In The Sight of These Hills (Dolan Twins)

After School Special

Chapter 8: After School Special

"Sitting through the days
And wasting away to the weekends
Running on the green through the sticks of the suburbs
I learned maybe you shine a little more than me"

-Laurel's "Fire Breather"

"Did you hear?" She said it in a way that made her eyes expressive. Of course, everyone had. There was a group of students clustered in the hallway of Morrison High School. That was where many of them liked to hang out before class started. There was the cafeteria but that was for the weird kids who ate breakfast and studied at the tables.

"Yeah, of course. It was all over social media this weekend."

"I heard he's going to do it outside where everyone can watch," said a guy with a black beanie on.

"They both are so dead."

"Did you see the video?"

"Yeah," said another boy, whose teeth was interlaced with braces, "it was funny."

"I heard that they used to play sports, though," said a girl. She liked Anime and she made sure everyone knew who her OTP was. She was always changing it, though.

"It's not like that matters, Jake is the hulk, and he's a beast. They stand no chance. They're pussies anyway, everyone knows that," one guy said, and some of the other students glanced up at him. It was Nate.

"I don't think so," said a smaller boy wearing thick green glasses. Nate just looked at him and he looked down sharply and skittered off, clutching his books to his chest.

"They're probably in a relationship or something," said a guy with a large black tattoo covering part of his arm. It was of a tiger, and he liked to raise his hand in class to show it off like anyone gave a damn.

"Yeah, they seem way too close," agreed a small girl beside him. They were dating and if he said something she tended to agree with it.

"That's sick," someone else said, a girl with black eye liner, the same one who had cried when they found the dead dog, turning, "you don't know what it's like to be a twin."

"And you do?"

"I'm just saying-"

"Whatever, the Dolans are going to need to get better health insurance. That's it."

"What about the Dolans?" Said Aaron suddenly, and he was there, people's eyes turning to him. They let him into their conversation without thinking twice about it. He had his red bag slug over his shoulder. He was a little late, he usually got there earlier to hear all the gossip. He never engaged in it, though, because it just seemed wrong.

"Oh, Jake's just going to kick Grayson's ass today. Probably Ethan's too."

Aaron blinked at that. He had had a busy weekend and had not even checked any of his social media, he hadn't even picked up his phone.

"Why?"

The girl explained, and Aaron suddenly remembered them going home from school and him offering a ride when he was skipping Social Studies. It all made sense now. His thoughts had been far from that Friday October afternoon, as he had been more concentrative on what he was hiding in the basement more than anything else, and the research. He had done so much research and came up with a half a dozen different theories. And getting the dent in his van fixed. That was a priority as well.