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Room 713: We Didn't Start The Fire (Yet)

Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2019 3:08 am
by Shiola
[Tyrell Lahti Trip Start]


It wasn't a routine that was easy to break, even on the trip. At six in the morning, give or take, his eyes would open. There were maybe five or ten minutes of relative comfort before the restlessness set in. At that point it was pretty much impossible to get back to sleep no matter how hard he'd try. If he lay there any longer, he'd start to ponder the dreams he'd had the night before. They were usually nightmares, or at least the kind of thing a person didn't want to start their day thinking about.

So at six thirty in the morning, Ty had just finished taking a shower. Gently closing the glass door behind him, he reached for one of the towels laid out in the hotel bathroom. The door and the mirror in the bathroom weren't overcome by fog, as he never took hot showers.

It wasn't just that he'd been expressly forbidden from "wasting" hot water as a child. Ty knew that if it wasn't cold, he could acclimate to it. It would be comfortable, and that comfort would be excuse to let the water run. To stand and think. The bracing, cold water tore him away from troubling thoughts. It was energizing; the momentary shiver when the water first hit him was something he now looked forward to, as were the goosebumps it would raise on his skin.

Drying himself off didn't take long, nor did brushing his teeth. Long hair was always a chore, but it was worth looking a little bit decent today. People liked to take pictures on the senior trip, after all. Once he'd finished his halfhearted effort to dry and brush it, he stopped to stare down his reflection in the mirror.

The familiar dark green of his eyes briefly met before scanning the rest of his frame. Either he’d woken up on the right side of the bed, or returning to the gym in the last few weeks had started to pay off. Ty was in fantastic shape, and felt it. He’d never endeavored to do much more than keep himself capable and healthy, but he’d felt physically gifted as long as he could remember. A manic compulsion to maintain it only amplified those gifts.

It wasn’t difficult to admire the sight of his body these days, and he felt keenly the advantages it provided him. Might’ve been being with Erika, or the looks he’d gotten from the others. Hell, it might’ve been the MMA trainer commenting on his striking. Sure, the guy played with him like a toy a few minutes later when they rolled, but it was still a bit of an ego boost.

These things made it easy to ignore the scar that ran across his face, and those that ran all over his body. It was almost like they were finally starting to fade. Normally he’d point them out to strangers if he caught an awkward glance, as if to preempt their own questions about what he’d gone through. Make up stories, or tell abridged versions of the truth. Ty was starting to think it wouldn’t be necessary in a few years.

I feel kind of beautiful. Is that a thing guys are supposed to feel?

“Do I really care what I’m supposed to feel?” Ty muttered to himself, unable to suppress a smile. The voice in the back of his mind that always found the rough edge of any situation or emotion was conspicuously silent. It was weird, unsettling even. It wasn’t often he felt this good.
---
Ty emerged from the washroom dressed in a set of black shorts and a dark green sleeveless shirt, holding a pair of carefully folded and exceptionally fuzzy black and red pajama pants. Lorenzo might’ve preferred sleeping in as little as possible, but Ty never liked to chance waking up cold. That was what the showers were for, after all. He tossed them into his open suitcase and walked across the hotel room, taking note of Axel and Andy – it was hard to stifle a chuckle as he saw that Axel had cuddled up to Andy, which no doubt meant that both of them were both at least still asleep.

Lorenzo seemed to be awake, and Ty caught his eye as he started rummaging through his backpack for his vaporizer.

“Good morning.”

Finding the small device, he motioned towards the balcony.

“I’m going out for a sm- well, a vape.”

Ty slid open the door to the hotel’s balcony and reclined on one of the two folding chairs outside, looking out at the cityscape. He took a slow hit of the vape pen, the small cloud quickly dissipating in the open air. The faint jolt of the nicotine into his system felt pleasant.

It is a good morning, isn’t it?

Re: Room 713: We Didn't Start The Fire (Yet)

Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2019 1:26 am
by Tonyksin
[Lorenzo Tavares Trip Start]


Six Fifteen AM.

That’s what the annoyingly bright phone screen he was staring at said. Lorenzo grumbled and placed the phone down on the side table next to the bed. He was most definitely not comfortable. He sighed and did his best to stretch out his body, hearing the telltale pops and cracks of a good night’s sleep. Lorenzo flopped down onto his back and stared at the ceiling. It always threw him off when he didn’t wake up in his own bed. It was so quiet in the hotel room. His house was always so loud and active. The only sounds he could make out were the light breathing from the other bed, and the hiss of the shower going in the bathroom. Otherwise it was just him and silence. He looked over to the other side of the bed that once contained Tyrell and smiled. It had been pretty awesome that they’d ended up rooming together. Andy and Axel were in the room too, which was also pretty great, but Tyrell was the one guy Lorenzo would openly admit was his friend. Sure, he also had Andy, Axel, Kayla, Zen, and a bunch more people he could ostensibly say he was friends with, but him and Ty just clicked on another level.

Sharing a bed with the big dude wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows though. Lorenzo hated sleeping with clothes on, it felt too confining and stuffy. He didn’t wanna make the dude too uncomfortable though, so he relented to wearing his briefs to bed. He reached a hand down to adjust himself a bit. Ugh. these hotel blankets were so hot his crotch was sweating like crazy. Lorenzo kicked off the covers and continued to lay there in silence, letting the now cool air wash over his body. It was still pretty early, and he half expected to be the first one up out of all of them. Surprise, surprise, Ty beat him to it. Axel and Andy were probably out for a few more hours though. Lorenzo sat up in the bed for a second and peer over at their bed. A devilish smirk came out as her saw the two all cuddled up close with their arms and legs all tangled. A picture of this would be worth everything down the line he was sure. He grabbed his phone again and as discreetly and quietly as he could, kneeled up on the bed and craned his arms out over the sleeping duo in an attempt to snap the perfect blackmail photo.

Flash!

Oh shit he’d forgotten to turn that off. He pulled the phone back to himself quickly and watched the two for a second to make sure he didn’t wake them. When they didn't move, Lorenzo sighed in content and threw himself back on the bed to look at his reward. The picture was perfect, and Lorenzo couldn’t help but giggle maniacally to himself a bit when he thought of what Axel’s face would look like when he showed this to him.Lorenzo flipped over onto his stomach and quickly wrote out a text, attaching the image and sending it to his sister Marina back home.

>Here’s a little sneak peek of what i got to wake up to this morning. Gotta love teenage boys!

He smirked to himself. She’d 100% get the wrong idea, and that’s exactly what he wanted. The sound of a door opening alerted Lorenzo that he was no longer alone in the room, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Ty come out fully dressed and ready to go. Lorenzo’s eyes followed him as he made his way to the other side of the bed and began to dig through his bag. Ty finally noticed he was up, and offered a morning greeting, which Lorenzo returned.

“Morning!”

Ty said he was gonna step out with his vape, and that made Lorenzo suddenly crave a smoke of his own. Reaching down off the edge of the bed, he felt around for his own duffel bag, and when he found it pulled it up to the bed, moving himself into a cross-legged sitting position as he did. After rummaging for a moment, he found what he was looking for, His pack of Camel menthols and a lighter.

“I’ll meet you out there in a sec.”

Lorenzo hopped off the bed and stretched again, hearing another nice pop in his back. He needed that one. He pulled a pair of black mesh shorts from his bag and threw them on. They were super short, barely coming down to his mid thighs, but hey, at least he wasn’t just in his undies anymore. He quickly made his way to the bathroom to have a morning piss, sighing happily as he released the pent up stream. After washing his hands quickly he zoomed back out to the room, grabbing his smokes and phone and popping out onto the balcony where Ty was already chilling.

“Hey buddy. What’s shakin’?” He plopped himself down onto the only folding chair left and quickly lit himself a smoke. He took a deep drag, and released it with an audible groan of contentment.

“Nothing like some nicotine in the morning, am I right?”

Re: Room 713: We Didn't Start The Fire (Yet)

Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2019 7:46 am
by Shiola
"Oh yeah, enjoying that fresh D.C. air."

Ty's reply was sarcastic, but genial. He was genuinely glad that Lorenzo had gotten himself out of bed. Sitting out on the balcony was nice, but he more often than not spent the early morning hours alone. A short gust of wind blew past, and the wet hair on his head felt cool. Lorenzo didn't seem bothered, but the guy had always seemed remarkably comfortable with his shirt off.

"Honestly, I'm not sure I needed it, though I'm starting to dig this vaporizer even though I worried it'd make me look like a douchebag." Ty inhaled, exhaling a small cloud of vapor. It tasted pleasantly of green apples. He smiled, seeming to imply that the vaporizer had little to do with him being referred to that way.

Across the street, a flock of birds landed on a power line. It was pleasant to watch everything come to life at this time of day. People were forced to think and introspect in a limited time-span before the demands of their schedules kicked them out of whatever comfortable place they'd woken up in. Most probably never took the time to admire it. It was nice that they had the chance to now, and Ty hoped Lorenzo noticed it as he did. He had a feeling that despite their differences, the guy probably viewed the world in a similar way that he did. It was something about his attitude, his candor. They were kin, somehow.

"You sleep okay? I dunno if I'm that good of a cuddler." He grinned, shooting a glance back to the hotel room.

Re: Room 713: We Didn't Start The Fire (Yet)

Posted: Sat Apr 13, 2019 2:53 am
by Tonyksin
Lorenzo grinned cheekily at Tyrell’s sarcastic retort. This is one of the reasons he really enjoyed Ty; he was one of the few people he’d met who had no trouble giving whatever attitude Lorenzo gave them right back at him. Lorenzo respected that kind of shit. Not to get too mushy or anything, but as far as other guys went, Ty was probably the closest he had to a ‘best friend’. Sure, maybe that didn’t necessarily translate both ways, but that was alright. Lorenzo knew how he felt and that was more than enough. It had really been lucky he ended up in a room with the people he did. Although something told him the teachers didn’t exactly choose this room as randomly as they claimed.

Easier to bust one room for causing issues than having to bust multiple.

Good planning on their part, he mused.

Lorenzo took another drag from his cancer stick as he and Ty sat enjoying the crisp morning air. Ty made a comment about how his Vape made him look like a douche-bag, and Lorenzo rolled his eyes at the taller teen. If anything made him look like a douche it definitely wasn’t the vape, but Lorenzo didn’t need to say it, he could tell they were both thinking the same thing. That was the thing with him and Ty, they always seemed to be on the same wavelength. It was funny, but after everything that had been going on in his head the last few months, with the Kayden thing and then the mess he made at prom, Lorenzo really appreciated the quiet, no bullshit, no judgement times he got to spend with Ty.

Lorenzo got up from his seat and leaned on his elbows on the balcony railing looking out over the city. It really was gorgeous here. Yeah it still had the same city sounds as Chattanooga, but there was something different and beautiful about being so far from home and yet surrounded by so much familiarity. Lorenzo sighed contentedly and took another pull from his smoke. All of a sudden he felt a buzz from his pocket, and he reached in to pull his phone free. Unlocking it he saw he had a text from Parker of all people. Honestly he was surprised he was even awake this early.

Parker: Yo, L, is your shower free?

Lorenzo: I guess. Why?

Parker: I’m sharing a room with Myles.
Parker: Take a guess.


Lorenzo smirked as he read the reply. Myles was such a little bitch, it was no surprise he’d commandeer the shower all to himself. What a dumb cunt. He felt bad for Parker. If he’d been stuck rooming with that insufferable little shit he would have murdered him by now. Just thrown him right off the goddamn balcony. He smirked and shot back a reply.

Lorenzo: oh noooo lmao
Lorenzo: is the prissy princess hogging the water?
Lorenzo: doesnt he know no matter how long he stays in there hes never gonna come out clean.


He slipped the phone back into his pocket for now and giggled under his breath at his own joke. If roasting Myles was an Olympic sport he’d have the gold fucking medal. From day one with that little monster he just rubbed him the wrong way. Honestly the thought that after graduation he may never have to see his shitty meerkat face again was one of the best things about high school being over. Him and that pepto bismol looking bitch he was a yap-yap dog for. He was shaken out of his hate-mongering by Ty’s voice, and he turned around to face him.

“Well, I’ve definitely had better cuddles, that’s for sure. But there’s something nice about spooning with a big strong guy like you.” He said with a laugh and a wink.

“Although, we obviously didn’t have nearly as good a night as those two.” He pointed inside with a devious grin.

“I got some nice evidence of their first night together too, Wanna see?” He pulled out his phone and quickly clicked his gallery open, bringing up the photo he took moments before and turning the phone so Ty could get a glimpse.

“I’m almost jealous.” He laughed and took another drag.

Re: Room 713: We Didn't Start The Fire (Yet)

Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2019 1:23 am
by Shiola
Ty looked at the picture on Lorenzo's phone, the image displayed a perfectly shot version of the scene he'd witnessed moments earlier. It amused him to think that either of those two would find the situation awkward, especially given the less-than-typical proclivities of half of the room.

Three quarters now, if you really want to get technical about it.

Physical contact with other guys was a taboo Ty didn't share. It might've been the fact that Elliott was the only loving or affectionate male he'd ever really known growing up that made him not at all opposed to hugs or close contact. The main reason Ty wasn't that kind of cuddly was that he appreciated his personal space, and never really got too much comfort out of people he didn't care much for. Sure, if Lorenzo decided he needed a man-pillow at night he wasn't going to shove the guy off, but there was a limit. If it was reached, Ty would answer with a shove.

What he wouldn't answer with was the soon-to-be hilarious display of reactions between those two, and he smiled at the thought.

"Oh, they look so comfy together. I really hope you've sent that to someone." A text message preview appeared on Lorenzo's phone, and his thumb brushed against the preview enough to open a text from Parker.

💯
Gonna be a few, working out first.


Myles. Normally someone like him would fly under Ty's notice, or otherwise be someone who'd earn a shove in the school corridor for one remark too many. They lived close to one another though, less than a block away. He knew where that kid lived, how he lived. A lot about him rubbed Ty the wrong way, and he saw an opportunity to further ingratiate himself. Hatred wasn't the best thing to bond over, but it was one of the more fun things to bond over.

"Talking about Myles, huh?" He pointed to the phone. "Your text popped up."

Ty leaned back in the chair, sighing deeply.

"I can't say I like that kid." He took a short drag of his vape, interrupting it as he continued. A gesture that amplified the emotions that were just barely present, for effect. "He lives in my neighborhood. He's got a job 'cause he - has - to have a job, you know what I mean? I get the struggle, and I'd be a little sympathetic to his attitude - if he wasn't Ivy's hanger-on. Queen Bitch gets off on having a pet gay, and the little guy probably thinks having a rich friend means people don't think you're white trash."

Smiling, Ty cast another gaze out towards the city.

"It doesn't."

Re: Room 713: We Didn't Start The Fire (Yet)

Posted: Wed May 01, 2019 1:35 am
by Tonyksin
Lorenzo smiled devilishly as he showed Ty the glorious blackmail he’d acquired this fine morning. He could already imagine how red Axel’s face was going to get when he eventually showed the photo to him. The image of his face alone made him giddy with glee. An embarrassed Axel was his favorite Axel after all. He really couldn’t help himself around the redhead, he just loved messing with him. If he didn’t make it so damn easy it wouldn’t be half as fun, so really it was his own fault. Lorenzo felt his brow twitch a bit when he thought that. It brought up bad memories, and he willed himself to push thoughts of that night at prom out as quickly as then came. Messing with Axel wasn’t the same as what he did that night. This was all in good fun, so it was completely different.

Right?

Luckily Ty mentioned that a text came in, and that was enough distraction for Lorenzo to cut off that train of thought right away. Ty spoke about his feelings on Myles, while Lorenzo quickly spun his phone back around and read the text.

Parker > Gonna be a few, working out first.

Lorenzo raised his eyebrow in confusion. Since when the hell did Parker workout? Lorenzo mentally shrugged and shot back a quick reply.

Lorenzo > Okay? O_o
Lorenzo > Whatever you say dude


He clicked the phone screen off after hitting send and looked back up to Ty, listening as he spoke on Myles. Lorenzo was surprised that Myles lived so close to Ty, but then again, he’d never really been over his friend’s house before, so how would he know? Ty matched Lorenzo’s own feelings on Myles and his sycophantic adoration for cotton candy Barbie, and Lorenzo could only nod along in agreement. Sure, on his own Myles wasn’t the best person around, but he would be just barely tolerable. Add Ivy into the mix though, and you just have two unspeakably horrible people that you’d rather blow out your eardrums than listen to for any amount of time.

“You’re right. It doesn’t change who you are.”

Lorenzo’s eyes shot downwards as another toxic thought ran through his brain. Really, who was he to say anything about anyone else? It was one thing to call people horrible because of who you think they are, but it was quite another to KNOW how horrible you yourself are from your actions. Lorenzo grimaced at the thought. He was the real monster here, not Ivy or Myles. They were just bad on the outside, who knows what they’re like behind closed doors when no one’s watching. The only person he really knew was himself.

And he was garbage right down to his core.

Lorenzo took a seat again and dropped his face into his hands for a moment. That night was still haunting him, no matter what he did to try and keep it out. In school he’d done everything he possibly could to avoid Artem after the fact. He didn’t even dare to show his face to Kayden again either, knowing that if he looked at the blonde he’d just remember everything he did that night all over again. For a few weeks after he hadn’t been able to sleep, waking up from horrible nightmares every few hours in a cold sweat. He would lock himself in the shower sometimes just so he could cry and scream. He didn’t know how to handle these feelings of hatred for himself over what he’d done to that boy. He lifted his face and looked over at Ty. Ty was by far the closest friend he’d ever allowed himself to have since Demetri. Maybe… Maybe he could help him figure out how to fix everything.

How to fix himself.

“Ty…” He started looking at the other boy with a seriousness that felt almost out of place on his usually jovial and snarky face.

“I did something really messed up.” He felt his chest tighten as he continued. “I don’t know what to do. It’s been eating me alive.” He rubbed the knuckles on his right hand as he spoke, the mostly-faded scars from that night throbbing all of a sudden as he spoke.

“I hurt someone really bad, and I didn’t mean to. Not like that, man.” He felt himself choke up a bit as he continued, but it didn’t stop him as he spoke on.

Lorenzo told Ty everything on that balcony. About Kayden at Swiftball. About how he felt about him. About Prom Night. About his plan to make Kayden jealous. About how he tricked Artem into following him. About how he took advantage of the situation. About the aftermath and how disgusting and vile he felt. About how ever since he couldn’t look himself in the eyes in the mirror anymore. By the end the tears were flowing down his face freely.

“I should have stopped. I knew it, I could see his face. He never fucking said no, so I just did it, but I should have fucking stopped.” He let out a small sob as his eyes continued to bore into the floor of the balcony.

“I don’t know how to fix it… I just…” He looked up at Ty, hoping to see some form of compassion in his friend’s eyes.

“I’m not a good person Ty… I’m a fucking monster. I hurt him and I don’t know how to make it go away.”

Re: Room 713: We Didn't Start The Fire (Yet)

Posted: Fri May 03, 2019 8:43 am
by Shiola
It was nice to see that his words had landed well. Lorenzo seemed to appreciate Ty’s disdain. On some level it made him feel better too, to know that those who’d done him harm weren’t exactly popular. Myles had barely spoken to Ty, but he lumped him in with Ivy in his mind. He was sure for every bad idea she had, he was no doubt supporting it.

Ty’s ruminations on those two were cut short as he noticed Lorenzo mentally shift gears. What he’d said seemed to drag up some kind of painful memory, or at least an uncomfortable train of thought. For a moment Ty was caught off guard by the conversation’s difficult turn, and was fully prepared to change the subject again. There was a lot to talk about, after all.

No, something really seemed to be gnawing at Lorenzo. Ty had a feeling this was coming; the whole trip he had seemed distracted and evasive. Though curious, Ty had learned not to press the issue with these kinds of things. He’d learned in the last few weeks that he had done this kind of thing to press for weakness in people. If someone opened up, it meant that they trusted him. To force such a situation wasn’t a very nice thing to do.

It made sense that he’d open up to Ty. They’d been close, at least insofar as they could be honest with one other. Other than Erika, Lorenzo probably knew more about Ty than anyone else.

That isn’t saying much.

Ty looked to his knuckles as Lorenzo mentioned hurting someone badly. It didn’t make sense that he’d be broken up about getting in a fight, unless it went to a level far beyond a scrap. No, it wasn’t that, and Lorenzo made that much clear.

Then what? Ren’s a lot of things but not someone I’d ever noted as being all that concerned with what other people thought, or felt. “Anyone Night Stand” might as well be the kid’s anthem.

There wasn’t any pre-empting this, he had to let him vent. Sometimes it was important enough to just put the problem into words, especially if he’d been hanging onto this for as long as Ty suspected. Taking the occasional hit of his vape pen as Lorenzo continued, Ty hung on every word. Whatever it was, he expected Ty to have some kind of perspective on it.

I’d better get it right, then.

Explaining the situation he’d found himself in at Swiftball. The kind of situation Ty figured he’d run into someday. No doubt it had thrown him for a loop. The guy fancied himself someone who could keep things at a surface level, but Ty had always figured there was more going on there than most people expected. That was one of the things he liked about him, much as it seemed like a recipe for disaster. It was interesting.
-
As Lorenzo explained what happened at prom, a pit began to develop in Ty’s stomach. He set down the vape pen beside him. Pieces started to fall together in his head, as he spoke about the contrived plan he’d put together to make himself feel better about his own sorry choices.

Ty could feel his jaw clench as he was told a story he now knew he didn’t want to hear. The muscles in his forearms tensed. Every predatory instinct he possessed was kicked into overdrive, telling him to leap across the balcony and destroy this person in front of him.

Seven stories. Half what killed my brother. That’d be enough to break him. Maybe not for sure, though. Someone might see. He might just do it all by himself, anyways.

If Lorenzo had been looking, he might’ve noticed how still Ty had become. How he could do little else but maintain a fixed, blank expression as he wrestled with what exactly he could allow himself to do.

He raped Artem. That’s what happened, but he won’t even call it for what it is. Who the fuck am I talking to right now?

Tyrell’s mind was racing, questioning how he could have been such a poor judge of character. How he could have ever associated with someone like this. Someone who could do something so reprehensible, and be so weak as to then collapse and feel sorry for himself afterwards.

Much as he felt he should’ve maybe thought of Artem’s well-being, Ty didn’t know him. Knew enough to know he didn't deserve something like this happening to him at all.

Who does?

Maybe he could guess what emotional trajectory he was on, but it wasn’t his problem to solve. The reason why Artem didn’t just bash Lorenzo’s head in for doing what he had done evaded him, and he knew that any effort to speak to the boy was going to end in making the situation worse.

No, you want me to solve your problem, you son of a bitch. That’s my place in this.

It was so viciously malignant to do something like that, and now here he was was just trying to save his own ass. Capable enough to do something awful, but too weak to own up to it, to find a way to justify it like every other evil bastard managed to find a way to do.

Though, that was what he was doing right now, wasn’t it? Trying to fix things.

Worse, trying to wrap me into helping him fix it.

Of course. They were honest with each other. Straight-up. That was the best part of their friendship, wasn’t it? He always felt like they were the same on some level. Like they might’ve seen the world through the same lens. Had the same terrible ideas. Same sense of humour. Trusted each other when they didn’t trust much of anyone else.

This was the kind of person Ty was drawn to. The kind of person he called a friend.

”I should’ve fucking stopped…" Yes, you should have.

A thought crossed Ty’s mind, and it cut through the rage and palpable feeling of betrayal that threatened to do Lorenzo grievous bodily harm, and end the trip prematurely. For a moment, he thought of his sister’s face at Elliott’s funeral. Almost thirty, and barely recognizable from the teenager he’d known. The most familiar thing about her that he saw was the tension, the look that a person had when they were doing everything in their power just to remain stoic, to hold it together. It was the look he’d seen when she had told him what their father had done. He remembered so clearly the still tone of her voice as she told him a story that physically hurt to hear. She spared no details.

It brought a sense of serenity to Ty, as he now knew exactly what to tell Lorenzo. What Lorenzo needed to know was what kind of person he had given this sensitive piece of information to.

They had similar qualities, but he wasn’t that kind of a person.

Tyrell was a different kind of monster.
-
As Lorenzo looked up, he saw a look of concern on Ty’s face. A compassionate half-smile. One couldn’t smile at hearing this kind of story, but a friendly face was definitely what Lorenzo wanted to see. Ty grabbed Lorenzo’s hand, and pulled him closer.

“Hey. Come here.”

Ty pulled him into a hug, and Lorenzo cried into his shoulder. He kept it tight, holding Lorenzo close. He needed this, and it needed to feel genuine.

“It’s okay Ren. It’s okay, here, lemme have that.”

As they parted, Ty grabbed the cigarette from Lorenzo’s hand and set it aside on the glass table next to them. Ty began, his voice steady. Kind.

“You’re not a monster. A monster is the kind of person who would do what you did, and feel nothing. Who’d find a way to justify it to himself, who wouldn’t think past his own interests. Who’d not think twice about doing it again. That’s not you. Bad person, though. Maybe. We’ve all got shit to work on, terrible things that hide inside us. Maybe this is yours. The important thing is, you’re not alone. I think I know where you’re coming from here.”

Lorenzo looked like he was about to reply, and Ty held up a finger, as if he was trying to work out what he had just heard.

“I guess, if I’m hearing you right, this all started because you felt like having feelings for someone was a weakness you couldn’t afford, so you had to do something to fix that. It didn’t matter the consequences, it didn’t matter how it hurt anyone else, you just had to. People are complicated, and the closer the get the more those complications can hurt you. I pretty much don’t let anyone in. I know what its’ like. Keep parts of myself closed off, even to-”

Ty paused. It wasn’t difficult to say the words, but the feeling of betrayal still lingered as he spoke them.

“-close friends. I don’t do people well, and I’ll do anything to keep myself at a distance sometimes. That part of you that’s screaming in your head right now, telling you that you’re a bad person for doing what you did? I killed that part of me growing up because it was the only way to survive. It’s not coming back. It had to go for me to live, you understand?”

Lorenzo seemed to nod. Ty could see he was still crying, though Ty’s words were distracting him enough he wasn’t sobbing like before.

Thank fuck for that.

“It doesn’t help you, though. Now I do something and I hear about how terrible it was afterwards, from other people. Not from in my head, but from people I’ve hurt. People who see what I’ve done and think that I’m garbage for it. Erika’s helping me figure stuff out but like, I’ve got a long way to go.”

He gently took hold of Lorenzo’s hand.

“I’m glad you trust me. This isn’t something you can really say out in the open, and it really isn’t an easy fix. You did hurt someone, you know that. It’s painful to think about because it fucking should be. If it wasn’t you’d have a problem. If you didn’t feel anything for doing something like this, you’d be-“

Ty sat back and paused, glancing out to the hotel room. Finally visually reacting to the revelation he'd felt moments before. The other two still seemed to be asleep. Good. Ty shuffled in his seat, seemingly troubled, before hanging his head. As if what he was about to say was a difficult admission to make. Seeing someone else cry made it easier to look like he was about to.

“-you’d be like me. I’m not going to lie to you Lorenzo, I wish I could feel what you’re feeling right now. I did something that I think is probably really messed up too, except I don’t really feel anything for it. I can't let people know about it, and I don’t know if there’s any fixing it.”

Not fucking likely.

Re: Room 713: We Didn't Start The Fire (Yet)

Posted: Tue May 07, 2019 1:45 am
by Tonyksin
Lorenzo searched his friend’s face on the balcony hoping to find compassion and care. He knew he didn’t deserve it, but he hoped for it all the same. Ty looked back at him with a look that felt real and concerned, and it took a bit of the weight off of Lorenzo’s shoulders for a moment. Ty reached forward and grabbed his hand, pulling him towards him and beckoning him closer. Lorenzo felt his face contort in his grief and he allowed himself to be brought into Ty’s embrace. Ty squeezed him tight to his chest and Lorenzo felt himself melting into his friend’s strong arms. It was odd, allowing himself to let all his barriers down like this wasn’t the norm, and if this had happened a few weeks ago he wouldn’t have allowed it. But after everything that had transpired recently, he needed this so badly he couldn’t even formulate it into words.

Ty took the half-finished cigarette from him and pulled him in tighter, if that was even possible. Then he began to speak, telling Lorenzo he wasn’t a monster, he wasn’t the kind of person who could do what he did and not feel bad about it, so that meant he wasn’t. Somehow, listening to Ty, Lorenzo allowed himself to believe that just a little. Ty turned it around and told him he might be a bad person though, and Lorenzo pushed back to look at him as he spoke. It hit hard to be told he was right, but how could he argue the facts. He was a bad person. Good people didn’t do the kinds of things he’d done. That was inarguable.

Ty reminded him he wasn’t alone though, and Lorenzo felt his shoulders un-tense and he looked at Ty with a soft, sad expression. He wanted to speak, to apologize for burdening him with this, or to thank him for not hating and abandoning him because of this, but Ty held up his finger, and continued on. Ty began to analyze what had happened, hitting on some points that Lorenzo hadn’t even allowed himself to breach. Yes. This all began because he caught feelings for Kayden and he wanted to avoid them so badly he hurt someone who didn’t deserve it.

“It didn’t matter the consequences, it didn’t matter how it hurt anyone else”

He was right. Lorenzo was selfish and only ever cared about his own well-being. Screw the world, as long as he felt safe and secure. That’s always how he’d survived since that day he watched his best friend abandon him. If no one was close to you, they wouldn’t have the chance to hurt you. Self-preservation, that’s what he told Julien, right? But he was wrong. People could still hurt you even if they weren’t close. You could still get hurt. You could be the one who did the hurting too. Lorenzo still felt the wet tears running down his face. In the end, he’d hurt himself, and ruined another person.

He was despicable.

Ty kept talking, saying he knew what it was like to try and keep people out. That they were the same in that sense. But there was a difference. Ty didn’t have that voice inside him telling him he was terrible for what he’d done. Ty let that part of him die a long time ago. It had to die for Ty to keep going, he said, and asked Lorenzo if he understood. Lorenzo nodded, staring at Ty in slight confusion and maybe a hint of trepidation. The two were so close it was almost uncomfortable all of a sudden. Ty continued, saying that he needed others to tell him when he did something bad now, that he couldn’t realize it for himself anymore. He took Lorenzo’s hand in his, and told him he was glad Lorenzo trusted him. Lorenzo stared at their joined hands for a moment, before returning his gaze to the large teen before him. Ty told him it was good that he felt bad for what he’d done, because if he hadn’t he’d be just like HIM.

Ty’s entire body language shifted now, becoming more hunched and visibly troubled by the second. Lorenzo felt the mood sour all of a sudden and there was a knot beginning to form in the pit of his stomach. Ty told him that there was something he’d done. Something really messed up. But he wished he could feel like Lorenzo had. He couldn't tho. He couldn’t tell people and there was no fixing it. Lorenzo stared at him in stunned silence for a second. It almost looked like Ty was going to cry but… there was something… wrong there. It didn’t feel right. For some strange reason Lorenzo felt himself get nervous and a bit afraid. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up and he felt his skin crawl with goosebumps. His lips shook a bit as he asked the question burning in his throat, even though the fear nearly stopped him.

“Wh-what did you do, Ty?”

Re: Room 713: We Didn't Start The Fire (Yet)

Posted: Tue May 07, 2019 9:31 am
by Shiola
It was his turn to tell a story. The words came to him easily in his mind. Nevertheless his eyes darted around and he shuffled uneasily in the patio chair.

“Well, uhh. I’m not going to... No, I’ll just… Look, there’s no nice way to explain this, so I’m just going to come out with it.”

Ty sat forward on his elbows, his hands clasped in front of his face. He furrowed his brow, trying to think of where to begin. There was an uncomfortable pause, and then he dropped his hands to his knees and began to speak. His tone was even, and the rhythm of his speech indicated that while he’d never spoken to anyone about this before, he’d certainly thought about it.

You know what happens to monsters, friend?

“I told you my Dad’s disabled, right?” Lorenzo seemed to follow, and Ty continued.

“It was some kind of brain thing, like a stroke. I can’t really remember the exact medical term, but it was spurred on by heavy drinking and the stress of losing my brother. It pretty much destroyed him. He can’t really speak or read anymore and his movement is pretty limited, but he’s still there on the inside. His memories, personality, all of that still there. Still knows what’s going on around him, still understands people.”

He sighed and scratched the back of his neck, as if he couldn’t decide whether or not he had an itch or needed to stretch his arm. It showed stress, animating his meaning in his body as well as his words. The easiest way to display emotions one wasn’t actually feeling was to start from the truth.

“So this means that my Mom and I have to look after him. His pension is still coming in, but the medical coverage isn't great. Keeps the two of us working all the time, even when we’re not at work. Making sure he eats, helping him to the bathroom, giving him stuff to keep his mind occupied. A little bit of everything. It’s really, really hard on us. I can only work high school kid hours, but she works so often it’s mostly me looking after him. I don’t really see much of my mom.”

As he spoke, he looked Lorenzo straight in the eyes. Most of the time when Ty spoke his eyes darted to different parts of a room, especially if he was nervous. He was the kid that wouldn’t look at adults when they spoke, and it was a force of habit he had a hard time breaking. When he wanted to make a point though, he held his gaze.

“It's just my Dad and me."

Then, a beat. Not an intentional pause. How was he supposed to say this? Was he guilty for it? Did that make any sense?

Of all of the things I could feel guilty for, not this.

Moreover, in this moment it was especially important to make that abundantly clear. Ty continued to hold his gaze. That was the moral of the story, the one that he wanted Lorenzo to understand.

“So some days when I’m supposed to make sure he eats, I just don’t. He’ll go hungry. I switch it up so he never really knows when I’ll just ‘forget’. At first he thought I was just lazy, but he caught on after I left a bowl of soup just too far out of reach one morning."

Much as Ty wished to coldly and clearly relate this story to Lorenzo, he couldn’t help but recall his actions with a certain degree of satisfaction and joviality.

"The other thing I have to do is we have to read him all of the letters and emails his friends send - birthday cards, Christmas cards, that kinda shit. I make sure he doesn’t get that many guests, and that the only letters I read are about good things happening to better people. Far as he can tell, his friends just fuckin' forgot about him.”

It was the same tone he used to tell Lorenzo about scraps he’d gotten into, wanders he’d taken, or people he’d slept with. Ty didn’t expect to feel so free in explaining himself, and his tone became increasingly uneven and lighthearted as he carried on describing various acts of justified cruelty.

We're friends, after all. Just being honest with one another.

Gauging Lorenzo for a reaction, he took a hit of his vaporizer and pressed on.

“Sometimes I’ll just make shit up. One morning I pretended I was going to read him an email from his brother - and I just re-read my brother’s suicide note to him. Most of it was about how Elliot thought he was an awful person, not good enough for anyone, a waste of space. How he'd failed his siblings. Dad blamed himself, and I let him. Still does. It still hurts.”

Ty looked to the railing.

“Was a fourteen story fall, about twice the height of this. I printed out some pretty gristly crime scene photos and showed them to him after I finished reading it, and told him it was Elliott. There’s so little left of those bodies you can’t really tell anyways. Put ‘em where he could see them, in front of the TV.”

I made sure to get home before Mom that day.

“I’m not making a full-time job out of this, but like - I’m trying to make him spend his days afraid, not knowing what I’m going to do next. It’s a lot of little things. Like I’ve got to cut his nails because he doesn’t have too much manual dexterity. I mean I don’t really have to but it makes it look like we’re looking after him well enough. Sometimes I’ll slip the clippers underneath a nail. Just enough that he’s afraid it’ll happen again.”

Ask me why I’m doing this. Please. Give me an excuse to tell you.

“One thing I like to do is before I leave for school, I’ll switch off the circuit breaker in the basement so there’s no power to the house. He can’t use a phone, can barely walk. Can’t even speak, really. He just has to sit in the dark, alone, for hours. Thinking about all of the terrible really messed-up shit he’s done in his life. What he could've done to deserve where he is now.”

Ty sat back in the chair, as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Without missing a beat, he finished his explanation with a casual candor usually reserved for explaining fashion choices or taste in music.

“It’s probably not the right thing to do. Cruel, I guess. But it’s important to me. I need him to feel like his own body is a prison. That he’s alone and has nowhere to turn to."

Like Katie. Like Artem.

"It makes me feel better knowing he's at my mercy. The days I do this, I think about how I don’t believe in Hell. It’d be nice to think that bad people always got what they deserved, it's just not true. The world's full of bad people who never have to account for it - but at least he believes in Hell, now."

Re: Room 713: We Didn't Start The Fire (Yet)

Posted: Thu May 09, 2019 2:54 am
by Tonyksin
Whatever he could have possibly been expecting Ty to say, it never would have come near the reality.

At first Lorenzo sat and listened intently, wiping some of the leftover wetness from his face with the back of his hand. Ty started in what looked like deep thought, and Lorenzo braced himself mentally for whatever ended up coming out. He owed Ty that much at least. Ty looked troubled, and the feeling in the pit of Lorenzo’s stomach grew a bit bigger. When Ty started to speak finally Lorenzo flinched back a bit reflexively. He’d been so focused on what he was going to say that when the words finally came they startled him a bit. Ty began with how his father was disabled, which Lorenzo already knew. He told him how the stress of losing his brother put his father in that situation. Lorenzo could only imagine. If he’d lost any of his sisters he didn’t know what he’d do.

Apparently Ty’s dad was so bad that he couldn’t really do anything for himself. Lorenzo didn’t know that part. It must have been hard. Ty’s mom worked all the time because of it, and Ty had to help take care of his father. Lorenzo respected that. His own father was like his ultimate idea of what a man should be, and he knew that if something like that ever happened to his own father, he’d be by his side forever if need be. Ty had a lot more going on than he ever let on. Ty said it was mostly just his dad and him home most days. He paused and Lorenzo listened intently, leaning forward a bit unconsciously to listen better.

But then it all seemed to take a left turn.

Ty was talking but Lorenzo’s mind was reeling. He told him how he’d sometimes purposefully forget to feed his father, and makes sure it’s random so the man won’t know when he’s going to eat. And how he’d leave food just out of the man’s reach to toy with him. How he’d not read him letters from his friends to make him feel alone and forgotten. He said it all so nonchalantly, it was making Lorenzo’s skin crawl. There was no emotion in his voice, he was just talking matter-of-fact. Like he was reading a grocery list. Lorenzo’s mouth was slightly agape as he stared at the boy in front of him, afraid to make a sound before listening to everything. He suddenly felt a cold chill and wrapped his arms around his bare torso to try and keep it out.

Ty told him how he pretended to read him an email once but just read out his brother’s suicide note instead. Lorenzo’s breath caught in his throat. All of a sudden he felt dizzy. He told him how he made his father look at bloody horrible crime scene photos of suicide jumpers, and told him they were of his brother. How he wanted the man to live in a constant state of fear. How he’d cut hit father’s nails and sometimes instead he’d cut his fingers to make him afraid. Lorenzo’s eyes darted towards the doorway leading inside, and he wondered if he could make it before the towering force in front of him could stop him.

No. It wouldn’t work.

He looked back at Ty with a visible fear in his eyes. Ty continued. He wanted his father to feel like his body was a prison, and Lorenzo shuddered at the thought. That was worse than any hell he could imagine. The tears welled up in his eyes again. Ty told him how bad people get away with bad things, but at least his father believed he was in hell. Lorenzo dropped his head down to stare at the ground between them, his whole body was shaking now.

“Why are you telling me this?” His voice cracked as he spoke. His voice was shaky, and he couldn’t help the unconscious sob that released from his throat right after. The tears were spilling down his cheeks again, but not from misery.

These were from fear.

Re: Room 713: We Didn't Start The Fire (Yet)

Posted: Thu May 09, 2019 6:18 am
by Shiola
If his mask had been real, Ty would've thrown it off the balcony. All he had for Lorenzo now was hatred.

"I'm telling you this because of my sister. I grew up confused, wondering why every night he went to tuck her into bed, I could hear her crying herself to sleep. He was so nice to her and so terrible to me. What was he doing that made her cry?"

Ty picked Lorenzo's cigarette off the table and took a drag of it, flicking it off the balcony afterwards.

"I never found out the details, but I can guess. I do know that when she turned eighteen, he outright raped her. She told me that to my face, right after it happened. I guess that was the breaking point. I was twelve. I was the only one who believed her. Confronted my Dad about it. That was the first time he threatened to kill me, and I believed that too. I saw what it did to her. It hurt her in a way that wasn't going to heal. She went off to University a few weeks later and never came back. Left all of her things. I didn't see her for five years. Even then I could see it still weighing on her. How some days it probably just hurt to live."

Now Lorenzo knew the moral of the story. There was no way he couldn't, at this point. Nevertheless, Ty spelled it out. It felt good to do so.

"You can see it in their eyes, what it does to people. I'm sure it's in Artem's. Everyone who cares about him is going to see it and they're going to feel fucking helpless to do anything about it. So they'll spend more time than you'd ever believe thinking about what they should or could do to you."

Lorenzo seemed to continue to sob, and it only made Ty feel more enraged.

How can you still feel sorry for yourself, you piece of shit?

He very suddenly clapped his hands in front of Lorenzo's face. Leaning in as close as he felt he could stand, Ty lowered his voice in case anyone else could hear.

"Look at me. You raped Artem. You raped him. There is no way you can fix this."

Ty's fists clenched. His knee tapped ever-so-slightly as his eyes bored into Lorenzo's. He knew what he wanted to do to him, and was painfully aware of how much it wasn't an option at this very moment. There was no amount of hurt he could put on him that was worth losing the opportunity to try and heal the wounds Ty still felt.

The wounds that Lorenzo had just cut open.

Seven stories isn't high enough.

Re: Room 713: We Didn't Start The Fire (Yet)

Posted: Sat May 11, 2019 2:05 am
by Tonyksin
Lorenzo flinched again when Ty spoke. The venom in his voice was palpable, and it scared him. Ty had never spoken to him like this before. In fact, he’d never heard Ty speak to anyone like this before. The sheer hate in his words struck Lorenzo like blows to the midsection, forcing him to tuck himself forward as he continued to let loose the stream of tears in stunned silence. Lorenzo didn’t know about Ty’s sister, but he wished he had before he made the stupid mistake of opening his mouth. What Ty’s father did was unspeakable, but it wasn’t the same as this, was it? Lorenzo’s mind was racing to try and justify what he’d done versus what he’d just been told.

They weren’t the same, no, Lorenzo felt awful about it, so it was different. He didn’t do it on purpose, the situation just got out of control. He didn’t go into it with plans to hurt Artem… everything just happened so fast that he made a terrible mistake. That’s all it was, a mistake. A gut-wrenchingly massive mistake that had been haunting his sleep for the last few weeks. But he wasn’t like Ty’s father, he didn’t enjoy it, and he didn’t want to do it again.

They were different, dammit!

Ty’s hands clapped in front of him and he snapped his vision up from the ground in shock. He finally took in Ty’s face. He’d never seen such a disgusted, hateful look on anyone’s face before in his life. Ty leaned in close, so close he could feel the breath coming out of his mouth blow over his face. Ty was looking directly into his eyes, and all Lorenzo saw was revulsion in them.

Suddenly, he felt like he needed to throw up.

"Look at me. You raped Artem. You raped him. There is no way you can fix this."

Lorenzo sat there slack-jawed as he stared into the hateful abyss of Tyrell’s eyes. That word. It was a word he’d unconsciously been avoiding. Hell, maybe it had been consciously, who knows. It made everything feel too real. Too terrible. But now it had been said. Twice, even. And now Lorenzo’s brain couldn’t stop screaming that word on repeat.

Rape.

Raped him.

Lorenzo felt his whole body shaking at this point. He tried to push himself back from Ty but his body wasn’t listening. His breathing was becoming faster, almost to the point where he felt he couldn’t catch his breath. His heart was beating a mile a minute, almost as if it were trying to burst free from the confines of his chest. His vision was getting blurred, and he felt like his focus was fading. The tears had stopped now, there was nothing left. He finally found the strength to stand himself up, and he backed away from Ty as much as he could in the confined space, only stopping when the railing behind him blocked his passage. He never took his eyes off of Ty’s. He couldn’t, they felt like they were baring into his very soul.

His phone fell from his lap and landed on the floor when he did, but he paid it no mind. Frantically, he dug into his pockets to find his cigarettes and lighter. He fumbled with the pack, his shaky hands making it difficult to pull out a cigarette. In his frustration he dropped the pack, spilling its contents all over the balcony.

“Fuck.” He muttered pathetically.

He let himself drop down to a crouch and attempted to collect them, but his hands were still shaking so horribly that he couldn’t grab anything. He became so frustrated that he just let what he had left in his hands fall and instead brought his hands to rub over his face and tangle into his hair, gripping the green curls tightly. He stared at the ground in shame and agony, shaking his head back and forth as the words continued to sink into his mind.

“I...I...I didn’t mean to.” He started with a pathetic whine, his voice breaking with each word.

“What do I do? I didn’t…”

Re: Room 713: We Didn't Start The Fire (Yet)

Posted: Tue May 14, 2019 5:50 pm
by Shiola
YOU DIDN’T MEAN TO?!

Maybe there was enough of an excuse. Maybe he’d be doing everyone a favour if he did. Maybe Artem would never go to the cops, Lorenzo wouldn’t have the good sense to open his wrists up or turn himself in. Didn’t he spend an afternoon telling someone that justice never really came to those who deserved it?

He’d wake the others. Then the three of them would find a way to deal with it, their own way.

No one will miss you.

A buzzing sound distracted Tyrell, tempering his hatred with annoyance. What the hell could be so important that he was getting a dozen text messages about it? Ty pulled his cellphone out of his pocket, momentarily ignoring Lorenzo. Whatever anyone wanted from him, it was going to have to-
[+] Erika
Erika:
> Ty
> Tyrelllllllllllll
> Tyrell Kaapo Lahti
>L-39 20mm Antitank Rifle
> Fren
> Dude
> Frendo
> Frendude
> Wake yo-self
> You coming for breakfast? I hear tell there are waffles in our midst.

Me:
> Abso-freaking-loutely! I’ll meet you down there.

Erika:
> Okiedoke. <3
-wait. This wasn’t worth it. There was no part of this that could be worth losing everything over. He had been trying to move on from people like Lorenzo, not get dragged down with them. What was it Erika had told him?

”Ty, the more time you spend hating him, the more he can keep hurting you.”

Ty was thankful for the moment to pause, and think. He had to remember what this really was. It hurt, finding out what Lorenzo had done, what kind of person he really was. Both a predator, and someone so weak he didn’t have the courage to accept responsibility for being one. it wasn’t that he was just trying to put Lorenzo in his place, or stand up for someone who clearly didn’t have the strength to defend himself.

I really thought we could have been friends.

So much of what he was doing was lashing out. Trying to dull the pain of betrayal. He could dress it up in some sense of justice or principle all he wanted, but the truth was that it was just better than shedding a tear or desperately trying to find some way to not see this for what it was. Easier than trying to engage with someone this hopeless. More intuitive than leveling with Lorenzo, and showing him how hurt he really felt to hear what he'd done.

If I don’t walk away right now, neither of us are going to have a future. If I do, it’s just him. He’s a mess. He’ll end it all himself, if we’re lucky.

Ty pocketed his vape pen, and then turned and leaned down to Lorenzo. Truth was, there was only so much he could hurt someone so broken. He snickered, his hatred now once again behind something of a mask.

“Goddamn, you’re this much of a mess and you’re not even the one who got fucked against their will.”

He put his hands on Lorenzo’s shoulders, a gesture that would normally be reassuring but assuredly wasn’t.

“Look this really isn’t my problem, but I’m glad we had this talk. Now - I know who you really are, and you know who I really am. So I hope you realize just how much you don’t want to give me an excuse to make this my problem. Then I will hurt you, with impunity. Because after everyone finds out what you did -”

Ty straightened up, looming over Lorenzo.

“Who the fuck do you think is going to try and stop me?”

He took a step back, not waiting for a reply. It had to end here. There was no more indulging this, not if he wanted to get what he really wanted. Not if he wanted to move on. Ty turned opened the sliding door to the hotel room, offering a final thought to Lorenzo as he did so.

“Apparently you can take the stairs up to the roof, in case you were wondering.”

Didn’t really matter if the others heard that one. If they cared enough to ask Lorenzo what was wrong, he’d get to watch the fireworks. If not, it was vague enough he could lie about what he really meant. His eyes adjusting to the dim light, he could see the others still in bed.

Are these two still not awake?

It gave him a good excuse to shift gears. One he needed. A bright smile spread across his face as he half-sprinted over to the bed where Andy and Axel were lying together.

“Wakey wakey cuddlebugs!” He practically tore the sheets off of their bed, throwing the blankets aside. He could only laugh as they scrambled, no doubt realizing that they’d been close and hearing Ty's loud wakeup call.

“Y’all are fucking adorable, but we’re burning daylight here! Don’t you kids want some fuckin’ breakfast?”

He let the two of them sort themselves out as he grabbed his things and made for the door. Opening the door to the hallway, the warm air rushed in with its distinctive hotel smell. Looking back, he could still see a flash of Lorenzo’s green hair on the balcony, but quickly looked away as he walked into the hallway. The door shut with a satisfying thud. The part of him that he’d nearly overindulged had gone silent, as the good mood he’d woken up with seemed to clamber back to him. It still hurt to think about what Lorenzo had done, but the physical distance seemed to dull the pain.

As he heard the sound of other students leaving their hotel rooms, he smiled. Without thinking about it. Without trying.

I think that was the right thing to do, walking away. It must’ve been. I think I’ve needed to do that for a long time.

Ty was still smiling as he entered the elevator. People noticed him standing there, and started talking to him. Before long he’d stopped thinking about what had happened on the balcony.

I don't know about him, but maybe there’s hope for me, after all.

[Tyrell Lahti continued in Survival of the Fittest: Version 7]

Re: Room 713: We Didn't Start The Fire (Yet)

Posted: Tue May 14, 2019 11:05 pm
by Fenris
"Wuh—"

One second Axel was all nice and comfy, curled up under a big-ass blanket, limbs tangled around another warm body—a familiar sorta situation, in other words. Not one that he was super excited about changing. Mornings after were always super awkward, anyway. Better to keep your eyes closed as long as you could get away with it, right? Not that he was awake enough to actually remember the relevant details. Like who he was currently holding. Or where they were. Whatever, though.

The next second Axel was ice cold and realizing the body he was currently clinging to belonged to one Coriander "Andy" Silverman. As in, his guitarist. His best friend? The one he'd wanted to fuck for years but just kinda had to deal with how it was never gonna happen? That Andy Silverman?

The second after that Axel was on the floor.

>> Axel Fontaine continued from Room 709 but not quite: Fight!

Cool. This was where he lived now, he guessed. Maybe if he'd moved fast enough Andy hadn't noticed anything. Maybe. He spotted Tyrell, blanket-stealer and way-too-loud-for-this-early-in-the-morning culprit, not bothering to take any damn responsibility for his actions and heading out the door. "You're a goddamn monster, Ty," he grumbled, probably going unheard. But sure, he was awake now. Breakfast sounded good. Shoving pants on before anyone noticed his super obvious case of morning wood also sounded good. Usually it'd be Lorenzo he'd be trying to dodge on that particular point, but it looked like he'd already gotten up. Made his life a little easier, anyway. He grabbed the pair of jeans he'd ditched on the floor the night before and pulled them over the boxers he'd slept in. Kinda gross, but he could change properly later when he was half-stuffed with bacon and eggs and didn't feel completely dead inside.

"Fuck me, it's too early." He'd caught a glimpse of the side table alarm clock; any time before 11 AM basically shouldn't exist, and 7:30 on a not-school day was fucking ridiculous. No one could have blamed him if he just climbed back into bed. But Andy was there, so he wasn't gonna do that. "Whatever."

He seriously considered just going down shirtless, who the fuck was gonna care, but he scavenged a shirt from the floor and pulled that on. He considered not bothering with shoes, too, but he took the whole two minutes it took to drag his feet into a pair of Vans.

"You coming?" He nodded at Andy. Glancing at the open balcony door, he spotted green hair, which was one mystery solved that he hadn't actually been thinking was a mystery. Probably smoking. Kinda wanted a cigarette himself, now, but he oughta eat something first. Plenty of time for that. Way too much fucking time considering it was 7:30 in the morning. Today was gonna be too long.

"See ya, Renzo!"

He was halfway down the hall before he realized he was wearing Andy's shirt.

Goddammit.

>> Axel Fontaine continued elsewhere...

Re: Room 713: We Didn't Start The Fire (Yet)

Posted: Wed May 15, 2019 1:58 pm
by backslash
((Andy Silverman continued from Room 709 but not quite: Fight!))

One of Andy many talents was sleeping like a log, so Axel probably could have gotten away with sneaking away quietly if he'd had the wherewithal. Instead, Andy was jostled awake by Axel's flailing swan dive to the floor, and he rolled over to crack one eye open and examine the sight.

"Whatchadoin'?" He mumbled, words slurred with sleep. He also took the opportunity to stretch his legs out more now that he was the sole occupant of the bed; he'd been trying to be, like, minimally courteous about space, but man. Felt good to take up the whole thing.

While Axel puttered around getting himself decent, Andy enjoyed a couple of minutes stretched out before rubbing his hands over his face and finally sitting up with a groan. "Yeah, alright." Ty had already left, probably to head down to breakfast or catch Erika somewhere, and Lorenzo was apparently out on the balcony. A leisurely morning smoke sounded pretty good, but Andy wasn't one for cigarettes, and he didn't have any of his preferred stuff. Plus, showing up high to breakfast on the first real day of a school trip probably wasn't the best idea, even though it was sort of technically legal in D.C.

Maybe later, though.

Andy finally slid out of bed to scavenge up some clothes of his own. It took a minute to put two and two together.

"Dude, you stole my shirt!"

((Andy Silverman continued elsewhere))