𝗶𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 • 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲

chapter two

tuesday, 8:00 am.
bruce made his way to his classes. it was too early. he felt sluggish. he didn't want to be awake, nor did he want to be social yet. to make matters even worse, he couldn't help but notice the fact there was only on free seat. next to vance. because of course, it would be next to vance. where else would it be? he groaned to himself but made his way over to the chair, sitting down in it. he noticed vance glance in his direction, then quickly away. good, the other fault just as awkward as he did. he didn't necessarily feel sad about it anymore, but now it was just awkward.
vance couldn't help but take notice when bruce sat in the chair next to him. he was tempted to move, but there was no other chairs. great, now they'd be stuck next to eachother for the rest of the. fantastic. he knew that he'd never gotten over bruce, but he had accepted that. it still kinda hurt to be around, although he knew he had no one to blame but himself. kinda, he really just wanted to protect bruce. he took a deep breath. it's been a year. he shouldn't have been putting so much thought into this. they just wouldn't talk all year long, and surely that would be easy enough. right?
as if on cue, bruce spoke up. "uh- do you have a pencil i can use?" vance looked at him. "oh- yeah. uhm, here." he grabs a pencil out of his bag and gives it to bruce. "thanks." the other said, offering a smile. vance gave a small smile back, befote quickly bringing his gaze back to the professor. he wasn't ready to fall for bruce again. would it really be considered falling again, though? he shook his head. whatever, that wasn't important right now, he told himself. surely he could get through this year without too much interaction with bruce. they could move on with their lives. that couldn't be too hard.
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tuesday, 12:30 pm.
     vance was dead wrong. they, once again, had all their classes together — so far. which was proving to be a problem. for the two of them. luckily, they only sat beside eachother in three out of five. all they had to do was avoid talking to eachother. that should've been easy. but got some reason they couldn't seem to avoid eachother. it seemed like everywhere they went, the other had to be. it was horrible. was asking to not see eachother too much for the universe? vance couldnt help but notice that almost everytime he ran into bruce he was with a girl. he didn't know the girl, he was pretty sure she was new. were they dating? the thought made its way into vance's head everytime he saw them together. it made him jealous.
he knew it shouldn't. after all, he was the one who cut things off. however, it still hurt to see bruce with someone else. but, at the same time, bruce seemed happy. which was exactly why vance cut things off, so bruce could be happy. so why couldn't he be happy for bruce? he shook it off. he would get over it soon, he told himself. for now, he needed to focus on literally anything other than bruce. "vance? dude are you even listening?"
"eh?- oh- sorry, what did you say?" vance brought his gaze away from bruce and to robin, who was glaring at him. "you've done nothing but stare at bruce the whole break." finney noted, earning an elbow to the side from vance. "ow! i was just observing!" he huffed. "observe silently, yeah?" he looked at finney with an annoyed smile. "whatever- why are you even gonna sit with us if you wanna be around bruce? go sit with him." finney gestured to the table bruce and a couple other people vance didnt recognize were sitting at. "what? no way! i can't do that." vance shakes his head. "why not?" robin pipes in. "uh, is it not obvious? for one, he probably hates me. for two, we agreed not to talk."
"he probably wants to talk to you just as bad as you want to talk to to him, but he wants to respect your decision, ya know." finney said. vance shakes his head. "dont be stupid, finney. trust me, he's tried to avoid me more than i've tried to be him. he doesn't want to talk."
"maybe he just doesn't know how to start a conversation with you know?" robin offers, and vance shakes his head. "he doesn't want to talk, guys. just- just drop it. what were you telling us, robin?" he brings his attention — or atleast and tries to bring his attention back to the conversation, but his mind still wandered. did bruce want to talk to him still?
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word count: 835
are bruce and donna dating?🤔
i hope u all have nice days mwah mwah