Saturday: A Coin Toss

a/n: another self-indulgent work! here's my contribution too Brance fanfics now that the fandom's dead :) they only got 3 minutes of screen time but live in my head 24/7!! my mother helped me write this and we both headcanon that Vance has a rockstar perm lol ! I wanna write more lil one shots, open to requests

Vance didn't like other people. He always scared people away, kept them at a distance. Being the most violent boy in town had its perks. So when they avoided him, quickly learned not to hog the pinball machine, Vance smiled to himself. He hated crowds, people he didn't know. Vance hated a lot of things.

Vance loved very few things. His favourites were cars ,the weekends, his mother and pinball. When Vance was younger, his father used to take Vance to the empty scrap yard on the weekends, a solid commute as it was on the opposite end of town and the family did not have a car of their own. That's why weekends were Vance's favourite, it was when his dad was happiest. Vance despised weekdays, Mondays especially, having to deal with the angry and drunk old man instead of hanging out after school.

After his dad left, when his mother kicked him out after he had threatened them one-too-many times, he felt nothing other than rage. He loved his mother, and especially loved her way of supporting and standing up for him. He would never direct anything at her, fist-shaped holes littering his bedroom walls.
She had sent him out every Monday since, a handful of quarters and a kiss on the cheek, encouraging him to get out and socialise with his friends.

He never wanted her to worry, she was tough but tired, shutting herself in the house after a few years of single parenting. He hadn't bothered to tell her about his lack of friends, acquaintances, anything. He just hugged her and set out, pocket full of quarters, pretending he didn't hate everyone and everything.

By Friday, he'd have blown the coins on Pinball, his one true pride and joy. He'd never ask his mother for more, he just wouldn't, she already gave him so much. He beat up a few kids here and there if he was desperate, but it was getting harder to explain away the police visits to his mother. He'd already disconnected the phone line so she wouldn't know he hadn't been at school. He could easily gamble with the local kids, his father had shown him all the tricks, but to avoid being like him, he generally avoided anything his father had instilled in him.

Except for his weekend plans. Every Saturday, he'd tell his mother that his good friend from the rich side of down was having him over that weekend. Then he'd pack and walk to the scrap yard to sleep under the stars. It was quieter, generally no one went there. He could spend the day snacking, wrecking things, climbing mountains of trash.

This particular Saturday, Vance had been lounging in the shade. It was a little different than usual, he'd stopped into the grab and go before hand. He had been arrested on wednesday so he had a little money left and was planning to play a few rounds of pinball beforehand with his leftover quarters. Instead, he decided to grab a snack and a box bleach.it really was on a whim but there he was, sat in the scrap yard, bleaching his root, forcing it to go his signature loud blond. He had been very peeved while waiting for it to set.

He usually propped up his portable radio to listen to music to pass the time. But the universe was really screwing with him today. There was something going on, something big. The baseball diamond that was a couple dozen yards away was full, Vance could tell by the screams. Which meant he couldn't listen to the radio without hearing the shouts of the packed bleachers. With a sigh, and nothing better to do, Vance climbed on top of the tall broken neon sign to get a better view. From where he was, he couldn't see much, just the vague blobs running around. It also didn't help that the sun was shining in his eyes. Vance dug into his snack, barbeque chips and a sprite, sitting and watching the game.