The Halls of Westwood [BxB]

Chapter 27

Mark's eyes landed on the petrified blue-haired boy curled up in the seat in front of him. Unmoving, being dragged to hell by his own thoughts and nightmares. He smiled slightly at his masterpiece. The boy that had been nothing more than a puppet... An experiment was a success. The age-old question of nature vs. Nurture had finally been answered. Austin was never pre-disponed to be the cruel person he had become. It was a bored and twisted man's test. Nothing more than an object to test his theories.

He looked over his cards before smiling as if their conversation before had never happened.

"Your move"

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Incapable of love. Incapable of caring. Incapable of connection. Austin stared down at the floorboards of his bedroom feeling lost... The words that had been engraved into his mind from a young age and obsessed over circled his mind. They tore at him, destroying him from the inside out slowly over the years until the internal pain was finally beginning to reach the surface. The pent-up emotions he had locked away were breaking loose and he didn't even know how to identify them, much less process them.

There's a stage in every child's life when they learn how to process and identify their emotions. Austin skipped that phase entirely... He was too busy being forced to grow up in other ways. Forced to steal, forced to raise himself, and forced to teach himself how to avoid being hurt by those around him. He never had the time to learn that important skill... And now that he finally did, he didn't even know where to begin.

He knew Mark had only ever manipulated him. Had only ever tried to get inside his head... It had worked. But what if he wasn't lying? Mark didn't have a tell. He didn't react any differently when he lied which had made sorting through fact and fiction a nightmare. What if Austin was just as fucked up as he said? What if he was incapable of caring for others? The thought alone made him dizzy.

He hadn't gone to school that day. He couldn't get out of bed and hadn't even bothered changing out of a baggy hoodie and basketball shorts he didn't even know he owned. Although, they were loose around his waist so he could easily assume they were Jullian's and he had just left them here by mistake. He didn't care. They were comfortable enough.

There was a light knock at the door that Austin didn't bother responding to. He didn't care if the school was burning down or someone was just bringing him the homework he had missed. It didn't matter... Whatever happened, happened. He'd deal with it when the time came. There was another knock making Austin groan before collapsing back onto his bed.

"Take the hint!" Austin shouted. The door opened anyway and he risked a glance over. Jullian. Of course, it was fucking Jullian. "Ugh, go away" Austin scoffed. Jullian rolled his eyes and dropped a stack of papers on Austin's desk.

"Can we please just have an adult conversation? No yelling... No insults... Just talk?" Jullian groaned. This piqued Austin's interest. This was unlike Jullian... Jullian didn't talk about things, he argued when others tried to. He didn't reach out to others... Not often anyway. But at the same time, Austin knew it was going to be about something intimate or emotional based on how he was standing.

"Depends... What about?" Austin hummed, knowing very well what the answer would be. "And if you say us I will not hesitate to scream rape" Jullian gave a light nose laugh at what he hoped was a joke.

"Well... I guess... A little while ago with Beau... What you said. I've done some thinking and you're right. I do like you" Jullian announced with a sigh. Austin froze at that. Never in his life would he expect Jullian to say that he was right about anything. Hell, Austin had gotten an answer right on his own once for homework and Jullian wouldn't even admit he was right. But that wasn't what startled him.