The Black Sheep

Omicron

"Ash, it's late" The silver-haired male spoke as he peaked out the crack of his bearly open door. Ash switched his weight from one leg to the other, trapping his lower lip between his teeth.

"Technically, it's early" He voiced quietly. He had came straight to Tory upon leaving Martez, the tent and a decision he was already regretting.

"Give me a second" Tory told him after a few minutes of looking his friend over. Ash stood at the side, hearing the mumbled discussion and ruffling of articles without listening. Only turning to catch a glance of the man that exited Tory's room when he was far down the hall, awaiting the elevator, and Tory came to invite him in. Wearing a wrinkled shirt with his hair combed through. The mark of his fingers still presents where he pasted them.

"Same guy?" Ash questioned.

"What happened?" Tory easily changed the subject walking past his friend and leading him to an unused bed. Ash signed, taking a deep breath as he sat beside his friend, hands clasped on his lap and fingers curled around one another.

"He asked me to go with him" He finally voiced after a moment of silence. Tory nods and looked away for a moment. Aware that his eyes would betray his feeling.

"What did you say?" He asked, slowly, hesitantly. Controlling every syllable that escaped his lips.

"I told him I couldn't" Ash began and with another sign, he adds: "Then I left"

Tory nods, knowing that in times like these it was better to listen than to speak. But as the minutes ticked on and Ash failed to add anything more, Tory took it upon himself to speak.

"You should have told him then and there." He says slowly. "If he likes you enough to want you to go with him, I doubt your social status would turn him away."

Ash didn't respond, and Tory was forced to look over at his friend. Slowly reaching for his clasp hands. It was only when his hands covered the brunette's, did Ash looked up from his joint fingers.

"You could go," Tory told his crush.

"Tory" Ash began attempting to pull his hands away, but Tory kept it in place with the strength he normally hides.

"If he's your mate." Tory continued "You could go anywhere with him." He whispered, flinching at his own words. To admit that Ash would be better off someplace else, with someone else that wasn't himself, there was nothing harder.

"But he's not," The brunette told him, successfully pulling away from his hands and standing from his seat at the edge of the bed.

"You don't know that he isn't," Tory replied.

"You don't know that he is!" Ash shot back, placing some distance between them as he walked to the window. He pulled back the curtains and gaze out at the moon. It was in half.

"I'm sorry" Tory apologize, he too taking to his feet. Yet he made no move to close the distance between his friend and himself, not just yet. Instead, he spoke, letting his voice travel to wherever Ash went when he got like this.

"But you're so contradictory. You act like some rebel, ditching class, speaking out, doing what you want and then with Chris you just submit." He pauses, waiting for a reaction, but aside for a flinch at his tormenters name, Ash simply stood there with his back turned to him

"And I get it." Tory continued, running a hand through his hair. "7 years of rejection paired with the physical and mental abuse, anyone would just." He trailed off and signed. "You like Martez! You really, like this guy and he likes you. I don't understand why you're standing in the way of your own happiness"