Chills & Thrills | Brance

four

(we can all ignore how bruces birthday is june 12th... shhh... no its not.. tis all but a dream..)

Bruce shuts his alarm off after it went off. He'd already been awake for ten minutes, he just didn't want to actually get up. Bruce stood up and got ready quickly after hearing his alarm though.

He was excited about today. Not only was it a Friday, but it was also a very special occasion. Bruce hops down the stairs once he's all ready. He then enters his kitchen.

"Bruce, come sit, we have something to tell you!" His mom says. Bruce sits down, expecting something entirely different from what he got.

"Your baseball is being moved to tomorrow instead of tonight. Your original Saturday game is staying, which is stupid. So that's two games tomorrow." Bruce's smile drops.

"Oh, alright," He stands up and walks to his front door. He pulls on his shoes and waits a minute to see if his family would come and tell him something else.

That doesn't happen, so he pulls on his backpack, walks outside and gets on his bike. He gets to school five minutes before the bell.

Bruce waves at the people who shoot him a smile and wave first. No one says anything. Bruce finds it strange how he's so popular, yet everyone forgot.

Bruce open his locker to find a letter. He picks it up and unfolds it so he can read the contents.

Happy birthday. Hope you're having a good day. If you're not then I hope it gets better. You're what, 16? About time you caught up with everyone else :)
-ur mom

Bruce cracks a smile at the letter. He wonders who really sent it. He shuts his locker halfway before taking a look around the halls to see if anyone was there and looking at him. Nobody was.

Bruce gets what he needs and starts walking to his class. He passes Vance on the way, finding it a bit strange seeing him there four days in a row. Bruce stares at Vance while he's passing, but Vance doesn't remove his gaze from whatever is in front of him. Bruce likes his hair, half the boys in the school have a bowl cut, so it's nice to see something different.

"Hey!" Bruce turns his head to see Stella walking next to him. "Hi," Bruce pulls on a smile. He almost forgot they have first class together.

"You want to come over for dinner again tomorrow?" She asks. Bruce frowns for a moment.

"I have two baseball games tomorrow. You know I have games every Saturday," Bruce tells her.

"Right, yes! I thought it was only one?" She says. "It is, but today's game was moved to tomorrow," Bruce mentions.

Stella nods, and eventually they arrive to class. Now it was just the waiting game until lunch came around.

Vance on the other hand was hoping it never would be that time. He just wanted to finish his classes and get home. However, there was no avoiding it.

Vance walked out of the school three minutes after the bell went. He's been wondering if there could be an easier way to advance to grade eleven without actually finishing ninth or tenth. Unfortunately for him, he has not one clue.

He notices Bruce and Stella sitting on the bench in front of the school. Stella was talking to him, while he was staring into space. He pulls his eyes away from them and keeps walking. In front of him were Finney and Robin. He's about to walk up to them before he can hear Stella beginning to yell. Vance turns his head to see what's happening.

"You never listen to me!" She shouts at him. Maybe she is a bitch after all. "If you don't want to talk, just say so."

"I always listen to you. You can't even remember when I have baseball, you've missed the past three," Bruce tells her calmly.

"I was busy, god. I told you that," She says.

"You forgot my birthday," was all Bruce replied with. Stella stopped talking. "Isn't it November twelfth?" She says.

"No. October twelfth. That's today," Bruce said. "Oh my god, i'm so sorry, I totally-"

"Don't bother making an excuse, I don't really care. It's not that important anyways. Only one person remembered and I don't even know who the hell they are," Bruce said. Somehow he's managed to keep a calm voice throughout the whole conversation.

Vance wishes Bruce knew that it was himself who remembered.

"What?" Stella said. Bruce shook his head and walked toward the side of the school. Vance makes eye contact with Stella for just a second before he looked away.

Robin and Finney were now much further ahead, so Vance began walking quick to catch up with them. "Hey," Vance said when he finally caught up with the other two boys.

"Hi. Robin said you beat up Matty, Matt, and Buzz?" Finney mentions. Vance nods. "You didn't have to do anything. They say stuff about me all the time."

"Surprised they haven't asked for your phone number with how much they obsess over you," Robin says before laughing at his own joke.

"Ew," Finney replies with a frown. Robin let out one more laugh before saying, "Don't be homophobic Finney, that's disrespectful."

"How was that homophobic? You're being disrespectful by living." Finney says.

Robin turns his head — wanting to ask Vance something — only to realize he was gone.

Vance had left halfway through that conversation and headed back to the school. He was thankful for the large crowd of people walking by, it made it easier for him to not be caught by Robin or Finney. Back at the school Vance starts walking to the side of the building, forgetting that's where Bruce went.

Vance tilts his head when he notices Bruce sitting against the building, reading something off a small piece of paper. Vance recognizes it as the one he left in Bruce's locker.

He wasn't making a disgusted or disinterested face at it, in fact, it looked like he was smiling. He then looked up, spotting Vance glaring at him.

Vance didn't look away from him, but Bruce did. He folded the paper and stood up. Then
he started walking in the direction that Vance was going in. Vance redirected his gaze to the trees he saw ahead of him.

"Hey, uh, Vance?" Vance hears Bruce saying. He squeezes his eyes shut before opening them and turning around. He doesn't say anything, he just stares.

"I wanted to just apologize. For everything I said yesterday," Bruce states. Vance happens to notice he looks just slightly scared.

"Don't apologize if you don't mean it," Vance tells him. He takes a small step backwards. Before he can turn around, Bruce speaks.

"I do mean it, I really do. And I also believe you try. Sometimes I forget that not everyone is.. um.." Bruce trails off, trying to find a word that didn't sound like he so self absorbed. Vance looked at him, seeing that now he was genuine.

"That not everyone can understand school
shit?" Vance suggests. Bruce nods, "Yeah. Seriously, I am sorry."

"Yeah, yeah, okay. Happy birthday I guess," Vance says without thinking. He begins walking away, hoping Bruce isn't smart enough to connect him with the note.

"Wait!" Bruce calls out after a few seconds. Well, shit. Vance turns around once more. "How'd you know it was my birthday?"

"Oh, my bad, didn't know it was a big secret," Vance says sarcastically. "I heard your conversation with Stella," he said, now more serious.

"Right. Okay, sorry for taking up your time. Bye," Bruce waved before he walked in the opposite direction. Vance didn't hesitate in leaving.

He's tried to get over how he likes Bruce. Lately it's been proving to be a lot more difficult than he imagined it.