Car Fic. | Bluespartanz

3

Taking a deep, cold breath, Henry tried to pop the trunk as lightly as he could-- easing its ascent with a flat palm. He pulled the trunk down as he sidled in, and placed the coffee next to his best friend. The taller boy barely acknowledged Henry's presence because he was deep in his own thoughts. Henry crossed his legs and leaned his head onto the side window. Using one finger to drag the cardboard holder closer, he picked up his hot coffee and rotated it in his hands.

Henry didn't want to waste more time over something so trivial. "I get it, okay?" he started as he scratched the plastic lid of his coffee, trying to find somewhere else to be in his mind at this sensitive moment, "I understand completely. And I'm sorry if I hurt you." Henry waited for Brandon to respond. He saw his cue when Brandon slowly shrugged and folded his hands neatly on top of each other.

"This isn't something worth being upset over, right? Come on," he probed as he nudged the other with his knuckle. He couldn't tell if Brandon was ignoring him or just didn't know what to say. All Brandon did was pick up his own coffee and-- now that it's been a few minutes and had cooled down enough-- he sipped it. Is this a mood? Henry couldn't tell, but if it was, then Brandons dodgy attitude was really getting to him in a bad way.

"It's just, I need to be a man's man, you know? It's a stupid, uh, dominance thing. I guess." He wasn't sure if explaining it would help, nor was he positive that it really was a dominance thing. "We should really stop arguing over nothing and just get stuff done." It was an attempt to bring them back to the original topic. Hopefully, Brandon got the hint. He watched his friend take his time putting the coffee back into the flimsy holder.

"... You don't get it... You just don't." Brandon flattened himself on the seat and crossed his arms, settling his head on them snugly. Apparently, Henry was the one who wasn't "getting it." What the hell? With small, clear eyes, Brandon peered up at Henry expectantly.

Confused and offended, Henry yelled, "What? What?! You can't just expect me to suddenly 'get it' just from that. What do you mean?!." Realizing that he was raising his voice, Henry reminded himself that he shouldn't lose his cool after it took him so long to get it back. "Be like Kwite," he thought.

"Well, it's not exactly my fault," drawled Brandon as he flipped over and tucked an arm behind his head, body facing Henry, "That you don't get it. I think I've been preeetty clear." Dammit, still not helping. Henry found it harder and harder to be Kwite, and he was going to run out of coffee soon. He wanted to yell, "What's your problem?" and "Don't be a jerk," but he held back again and settled with a disgruntled "Mmrgh." This time, the silence was expectant. Brandon was clearly waiting for some kind of response.

Eventually, he got bored of it though. Brandon glanced away for a second, then looked back at Henry. "You're right, it's not worth being upset over. I'm okay. I really am. Let's just go do the DVD thing." As if nothing had happened at all, Brandon smiled like he always did whenever he relented to whatever Henry wanted. Henry felt responsible for Brandons attitude, though. The blame had successfully been shifted. Pissed off, he was not okay with this. "No, let's not do the DVD thing!" he cried, crushing the empty coffee cup.

"You can't just drop it like that. You were completely against doing something else, earlier, and now you're suddenly fine with it? No way Brandon, no." Henry stuck his finger out at James and said through gritted teeth, "We're getting to the bottom of this." This was definitely important to Brandon, and now it was important to Henry.

Lazily, Brandon flopped onto his back and rolled his eyes, "There you go again with the DVDs-- if you're trying to figure out what this is about, you're doing a terrible job." Henry choked and squeezed his hands into tight fists. Sometimes, Brandon could be absolutely impossible. This was one of those times. He tried to decompress his anger by concentrating on other things-- like how all the cars had left the parking lot and how the mall was completely dark. Or how it was getting really warm inside of the car and the air was getting heavy. But no, that wasn't enough. Before he could yell, Brandon decided he was sympathetic to Henry's position and said, "I just wanted to be somewhere with you where we couldn't be bothered. That's all."