Road Trip Au

Revelations

(Guys read the end note.) Warning- this chapter talks/mentions car crashes and death- possible trigger

(HORACE CENTRIC BASICALLY)

Jacob bit into his mcmuffin with gusto, huffing slightly through his nose as he chewed it thoughtfully. He was always slightly nervous whenever he had to drive one handed, especially to eat. His father always tells the story of his uncle every Christmas who almost swerved off the road eating half a container of scrambled eggs and bacon bits. Enoch mirrored him in the passenger seat, spare hand coming up to catch the crumbs that escaped the cavern he called a mouth, leaning forward and almost chocking himself on his seatbelt as he did so. Behind him he could hear Millard's exclamation of disgust and a wet slap as the teen apparently got the wrong sauce and decided to launch the offending item straight at Hugh's face, the source of the wet slapping sound. This lead to a flurry of movement and noise as the two started bickering about this and that and tomato sauce smeared up Hugh's nose and eyebrow.
("Why the FUCK would you throw that"
"It was offending my eyesight"
"YOU'RE offending my eyesight"
"On one hand though you should consider dying your eyebrows red, you'd bring in heaps of ladies I'd bet")

Jacob stuffed the last bite into his mouth and crumpled the wrapper, risking a glance through the mirror to monitor the other two suspiciously quiet members of the van. Enoch, for a lack of something better to do turned around to see what the hell was causing world war 3 in the back, nearly hitting his head on the roof from how tall he was. His eyebrow started the harrowing trek further and further up his forehead as of 3 seconds in. It seemed that while Hugh was busy shoving his face up and down Jacobs headrest trying to rid himself of his red.....problem, Millard was busy licking crumbs off his hands greedily and Victor was busy balancing Horace's food in his lap while simultaneously finishing off the last of his bagel. Meanwhile Horace was slowly eating the tiny golden pancakes, the container gripped tightly in his lap as he glared out the window, daring the world to do something. Try it, he seemed to say, I'll screw you twice over. This van can't contain this burning hate for you, you stupid fucking trees. The van bumped a little which sent Hugh's face sprawling into the back of the headrest, muffling his cry of surprise, which also moved Horace's hand a little, and Enoch got a glimpse inside the medium sized white box on his lap. He had only touched one. His confused gaze caught the attention of Victor, who followed his line of sight to the subject to the side of him. Victor nudged his brother to the right of him, making the younger startle a little and turn his body towards him from the window, swallowing the tiny bite he had managed to stomach.
"Yeah Vic?" He asked, taking notice that the two in the front were listening too, even though Millard and Hugh were doing their own thing together at the other side of the van. Victor nodded his head towards the hardly eaten breakfast in his hand, asking,
"Its been 10 minutes bud, and you've only eaten one. What's wrong?" Realisation lit up Horace's eyes and his mouth made a small 'o' shape. He put an arm around his stomach (almost protectively) and flashed a small smile.
"Ooooh its nothing really! I'm just not that hungry that's all! And you know, I always prefer miss P's pancakes anyway so-" he was interrupted mid babble by by Hugh who had apparently caught the word "pancakes" and his stomach acted for him, swinging around Victor with greedy eyes.
"If you're not eating them can I have them?" The youngest nodded but victor put a hand on the box, immobilizing it.
"No Hugh, he's going to eat them." Horace narrowed his eyes, and tuning out Hugh's little 'aww' spoke up.
"I won't actually, so he can have them Vic. I've still got plenty of other stuff for later."  Victor stared at him for a second, scrutinizing him, seemingly thinking of something to say before deciding on,
"You can't do anything in the car, can you?" Horace looked like he was debating with himself before deciding to lean back and come forward.
"No," he said softly, "I can't. Especially not eat, it makes me queasy." Jake, who had been silent in the front seat inquired "Aw nuts are you carsick? I didn't know, I'm sorry Horace, I could have gotten some travel sickness tablets for you!"
The young boy chuckled softly, closing his eyes and humming a tuneless note, "Don't worry Jake, ça va, I'm not carsick. Its a.....oh how do you say...oh! 'A mental setback'" he struggled with the words for a second, using air quotation marks, "as according to this stupid doctor who hates me." He gave a flippant wave with his left hand.
Enoch shared a look with Jacob next to him, swallowing thickly.
"Doctor...mental setback? What are you talking about?" Beside Horace victor stiffened, shaking his head minutely. Horace scoffed.
"Victor you must think I'm blind. And to answer your question Enoch, my mental setback is that I'm terrified of cars or vans, or anything with four wheels because my parents were crushed in their car on the way back from my school in England by a one tonne oak tree log on its way to be made into whatever which some fool hadn't strapped down properly. Their car skidded off the road into a ditch. They died on impact of course but it doesn't change the fact that every time I get into a car I feel like I'm going to die." He said with a wane smile, and with sad eyes. while he told his story he could feel the mounting horror from the participants in the car, and truth be told while he liked a bit of attention he didn't want this much, and not this kind.
"Oh my God.....Hor- I'm so sorry" Millard said softly from the back. Sometimes he forgot that they were all adopted with how close they were. It was hard to remember that there were grey areas in which peoples past came into play.
Horace snorted, waving a hand. "Don't worry Mil, it was 3 years ago, I'm mostly past it now anyway. I only saw them a couple times a year." Hugh knew he shouldn't ask. He knew he shouldn't. But then again he had never had a filter in the first place.
"How..how did you find out?" Enoch gave him a sharp look from the front seemingly saying what the hell is wrong with you? You don't ask someone that.
Victor gave the ground a sad sigh and that made little alarm bells ring in the remaining boys, excluding Horace. It was no secret that they were the closest out of each other. As soon as Horace arrived he latched onto Victor and Victor took on the role of big brother instantly, spending free time making him feel welcome, even though at the time Horace hardly talked and mostly communicated by standing near what he wanted to talk or ask about and hold it until someone played the guessing game with him, thumbing the object with a shy little smile on his face. It took a while, but he eventually started to talk and the family discovered a very different personality. In fact the first words Hugh heard him say was "no go away" to Enoch after he tried to steal a fry.
Speaking of Which, the youngest huffed, bringing up a leg to prop his chin on, turning his attention to the offender.
"I didn't have to find out. I was in the car with them."

Hey guys. As you can tell, my hearts not really into this at the moment and this turned quite dark. Somebody close to me died and my dad hates me and I'm trying to cut contact with him. I haven't been home in a week and Lucy's actually gone to Bulgaria for 2 weeks (lucky) so I'm without my best friend 😅 anyway like always, spelling errors just tell me and I'm sorry if this didn't live up to your expectations, I literally can't even think never mind put in enough effort to write.