Night in the woods: bmth

Part two: band practice

Sunlight filtered through the window of his room.

Oli sat up on his bed, yawning loudly and stretching his arms above him. He blinked, brushing his messy hair out of his face. Where was he? Oh yeah, he was home. Home in his room, with his posters and his comfy bed. With his skateboard and Lee's beat up guitar.

God, it was good to be home. He grinned to himself as he got up, slipping his boots on to get ready for the day. Today he decided to meet up with his friends and see what changed over time. Hopefully Matt was still around to be annoying as ever. He misses the sounds of his friends voices, the smiles on their faces when he would joke with them. College was terrible, he never ever wants to go back.

Oli paced his room, fixing his hair in the mirror and playing with the sleeves of his shirt. Yeah, he needed to go outside today. It'd been forever since he's been in town, and walking around to see what he missed was just what he needed.

Today was a Thursday, so Tom would be busy at school today. He couldn't bother his brother or ask what had changed, Tom needed to do better in school than he did. He would make sure of that, make sure that Tom would never amount to the college dropout that he was.

He walked down the stairs, ears flicking at every little sound made. It'd been so long, he forgot how loud their house was in comparison to his dorm. He should have come back sooner, it was too quiet over there. The noise here comforted him, it wasn't unsettling silence.

"Hey Oli! Mom asked you to walk me to the bus stop today." Tom bursts out of his room, scaring Oli in the process.

"Jesus Christ, let me wake up first." Oli sighed, heart racing over how he scared him.

"Sorry, I'm just so excited that you're back, see!" Tom points to his tail, which was wagging repetitively.

Oli laughs, looking back to see his own tail wagging. He guessed he was just really excited to be back like how Tom was. It was the familiarity, it comforted him in a way.

It was also the excitement to explore all that had changed. He liked seeing new things in the world and seeing what had changed over time. Especially now since he had been gone for so long, there was much to explore.

"Alright, let's go then." Oli ruffles his hair.

The two brothers walk down the stairs, Oli looked around for where their mom was. She was gone, probably already at work by now. She must have left when Oli woke up, maybe next time he'll see her.

Tom slipped on his shoes at the door, patting his backpack softly. Oli looked at him in confusion, but understood when he heard quiet squeaking from inside the bag.

"You're bringing Pip to school?" Oli inquires, opening the door infront of them.

Tom nods, walking out of the door with a slight skip in his step. Pip squeaked again from inside his bag, but quiet enough for only the two of them to hear. Tom was so weird, Oli thought, he brought his pet opossum to school in his backpack.

He wondered if any of Tom's friends thought it was cool, or if he ever got caught for it. Hell, did Tom even have any friends at school? Oli remembers the weird emo trio, but Tom doesn't talk about them anymore. He wondered if his little brother actually did have friends to hang out with.

Oli locked the door behind him, following along with Tom down the road towards the bus stop. For someone so short, Tom was pretty fast as he ran up the street. It took Oli a while to catch up to him, so caught up in seeing all that had changed and the familiar scenery of autumn leaves falling off trees.

"God, you're so slow!" Tom complained, unzipping his backpack slightly.

Oli breathed heavily, he hadn't walked up this slope in forever, it took a lot out of him. When he sat down at the bus stop, Tom already had his backpack in his lap, petting Pip softly. The opossum had its head poking out from the small unzipped part of the bag.