Recovery (Until Dawn)

1. Grief

"I hate this stupid assignment," Beth huffed, dramatically falling backward onto his bed as she discarded her pen. "What is that even supposed to mean? 'Create the store of your life'. It's such a stupid assignment." Her theatrics pulled an amused sound from Adrian's lips, as he stared at her with bemusement.

"I'm struggling to find a way to describe it without getting sent to the counselor," he admitted, spinning around in his chair to look at her. "At least I'm not being forced to write some stupid poem, like at my last school. It's like, what's the point of writing a poem if you can't just do whatever comes to mind? Why put rules on it?" The girl rolled her eyes, sighing as she sat back up and realized her writing utensil was missing.

"I'm glad at least you seem to be having fun. I can't be introspective worth shit- where's my fucking pen?" The man glanced around a moment, before pointing to a pile of pillows on the ground. She followed his finger, peering around before climbing back onto the bed, having found her prize. "Thanks."

"Well, you can do the easy thing of just describing things you enjoy? Or... you could do a photo studio, full of pictures of you and Hannah?" She seemed to narrow her eyes with frustration, which pulled him to continue. "Look, I don't know, Beth. I'm doing my best here." She sighed again, her shoulders slacking again.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry." She ran her fingers through her hair, tense. "I just... for a creative arts student, I'm having a lot of trouble being creative. I should be able to do this, I don't want a failing grade in my senior year. I thought this was going to be easy." He didn't know how to respond, and only shrugged.

"I could tell you what I'm doing, if it helps?" She seemed to think for a moment, before nodding. Adrian rose from his seat, gathering his pencils and notebook. "It's not the most profound thing, but it's something?" He admitted, joining her on his red blankets. He quickly flipped to the first page, before offering it for her to see.

A silence passed over the room as the girl began to read, and he just quietly stared at her in contemplation.

"I love you, you know that?" This startled her from her thoughts, and his eyes widened as he realized what he said. "I- I don't mean in a romantic way, I- shit, I made this awkward." His cheeks flushed as he babbled on, and she stayed quiet, listening. "Not that you're unattractive, I just mean... You're beautiful. You're such a beautiful person. You're so kind, and-and forceful, and you care about people and you're not afraid to reach out and help. You're not afraid and thats... that's amazing. And I love you. In a platonic way. A really-close-friend kinda way."

He kept talking, and talking, the nervousness of the situation and the lack of developed social skills making everything significantly worse- at least, in his mind. She didn't seem to care. Her cheeks were tinted pink, because of course, but she wasn't really enraptured by his explanation. She was caught up in her own thoughts. "I love you too." This cut him short, as he stared at her in awe. "In a really-close-friend kinda way." He nodded, smiling. "Don't worry, you're not really my type. You'd need to have a bigger chest and longer hair," she half-admitted, half-teased. This eased his mind, before he noticed the opportunity.

"Hey, I can have a bigger chest!" He then tried to squeeze the sides of his chest to create faux-cleavage, and grinned down at her cheekily. This resulted in a friendly shove, and she fell on top of him as the two playfully wrestled on the bed. After a moment of breathing, he spoke up again. "If we weren't both gay, this would be such an erotic moment." He wiggled his eyebrows, and Beth let out a cackling laugh, falling backwards on the bed. He began laughing too, sitting up among his pillows.

"We're a pair of idiots," she joked, finally calming down. Adrian nodded, smiling back at her as he brushed his hair out of his face. "I love you, dummy."