Chills & Thrills | Brance

sixteen

Entering the grab n' go, Vance ended up getting distracted by talking to Rita for a while. Someone walked in and Rita told Vance she had to do her job now, so Vance walked up to the pinball machine and inserted a quarter to
play.
•••

At nine, Bruce called Vance in hopes he'd be up by now.

"Hello?" It was Griffin again.

"Hi, can I talk to Vance?" Bruce asked.

"Hmm.. no," Griffin said. Bruce paused for a moment. "No?" He repeated.

"He's not home," Griffin clarified. "Oh! Okay, sorry. Bye," Bruce said hanging up.

It didn't take a genius to assume Vance was probably at the grab n' go, so that's where he went.
•••

The people that had entered the grab n' go were extremely obnoxious. Vance's score was high, and with how close the two boys kept getting to the game, Vance was going to loose the ball.

As the little bell dinged, signalling someone entered the store, one of the boys was pushed into the game. The little ball immediately fell, and Vance's score was gone.

"You fucker! You fucked up my game!" Vance shouted, turning his head towards the two boys.

"Take it outside, Vance," Rita called to him.

Vance didn't listen to her, instead he threw a hard punch to the boy who fell into the machine, then shoved him into the comic stand, where he toppled over.

Vance turned his head to the other boy, who looked scared, yet ready to fight. Vance walked up to him. He just barely dodged a punch for his face, and delivered a punch of his own.

Vance knocked him down and continued punching his teeth in.

Someone was yelling at him to stop. It wasn't Rita. It sounded familiar, but a ringing in Vance's ear was all he really heard.

Someone then put a hand on his back. Vance was already really angry, and that just set him off more. He stopped punching the kid on the ground. Next thing he knew, he was standing up, turning around, and punching whoever just touched him right in the nose.

Vance then stopped moving entirely. The ringing in his ears stopped, and he was left with a haunting silence filling the air. He caught the two boys running out of the store from the corner of his eye. He didn't care about that.

Bruce stood in front of him, staring down at his hands that were clutched around his nose, trying not to let the blood spread.

"Bruce.. I- I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that I swear," Vance told him softly and quietly.

Bruce then looked at him, and Vance wished he never had. He was looking at him just like most people do. Scared. Vance was used to it, but seeing Bruce stare at him with such fright on his face, that pained Vance.

Vance took a small step forward, wanting to make sure he didn't hurt Bruce badly. Bruce took a step back, looking almost scared that Vance might hit him again.

Bruce then ran out of the store. Vance stood there, staring at the door.

"Rita, please tell me you called the police," Vance spoke, turning his head to look at her.

"No, I didn't call them.. Should I have?" She replied, trying not to show how utterly shocked she was from the previous events.

"I don't know," Vance shook his head before he left the store. He wasn't going to find Bruce. After seeing how scared he looked, Vance thought it best he left Bruce alone for now.

He walked home, hoping his mom was still there. He hardly even noticed how his own knuckles were bleeding.

"Mom," Vance called out the second he entered the house. His mom walked out from the living room and looked at him.

She took notice of his bloody knuckles and how he didn't look angry. Anytime he came home after a fight, he was still angry and stormed into his room. But this time, he looked scared. She could only assume he either got in big trouble, or he hurt someone badly.

"What happened?" She asked, taking hold of Vance's arm and leading him to take a seat in the living room.

"These guys, they messed up my game. And I started fighting them, then someone put their hand on me and I punched them and-" Vance stopped talking. He dropped his head in his hands and sunk further into the couch. Was he about to cry? Maybe. He just fucked up the one good thing that's happened in a while.

"Vance.. You do this all the time. What's making you upset this time?" She asked with a frown.

"I hit Bruce," Vance quietly spoke into his hands. His mom knows nearly everything when it comes to how Vance feels towards Bruce, so of course she was surprised.

"Oh, my. Did he say anything?" She asked with a frown. Vance shook his head. "He looked so scared. He's never looked at me like that."

"Well you did punch him-" She began to say, before Vance cut her off.

"I know, but you don't understand!" He exclaimed, sitting up on the couch and throwing his hands down. "He was scared. He looked at me like I was going to hurt him again."

"Maybe you should try understanding his point of view. You are known as a fighter. Can you really be so shocked he'd think that?"

Vance just stared at his mom. He is shocked, Bruce should know he'd never knowingly hurt him.

"I'm sick of everyone thinking i'm a monster," Vance stated before standing up and walking to his room. His mom didn't try and stop him.
•••

As Bruce ran to his house, he hoped he'd wake up in his bed to find it was just another strange dream. That never happened. He wasn't too sure what to even think of the situation yet. All he knew was he needed to get home and rinse the blood off his face.

The bleeding had stopped, and Bruce had tried to swipe the dried blood away. He knew his whole family was home, and if they saw him with a bloody nose, Bruce knew just what they would think. The worse part is, they'd be right.

Bruce slowed his run into a walk as he reached his house. Maybe if he ran up the stairs fast enough, no one would notice.

Bruce turned the knob and peaked his head in, seeing no one. He quickly entered his house, shut the front door, and bolted up his stairs.

"Bruce? That you?" He heard his mom calling.

"Shoot.." Bruce mumbled under his breath. "Yeah!" He called back as he entered the bathroom.

"Can you come down here a second?" Nina asked. "I'm just going to the bathroom," Bruce excused. His mom didn't say anything back.

Bruce went to the sink where he first inspected his nose, then splashed water on his face and scrubbed the blood away. He took a towel to dry his face before looking in the mirror once more. It looked perfectly normal.

Before leaving the bathroom, Bruce made sure to wash his hands as there was a little blood there too.

Bruce then left the bathroom and went downstairs.

"Where'd you go?" His mom asked when Bruce entered the living room.

"Around, I went for a walk," Bruce lied.

"Hm. Okay, you just didn't say you were leaving," Nina smiled. Bruce nodded and headed back upstairs. He needed to think.

-
merry crisis everyone. i gift you all.. angst!! hope you enjoy :)