The Color of Your Laughter

Chapter 2: Afflictions & Affections

A/n: Credit for art goes to @n0soluti0n.art (insta)

  The weekend went just as soon as it came, much to the gang's dismay, but it's not like they could've done anything to stop it. Time was nothing but a theoretical construct that humans created for their own selfish purposes…or at least that's what Larry often heard Todd say. Though he was pretty sure the redhead was loosely quoting someone. Either way, he'd rather not delve further into the matter; this wasn't the time to be contemplating the inner mechanisms of the universe. There was less than 24 hours before he & the others would have to return to the hellhole that was Nockfell High and he'd rather spend it using as little brainpower as possible...which is how they ended up as they were now.

Instead of lamenting over the thought, the gang decided to wrap up the weekend, spending the entire day at Ash's house, running a movie marathon. Since Ben & her parents were out, they had the whole place to themselves, meaning they could be as rowdy as they wanted to with no restrictions. Sal automatically gravitated towards horror, because of course he would; in his eyes, every day was Halloween. While the others were a little reluctant about the decision, they agreed with the condition that they compromise by alternating every other scary film with a comedic one.

Larry didn't mind, honestly; he was content with whatever so long as it had nothing to do with school. While he did wish they were doing something a bit more entertaining, he knew there'd be plenty of opportunities to cause mayhem. He sat there, eyes glued to the screen that depicted some crazed psychopath trailing a group of oblivious, hormonal teens who decided it'd be a great idea to set up camp near the killer's childhood home (obviously trying to uphold to some stupid bet). But even though he appeared to be focused on what was going on in front of him, his mind was...well, somewhere else.

  For some reason, he couldn't stop thinking about what happened the other day. It was all so...weird. The nervousness, the timid demeanor...that damned aching feeling in his chest--where did it all come from? And then, there was that aura; beautiful as it was, it made him anxious just remembering it. He's made Sal laugh plenty of times before & it never got to him like this. So...why now? Fuck, none of this made any sense! 
'Ok Johnson, breathe…' Larry closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, slowly expelling the air from his lungs as he counted backwards from ten. He remembered how he'd often prompt Sal to do this same grounding exercise whenever he was in the middle of an anxiety attack. 

Huh...isn't that ironic.

Once he was more level-headed, he took the time to replay everything back in his head & think it over. After some time, the tiny assembly of little Larrys came to a reasonable conclusion: it was true that he's made Sal laugh (more times than he could count, in fact), but this was the 1st time Larry had heard it so vibrant & loud. The smaller male was always self-conscious with multiple aspects of himself, his voice included; so for him to let it ring out so boldly, it must've caused the brunette to be so shell-shocked that he didn't know how to react.

So sayeth the council.

The brunette smiled to himself, satisfied with this answer. 'Yeah...yeah, that's it!' he thought; a silent sigh of relief escaping him as he settled back in his spot, feeling that the world around him was, once again, back in order. Of course that had to be the only logical explanation to that whole incident. After all, there's no way Larry would be developing feelings for Sal. They had been best friends since the moment they met, he wouldn't let himself fuck that up with some stupid crush.

Right...?

  An alarming roar of static, followed by a brief flash of iron grey with maroon & cedar highlights had Larry practically jumping out of his skin with a start, ripping him from the confines of his subconscious and bringing him back to Ash's room. He surveyed the space around him, mind somewhat in a daze, when it finally occurred to him that the tv in front no longer showed anything; he also noticed that a certain blue blur was nowhere to be seen. "Where'd Sal go?" he asked, still trying to reprocess life; it felt like he'd just woken up from a dream. "To the bathroom, duh." Ash stated this so matter-of-factly, as if he should have already known. "He literally told us this a minute ago before he went, saying he wanted to take a quick break before we start the next movie." 
Wait, next movie? Shit, they'd just started the other one a few minutes ago! Had he really been spacing out that long? "Oh, right..." the taller male mumbled.