𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚝𝚞𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚝𝚜

water from your broken iris [t.n]

uhm. tedbox angst/vent fic pogcham ???? sjdkdkbfk im not sorry

yes this is sad no i have no regrets yes it is almost midnight no i will not sleep yes i am hyperfixating on glass animals no i do not take criticism

fic title from ;; it's all so incredibly loud - glass animals

cw/tw ;; mentions of self harming actions, vague mentions of emotional abuse and alcoholism. keep in mind none of these are descriptive.

pairing ;; tedbox [ted nivison + hugbox/noah]

final word count ;; 2.4k

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if there is a word to describe ted nivison, it would be stupid.

now, don't get this wrong, he's not intelligence stupid, he's emotionally stupid. ted is extremely smart, even though it may not seem that way sometimes.

case in point; getting into college is hard. getting into harvard is harder. it's a process, a long and tedious process, but it's worth it, in the end. for months, he's stressed and worried on and on about whether he'd get in, and the piece of paper folded up in the envelope he's got in his hands will either give him the answer he's looking for or disappointment at his time and efforts wasted. he takes a deep breath, leg bouncing underneath the chair and fingers idly tapping against the smooth polish of his table, sorts the rest of his mail out like he does when he's procrastinating opening something.

his eyes constantly flick over to the envelope, a mix of nervousness and curiosity swirling into a deadly cocktail that steadily infects his bloodstream. with a soft huff, he pushes the rest of his mail away from him, ridding himself of the distraction and rips open the envelope from harvard, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth as he unfolds the letter and reads the words on the page.

the only word ted nivison registers is "accepted."

happiness clouds his mind and he shouts into his rather empty apartment, all of his belongings packed into boxes so he can make the move from his apartment to the dorm on campus, breathless and excited at his acceptance into one of the best colleges in massachusetts- no, scratch that, the entire united states, perhaps, and it all comes crashing down when he remembers that stupid instagram post created by his rival and the one man he despises most in this fucking world (besides trump and the other milkman - ted swears on his life that man is a fraud - he met at twitchcon).

noah hugh will most likely be going to harvard too.

and this is why ted is emotionally stupid. to be honest, ted doesn't really remember why he hates noah or why noah hates him.

nevermind, actually, he kind of does. it's a faint memory, but freshman year is when the rivalry started. it's a new school for both of them, a new place to learn and thrive and make new friendships and start up relationships and just generally vibe. it starts off with the small things - bumping into each other in the hallways, one of them taking the last cup of hot chocolate, stealing the chair the other's going for, y'know. typical freshman activities. when they get into their sophomore and junior years, it's stealing each others parking spaces, mysteriously misplacing phones and jackets, hiding them and shrugging when the other asks where it is, homework being taken and stuffed into random, unoccupied lockers, arguments in classrooms when they're assigned to be partners, scuffles in the hallway that've led to almost being suspended.

despite all that, noah is arrogant and cocky and haughty and carries himself with confidence and radiates a pure fuck off, don't fuck with me aura, and ted has always been the kind of guy that stands up to bullshit, so of course he's going to go against the man. it's not like noah was a bully, far from it, he just lacked basic social skills and was a genuine asshole at times.