In The Sight of These Hills (Dolan Twins)

No Absolution

Chapter 9: No Absolution

"Can be your pick
Not pawned
The poisonous blood

We've been calling
Black paw who's soaring

We go out in the morning
Down the trail
To somewhere

You are the sound that I hear
You are the sound that I hear
We are not standing
We are falling"

Fever Ray's "The Wolf"

The bell rang, and it was a shill sound to Grayson's ears. He grimaced at it, gritting his teeth together, and grabbed his notebook. He stocked out before his brother did, and Ethan rushed to shove all his school work into his bag.

They saw Jack and Alex when they came out and they threw obscenities at them with their coyote smiles.

Alex shoved Gray's shoulder roughly and when the other boy didn't give any indication of response, sneered into his face: "Hey, are you ready to meet your mama?"

Gray just kept walking.

Jack was cackling as he saw Ethan look red and turn away. He was just trying to catch up with his brother. He met him at the end of the hall, grabbing onto the back of his sweatshirt. Grayson pushed him off gently, though, and kept moving.

Gray was looking like he wanted to kill somebody. This wasn't good, no, not good at all. What was happening? He had been like that when they woke up this morning. Well, when Ethan woke up because he wasn't even sure his brother went to sleep after he had told him to go to bed. Grayson was already awake, sitting there on his side of the bed, just staring at the pictures that consumed their walls.

Their steps were heavy against the hallway's spotted tile.

They ended up in the library in the non-fiction section. If the funding for Morrison High School wasn't in tip-top shape, then the library was something different. There had been an anonymous donor who had given quite a bit of money to get it remodeled. It was massive and had a sprawling number of books in all different genres. Despite its size and collection hardly anyone went there to check out books. The library seemed like it was only there for the weird bookworms and the anime obsessed.

The non-fiction section was especially vacant and was all the way in the back, so it was easily hidden from the librarian's view shot. That meant that it was an unofficial, exclusive spot for make-out sessions, though.

Ethan watched as two juniors practically ate each other's face. The lanky boy had the smaller girl pressed up against the Atlas section (poor books) and they were making weird little moaning noises. He had his hands under her thighs, and her legs were wrapped around his waist, long fingers gripping his thick hair tightly. Their mouths moved in sync with the hormonal fueled passion. They didn't even stop when it was obvious that Grayson and Ethan were there as well.

He stared for a few moments while Grayson seemed like he hadn't ever spared a glance in their direction. Gray grabbed his arm and pulled him into the human resource section by the teen pregnancy books. What were they doing, promoting it?

"Whatever you're planning to do," he whispered, "don't please. It's not worth it, G."

"Aren't you sick of this?" Asked Grayson blatantly. He waved his hands around and the motion was swift, precise, yet agitated. Ethan understood.

"Of this school," his lips curled in a kind of agitated look, "these people?" He looked like he was either going to have a complete meltdown or go into a rage. Maybe both.