California King Bed (closed)

[Ethan White]

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Ethan insists that he hadn’t been trying to avoid his better halfBraxton these past few days, no matter what Jack or Reggie had to say.

Sure he hadn’t gone drinking or partying with the younger boy within the past month or so (Ian always whined about the gang not being complete, and because no one really knew how to handle drunk!Brax better than the brunette). And he’s missed their morning workout sessions and their bi-weekly movie viewings (the former he started when he got back from training camp and saw how unhealthy Braxton had been eating/living; the latter he started a few months back “just ‘cause” – both are accomplished by the promise of a dozen banana muffins, which isn’t a surprise to anyone really). And he doesn’t text the younger boy as much anymore (because heaven knows if Braxton’s passed out in a pavement somewhere), not to mention his replies aren’t as quick unless a really huge emergency. And when he does find himself stuck with the Carson twin in their shared room at night, their conversations don’t go longer than five minutes and are about the basics.

Sure they might appear like huge deviations from the norm, but that’s life he argues. He does have a life outside of Braxton, and it got a little busy over these past few weeks. He’s been seeing people, like the blonde guy Tanner from the club and that redhead from his Anthropology101 class, Alexa. His mom also left their Thanksgiving dinner preparations on his shoulders because she believed he had nothing else to do. Then there’s holiday shopping. Besides, it’s not like he completely forgot about the young brat. Just look at Braxton’s cabinet and it’s still fully stocked with clean socks and underwear.

His life just doesn’t revolve around Braxton anymore.

And yet, those two mentioned previously, and a few others (his little sister included, surprisingly), keep on insisting that something’s wrong. He tried shrugging it off but it’s now gone to the point where within two seconds of his conversation with either of these people, his avoidance of Brax would surely come out. And it’s beginning to annoy him.

Which is why he dragged the Carson teen to the mall for some Christmas gift shopping to prove to these people once and for all that an issue there is none.

“You think Daniel would fit in this?” he asked as he held out a sweater, “Or do you think this is more is style? Or this?” He grabbed two more sweaters and held them up for the boy to see. “Oh fuck, this means we need to get something for his twin sister too. And one for Emily too. What happened last year must never happen again.” Sorority girls and their sensitive feelings. Bah. “Wait, Brax, where are the bags that I gave you? And the boots we got for Jim? They’re the last ones his size!”

[Braxton Carson]

Braxton hated Christmas shopping. It wasn't anything against Christmas, though, but he just didn't enjoy buying things for other people. What was the point of that? Braxton decided to only accept Ethan's invitation only because the older boy promised to to buy him muffins from his favorite bakery in town, from where Braxton had been banned from entering some time ago.

"That one." Braxton pointed without even looking at the sweaters Ethan was holding, and without even being sure which Daniel they were shopping for. "What happened last year?" He asked, fully aware that he was not going to pay much attention at whatever story was going to follow said answer. "You didn't give me any bags..."

Ethan did give the Carson boy the bags containing what they bought in the first store.. Braxton held them for full ten seconds before dropping to instead chase a butterfly that happened to wander into the mall.

No kidding, Braxton did chase a small butterfly for a minute in the mall before it flew out through a window.

"Why would you give me any bags?" Even Braxton was aware of how bad this idea was. "I can't even keep my keys for more than five seconds, that would be one very silly move."

[Ethan White]

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“This one?” asked Ethan skeptically, putting all but the second sweater back in the shelf. It certainly wasn’t the style he had in mind (he was leaning more for the last one really) but since the gifts will be coming from him and Braxton (or at least it’ll say so in the card) so he had to let the younger boy choose from time to time. Yes, it did cross his mind that the other boy probably didn’t look at the three sweaters he pulled up, but he himself got distracted by a pair of boots from the aisle across them. Unfortunately they’re a little pricey, so he got to thinking maybe he could get Braxton to buy those for him.

(And by ‘Brax to buy those for him’ he meant the boy actually purchasing them and giving the pair to him, not just letting Ethan use his credit card and making him buy it himself. Ethan insists that there’s a difference. A big difference.)

He was just about to remind Brax of the trouble he caused – because while Ashley and Emily had always been at odds because of their opposing sorority leadership bids, it was Emily’s unhealthy obsession with Braxton, her finding him in Ashley’s bed the morning after he supposedly told her she’s the love of his life and of course the lack of a Christmas gift that pushed her to the edge – when Brax mentioned that he didn’t give him any bags to begin with. And the boy didn’t even stop there; to add more salt to the injury, he even added that even he knew not to trust him.

“Oh shut up,” muttered Ethan, in a voice that’s a cross between an exasperated sigh and an annoyed growl, “I don’t need you to go smartass on me. Frankly, I’m getting sick of it.” He gave Braxton a glare (even though common sense dictated that it’d be lost in him anyway) as he put the sweater away and walked out the shop in a stiff stride and his hands balled into fists.

Retracing their steps would’ve been easy had they not been to around five stores already. “Ugh. There was a limited edition Stephen King book in there. Not to mention we got the last stock for the bomber jacket in Jack’s size.” He threw Brax another leer before adding, “Bring Braxton, they say. It will be fun, they say. You’ll never get your muffins at this rate.”

[Braxton Carson]

"Gee..." Braxton rolled his eyes at Ethan's rather harsh words. "someone's PMSing here..." He started to follow Ethan out of the store as he started rambling about the bags' contents and... Braxton in general. "What? No! You promised me, you can't break a promise!"

Braxton knew he should have forced Ethan into a pinky promise and regretted not doing it. Then again, Ethan wasn't one to break promises to Braxton, and he wasn't one to be this... aggressive towards him either. For a second, the Carson twin wondered if there was something actually wrong and had a few flashbacks of the time when he discovered Ethan in bed with Matt. The situation was very different, but the feeling was overall the same: something was wrong. Braxton just had no idea what.

"Who reads nowadays? And that jacket was fugly anyway." Braxton shrugged. "I stand by giving them all alcohol, it's always a great gift." He nodded. "We'll give Jack one of those pink vodka bottles. It's very him."

[Ethan White]

Shopping for gifts, unsurprisingly, was one of the things Ethan loved the most about Christmas. The brunette prides himself as being a thoughtful giver, never really giving people those generic mugs or winter-themed stuffed animals, but instead made sure that every one of his gifts were carefully thought out and actually fit the receiver. He remembered a friend in high school calling them ‘designer drugs’ or something. He never really liked shopping for himself, but shopping for others, it was like (or at least it evolved to be) his own personal therapy. It’s relaxing, it’s fun, and actually clears his mind and lets him think straight.

A complete opposite to what was currently happening right now.

“I can’t break a promise? Why? Because promises aren’t meant to be broken?” he spat out, stopping in his tracks to face the younger boy. He realized soon after that he might’ve shouted a bit too loud (a few mall goers gave him weird looks) so he mentally told himself to calm down before continuing. “Well what about that time you promised to do the laundry? You broke it three times. The time you said you’d clean the room ‘cause I told you my folks were coming and I didn’t have time to clean? Oh yeah, you broke it too, along with the new vase my mother sent us.” She was expecting it though. It was Brea who gave him flak for it. No surprise there. “And don’t get me started on you promising to go drive with me to Boston to check out what would’ve been my new apartment. It was a long drive which I had to do alone because someone had to cancel out the last minute ‘cause Charlize finally agreed to go out with you. How’d that work out for you huh?”

Ethan was fuming. While it wasn’t that obvious with his face (he tried and tried to keep a poker face), his ears had already turned blood red. Guess that’s what he got for bottling down quite a lot.

“You’re insufferable,” he said one last time, letting out a sigh of disbelief as he continued to walk forward, retracing their steps. If he couldn’t find their bags again, he had to say that Braxton’s idea was pretty smart.

[Braxton Carson]

"But I don't know how to operate the machines..." Braxton whined as Ethan kept talking. "Hey, I did clean the room, I told you it was the frat-house leprechaun who made it a mess again!" Brax was certainly not happy of listening to all these things like this. "Ok, the vase was me, but you placed it in the worst place ever, I mean, who puts a vase on a table? I was stretching my arms and it fell!"

The boy was full of excuses, but the last of Ethan's angry ramblings left Braxton silent. Trues, said date ended up very bad for Braxton, but Ethan knew that the Carson twin had been chasing Charlize for weeks now, and she happened to agree to go out with him, at last, that same day they were going to Boston, who could he say no? He couldn't, and in reality, there was more to it than simply that, as in reality, Brax didn't even want to go to Boston in the first place, which he hadn't told Ethan when the older boy asked him to tag along.

"Fine, you're right." He huffed. "No, you know, you're not right." He nodded. "I'd have gone to a thousand dates with Charlize instead of going with you to your stupid Boston." He crossed his arms in his chest and frowned deeply. "Bros before hoes my ass!" He let a small silent creep in before continuing. "You already have a place here, so I'm not supporting this getting an apartment in Boston. You live here," With me. "not in Boston," He made a silly/ugly face when saying the city's name. "so no, I'm not helping you with your eventually moving away over there forever."

[Ethan White]

Ethan simply let out a tired sigh when Braxton began with his usual excuses. Frat dorm leprechaun. Laundry room fairy. Bathroom giant. If it wasn’t for the fact that such words only leave the boy’s mouth 1 out of 10 times while anything related to sex, ass, hips or boobs were produced 50% of the time, he’d think the boy’s mind’s been arrested at the age of six. Not even BreaChris would dare use such an excuse with him.

But he’d take a thousand of these excuses not to hear Charlize’s name again. Well true it came from him this time around, but (in Ethan’s mind) Braxton didn’t need to say that he’d rather go with a thousand dates with the slut whore bitchblonde than go to Boston with him.

“Ha. Sure. Go do that. And by the end of the year, you’d have a thousand babies already,” he said as he stopped and turned around for a bit, facing Braxton, his voice dropping with contempt and sarcasm, “Because yes Brax, Charlize is pregnant. Maria just told me two days ago. Her period’s delayed and she’s been vomiting like crazy.” Well not really. In reality, neither Maria nor Charlize nor anyone vaguely related to the two had been in contact with him. A close source (read: Maria’s brother who was his lab partner in a class two years ago and thus owed him a lot) told him that after that incident with the girl in the jewelry store (bitch who got the Tiffany bracelet, as Ethan had begun to call her in his mind), Charlize got so mad and didn’t want to talk to Brax or Ethan ever again. Not that Braxton needed to know that at the moment. “Have fun changing diapers at one in the morning.”

As much as he loved Pilot Ridge – and he loved the town a lot – he did feel that there’s too many things around keeping him from moving on. ExhibitA was standing (yelling?) right in front of him. Moving really was the logical thing to do. “Know what, I’d be moving away anyway, with or without your help. I don’t need you. I do your laundry. I make sure you have food to eat every morning. I manage your finances. You just push me around. You need me, but me, I can easily replace you.”

He didn’t really mean that. Much.

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ooc:
SORRY </3[/justify]

[Braxton Carson]

"What?!" Braxton's jaw dropped as he exclaimed loudly... or screamed, rather. "But you said she wasn't!" He kept yelling, much to the other people in the mall's dismay. "You're lying!"

Braxton couldn't quite believe it. There was no way he was going to be a dad, Charlize hadn't contact him again, so it simply had to mean that she in reality wasn't pregnant... or that she was waiting for her belly to pop up to show Braxton? He feared for a second there. He was already imagining how things were going to turn out if this was the truth, and all he could picture in his head were apocalyptic images of a world filled with fire, smoke, and breast-less girls with their lips knitted closed, not one blonde in sight. Because, yes, that is how Braxton sees the apocalypse.

Ethan's following words did not help in making the picture merrier in anyway, in fact, everything was black now, or was it red?

"Why would..." Braxton muttered softly.

Ethan was right, he was far too right, but it didn't make his words justified, at least in Brax's mind. Braxton needed Ethan, but the opposite was far from true, in fact, Ethan was probably better off without Brax, and he knew it. Braxton was very absent-minded most of the time, but he knew this. He knew Ethan would do much better somewhere else, specially if he wanted to get in Hockey, and he was about smart enough to be in a better Uni as well, Braxton knew he was burden most of the time, but he never thought he'd say so out loud, or be so serious about getting away from Braxton forever.

He was hurt.

"I don't need you," Braxton said, his voice returning to a more normal, albeit heated, state. "I survived when you left before didn't I?" He crossed his arms in defiance. "If you so want to go, go, whatever..." He closed his eyes. "Nobody cares." Keep the act, keep the act... "Maybe Jack, but he's so gay anyway. Definitely not me. If people ask, I'll be, Ethan who? Don't know any."