trees + vine, a separate peace au

phineas' september pt.2

~Earlier this morning~

I've tried to get into a rhythm of getting ready and leaving before Eugene even opens his eyes, but considering that leaves me to waking up when it's still dark out, and the fact that even with my glasses, I can't see six inches ahead of me in the dark, causing me to trip over just about everything, I almost always fail at my mission. This leaves Eugene grumpy and upset with me the rest of the day, but honestly, I think he'd act the same way even if I allowed him to get his "beauty rest". 

At the beginning, I tried having small conversations with him, especially because we seem to always stay up longer than we should. At this point though, I'm pretty sure my efforts are just annoying him more. I've talked with El about it a little, but neither of us can really figure out what's going on with him. I guess it's something I must be doing?

Whatever it is, I can tell that it really pisses Gene off when I try to be friends with his friends. Which sucks, seeing as his friends, especially El, I'd like to consider mine too. But today, I think I'll let him have his peace at breakfast, so I decide to text a few of my soccer friends to see if they'd want to do anything. It's so early that neither of them respond, and I think about going for a run, however, that would require me to have to come back to the room to shower off afterward, probably angering Gene even more.

It's so weird- this feeling of acting so much different than myself just for someone to tolerate me. I've really never been a 'conformist', which is probably why my parents and I don't "mesh" to say the least. It's all about keeping up appearances and a certain type of look with them back home, and as a child and young adult, I've tried almost everything to stray away from it. it's the reason that at 15, I dyed my hair green right before my father went on his senatorial campaign trail, and then, when he won, made sure that everyone and their mother found me... Well- that's a story for another time. The point is, I've kind of based my entire life around rebelling, so why is it so important to me that this one guy, who I'd never met a day in my life before last week, likes me? 

I leave my room finally and end up down at the river on the edge of campus, deciding to do homework until the first bell. Seeing as it's only the second week of school, this gets tired real fast, and I'm left just thinking about everything by the water. In my haste to get out the door this morning, I didn't bring a change of clothes, so I just sit there with my school pants rolled up over my ankles, and my feet feeling the cool water come up over them. It's quite therapeutic, really, which is why I come out here so often. All of my runs tend to end back at the same place, this place, with me always sticking my feet in the water, allowing it to consume me and whatever thoughts I might be having. 

I'm driven out of this haze when I feel my phone buzzing with notifications, one after the other. 

What? Gene and Leper got into a fight? And it left Gene unable to move? Why does it seem like Leper doesn't care? And why isn't anyone other than Simon worried about it?