one way ticket to love - brance

5.0

     'hi vance!' the red haired girl said as she walked towards vance.
     'hi annie,' he says quietly.
     'who's this?' bruce says walking to both of them.
     'hi bruce! i'm vance's friend, my name is annie. what's yours? silly me i know your name! heh..' annie awkwardly ignored what just happened. 'i'm annie,' she smiles.
     'that's a nice name,' bruce smiles at her. 'annie, what grade are you in?'
     'i'm in grade 8,' she explained. her hair was back into a ponytail like vance's but anne's was held by a scrunchie not a hair tie.
     'you two like, talking?' bruce says trying to hide his jealousy.
     'oh, no way! i'm actually lesbian..' she says quietly.
     'oh!' bruce sighed in relief as he lowered his arm stopping himself from bitting his nails even more.
     *ding, dong*
     'cya round!' bruce said waving at vance and anne who were headed the other direction.
     'he totally likes you back vance! go tell him your feeling now!' she demands.
     'i kind of already did, but it turned out horribly, and i don't want to bring it up again,' vance told her as they parted to their different classrooms.
—
'vance can i talk to you?' asked bruce pulling him aside.
'what's up?' he asked him. their hands were still locked together so bruce let go.
'so you know about the other day,' bruce reminds him. 'we left off on a rocky path, and then we made up. except you still don't know,' he continues.
'know.. what?' he asks with a tint of hope.
'i do like you vance hopper. ever since you slipped the envelope in my locker. i pretended like i didn't see you do it, but honestly you took a really long time to slip it into the vent,' bruce chuckled.
'yeah, not really envelope material,' vance laughed a bit as his joke.
'so uhm.. can you come to mine after school?' bruce asks.
'i'll be there,' vance accepts his invitation without asking his mom first.
—
    'don't take this the wrong way but i didn't think you were that into girls,' anne told bruce while they were waiting for vance at his locker.
     'since we're on the subject, i didn't think you were all that into guys,' he explained making anne chuckle.
     'well i'm glad we're on the same page,' she said as she slung her bag on her shoulder. she faced the direction vance was heading. he was walking towards them rapidly.
     'hey guys!' vance says excitedly. he's holding a test in his hands.
     'what's up?' bruce asks him.
     'look!' vance says pointing to the red 'b-' written in pen. 'my grades have been going up by a lot lately, i used to get 'f' and 'd-'s.' he says.
     'woah vance, that's an improvement!' bruce says smiling and clapping.
     'thanks bruce,' vance smiles slightly, trying to make it not noticeable.
     'proof vance is actually a big softie,' anne laughs.
'no i'm not!' vance shouts at her. then the realization hits him. he was a big softie, before bruce in grade 7 and 8 he'd swear he was the rudest person in north denver.
     'yeah yeah,' she rolls her eyes. 'anyway, we best be going now. i'm kind of bored at school.' she explains as they headed to the school exit.
—
'bye bruce, bye vance!' anne said as she walked to the bus stop and they continued walking to bruce's house.
     'hey vance, who's that?' bruce says pointing to a kid the age of 11 playing with his toys on the road. a black van seems to be pulling up to him.
     'i don't know, let's go see,' he says pulling bruce by his wrist over to the scene.
     'hey, i'm a part time magician. would you like to see a magic trick?' the man looked familiar in bruce's opinion. wait was it.. no, it couldn't be. he got arrested a few years ago. and that kid was griffin stagg.
     'hey you! piss off!' bruce yelped to the man who was getting black balloons from his van while holding pepper spray.
     'bruce..' he stares at him and quickly get's into his van while driving away.
     'are you ok griffin?' bruce runs over to the traumatized kid. he had jawline length blonde hair. his eyes were blue and wide.
     'bruce?' he looks up and smiles. bruce used to babysit griffin when griffin was at the age of 9 and bruce was 13. 'AH! is that vance hopper?' he quickly hides behind bruce's leg and kneels down.
     'it's ok, vance is nice. isn't that right vance?' bruce looks at him completely forgetting about what just happened.
     'dumbass, we need to find the police and tell them about that creep,' vance shouts at bruce.
     'oh shoot, your right. here let me get griffin home first and tell his mom what happened.'
     vance and griffin were similar in someways. they both had single mothers who would always do their best for their child. and they both knew if something happened to their mothers they could never live with themselves.
—
word count; 845
i know griffin got kidnapped before bruce but 🤫