Two teenage males: one cross country runner, and one football player that runs to stay fit. Laurance could run laps around Garroth if he pleased to, but he maintains a steady pace for Garroth to be able to follow.
The blond slows down, feeling a burning sensation in his muscles and a pain in his stomach. His throat screamed for water, and he doesn't want to ignore the feeling any longer. Garroth's pace begins to falter, and Laurance takes notice of this and gradually slows them down into a walk.
"I don't know why I run with you," Garroth pants, squirting water into his mouth. Laurance looks over at him, leaning up against the bench beside him. His best friend sits down on the wooden object, placing his hands on his head. "I nearly die each time."
"For a football player, you suck at having stamina." Laurance sits down beside Garroth, running his hand through his sweaty hair, and slouches forward in his seat. His elbows rest on his knees, eyes directed to the ground.
Garroth rolls his eyes. He starts to bite his lip, his palms growing sweaty for the worst reasons. An outsider looking in would think that Garroth harbored feelings for Laurance, and he was afraid to admit them at this time. He needed to admit something to him, but he was too nervous to say the whole thing.
"Can I take your sister to homecoming?"
Laurance stops for a moment, lifting his head up to look at Garroth. His eyebrows furrow. "Cadenza? Sure, I don't see why you would need my permission." When Garroth doesn't respond, Laurance grows skeptical. "You don't mean. . . Garroth, what the hell is wrong with you?"
In truth, Garroth has been asking himself this question ever since his feelings for a certain blonde appeared. He thought maybe it was infatuation from being around each other so much, or misplaced sister-like love. Or how he found her to be adorable simply because of how young she was and the small things she found enjoyable. Despite the hits to the head he'd cause or trying to shake the feelings away, they only burned into a greater flame.
"Laurance, you know me. It's not like I'm just trying to get into her pants," he says, standing from his place. Garroth winces at his own words, finding them to be a poor choice of vocabulary to use. There were far better things he could've said, and that was the only thing that came out at the time. "I'm being genuine here. I'll be a gentleman. Buy her a corsage, compliment her on her appearance, give her as many dances she could want. I don't know why you're so finicky with me wanting to take your sister to homecoming."
Laurance eyes him, feeling threatened by Garroth's nearly found height. He stands up to meet his eye level and narrows his blue orbs into tight little slits. "I can't seem to understand why you want to take her to homecoming to begin with."
Garroth's mouth opens to speak, but he shuts it soon after. He didn't know what he would tell Laurance. It certainly wasn't the time to break the news of his new emotions, but not answering made him sound like his intentions weren't pure.
Laurance scoffs at Garroth, taking off into a faster jog. At that moment, he didn't want to be around Garroth. Sure, he was overreaching, but he didn't understand why Garroth would want to go with his baby sister.
He never saw the two together. Laurance thought he was around Kandi more than Garroth was with Alex, so he didn't understand the sudden desire to go with her. He could've gone with Kandi, but it wasn't going to be romantically. Besides, Dante had already asked her mid-September.
Garroth calls for Laurance, forcing his legs to move forward to catch up with the brunet male. If he knew it was going to be this hard to ask Laurance, he would've gone directly to Alex and asked her instead. He would've cut out the middle man, but he would've felt guilty doing it.
Laurance feels a hand on his shoulder, and the grasp is tight. He stops, glaring back at Garroth. Garroth tries not to wince at the sudden anger directed towards him. He normally wasn't on the receiving end of Laurance's wrath.
"Look, it's one homecoming. She has two more after this one. If she doesn't like it, I'll stop here. You can't make choices for her," Garroth states, desperate for a proper gasp of air. He fights against himself. "I could've gone and asked her already. That's got to count for something, right?"
Laurance looks around them and sighs, shaking his head. "If you're as serious as you say you are," he starts, his words slowing down. He points off into the distance. "I want you to jump into that pond."
°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°
Vylad was never one to scroll through Pinterest, but he's found himself aimlessly doing it. He didn't even have a Pinterest account. At this point, he was feeling helpless. He walks into the living room, tossing his phone onto the couch.
Kandi looks up at him from her laptop, eyebrows furrowed together. "What was that for?" She asks, confusion lacing her voice.
The male sits at the other end of the couch, head in his hands. "For being so good at romance, I suck at it at the same time."
Kandi sighs and reaches for his phone, thumb flicking up on the pre-lit screen. Her eyes scan over multiple homecoming proposals, and her heart drops to her stomach. She didn't tell Vylad that she felt that Garroth was going to try and ask Alex to homecoming before Vylad could.
She was in her own catch 22, but the dilemmas were her brothers. She wanted to help her twin out as much as she could. He was her other half. But she also knew that Garroth was practically hopeless when it came to things like this on his own.
She eventually caves in. "Vylad, Garroth is going to ask Alex to homecoming too," Kandi says, avoiding eye contact with him. It was obvious to her that he liked their best friend. There was no doubt about it. She didn't want to see the hurt in his eyes because of it.
Neither one of the two twins make another sound. Vylad stares at her in disbelief, but Kandi can't make herself look at him. Vylad was angry with his brother. They both knew of their feelings towards Alex, but Vylad had liked her for so much longer than Garroth had. Garroth got everything that he wanted.
The front door opens, and the twins look up to see a pool of water forming under Garroth's tall figure. The floor will grow wet, but his care is definitely soaked in the seats.
"What happened to you?" Kandi asks.
"Where's the glitter glue?"
Vylad looks at Kandi, desperate. Kandi answers Garroth, shaking her head when he walks away. Despite her best efforts, she looks at her brother in his eyes. She decides to help him.
