Good Old Days (Rhink)

13: Study Session

"I'm going to fail." Link blabbed out into the air around them. They were walking on an old tattered sidewalk back to Link's house to study for an upcoming geometry test. The grit of the sidewalk underneath their busted up shoes almost sparkly. It was a hazy 2:24 pm on a Tuesday, nothing out of the ordinary. Rhett squinted in order to look ahead of him. The swipe of every step against the ancient cement making his backpack grow heavier.

Link opened the door as fast as possible, air moved out of the way quickly as the boys crammed themselves into the doorway. Ah, sweet, sweet, air conditioning.
"I can't believe Mrs. Aronson would give us a test on a Wednesday, I mean who in their right mind does that?!" Rhett chuckled to himself as Link slammed his book bag down on an empty kitchen chair. One with a flat wooden base, wooden detailed legs with little bars between to rest your feet on, and a rounded top. The black bag landing with a loud thud, and the chair shifting a little on the cream colored tiled floor. Link heaved.
"And I have a biology quiz on Friday." Link rolled his eyes. Rhett smiled. The bay window in the kitchen letting in as much as the afternoon sun in it could through the tall bushes that framed it outside. Rhett stretched out his arms towards Link and he sadly walked into them, being wrapped in a blanket of: 'It's ok'. Rhett knew how Link got when it felt like teachers were assigning too many assessments. After all these years, he thought Link would have gotten used to it by now. Link's dark hair practically nuzzled itself into Rhett's armpit. Link stood still not even returning the hug, just leaning on Rhett to support him through these 'troubling' times. Rhett placed his hands on Link's shoulders and pulled him away. He smiled and looked down at him, he returned it back with an exhale through his nose kind of laugh.
"Thanks." Link mumbled with a bashful glance away.

Link trailed towards the bowl of fruit that his mother had always kept on the counter.
"Apple?" He asked to the air.
"Sure." Rhett responded. The boys allowing the tender quietness to hang in the air as Link washed off the two deep red apples.
__________

Link gently thumbed the page of his book he had to read for English class. Propped up on his rickety bed with blue sheets and a walnut wood frame, he turned the thin page. Rhett finished up the last of his geometry questions sprawled out on the floor. An old mixtape they had made from two summers ago quietly played in Link's childhood radio placed on his matching walnut night stand. His sheer white curtains wafting with whatever tiny waft came seeping in through his open window. No words exchanged, they didn't need to be. Presence between the two was enough for them. The gentle scraping of Rhett's pencil on his paper and the crisp flip of Link's book the only sounds being made by the two of them.

Rhett placed his pencil down on his paper as he had finished his last math problem. He sighed and stretched, the muscles in his arms feeling like rubber and his back beginning to ache from the way he had laid. Rhett rolled his head and looked up towards Link, who seemed well intertwined with his book.
" 's good huh?" Rhett spoke quietly with a grin. Link peered towards him with a simper. Feeling like he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
"Yeah" He said as he shifted in his baggy green t-shirt.
"And you thought you were going to hate it." Rhett said as he got up and made his way out of Link's bedroom, down the hall, and towards the bathroom. It was a quaint little room. Tile on the floor stretching halfway up the walls, and a white sink that was much too short for Rhett. He paused for a second and looked at himself in the mirror.
If there's anywhere I'd rather be, it's right here.