Better than me? - Brance oneshots

He hit me.

Bruce Yamada has always noticed Vance Hopper. It was hard not to.

Vance Hopper was married to trouble, and his pocket knife with a sharp blade was his mistress. Whenever he attended school, chaos followed him. The days always consisted of Vance towering over someone, bloodying his fists as he beat his prey during lunch, or smoking by the hidden school stairs during passing periods.

Even on the days when Pinball Vance was absent due to either being suspended for fighting or simply because he was ditching school for the day, the curly-haired blond remained present in Bruce's mind.

Vance would never see him, though. Whether it was in the school's halls, the Grab-N-Go, or by the abandoned park behind the school's baseball field, Vance was always surrounded by his trouble-making friends. His piercing blue eyes never looked at anyone or anything in particular.

____________________

It was late August when Bruce and Vance locked eyes for the first time.

The dark-haired boy was walking home in his baseball uniform after a practice game. His parents insisted on picking him up due to fear being instilled in them after watching multiple news reports about a kidnapper abducting young boys.

Bruce denied his parents' requests and told them he would be fine. He wanted to stay with his friends a little longer after the game to practice some more and talk about the cute girls in school. However, after parting ways with his friends, he began to regret that decision.

The afternoon was quickly ending, and the stars, along with the crescent moon, were slowly peeking out in the fast-darkening sky. The wind was cold, and the side walks were empty. The only sounds were of his breathing and the fallen autumn leaves moving with the soon-to-be-night winds.

Every tree and tall light post he walked by was splattered with flyers with the faces of missing boys.

Griffin Stagg. The flyer looked old and worn out. The boy's black and white picture was severely faded by the summer and autumn's extreme weather, so the face was hard to make out.

"Griffin Stagg?" Brunce whispered to himself multiple times, trying to associate the unfamiliar name with a face. Perhaps someone he knew from school, a boy from a younger grade level? But no matter how hard Bruce tried to recall ever hearing that name, he couldn't. He didn't know Griffin.

Bruce walked a little faster. Walking home alone in silence gave him the opportunity to reflect on the situation. He felt guilty not remembering the younger boy. He wondered if other people did. He wondered if Griffin's parents would post new flyers. New ones so that their son's face would be more visible for other people to see and maybe call and say they saw him. Someone must have known Griffin.

Bruce's stomach sank once more as he stumbled upon another missing person flyer. This one was taped along a wooden fence. The flyer was more recent, from late summer, and the face was someone Bruce recognized.

Billy Showalter.

Bruce knew him. He would deliver newspapers with his dog early in the morning. Bruce's father would occasionally strike up a conversation with Paperboy whenever he would grab the newspaper from his front yard. Billy was always respectful to Bruce and his family. Sometimes they would even exchange a nod or a soft smile whenever they crossed paths while riding their bikes in the afternoon.