What's Your Deal? BxB

The Discovery (Jeff)

A soft pat on the knee was enough to pull Jeff from his blissful slumber. He looked up and saw the dark looming figure of his home towering over him. "Did I fall asleep?" He mumbled through the slowly fading grogginess as he stretched his feet in the space in front of him.

"Yep, just about the second you got in the car." Brant replied chuckling as he leaned forward in his seat. His head popped up between the front seats, and a dark grin was on his lips. "We had an itsy bit of a struggle getting here since we couldn't ask for directions, but we made it, eventually. I told her we needed to turn left at happiness and make our way onto scowl street, but she wouldn't listen to me."

"Brant!" Clare hissed through her teeth as she turned around and pushed him back against his seat. "Be nice, Jeff's had a very long day!"

"I was momma! I was just trying to make a joke!" Brant replied as she continued to glare back at him. Looking down at the ground, he scoffed quietly. "Everyone's a critic..."

Hearing Brant, Jeff smirked before he unclicked his seat belt. "Well, I'm going to head in real quick and get my stuff from my room, I'll be right back." He slowly lifted his right arm and tried to open it when sudden pain in his shoulder began to throb in violent outbursts making him let go of the door handle with a clacking sound.

"Oh no you don't!" Brant called out, hopping out of the jeep quickly and taking a step forward. "I'll get the door, and when we get inside, you just tell me what you want and I'll grab it for you!"

"You don't have to do that, I don't need help grabbing a spare change of clothing." Jeff replied, embarrassed that he couldn't even open the door by himself. "It's really no big deal, my shoulder doesn't even hurt that badly anymore." Jeff lied as he tried again to get the door open, his shoulder screaming otherwise as he scowled, frustrated that he had just lied.

Brant quickly yanked the door open and extended his arm forward imitating a gallant knight. Ignoring Brant's obvious gesture of kindness, Jeff rolled his eyes and slid out of the jeep. Sliding from the seat, he landed on the ground with a soft thump then walked passed Brant without looking back. "Well then, let's get a move on cripple!" Brant joked earning him a nasty glare from Clare that Jeff felt from ahead of them. Her watching eyes finally gave way when they made it to the doorway.

A large lump formed in Jeff's throat when he noticed his door had been kicked in. The once blue-green frame had been destroyed, and the ruined door lay on the floor in the entrance walkway. Jeff paused, looking at the big muddy boot print in the once colorful wood. Brant walked over the door and lifted it up, leaning it against the wall with a sympathetic smile. Jeff passed him with a numbed feeling of loss. His home had been attacked, the one place he had gone to detox from a hard day at school had been defiled, and he bore the pain like a heavy weight on his shoulders. Jeff looked around the entryway at the boot prints, then a place where all the bootprints met up and then headed for the doorway.

"Nice place you have here." Brant commented as he dusted his hands on his fading blue jeans. He looked around the scratched and fading paint on the walls, and the damaged dishes that had built up on the kitchen table. Jeff looked over at the kitchen and sighed. A large rock was sitting in the sink with a few broken plates sitting underneath it. The window above the sink itself had a large hole in it, and the rest of the glass had been spraypainted black.

"It's not always like this," Jeff lied again, the words seeming to roll off his tongue as he listened to his own false words. Turning his head, he tried to not show his shame at the state of disrepair his house was. "The house has seen better days though. Sometimes our neighbors who live closest to us like to remind us that they don't like my dad." Jeff headed towards the kitchen with slow, stable steps. "You should ask your mom to come in. She should probably take some of the food that's good here, that way it doesn't go bad. It's mostly frozen meals, but still, I don't know how long I"ll be gone, and when the neighbors learn the house is vacant..." He looked on the counter for anything to carry them in.