When The Rain Stops (BXB)

Chapter 8

A/N~
This chapter might be triggering for some readers, so I wanted to let you all know this contains some violence and a few homophobic and disrespectful slurs.

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Ken leans over the table, spilling his coffee, and he screams "What?" like I just told him I had, like, the secret to living forever.

We're in the Starbucks in town, and it's still raining outside. I have no idea why there's a Starbucks in South Aberford, considering half the town's closing down. It's kinda like finding a castle on Mars.

Except we didn't find a castle, or the secret to immortality. I told him Rory and I called a truce.

"You're shitting me, right?" he asks. A waitress comes over and asks if we're okay. I am. He isn't. "You gotta be kidding me."

I shake my head. "I kid you not."

Ken's head's shaking. "You've been fighting for, like, ten years and you actually called a truce?"

I know. I can't really believe it, either.

"Tell me everything." He sits forward, eyes wide and legs bouncing on the floor. "Hoooooooo, boy. This better be good."

I scratch my neck and pick up my water. Coffee makes me sick. It's too strong a smell. "He got grounded from the shower thing – " Where I leave out that I basically had a brain meltdown and tried to turn myself into a cooked lobster. " – and...everyone just...kinda, turned on him." I lick my lips and take a sip. The water doesn't taste right. It tastes kinda metal-like. "It was awesome. I blamed him for small shit. Kicking me under the table. Pushing me. Stepping on me. And they ate it up like it was what happened. Like, even if they were right there, and I blamed him, they still believed me." I stop. Rory's face is in my head when I tripped on the hiking trail – jaw clenched, ready for a beating. I don't want to think about it. "But after a while, it just felt..." Wrong. Assholish of me. Even I couldn't convince myself that this was okay.

I leave out the journal.

"Holy fuck, bruh," Ken mumbles. He leans back and whistles. "What, you gone soft 'r something?"

I think I have. Or maybe I just realized that it wasn't right. Even though Rory deserves it.

I don't say that.

"Nah, I've got one more big thing up my sleeve before summer ends." I grin and take another sip of water.

I spit it back into the cup. It sucks.

"What?" he asks.

I shake my head. "Working out the kinks, still."

"Ho ho ho," Ken says, rubbing his hands together. "What you got so far, bro?"

Nothing. "So far, I got some scissors, a balloon, and some newspapers."

Ken leans back, eyebrows coming together. He doesn't get it. "What."

I don't get it, either. They're just the first things I said.

"Again, working out the kinks." I bring my water cup to my lips. I begin eating the ice because the water's fucking terrible.

"What about those, like, Oreo cookies with toothpaste in them instead of the cream?" Ken asks.

I want this to stop.

But I shrug and say, "That's amateur shit."

Ken's mouth moves from side to side. "Some people in college put peanut butter on all the dorm doors." He leans back, grinning. "Fuckin' disgusting."