Chills & Thrills | Brance

five

Vance finishes his day at school, bored as ever. Like usual, the next time he sees Bruce is when he's riding his bike back home. Unusually, Vance doesn't feel like playing pinball. So, he walks home.

He isn't too sure why he decided to go home, there's nothing of interest to do there. Griffin wouldn't be home for another hour, leaving Vance to boredly sit in his room.

(if you blinked, great job, now its saturday. who let you in??)(joke, guys. very sorry.)

Unaware of it, Vance had missed Bruce's first game. He only knows to be there by three because that's usually when it starts. He stands where he usually does; next to the bleachers. If anyone were to ask, he was here to watch Finney, who was playing on the opposite team.

"Yo," Vance heard someone saying. He assumes they weren't speaking to him, so he didn't bother looking around. That was until something was dropped on his head. He looked up to see Robin waving at him with his head between the railing of the bleachers.

"What?" Vance said in reply. He lifted a hand to his hair to take out a pebble that was dropped by Robin. "What're you doing?" Robin asked.

"Watching the game," Vance stated simply. Robin rolled his eyes before replying, "No shit. Why're you down there? Come sit with me."

Vance paused before sighing and walking around to the stairs. He walks up until he reaches the third row, where he makes his way to the end to sit with Robin.

"I didn't know you liked watching baseball," Robin says when Vance is sat down.

"I don't got much else going on," Vance said in excuse to the real reason. "Yeah. Finney's pretty good though," Robin tells him. Vance nearly forgot that Robin doesn't know he's here to watch Bruce.

"Cool, cool. You uh, watch all his games?" Vance asks. He realized he hadn't once looked at Robin throughout that conversation, so he does look at him now.

"Nah, not all. I try to go when I can. What about you? I didn't know you and Finney were close."

"No, I just go when i've got nothing else happening-" Vance was then cut off by Robin.

"I think i've actually seen you watching a game while Finney was- wait, Finney was playing at the other field.. why were you watching the other game?" Robin said. Vance turned his head towards the field, not looking forward to making an excuse to that.

"I don't know," Vance shrugged. It was good enough for now.

"It was that team that you were watching, yeah? This was last week by the way," Robin pointed to Bruce's team. Vance didn't say anything.

Robin took a look around the people on the bleachers and those who were standing. It was an attempt to find any girls Vance might've been too distracted looking at.

"Okay, random question, you like anyone?" Robin resorted to asking. Vance sharply turned his head to glare at Robin.

"Maybe," Vance said. Robin nodded, "Explains a lot then. Who is she? She a sister to one of the players?" He asked.

Vance couldn't say anything. He looked at the field where the game was just about to start. Sure, Robin was his friend, but Vance couldn't ever muster up the courage to tell Robin he did not like a girl.

"What's the matter? Too old? Too young? She ugly?" Robin said, as a joke of course. Vance wanted to implode every time Robin said 'she'.

"Shut up," Vance finally said, a little more angrier than he intended. Robin thought nothing out of the ordinary. He assumed Vance was either too embarrassed or didn't want anyone knowing that Pinball Vance liked someone.

Vance tried to ignore basically everything that just happened as he went on to actually watching the game. It proved difficult because Robin kept glancing at him, and Bruce was down there just existing.

"Okay, i'm leaving," Vance said abruptly. Before Robin could think of a reply, Vance was already shuffling down the aisle and reaching the stairs.

Unsurprisingly, Vance went to the grab n go to play pinball, even though he didn't really feel like it.
••

Robin watched as Vance left, leaving him flat out confused. He didn't think anything about it, there's no pattern to Vances actions after all.

When that game was over, Finney's team ended up losing by one point. As Robin went down to wait for Finney, he realized the team he lost to was the one Bruce Yamada was on.

Bruce stopped Finney to say a few things, before the two walked separate ways. Not too long after that, Finney was by Robins side.

"Hey, good game!" Robin told Finney, who pulled on a smile after hearing that. "Thanks!" Finney said.

"Do you know if anyone on Bruce's team back there has any sisters by the way?" Robin asked. Finney took a moment to think.

"Uh, a few of them do. I don't believe i've seen them at the games before though," Finney says.

"Oh," Robin muttered. Why would Vance be going then? It made no sense.

"Why're you asking?" Finney questioned. "I'll tell you later," Robin said.
••

Bruce's eyes darted all across everyone sitting on the bleachers, hoping Stella would have shown. He didn't see her anywhere, but he wasn't surprised much. Bruce wasn't upset either, in fact, he was still beaming from his win.

He was then startled by someone grabbing one of his shoulders lightly. Bruce spun around to see it was Stella.

"Hey, you played really good!" She said with a bright smile.

"Thanks. I didn't realize you were here?" Bruce said. Stella nodded while tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear.

"Of course i'm here. I wrote it in my calendar so I wouldn't ever agree to anything that would clash with your games," Stella said.

"Oh, you really didn't have to do all that.." Bruce replied with a nervous laugh.

"Nonsense! If you think I don't care to watch your games or whatever, I want you to see that I do care," Stella tells him before pulling him into a hug. Bruce doesn't hesitate in hugging back.

Bruce backs away first. "I've got to go now. See you on Monday," he said with a smile. Before walking off completely, he gives Stella a quick kiss to her cheek.

Bruce goes home with his parents and sister. After showering and changing he leaves the house yet again.

He walks his bike (that was rested against the front of the garage) down to the edge of his driveway. After mounting it, he pedals down the road and continues his usual route. He is going to the house of one of his teammates to celebrate their win.

Two girls walking down the street wave to him and say hello. Bruce gives them a smile in return. He won't admit it, but he can't control his bike with only one hand.

The girls giggle as they look to each other. Bruce also won't admit this out loud, but he wishes girls didn't like him as much as they do. However it did end with him dating Stella, so it's not all that bad.

He soon gets to his teammate's, Owen, house. Bruce puts down the kickstand on his bike and leaves it at the side of their driveway as to not block any cars.

Walking inside, Bruce catch's a small glimpse of blonde hair in the corner of his eye. For a reason he doesn't even know, his mind immediately thinks Vance. Bruce turns his head fully and notice it's just Steven. Why did he think of him?