meet me in the woods ☾grayson dolan au

t w e l v e

[ 12 ]

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When Ryder wandered off to get some sun in the backyard, Grayson became curious. Once Ethan had gone into his room, he hadn't come back out; or at least not where Grayson had seen him. He could be doing anything in there, and Grayson wondered exactly what he had gotten himself into in the last half hour.

His feet carried him across the cold wooden floor and through he hall until he stood in front of Ethan's door. Grayson hadn't opened it in such a long time that he almost forgot what the room even consisted of. From the inside, a dull thud resonated that sounded like an object moving before being stopped suddenly by a soft surface. The sound was so familiar from years ago and a trigger went off that immediately reminded him of darts. He knocked once lightly on the white pained door before twisting the knob and peeking his head in.

Ethan stood with his back turned and let the last dart of three leave his fingertips. It barely made it on the board, but he still cleared a double eighteen.

"Nice throw," Grayson complimented.

Ethan ignored him and retrieved his three darts from the board, marking the points with a dry erase marker on the score sheet that hung from his wall.

Below the sheet was a box full of various sets of darts. Different color flights on one side and different barrels on the other. Grayson's eye was caught when he spied a dart with a short barrel that used to be his first choice when playing against his brother. He referred to them as "shorties" as the barrel was shorter than a standard dart but roughly the same weight. He grabbed them and a set of clear flights and began to put them together.

"Hey, hey, what are you doing?" Ethan asked and looked at him as if he was doing something wrong.

Grayson laughed and continued to put the flight on the second dart, "im going to play a game with you. Is that so bad?"

Ethan said nothing but turned his head to throw a dart. It landed right outside the bullseye into a single fourteen; it didn't count. He puffed and lined up for the next, letting it fly, and hitting yet another single fourteen.

"I swear to god-" Ethan let the last dart fly. He hit dead center of a double bullseye and let out a sigh of relief. "Still wanna play?"

"Hell yeah I still wanna play," Grayson shook off his brother's competitive remark and took a warmup shot at the board. He hit a fair single seventeen. "How about a game of closeout?"

The lights dimmed as Ethan turned the overhead light off and flicked on a switch that illuminated the board. "I really wasn't planning on having any interaction with you further than earlier..."

"Then I'll make an agreement with you."

Ethan raised an eyebrow at his suggestion, clearly finding interest in it.

"If I win, you have to leave me alone for a day. But if you win-" he began to contemplate his words. He worried about what he may potentially have gotten himself into. "-you have the right to do whatever you want to me for a day."

Ethan knew that it wasn't Grayson's decision to whether or not Ethan left him alone, but he let it slide and instead collected his darts in his right hand. He grabbed his first throw with his left, rolling the heavy barrel on the pad of his thumb and index finger. "First to the bull has first play?"

Grayson agreed and lined up behind the dart line, aiming at the bull before hinging his elbow back and releasing. The dart landed rather close but a mere centimeter away from the ring. He sighed and stepped away from the line to let Ethan step up.

Ethan did the same in aiming and throwing his dart at the bull, but his was barely closer.

They collected their darts and then took turns throwing groups of three darts to hit the important sections of the dart board.

The game seemed to drag on as they both were lacking of their old skills. But seemed as they were equal, Ethan having an early advantage but Grayson catching up near the end.

Now Ethan was down one bullseye to Grayson's two. Three were needed to win and Ethan was getting desperate.

Grayson lined up behind the dart line for his turn feeling confident to claim his last bullseye. He took a slow breath and lined up the top of the flight to his target. He released and missed, lining up his second and missing again. His final dart was lined up and he attempted to focus as much as possible to win the game with his remaining dart. He threw it and a distinct sound of the tip hitting metal filled his ears for a split second as he watched his dart fall from the board and land in the exterior of a faded yellow box.

"Shit..." he cursed.

Ethan laughed and stepped up to the line, throwing one dart and scoring a double bullseye. "Hell yeah!"

"Good game, E," Grayson congratulated his brother and set his darts back into the box. He began to wonder what the yellow box was. He had always known it to be under the board, but never thought to ask what exactly it was.

He walked over and grabbed it, taking it into his own room before Ethan could protest.

Lifting the light plastic camera from its box, the shape itself wasn't very appealing. It was almost beige and a far over exaggerated handle was on the right side.

The Handle, it stated in bendy letters. The slot where pictures were dispensed was wide and Grayson wondered if the pictures themselves were that big. The urge to find out filled his body and he soon found himself at his window pointing down at a sight very relaxing to him.

Ryder sat in a lawn chair in the middle of the yard, her outfit changed from sweats to a nice pair of shorts and a tank top. The shorts were rolled up to expose as much thigh as possible and the top rolled up to expose just as much of her torso. The warm air looked delightful and before he knew it, there was a quick flash and then the camera was putting out a photograph.

"Damn," he sighed as the photo's face was completely black. He had hoped for a nice photo. He sighed and placed the ruined photo on his desk and placed the camera back into the box. He returned the box back to its place under the dartboard when Ethan was gone. He would never notice.