tease | brother's best friend (ON HOLD)

apologies

i'll let you guess how often we need to clean it out.

the short drive is really nice today. there's sludge on the roads because the snow is melting, but other than that it's a nice day out.

as nice as it can be, anyways. it's still cold as shit.

before long, i return to the griffin household.

i text oscar instead of asher out of pettiness, and he soon opens the door to let me in.

"didn't know you were coming" he says, sipping his coffee.

"didn't really want to" i shrug. "is theo home?"

asher is quite literally the last person i want to see right now. and i wanna talk to theo while i'm here anyway.

oscar nods, swallowing his drink. "he's in asher's- his room. i'd say let yourself in, but it'd probably be better for me to check first."

"probably" i agree, following him upstairs to theo's room.

once theo lets him in after knocking, oscar peaks his head in.

"can aria come in?"

"sure?" he responds skeptically.

oscar opens the door all the way and walks in with me. i sit down on theo's gaming chair at his desk and oscar stands next to me, resting an elbow on the tall of the chair.

it's quiet for a minute. no one really knows what to say, and no one wants to be the first to speak.

i doubt oscar plans on talking anyway. he's probably just here to observe.

no apologies are needed. he didn't mean for the ball to hit me, and i'm not the one who gave him his bloody nose. if anything, asher should be in here apologizing to both of us.

and i'm not accepting an apology from asher until he apologizes to theo first.

the dickhead annoys the shit out of me, but i still love him like a brother.

"so..." theo starts.

"so" i nod awkwardly.

nothing follows that up. we just continue avoiding eye contact.

i pick up a controller from his desk and start fiddling with the joysticks, just giving myself something to do.

"you're being weird" oscar whispers to me.

"what do you want me to do?" i whisper back defensively.

"i don't know, just say something, weirdo."

i can feel theo's gaze on us, so i look back and take a deep breath.

"um... i didn't mean for last night to escalate like it did. i'm not apologizing for my actions because i wouldn't actually mean it, but i will apologize on asher's behalf" i sigh. "he's a dick, i'm sorry you guys fought because of me."

"pffftt" theo laughs, "you're sorry on his behalf? jesus, aria, you sound like a mom. i know you're getting old, but you literally didn't do anything wrong."

"okay ass hat i was trying to be nice" i snicker.

theo sits up and chuckles. "i had it coming, anyway. all these years of me pissing you off and you finally had the balls to snap. how'd it feel?"

"relieving" i smirk, "how'd it feel for you?"

"eh," he shrugs, "i thought you could hit harder than that. kinda disappointing, to be honest."