sunshine of your love - brance

vance goes to a baseball game [real] [not clickbait]

It was Monday afternoon and Vance was about to lose his mind. He had been standing out by the school's back gate that morning before class like he normally does. He usually stands out there to get his last few moments of quiet before he steps into hell. It's also where he debates whether or not he's gonna skip that day. He was thinking about skipping today but he knew his mom would have his ass if she caught him skipping one more time. Then if his mom found out, Griffin would make fun of him for days after because he knows Vance wouldn't retaliate against his mom like he would anyone else.

He had heard footsteps coming towards him and it was really weird cause no one ever came back there except for him, Griffin, and now Billy; Billy and Griffin had been hanging out almost every day since they started working on that project. Sometimes, they would hang out at Vance's house, other times it was Billy's or the park but it was every day. He had heard the footsteps stop in front of him and he looked up. He locked eyes with the boy in front of him. He could recognize those eyes anywhere. It was Bruce, because of course it was.

Vance is pretty sure that Bruce knows, just knows that he's driving Vance up the wall, insane. Why else would he keep popping up and talking to Vance? Since they were told about the tutoring, Bruce has made it a point to at least acknowledge Vance anytime he sees him but usually he makes an effort to talk to him. Usually, it's just chit-chat, the hello 's, and how are you 's, which Vance hates, scratch that absolutely loathes. He can't stand it, it's so pointless. Although, he usually gives short answers cause he doesn't want Bruce to think he hates him, for whatever reason that Vance can't seem to figure out. He wants to say he doesn't care about how Bruce thinks of him but then he'd be a liar. That's another thing Vance hates, liars. He can't stand lying or people who lie to him. That's why he's renowned at the police station. He doesn't say shit until they eventually call his mom and send him home. Always giving the same threat that they're putting it on his permanent record.

After he had acknowledged Bruce, the boy did the most outrageous thing. He had looked Vance dead in his eyes and asked him if he wanted to go to his game later. Vance had heard him go off on a tangent about how he didn't have to come if he didn't want to but Vance wasn't listening. He had felt his eyes widen and his eyebrow raise because what the fuck just happened? Bruce was asking Vance to come to one of his games, as a friend . As a friend? When the fuck did that happen? When did Bruce start considering him a friend? He didn't know shit about that. He didn't know shit about baseball either, when his dad was still around he had been a football guy so that's really the only sport Vance knew much about. Baseball hadn't ever been even slightly interesting to him. That's why he was so confused about why he said yes.

Maybe it had been the way Bruce was looking at him, eyes nervous but there was something in them. Something Vance didn't really recognize but it made him feel exposed. It felt like Bruce was just staring right through him watching all the turmoil unfold. So he just dumbly nodded his head yes and watched a big blinding smile pop up on Bruce's face. Vance could see why he was so popular, a smile like that could get you plenty of shit.

After he had agreed, Bruce had done his little chit-chat thing before running off to class. Vance followed a little while after, he had been 15 minutes late for his first class, math. His teacher hadn't even bothered to scold him. She was used to him coming in late and didn't care much anymore. Most of the teachers were used to him either being late or not being there but they were also used to him turning in everything and making good grades. They never wanted to use Vance's grades as an example because they thought other kids would get ideas to follow in his footsteps.

Vance wasn't late to any other classes that day though. He was basically on autopilot cause his brain was still heavily occupied by the fact that he was gonna have to go to Bruce's game later. It was all he could think about, yet again Bruce had said something that threw him entirely off focus. Vance wondered what happened that made him lose focus so easily now or if it was just something Bruce had the power to do with anyone. Well, he realizes he just answered his own question. It was Bruce, that's what was throwing him off so badly.