Venice (bxb)

13. Jam Jam

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It wasn't too hard not to get in Venice's way when he was like this. You could tell by how he'd thrummed as he stepped into the school. He makes a beeline towards Jason, just outside his first-period math.

"Listen, motherfucker." Was he being unassumingly crude? Maybe. Was he blinded by rage? Yes.

Jason turns around in the most oblivious way. "Venice?"

"You have no idea what happened at the house today. You don't know what you put my mother through."

"What happened?"

It wasn't Jason's fault that Via possessed the ability to be an anxious wreck sometimes. Especially when she was worried about her husband's murderous tendencies towards Jason's new carpool mommy.

"Why did you leave with Link's mom, Jason?"

"She offered?" He says like it's a no-brainer. Of course, he thinks that the world runs on goodwill.

"She's onto us. She is very much onto us."

"Jesus Christ, Venice." He sighs, walking down the hall and making a beeline away from his cousin brother.

"Hey!" Venice follows him. "I'm still talking to you."

"And when does that fucking end?"

"When I say it does!" The hustle in the hall comes to a still and Venice's voice ricochets against the walls. He's caught up to Jason and he has his attention.

"I don't know what's going on in that head of yours but if you're carrying around the idea that I have to do something just because you tell me to," he snickers, "you've got another thing coming."

The bell rings and Jason escapes his raging counterpart's wrath. His left hand is tightly clasped around the shoulder sleeve of his school bag, his wrist hypertonic with tension. He doesn't feel too strongly about his ongoing tiff with Venice. They fight, as brothers do.

In hindsight, this wasn't even a big deal. Jason just hadn't felt like carpooling on Venice that morning after he'd been a little bit of dick to him last night. Jason had done this out of his own guilt rather than because he was pissed at or annoyed with his cousin.

Why did Venice have such a visceral reaction though?

Jason angled into second-period English Lit with Mr Anglemen and disappeared into the back of the class. Mr Anglemen has a copy of Macbeth that he's vivaciously waving around.

"And so, our beloved Macbeth, once a noble servant, revered by the whole kingdom becomes a tyrannical, blood-thirsty usurper. Teaches you a thing about the flakiness of human nature. You could argue that it was the witches, really. It was because of the prophecy." He smiled, looking around as he stepped away from his desk. He's going to walk around now, or maybe pick on someone.

"However, Macbeth had always been capable of evil and I'm using evil loosely here because he was more human than evil and I think, in very small ways, we all relate to the man. The prophecy showed him what he was capable of, which means that a tyrant was who he was. If it exists inside of you, the capacity to murder and pillage if you ever had to, shouldn't you be labelled as such, even if you haven't yet."

"What differentiates Macbeth from Romeo is circumstance. They are a part of different stories. Romeo had Juliet and Macbeth had a prophecy he was terrified of. You don't understand a person until you understand what they are capable of and then still, your judgement of them will lack validity and perspective. It's fun how we really are just blindly throwing around arrows when we decide to spend our lifetimes with people."

Jason fucking hated English. It was slowly decimating his will to live.

The recess bell loans life to the kids of Menlo as they trip and fall over each other to get out of class. Venice had a free fourth period so he'd already been camped out in the canteen with his laptop out, a half-written essay being stared into completion.

Beckett places her bag on the table. "Is he still pissed at you?" She sits in front of him with her lunch tray.

He gives her a tight-lipped shrug. "Yeah, he is." She's talking about Link. Venice was hoping that Jason wouldn't lose his shit in front of them.

The group piles onto the table but neither Link nor Jason show up throughout lunch and Venice knows that it was because of him. It's always because of him. Chris briefly wonders where Jason was and Venice offers him nothing.

"Do you guys know where Link might be?" Beckett and Chris, engrossed in their phones, look up in thought.

"You could try the Debate Club room on the 2nd floor. I think it might be called Room 3A or something on the steel plate above the door."

"Or or or, he could be out in Quad but that's unlikely, he didn't bring soccer shoes today."

He thanks them and throws his belongings into his bag. The debate club room would be his first stop. He stampedes up the stairs in a sense of unbridled anxiety. Venice might be going up but he has no idea what he's going to say or do. The steel plates appear in descending order, 3F, 3C, 3B...3A.

Link's in there. 100%. He's yelling at someone inside. There's a portion of the door that is see-through. Venice peeps.

Link's facial expression reads annoyed and he's on the phone. He's railing somebody over the phone. "I didn't ask you to come, though. You can't just show up without asking....Yeah, I told you my mom wasn't home today but I have club practice that I can't miss. How does it make sense for you to get mad at me when you're the one inconveniencing me by showing up unannounced?"

All is not right in Lover's paradise. Why can Venice feel his lips twitching?