Field - ★ - Brance

- Part Eleven -

Bruce opened up his door, slowly walking inside while trying to stay steady. His mother was cooking and his father had left to go on a work trip for a week. She glanced up from the pan she was stirring. "Bruce? Why are you home so late-" She dropped her spoon into the pan and let out a gasp. "What happened? Who did this to you?" She cried out before rushing to Bruce and brushing his hair aside to look at his bruised face.

"I'm sorry." Bruce breathed out. She stayed quiet and picked up his bandaged arm. "You better tell me right now." She said while redirecting him to the dinner table and sitting down next to him. Bruce started slowly explaining what happened, and shamefully told her the part where he knocked the boy out. He gazed at the table expecting her to start yelling, instead she leaned over and hugged him, putting her chin on his shoulder. Bruce sniffled a bit while hugging her back.

 "How did you bandage your own arm so well?" She questioned Bruce after pulling back. "Oh, uhm." He glanced to the side. "Vance did it. I ran into him on the way home." Mrs. Yamada smiled at him. "I knew he was a good kid." She whispered to herself. "How are you feeling?" She asked. "I'm alright, don't worry." He replied, giving her a small smile.

They had eaten dinner and Amy couldn't help but glance at his bruises the whole meal.
"Hey! Stop staring!" He sighed at her. She rolled her eyes and started eating again. They finished the meal and Bruce cleaned up all the dishes. "I'll tell the school you won't be coming in tomorrow. You need to rest up." Mrs. Yamada said. Bruce nodded and headed up to his room.

He sat down at his desk, trying to study some. He was done with math so he was trying to do his Spanish now. His focus was quickly stopped as he heard a thud. He turned around, inspecting his room. His alarm clock pointed the time to be 9 p.m. He glanced at the window, seeing it was dark outside. His face turned into a confused look though, as he saw something sticking to the outside of his window. 

He took a closer look. A pizza slice was stuck to his window with the cheese pressed against the window. He watched as it dropped down, leaving a string of cheese and a grease stain. "What the fuck?" He walked to his window and slowly opened it before glancing down. 

"Vance?" He exclaimed, seeing Vance Hopper standing outside his window with a box of pizza in one hand and a lit cigarette in his other. "Hey Bruce!" He slurred out. He never called him that, normally he'd just say Yamada. "Why are you here?" Bruce asked. "Yeah, yeah. Just let me in already." He said, before frisbee throwing the pizza box into his window. He dodged it and watched as it flopped on his floor before leaving out a sigh. Vance threw his cigarette in the garden.

What followed was a very clumsy Vance trying to climb up a story of a house in the most unusual way. Bruce face palmed before lending him a helping hand. As soon as Vance stood in his room he could smell he reeked of alcohol. The blonde took a black backpack covered in pins off his back and threw it down on the ground. "So, can I stay here tonight?" He asked Bruce while grinning widely. 

"Vance. What the actual fuck?" Vance groaned as he sat down on the floor. He flipped open the pizza box and took a bite of a slice. He grabbed another one and offered it to Bruce who shook his head. He crossed his arms and stared down at Vance eating, who slowly rolled his eyes up to look back at him. "Is that a 'no' look or a 'explain why you're here' look?" He hesitantly asked him.

"The second one." Bruce huffed out as he watched him take another bite. "Nice, I can stay!" Vance celebrated in a slurred tone to himself. Bruce disappointingly sighed again but he couldn't help but smile during it. "So," He slowly started. "You do have a backpack?" He said, pointing at Vance's bag. "Yeah, they're for nerds though. Expect this to be the only time you see it." Vance snickered.

Bruce rolled his eyes and sat down on his floor, next to Vance. "Why are you drunk?" Vance looked up from his food in surprise. "Uhm, how did you know?" He whispered in an embarrassed tone. "Just a small guess." Bruce teased him. Vance shrugged. "I don't want to talk about it." He said, taking another bite from the greasy and now slightly cold pizza. 

"You can't just come in like that with no explanation" Bruce whined. He looked at Vance, who seemed in slightly less cheery spirits now. "Stuff with my dad. Don't worry about it, idiot." Vance said. Bruce nodded and watched as Vance ate some more. 
"Please don't puke on my carpet." Bruce chuckled. Vance rolled his eyes. 

___

It had been around an hour and Bruce had managed to calm down Vance with a few comics. Vance had slowly started sobering up. They sat against the side of Bruce's bed together. "You still want to sleep over?" Bruce asked. Vance looked away from him. "I can't go home right now. If I'm a bother I can stay some place else though." Vance scoffed. "It's 10 p.m. Don't worry about it." Bruce said, he looked at Vance and gave him a slight smile.

Vance glared at him. "Why are you just letting me sleepover?" He asked, clenching his jaw a bit and looking down. "I mean, we're friends, right?" Bruce carefully asked. The silence after made him feel a little embarrassed. "Just, the tutoring and stuff." He quickly mumbled after, glancing at Vance again. He expected him to weirded out because of the mention of them being friends, but instead he gave Bruce a slight smile. "Yeah." He muttered softly.  

(1016 words)