BRANCE + RINNEY

Brance - Bully. (Part 2)

It had been a couple weeks. A couple weeks since Bruce had been to school. A couple weeks since Bruce had eaten food, or at least, since he's kept it down. Finney hadn't heard from Bruce since the last day he'd been at school. Anytime he tried coming around, Bruce's sister Amy would tell him her brother was not there. Frankly, everything was turning to shit.
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Bruce's room was littered with tissues, empty water bottles, unwashed clothes, and balled up paper. The boy looked worse than his own room. Bags dropped from his eyelids, his nose was a fiery red, and his stomach growled for food. His hair was sticking up in different places, small items sticking to loose strands. The full sized bed, which was in front of the center window in Bruce's room, contained different size blankets as well as more unwashed clothes and snotty tissues. Bruce had barely stopped crying since that day in the nurses offices. He hasn't seen Finney since then either, not that he's making an effort to. He did miss him though. He just couldn't go back. Not to school, and definitely not to Vance.

Bruce was propped up against his bed's headboard. His trusty box of tissues sat next to him, along with a small radio. Recently, Bruce had gotten into slower, kind of romantic songs. His favorite is probably "Bubble Gum" by Clairo. He doesn't know why but he feels a connection to that song. He's listened to it almost every day now. Bruce's eyes burned slightly, and his stomach growled and seemed to punch him from the inside. He stood up, fumbling around trying not to trip over the different piles of miscellaneous crap he had all over his floor. Bruce made his way into his bathroom. Usually he avoided looking in his mirror, today he did otherwise. His eyes widened in shock when he saw himself. He had lost weight. A lot of weight. His eye bags were probably the heaviest thing on him, his lips had dry blood on them from being picked so much, and he could barely breathe out of his nose. Bruce decided he would do something different today. He needed to take care of himself. If he didn't, who would?

Bruce had showered, cleaned the trash and dirty clothes out of his room, and opened his window. He felt just a little nicer than he has in awhile. The dark haired boy decided to call Finney. It was a Saturday, he should be free. He hoped he'd be free. Bruce walked downstairs and into the kitchen. His sister was standing near the toaster with a stick of butter in her hand. Hearing Bruce's footsteps, she turned around and smiled brightly. "Hi Bruce! How are you feeling?" Amy asked, her tone slightly concerned but very happy. She was glad her brother was out of his room, seemingly clean as well. "I think I'm doing okay today. I'm gonna call Finn. See if we can hangout." Bruce replied with a smaller smile than his sister's. Amy nodded her head and went back to making her toast.
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25 minutes later, Bruce was putting his shoes and jacket on. There was a slight breeze out today, the leaves had started to change colors and coat the ground with hues of orange, red, and yellow. Finney had agreed to meet Bruce today. He seemed very excited about it. They would meet at the diner a couple blocks away from Bruce's house and catch up. After telling his sister goodbye, Bruce stepped outside and began his walk to the diner.

The diner wasn't super far, but it was a little ways away. Bruce didn't mind though. He enjoyed the crunching of the leaves under his feet and the slightly chilly autumn breeze. He was about 5 minutes from the diner when he saw the person he dreaded seeing the most.

Vance.

Bruce tried to ignore him and just keep walking to where he would meet Finney. He heard a voice yelling behind him.

"BRUCE! HEY BRUCE!"

He didn't turn around. He kept walking.

"FUCK- BRUCE!"

The diner came into his view. He booked it. He ran across the street, almost getting hit in the process, and into the western-themed eatery.