MORE THAN SURVIVE ( trc. )

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—MORE THAN SURVIVE—
chapter one

"ARE YOU SURE HE didn't mention anything?" Julius asked for what felt like the thousandth time.

Julius Franklin was nothing if not determined, but inquiring about the same thing over and over again wasn't really on the list of things he thought would get good results. That didn't mean he still couldn't hope to get a different answer.

Ronan Lynch rolled his eyes at him, leaning back slightly, and gave the smallest grunt to show his affirmative. The answer hadn't changed any of the previous times the question had been asked, why would it now? And yet, Julius felt compelled to ask again. And again. And again, until the answer became something that he could actually work with.

The conversation —if you could even call it that, given it's one-sidedness— had been going on for about five minutes, the length of the break between classes. It had sparked once Julius realized Richard "Dick" Campbell Gansey III, probably the only person on Earth who could get Ronan and Julius to be friends, was not at school.

Julius, of course, couldn't be entirely sure of Gansey's absence in Aglionby Academy, because that the two didn't actually share any classes given that Julius was, unlike all four of his friends, on the tenth grade. He supposed it was a bit odd that all of his friends were a year older than him, but this was hardly the most bizarre thing in the strange little group Richard Gansey III had created, so it was never truly questioned.

"Are you two wondering about Gansey?" A voice came from behind Julius, startling him. He scowled slightly at Ronan's vaguely amused expression, clearly directed towards his reaction, then turned towards the voice.

Adam Parrish was perhaps the most unexpected member of the group, simply because he was exactly the type of person not to "do friends" due to aversion of any and all things time consuming. Yet, he was friends with a guy who's friendship came tied in with the (very much time consuming) search for a dead welsh king through Virginia. Simply odd.

"You two implies that Ronan over here has given me any response whatsoever,"

Adam made a sound that was perhaps a snort, "Sounds about right. Do you know where he is, though?"

"I was about to ask you if you knew," was Julius' response. He was probably the most worried out of the trio, although that game as no surprise to anyone who actually knew him. Still, Ronan looked unbothered as ever, which made Julius calm down, even if only a bit. Ronan may fight tooth and nail to hide the fact that he was able to experience emotions, but only a fool would think he didn't care for Gansey. He would definitely look at least a little bit unsettled if he believed something could be wrong. Or, at least, Julius told himself so, in a bit of a desperate attempt to keep his chill.

It was then that Ronan's phone started ringing. The caller ID read "dick" (lower d, Julius noted with light amusement), and both Adam and Julius gave the other boy a "go on" kind of look when he hesitated to answer. Anyone who knew Ronan was aware of his extreme aversion from phones, but this was the exact kind of situation where his apparent phone-allergy could be momentarily ignored.

"You missed World Hist. I thought you were dead in a ditch," were the first words out of Ronan's mouth. The manner in which he said them might suggest he was talking about literally anything else; it was non-committed and disinterested, not concerned or reprimanding like one might expect to go with the words.

Julius felt his stomach turn slightly at that, and wished for what was probably the tenth time that he were better at reading Ronan. He probably shouldn't have been calmed by Ronan's demeanor.

There was a pause, then, "No, I thought you were dead in a ditch,"

Another pause. Julius leaned forward expectantly.

"Come on, man," Ronan said into the phone, and Julius could see Adam raising an eyebrow out of the corner of his eye.

He mouthed, "What's he saying?"

Ronan didn't reply, but that was expected.

This pause was longer, and Ronan had a feeling that Gansey had already stopped talking.

"Where are you?"

The smallest hint of exasperation was present in his tone.

So he wants to be picked up, Julius thought. Or he's somehow wandered off.

The next thing to come out of Ronan's mouth was perhaps the first truly transparent thing to have been said. A jarring "Gansey", almost reprimanding, mainly annoyed.

Julius' eyebrows shot up. Ronan hung up.

"We're going," He said, then started walking away, ignoring Adam's protests.

"I don't skip!" Julius called after him, and it was true, but it was also true that he had a lunch period next (the only thing he shared with the group. Or, well, the group aside from Noah).

Ronan appeared to be aware of this and continued walking. It was also possible that he just trusted Julius' devotion to Gansey as his quest too much. Maybe he was right to trust as much.

Adam was the louder of the two in his voicing of discomfort, but followed towards the BMW that had belonged to Ronan's father nonetheless.

It wasn't until they were standing besides the car that Ronan gave any semblance of an answer, although "We're picking up the idiot," wasn't necessarily the most thorough of explanations.

He tried to go for the passenger seat immediately, and saw both older boys give him a funny look. He rolled his eyes, but Ronan pushed past him and nodded towards the backseat, message clear.

Julius huffed.

He was (unsurprisingly) sent to the back seat, despite his protests. The excuse was (again, unsurprisingly) that he was younger.

("Why do I always get the back seat?"

"Because you're a baby. Now shut up,")

Still, he couldn't help the smile that came to his face as the engine roared to life.

NOTES | i thought this would take way less time bUT IT IS HERE AT LAST