The Halls of Westwood [BxB]

Chapter 21

"Yes," Aiden deadpanned. He seemed annoyed for a moment and Markos couldn't blame him. Aiden was woken up every morning at the crack of dawn for his medication because he couldn't be trusted with it. "I think they gave up... At this point, they just leave it on my bedstand"

"Ah" Markos pressed his lips together as he tried to find an excuse to leave. He could say he was going to go see Austin, but everyone knew there was no way in hell Austin would be awake before noon on a weekend. He could have just as easily said Jayce, everyone knew something was going on between them. But Jayce was with Jullian every Saturday. They meditated in the morning, got breakfast, and played basketball for a few hours. So instead, he asked; "How's Beau?"

"Um," Aiden's face fell as he glanced down at the sleeping angel below him. It was weird to see how different Beau was when he was at peace. He wasn't forcing smiles and laughter. He was relaxed and at ease for once in his life. His lips were parted just slightly and he appeared alive and content rather than the empty shell that wandered Westwood. "I don't know"

"How do you not know? You surely spend enough time with him" Markos scoffed before taking a seat on his bed. He resisted the urge to pull his knees to his chest and relax. He needed to maintain control of the conversation and having bad posture just made that harder.

"I just don't know. Alright?" Aiden sighed. "One minute he's clinging on to me like he actually wants me and the next he's shoving me in Tai's direction. One minute he's perfectly fine and the next he's crying on my shoulder. One minute he wants Lukas and talks about how amazing he was, and the next he's wishing that Lukas was never born and cursing him out. I just don't know"

"Poor kid" Markos mumbled. Aiden nodded and ran his fingers through Beau's hair, doing his best to style it in the very specific way Beau liked it. Markos could recall about a million different episodes of Beau stressing out in front of a mirror over it. If it wasn't perfect, Beau wouldn't leave. It was as simple as that.

"Hey, handsome" Aiden smirked down at Beau as two pretty blue eyes blinked open.

"Knock it off, Aiden" Beau groaned. He shoved Aiden's hand away and buried his face further into his pillow, receiving an eye roll from Aiden. Markos felt a bit bad for him at that moment. He was trying his best and was receiving little to nothing in return. He couldn't even get a clear answer as to what Beau wanted of him since Beau's moods were too unstable.

"Morning, Beau. Tea or coffee?" Markos hummed. He received a groan in response making Markos laugh. At least some things didn't change with Beau's moods... Not once since Markos had met Beau had he been a morning person. "Tea it is"

"No, thank you" Beau grumbled.

"café à la crème, as always then?" Beau gave him a half-hearted thumbs up while Aiden just gave Markos a funny look.

"You speak French?"

"I speak a lot of things" Markos deadpanned. And it wasn't by choice either. His parents had been very insistent on him being well-rounded and using Markos's natural genius to their advantage. So they assigned him, tutor, after tutor for skill after skill. He'd learned how to read music when he was seven, learned to speak Spanish by the age of six since his dad was fluent, Spanish led to Italian and French since they were so similar. He had taken pottery classes, had excelled in all studies, and even tried to pick up Chinese but that never stuck. He knew the basics of a few other languages spoken around Europe such as Bosnian, Dutch, and Greek. He was gifted. He was talented. And he hated nearly every part of it. The only enjoyable thing was that he got to show off.

Markos headed down to the cafeteria like he did every morning. He always made himself green tea with lemon. Preferably, he'd be sitting on a balcony overlooking the city while drinking whatever rare or unique concoction the help had made. But in Westwood, he'd have to settle for less. He filled the electric kettle and turned it on to boil before moving to make Beau's coffee while he waited.