High by the Beach • France

Chapter Two

Vance never really allowed people to touch his hair it had always made him quite uncomfortable when people asked, so telling random people to fuck off had been a daily occurrence for him yet his new roommate had become the one and only—situational—exception as they prepared to cut clumps of his curly blonde hair off.

Finney tried his best to keep his touch light as he brushed through Vance's curls. "Your hair is really soft," The seregate hair stylist smiled, running his fingers through the golden locks, an action Vance took a heavy disliking to—he was never one for physical displays of affection. "Stop that," He glared and Finney respectfully obliged to the complaint not wanting to push boundries.

After brushing through the thick hair thoroughly Finney than wet Vance's hair so that he could began to cut which was when the boy in the hot seat really started regretting his decision, realizing that it was too late to go back.

More of Vance's hair started falling onto the floor, it collected in a loose pile as Finney cut segment by segment.

"Tell me more about yourself," Finney started, finding ways to drown out the silence that had grown exponentially uncomfortable as the two fell into a pattern of trying not to disturb the quiet. Vance was too tired to give a proper answer but he entertained the idea anyways.

"I was born in Denver–" He began, immediately getting cut off as Finney's smile grew brighter. "Me to!" He blurted out and Vance definitely found that coincident interesting.

As Finney calmed back down Vance continued with what he was saying. "I also like pinball I guess, I don't necessarily have alot more to say," He shrugged reciving a small nod in response "That's fine, I'm boring to. The only thing—well one of the only things—that I really find interesting is space, I want to be an astronomer when i'm older though I also really like baseball so maybe i'll do that instead." The other boy answered before allowing the soft, quiet, silence to take over once more.

After a little while longer Finney announced that he was done and Vance went over to the bathroom mirror. He paused as he ran his fingers though his hair. "I look like shit," He frowned. It wasn't actually bad but it wasn't exactly preferred either. Vance watched Finney through the mirror as the boy scoffed at the comment. "Hey!" He furrowed his eyebrows. "I mean... it'll work—I guess." Vance ran his fingers through his newly cut hair again and yawned.

"We should probably get to bed, it's really late" Finney started and Vance was already two steps ahead of him. After sweeping up all of Vance's hair the two stumbled into their respective beds.

•••

The early morning sun shined though the open curtain over the window as Finney's alarm clock went off, waking both teenagers up. Finney quickly shut it off and apoligized perfusly to Vance who sat up with a glare. "Shit, sorry!" Finney smiled tiredly before hurrying out of bed and grabbed his uniform that had been laid out on his desk the night prior. Vance shook himself awake as well and grabbed his shit before heading to the bathroom to take a quick shower which Finney skipped since he prefered taking showers at night.

After getting dressed, Vance looked at his schedule and began making his way over to his first class. His headphones blasted Lithium by Nirvana, drowning out the sounds of the other students as they walked to class as well. While walking he scanned the area and his eyes landed on Bruce, it was fairly easy picking him out of a crowd, something about him was simply radiant. Bruce smiled at Vance but was swept away by his friends before either of them got the chance to properly say hi.

After missing his shot a familiar voice could be heard from behind the new student even though Vance was listening to music on high volume—Finnney was also radiant, and annoying. "Wait up!" Finney yelled, sprinting to catch up. Vance rolled his eyes before turning around. "What?" He asked, removing the earbuds from his ears. Vance wasn't exactly expecting to become friends with the kid—or anyone to be honest—he would've prefered it if everyone stayed out of his way, though that seemed unlikely as Finney wasn't taking the hint.

"What are you listening to?" He asked and Vance stared at his roommate blankly. "I was listening to Lithium... was that all you wanted to talk about?" He asked before turning to walk again though Finney kept following.

"I just wanted to walk with you. I wasn't sure if you knew your way around already and I want you to know I would gladly show you," Finney was out of breath from his quick run as he explained himself—for someone who played baseball he was pretty unathletic. "What do you think Bruce was doing when he was with me yesterday? Dumbass," Vance scoffed.

The other boy had wide eyes as he remembered. Finney had always had an awful memory which defenitely didn't mix well with his crippling social anxiety. He used to be really quiet around others though when Finney started getting high he realized he stopped caring as much so it became a bad habit.

Vance watched Bruce who had made his way over to this small fountain with his friends. "What's the deal with that guy, anyways?" He asked, curiousity burning bright in his eyes as he tried hard not to stare though Vance wasn't the best at listening to his better judgement. "Bruce Yamada... where to start," Finney's eyes filled with admiration as he grinned.

"Bruce has been going here since 9th grade, he's arguably one of the most popular boys in school, I mean, he's literally been president of the student body for 2 years straight. Um, lets see—he plays baseball, he loves horror movies, he always has the best holloween costumes, when he was a sophmore and I was a freshman I tutored him for math–" Finney smiled at himself as he mentioned the turoring one before moving on to the last "fun fact". "Oh and last year there was this rumor going around that he made it to 6 base with this stupid football player."

That was alot to process for Vance who looked at the younger boy absolutely dumbfounded.

"Finney, are you high or just stupid? You literally play baseball how the fuck don't you know that there are only 4 bases?" Vance furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head like a disappointed parent. "Listen man, I don't know what base they got to but it was everywhere. I feel really bad though—Bruce is really sweet."

Vance walked into the warm school and Finney followed like a lost duckling. "So what class do you have first?" The shorter boy asked and Vance sighed before stopping in the middle of the hallway. "Holy shit you are annoying. You do realize we aren't actually friends, right? You're just my roommate. Thank you for the haircut. Fuck off." Finney's face dropped as he looked down at the ground. "I didn't mean to annoy you," the boy cleared his throat before beginning to leave. "Finney, i'm sorry." Vance immedeitly apologized.

"Shit..."

The blue eyed teenager didn't have a filter so he said or did whatever was on his mind—the only problem with that was the fact that he was a huge asshole.

Vance scolded himself as he continued walking to his first class of the school year, this shit was already too much to deal with.

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Word count: 1,286