpacked the goods, eyeing the items cautiously. He’d take it, of course…but he could help but wonder what made the old guy think he deserved any of it. Why was he going out of his way…? “Thanks…” he said uncertainly. He picked up one of the sandwiches. Meat. Oriel liked meat. And sweets. The potato salad wasn’t his cup of tea, but he’d eat it anyway. Didn’t want to waste it. “Just…I don’t know, part of a dance. I doesn’t matter anyway, I won’t be performing it.” He was still on restriction, which included dance performances along with the retreat. Oriel took a giant bite of the sandwhich.

[Oth Gillis]

"Oh. It's like that." Oth nodded sagely. He supposed it really sucked that Oriel wanted to go and couldn't. All his friends were probably there. Was... Phoenix? Was that his name? Oth didn't know.

"I'll keep that in mind when you get grossed out over bear breath," he said. He grinned. "Better get used to it."

Not that Oth was used to it himself, but he couldn't smell his own breath. The inside of the bear's mouth didn't always taste the greatest. Popping open the potato salad, he chose one of the spoons and dug in.

The reasoning went past him. Oth's face reflected his confusion, but he let it go because Oriel. Still, he chuckled. "No. I just never been around someone who does it so much. And... so then if I have a problem with your hair, who do I go to?"

Though he'd never seen it, Oth was aware of the Dr. Who fandom and some of the tropes. When Hairboy almost took half his sandwich in one bit, he figured his mouth was like the Tardis. "You can have two of the sandwiches," he said. "Dad packed extra. He says guys your age eat like they have something to prove."

He wasn't looking forward to it. "Why won't you be doing the dance? It looked pretty good till the wipeout."

Oth was not a dancer. Technically, he was a gymnast, but that was so on hold with the shifting thing. "You wanna come over sometime? To Dad's. Change of scenery or something?"

[Deleted]

Phoenix wasn’t there on the retreat. He was holed up at his…his stupid no-good father’s place, and still banned from seeing Oriel on a private basis. If it weren’t for that, Oriel would have been able to deal with the lack of retreat-ing.

Hmph, cheeky brat. Wonder where he got that attitude from? Oriel snorted. “Yeah, sure.” He was pretty apathetic about it anyway.

Oriel quirked an eyebrow. “Really? Huh, guess you just never been around fucking punks like me before then.” He smirked a little, amused that Oth was going along with that little rant about his hair. “If you have a problem with my hair,” he started, smile growing slightly, “then you go to….fuck, I don’t know…someone else?” Lame. Oriel needed to work on that one for next time.

Then again, felling pissed and….down as balls as he was, it was no surprise that his usual insults had lost some of their bite.

Speaking of bites, that sandwich was gone in two. “Shuh?” he asked, his cheeks full of mush. “Sanks…” He chewed. And chewed. And swallowed before grabbing another one and quickly started devouring that one too.

On the subject of his dancing, Oriel had to pause, giving Oth a bit of a surprised look. Didn’t he know what had happened? Oriel figured the entire school knew by now, the incident wasn’t exactly a quiet one. And now faced with having to explain…Oriel didn’t want to. “It’s nothing…got in some trouble, is all. Suspended from club activities until further notice.” He was suspended from a lot of things, the most troublesome being Phoenix. Without club practices, Oriel had…very little else to do other than homework, running, and watching cartoons. He was going to go mad if he didn’t find something else to occupy himself with soon.

The invitation made him wary. He was always wary when it came to new adults…though the guy had said that Oriel was welcome…and he’d been nice ’n all…gahh, Oriel didn’t know what to think about the guy(Oth’s father) and not knowing if there was some secret behind his intentions was feeding his paranoia something awful. “What’s the catch?” he asked suspiciously, taking another sharp(but smaller) bite of the sandwich.