Head over Heels || brance

VII

Bruce stood outside the school, Finney, Robin and Billy standing beside him talking about baseball. Finney had told Bruce that he did end up going to his game on Saturday and it was as agonizing as he told Bruce it would be. Finney leaned on the railing as he expressed the pain of his team. He told them that Robin had come to watch and he sat with Gwen in the bleachers but that his team wouldn't let him go pitch even though they all knew he was the best pitcher on the team.

His team had lost and on the way home a few of his teammates called him names and blamed him for the loss even though he didn't go on the field the entire game. Bruce gave him a sympathetic smile. He did genuinely feel bad, he had higher hopes that nothing would've changed for Finney, that everything with baseball would've been good.

"Maybe now they won't take you for granted." Robin spoke from beside him, his arm around the railing Finney leaned on.

"Doesn't matter, I'm not going to practice today." Finney responded and this time Bruce kept his mouth shut, not wanting to say something and end up hearing about the practice being terrible.

"So are you not playing anymore?" Billy asked, adjusting his bag. Finney just shrugged. Bruce could tell that Finney liked baseball and by the look of his face, he didn't want to quit, but maybe it would be good to let things die down before he goes on the field again.

"The seasons almost over anyway."

"Yeah, next month." Bruce laughed, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Whatever." Finney rolled his eyes with a smile. Finney looked as the door opened behind Bruce where Gwen walked out. When she did, Finney sat up from the railing, smiling at her and asking about her day but the conversation died as the door opened again and out walked Vance.

Vance closed the door, turning to the group that had now turned silent. Bruce looked to the ground as he knew he was going to get weird looks from his friends as he prepared to walk away with Vance beside him. He turned to look at Billy whose grip tightened on the strap of his book bag.

"Um... I'll see you guys tomorrow." Bruce mumbled. Finney looked away from Vance and at Bruce. Finney was scared of Vance as most people were, he surprised himself that he was able to keep a straight face as he smiled at Bruce.

"Bye."

Bruce turned to Vance and began walking down the stairs of the school, holding his breath as he imagined the looks they were giving him as Vance walked beside him. He didn't dare look over his shoulder.

-

The walk to Bruce's house was quiet. Bruce didn't talk to Vance and Vance didn't talk to Bruce. Bruce's parents didn't get off work until a bit later in the day and luckily his father got home later than his mother. Amy was usually a few minutes late since she talked too much and would get caught up with her friends until she noticed almost an hour had passed.

Bruce led them up the driveway and up the door, he unlocked it and allowed Vance to enter first, his first step of acting romantic if you will.

Bruce's house smelled like cinnamon. His mother's favourite scent was apple cinnamon and she would always have candles burning, she had them burning so often that the house just had a natural scent of apple cinnamon. Bruce was practically nose blind to it at this point but it hit Vance hard.

"Jesus..." Vance mumbled as he watched Bruce take off his shoes. Vance followed in suit, untying his boots and placing them beside Bruce's clean, white sneakers. They walked into the living room and sat on the couch, Bruce sitting on the end with his hands nervously in his lap while Vance sat comfortably at the other end.

What were they supposed to do when his parents came home? Bruce didn't want to touch Vance, he didn't want to hold his hand, smile at him or call him couple names and he swore if the words 'babe' or 'baby' left Vance's mouth, he was going to puke.

All he could do was pray that Vance would take the lead.

"You can watch TV." Bruce spoke, looking over in Vance's direction. "I don't care what you put on." There was only three channels anyway and they never played shows Bruce liked.

Vance sighed, standing up from the couch and walking up to the television set. He flicked it on before turning the knob a few times flipping through the channels till something interesting came on.

Vance came back to the couch as the front door opened. From the living room, they couldn't see the front door, but Bruce knew it was Amy. It was too early for his parents to be home. As she came around the corner to talk to Bruce, she raised an eyebrow at Vance. She made an interested sound before deciding to go into the kitchen instead.

"What do you expect me to do when your parents get here?" Vance asked, his eyes staring at the TV, his eyebrows furrowed. It was as if Vance was also thinking about what he had gotten himself into. Bruce shrugged even though Vance wasn't looking.

"I don't know." Bruce answered, resting his face on his hand with his elbow now resting on the arm of the couch.

Amy walked in, a bag of chips with her as she sat on the floor beside Bruce. She looked at them. Bruce watched as Vance gave her a side eye that didn't seem pleased, but she kept her eyes bouncing between them.

"I'm not buying it." She said, waving a chip between the two of them.

"You know it's not real." Bruce rolled his eyes at her.

"Yeah, but if I didn't know, I definitely would be able to tell." She ate the chip, the crunch bouncing in Bruce's head. He sighed. "Why are you guys so far apart?" She looked back toward Vance whose jaw was tensed in annoyance, a usual look.

"You're the only one here. Who are we trying to lie to?" Bruce said, making eye contact with her and trying to communicate with her to leave them alone. Bruce knew she knew what he was trying to say, but she was going to ignore him.

"You could at least practice getting comfortable with each other. Like move over, I could fit a whole hippopotamus between you." Vance huffed, moving himself further away if that was even possible.

Amy put another chip in her mouth. She turned her gaze away from them for a moment to look at the television but it didn't stay there for long as she eventually turned to Bruce. She nudged her head in Vance's direction, her eyes telling Bruce to move over. He would never make the first move.

Amy sighed, placing the chip bag on the coffee table before standing up, dusting her hands off as she moved. She stared at the clock. Their mother would be home in 50 minutes, that didn't give her much time to work on this situation in front of her.

She looked at Bruce and motioned for him to follow her. He did, without hesitation. He felt awkward as soon as Vance stepped out of the school. He walked with her into the kitchen.

"Dude... mom and dad aren't going to buy it."

"Yeah, I get it, you told me already." Bruce rolled his eyes. His sister had higher hopes of him than he did, she should know that he has no experience and no idea of what he is doing. "I don't know what to do."

"Well, for starters, you can sit beside each other. Like, did you tell him that you need dad to believe this?" Amy asked, looking out the archway to Vance in the living room. "Out of everyone... you just had to pick him..." She whispered.

"Shut up." He mumbled, crossing his arms. "Mom won't be home for a while, we don't have to act like boyfriends till she gets here. Chill out. I got this."

He in fact doesn't got this.

_____

Sorry about this note. I hope this chapter sounds good, I kept getting distracted while writing this. Honestly, I'm in the writing mood so expect more chapters this weekend.