Peaked in High School

You Tell Me

Everett peers over his laptop screen as Beau hurriedly speed-walks through the kitchen and makes his way downstairs to the garage with nothing but a "hey" thrown over his shoulder. Not bothering to respond, Everett instead lets out a sigh once he's all alone.

It is now Friday and his roommate has hardly spoken to him all week. At first, Everett tried to coax him into small talk and joke around with him like they usually do. Now, however, it seems that Beau can only be in his presence for less than a minute before he makes an excuse to evacuate the area. Everett is at a loss for what to do. It's not like Beau is being actively cruel or homophobic towards him, but it's clear that the guy has been uncomfortable ever since he came out as bisexual to him.

Knowing the position Beau is in, Everett doesn't want to kick him out and make his life even more difficult than it already is. He's been doing so great in Sinting with his job and emotional intelligence management. Well.... until recently, obviously.

After a couple days of trying to act like everything is normal around Beau, Everett eventually decided to throw in the towel and give Beau his space. Again—it isn't necessarily terrible living with him, but Everett can't deny that the lack of interaction has caused him to slip into a deeper depression than he has already been in because of the divorce.

He was hoping to have Beau as somewhat of an anchor throughout the process since he hasn't yet told his acquaintances around town the newest development in his marriage. Now he knows that he'll be shouldering the antagonizing divorce proceedings on his own with no moral support until he builds up the courage to break the news to his parents.

The day crawls by and Everett is relieved to be logging off of his computer when he suddenly receives a phone call.

"Is this Mr. Everett Fowler?" A nasally voice asks in a bored tone.

He clears his throat before answering, "This is. May I ask who's calling?"

"Great. My name is Patrick Robertson, I will be representing Ms. Charlotte Fowler throughout the divorce. I'm calling on behalf of Ms. Fowler to ask for the exact acreage and cost breakdown of your joint property," Charlotte's lawyer explains to him.

Everett sighs and gets out his personal laptop to take notes on what he is being questioned on and does his best to provide a financial and size breakdown of their house.

-

Beau parks in the garage and turns off the car but doesn't exit and head inside just yet. He instead leans back in the drivers seat and lets out a sigh while running a hand through his dark hair.

Work was fine today—he had to do minimal talking, which is always nice, and made his way through another chapter of a fantasy book that he is currently reading. Mrs. T brought in bagels for the two of them, but wasn't able to stay long since she has family in town who she is hosting. All in all, Beau had a quiet shift and closed up the bookstore by 5:00 PM.

Now, however, he braces himself before inevitably seeing Everett. Beau is well aware of the fact that he's been acting weird around his friend. He knows that Everett is aware as well because he gives him dejected looks when he tries to initiate a conversation between the two of them. The conversation attempts have faded throughout the week and Beau doesn't know how to break the ice with him again.

It's just.... every time Everett looks at him or tries to talk to him, Beau gets an anxious feeling in the pit of his stomach and his brain goes staticky. The only other time he's been this phased by someone else was with his dad when he would have his delusional episodes. But even then, he felt more overwhelming annoyance and disdain toward him than he did anxiety and fear like he feels with Everett. The bottom line is that Beau has no clue what is happening with him or how to fix whatever it is that is wrong with him at the moment.