dusk • brance

.;13;.

history class was the first class vance passed bruce a note. bruce happily took it, unfolding it.

'hanGout aftr skool ?' it read. bruce picked up his pencil and wrote down; 'yeah! i ' ll see you outside school then ?'. bruce folded it in half and passed it back to vance, who read it then gave him a quick thumbs up.

so, after school, bruce hurriedly left his last class, not hesitating to push pass all the crowds of people. when he reached his locker, he was stopped by a group of his not-really-friends.

as they drowned him with questions and stories, bruce just ignored them and packed his bag. bruce inched away from the hands that poked and proded him.

"yeah, okay, bye!" bruce rushed out as he quickly left. the kids sighed out in disappointment as bruce sighed in relief. they only did that about once a week, which was quite strange.

"hi, bruce," said vance as bruce exited the building. bruce looked up to him, relieved he was still there. "hey!" bruce said as he adjusted his backpack.

"so, where we headed?" vance asked as he pulled himself away from the wall. "you asked me to hangout, shouldn't you be the one deciding that?" bruce questioned.

"probably, but i don't know where to go. the park or something?" vance suggested, to which bruce nodded. "sure!" he agreed.

the two set off, occasionally talking about things that popped up. when it did get quiet for a minute, bruce's eyes wondered over towards the small rustic buildings that lined the street. below, he could see finney running off somewhere. finney glanced backwards before looking back forward.

bruce looked to where finney was looking, and there he could see those three boys chasing after him. holy shit, what were they going to do to him?, bruce thought.

finney ran around a corner and out of bruce's view. from what it looked like, buzz, matty, and matt were only getting closer to him. bruce had to do something.

"wait right here for a minute," bruce told vance. "what? where you going?" he asked as he stopped walking. "just wait here!" bruce said before he ran off to go chase after the four. when he did see them, finney was being tackled to the ground.

the three began kicking at his sides. bruce picked up a brick from a stack resting against a building and ran towards them.

bruce grabbed the hair of whoever he could get first, and it was buzz, at least he thought, bruce doesn't know the names to who.

as buzz toppled to the ground, matty and matt seemed to notice and turned their attention to hurting bruce.

he was thrown to the ground as matty began kicking at him. matt decided to leave finney alone as he began hurting bruce too.

at least finney is okay now, bruce told himself.

meanwhile, vance had been doing exactly what bruce asked him too. yet after five minutes he started to get a bit worried. so, vance decided he would go against what bruce asked and make his way to where bruce ran off too.

he didn't run, he figured it couldn't be all that bad. however when vance saw bruce curled up on the ground, being kicked at by two other boys, his walk quickly turned into a run.

vance grabbed the shoulder of one as he tossed him away from bruce. the other boy attempted to throw a punch at vance, which he quickly dodged and threw a punch of his own. the boy backed off from bruce and fell to the ground too.

vance turned back to the first one he had tossed to the ground and picked him up by the collar of his shirt. vance threw a few punches until he looked as if he was about to pass out.

vance then did the same with the other boy before he went and kneeled down next to bruce.

"hey, hey. bruce?" vance said confusedly as he helped bruce sit up.

"no, i'm fine," bruce claimed, standing up and holding onto the fence for support. he almost fell down, but caught himself on the fence. he was in more pain than he's ever felt in his whole life, yet he only cared about making sure finney was okay.

"you very clearly are not," vance watched as bruce limped his way over towards a boy vance didn't even know. he did recognize him as the one boy he saw bruce hanging out with.

bruce allowed himself to drop to the ground. "finn?" bruce asked, lightly placing his hand on finney's shoulder.

"bruce, what the hell? why would you come?" finney asked, sounding worried for bruce. he put both hands on bruce's shoulder as he inspected him.

"i didn't want you to get hurt," bruce told him, also sounding worried. vance was stood behind the two, and he couldn't help but to feel almost jealous.

"now you're hurt! and what happened.. too.." finney trailer off as he saw the three boys trying to help each other up, and saw how they were all bleeding.

"bruce.. what did you do?" finney asked, his hands dragging off bruce's shoulders. "i didn't do it, that was vance," bruce said, looking around for vance, quickly noticing him.

"vance? bruce, i thought-" finney asked before bruce cut him off. "that was before, shut up, but yes, vance," bruce sighed.

"mhm, you all alright?" vance asked. "yeah, my ribs really hurt, but they only got like five kicks in before they moved onto bruce," finney said.

"might've broken my ribs. my legs hurt too," bruce said. vance wanted to go back to where the boys ran off to and beat the life out of them, but he held back, he couldn't just leave the two alone.

"jesus shit. where the fuck am i supposed to take you both?" vance mumbled.

"my house?" bruce suggested. it was the closest house he knew of, and he really wanted to lay down. vance and finney agreed.

vance wrapped bruce's arm around his shoulder for support, then took a grip on his waist. bruce was thankful for that, mainly because of the fact he could barely feel anything in his leg.

finney didn't need any support, it was just his ribs that hurt. as the three walked, finney clutched his ribs and he walked next to the two.

vance didn't realize how much he liked holding onto bruce until he let go. bruce felt that way too, he missed vance's touch. he wanted it to happen more often.

—-
this chapters was super duper fun to write 🙃
also im going to my cousins house until monday so i wont be able to write much so i dont think there will be a chapter sunday, maybe monday but idk 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

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