Yall i cannot write im horrible at this
*me looking at my writing*: b u r n i t
me: ill just write something quick!
*11 pages later*
its a hallucination <3
I cant write angst, so tell me what I did wrong
and right
I need that validation
Two Weeks Later
Friday
Arlo walked into the principal's office on a mission.
Vaughn was standing up, facing the window, and sipping a cup of tea when he entered. "Oh, Arlo, how nice of you to-"
He held his hand up. "I need you to request John Doe to move into the dorms. Specifically Blyke's dorm."
Vaughn raised an eyebrow as he turned around. What is Arlo doing with him, especially if he thinks he's a cripple?
"And, why exactly, is this?"
Arlo's cheeks colored. Oh, so that's why. "Right now, his only friends are me and the Ace, so I think having him around more people is good, especially if they are in the same friend group I'm in." he blinked. "Don't tell them I called them my friends."
Vaughn chuckled. "Your secrets are safe with me. And," He sat back down in his seat, lacing his fingers together. "I'll think upon your request. I believe that is also a good option, but as you know," Vaughn waved his arm. "Schematics."
Arlo nodded, gusto lost. "Thank you."
He chuckled. "Of course. Would you like some tea?"
He bit his lip but shook his head. "No, I'll be leaving now. I'm hanging out with John."
The principal's eyebrows touched his hairline. Wow, he must really like John if he's willing to give up tea. "Alright, have fun." I'm assuming John won't be happy about this.
Hearing the click of the door closing, he let out a quiet giggle and spun his chair around. Ah, the joys of being a principal. Hmm, I could let Keene help him bring his stuff in...no, it'd be better for Arlo to be able to do that.
Saturday
John was definitely not happy. The principal was forcing him to move into his dorms, and he didn't even know why! Nothing happened, and his reasoning was "One of the students still had an empty dorm and no roommate" and "You need to interact with more people, John" like he knows anything! His two friends were enough, thank you very much. He sighed. Doing all this packing was going to be annoying. John blinked. Oh right, those friends I was talking about.
- - ┈┈∘┈˃̶༒˂̶┈∘┈┈ - -
John: Vaughn is kicking me out of my house can you guys help me pack
Sera: yeah, you're moving into a dorm, correct
John: how did you-
Sera: we dont question these things.
- - ┈┈∘┈˃̶༒˂̶┈∘┈┈ - -
Sera giggled, eerily similar to Vaughns. She had been discussing it with the principal, but he didn't need to know that.
- - ┈┈∘┈˃̶༒˂̶┈∘┈┈ - -
Arlo: um...alright
Arlo: but yeah I can help you pack and stuff
Sera: I won't be able to, but I can get you a u-haul or something
John: sure I'll take your money
Sera: great
Arlo: want me to bring my car?
Arlo: I know you don't have one
John: yeah sure
John: this is why I take stuff from you guys you're both filthy rich
- - ┈┈∘┈˃̶༒˂̶┈∘┈┈ - -
Well, he's not wrong. Arlo was smiling so hard all of his other friends would be terrified. He grabbed his stuff as quickly as he could and hopped into the car.
- - ┈┈∘┈˃̶༒˂̶┈∘┈┈ - -
Arlo: im omw now
- - ┈┈∘┈˃̶༒˂̶┈∘┈┈ - -
Pulling up to the house, Arlo saw the Uhaul trailer was already there, unopened. He jumped out of the car and opened the door, not bothering to knock. Kicking off his shoes, he walked to John's room. John was laying on the bare bed, all the sheets and blankets on the floor. His suitcases were pulled out, but nothing was in them. Arlo puts his hands on his hips and ignores the urge to lay on him. "You aren't even trying."
John jolted from where he was laying down, quickly sitting up.
Arlo clapped his hands. "Well? What are you waiting for? All this stuff isn't going to move by itself!"
Two Hours Later
Arlo grabbed the last of the things which happened to be the blankets off the couch. He raised an eyebrow. "John?"
John looked over from where he was putting on his shoes. "Ye~s?" drawing out the E.
He held up a large blanket that looked like a tortilla wrap. "What the hell is this?"
He huffed and straightened from his crouched position. "My burrito blanket!"
Arlo blinked. His what now- ".... Your what."
"It's my blanket I use all the time on the couch, I got it off of Amazon a while ago."
Arlo decided to give up, and grabbed the blankets and put them in his car. This was their last trip, and the last stuff to have to put away. It had been an...eventful two hours, to say the least.
- - ┈┈∘┈˃̶༒˂̶┈∘┈┈ - -
"John, why are there seven bottles of hair gel in your closet?"
"You never know!"
"...I'm throwing these away."
'Arlo, wAIT-"
- - ┈┈∘┈˃̶༒˂̶┈∘┈┈ - -
"Where'd you go?"
"I'm in the attic!"
"...John, you don't have an attic."
"...then where am I?"
A loud crash was heard.
A sigh. "Fuck me with a chainsaw, please."
- - ┈┈∘┈˃̶༒˂̶┈∘┈┈ - -
"Hey John, can you grab the blue suitcase? I've got the rest."
"Sure : D"
"How the hell did you say that out loud-"
- - ┈┈∘┈˃̶༒˂̶┈∘┈┈ - -
Eventful. Why was he in love with him again? Just then, John laughed at something he saw on his phone. Okay, that's fair.
"Let's go, John, this is our last trip."
John quickly got into the passenger side of the car.
Arlo sighed as they pulled away from the driveway. "I think I might pull my hair out if I have to take this drive again."
The other boy pouted. "Oh come on, it wasn't that bad."
"Remember when Sera made you drive back and forth from the store like four times?"
"...okay maybe it was that bad."
- - ┈┈∘┈˃̶༒˂̶┈∘┈┈ - -
Placing the blanket down on the couch, Arlo frowned. "This dorm looks extremely bare."
John looked up from his phone. "I messaged sera to get some fairy lights and stuff, so your majesty can be pleased with my dorm."
He decided to ignore the jab, looking confused. "What's a fairy light?'
He gasped. "You're a heathen!"
"Wha-"
"Come here let me show you!"
- - ┈┈∘┈˃̶༒˂̶┈∘┈┈ - -
Ring! Ring!
"John, someones at the door," Arlo said.
John mumbled from where he was laying on him, and Arlo's hands that were around John tried to push him off.
"John. It's probably Sera."
"She knows she can enter whenever, and you're comfortable so shut up."
True to his word, he heard the door slam open and loud footsteps walk across the dorm. A slam of the bedroom door, and there she was, in all her glory, Sera. "Why didn't you answer the-oh." Taking in the sight of John wrapped around Arlo, both laying down, Sera nodded. "You still need to put this stuff I got up, though.
"What'd you get?" John says, still on Arlo.
"A few fairy lights, printed out some pictures for you of us, and macaroons," Sera said, taking the fairy lights out of the boxes.
John lifted his head from Arlo's chest. "Macaroons?"
"I was hungry, and I'm going to eat them in the kitchen now." And with that, Sera walked off.
Arlo patted Johns's head, "We gotta get up now."
"But I don't want to." He whined. Arlo sat up and John yelped as he slid off.
"Hey!"
- - ┈┈∘┈˃̶༒˂̶┈∘┈┈ - -
(blyke: simp
Isen: pimp
Remi: lightning mcQUEEN
Cecile: the tea)
simp: do any of you know who my new dormmate is
pimp: why tf would i know that bro
lightning mcQUEEN: i didn't know you were getting a dormmate!
simp: yeah idk who they are cause im sleeping over at isens
Sera: shouldn't you have been informed who your dormmate was??
simp: no administration likes being mean to their future king :((
the tea <3: I know who your dormmate is.
simp: awesome!! Who is it
the tea <3: no ♥️
- - ┈┈∘┈˃̶༒˂̶┈∘┈┈ - -
Sera laughed from her place on the couch, looking at her phone.
John raised an eyebrow from the chair he was sitting in. "What's so funny?"
"Blyke is asking the group chat if anyone knows who his new roommate is."
John's face morphed into one of horror. "No."
Arlo nodded from his seat, also looking at his phone. "Yes. I asked Principal Vaughn earlier."
He gasped. "And you didn't tell me?!"
Arlo shrugged. "You didn't ask."
Sunday
Arlo was cutting up carrots to put in a salad for dinner. He and Sera had run home to grab clothes yesterday, but had slept over at John's dorm Saturday night, and planned to do it again this night. The only problem was that John was acting more fidgety than normal. He seemed to be lost in thought every other second, jumping whenever the slightest noise was heard. He knew John probably had something important on his mind, so he decided not to ask him about it until he was ready.
I know, very out of character of him.
He had asked Isen to look into John's past, but because he was over at Blyke's that weekend, he would research on Monday.
The way John acted around them was..strange. He didn't mind it, but John, a 'cripple', seemed perfectly at ease around the two most powerful people at school. Not only that, but he remembers Blyke yelling about "The cripple who slapped the queen" for a week.
Arlo didn't like things he didn't know.
"Hey guys?" John asked from the island counter seat, messing with his fingers and interrupting Arlo's thoughts.
"Hm? " he hummed, still cutting the carrots as Sera, who was on the couch, turned around.
John took a deep breath, seemingly steeling himself. "I have an ability."
A clack, as the knife fell.
"What?"
"I-i mean, I've had an ability since I lived b-ack in New Bostin."
"What was it?"
A pause. "A-aura Manipulation, I can copy others' abilities and boost them s-slightly, I've been able to combine up to 4 a-abilities at a time." John's breathing seemed to pick up and Arlo heard the beginnings of a panic attack. Turning around, he quickly walked over to John.
"Hey, hey, breathe with me okay?" He began to take exaggerated breaths, and John slowly calmed down. Sera, at some point, had also sat down at the table, and placed her hands on John's shoulders, rubbing her fingers there.
"I-I'm okay now."
Arlo nodded. "Why did you come to the school as a cripple?"
John sighed, his lips quivering but in a flat line. "I was... the king at my old school. My power l-level is...7.5."
Arlo almost fell out of the chair.
- - ┈┈∘┈˃̶༒˂̶┈∘┈┈ - -
John spent the next hour explaining the acts he committed as the tyrant king, talking about how "Nothing he did was right, back then", and Claire, and Adrion. Arlo held him through the whole time (sometime through as this they moved to the bedroom), while Sera was sitting on the other side of John. When he finished the story, Arlo whispered reassuring words to him and laid him down. John fell asleep soon after that.
"I'm going to get ice cream for us," Sera whispered, taking her hand off of John's hair.
Arlo nodded, not taking his eyes off of John. If I ever see that Claire girl, she's dead. He thought, and continued to stroke John's hair.
- - ┈┈∘┈˃̶༒˂̶┈∘┈┈ - -
Darkness.
"Why do you think they would like you?"
A flicker of light.
"You're just a monster."
Claire's eyes narrowed with hate and fear.
"They hate you for what you did."
Seraphina's highlights, a flash of light in the dark.
"No one would care for you."
Arlos' eyes, glowing with power.
"No one should care for you."
"You don't deserve the happiness you feel right now."
The comments continued, everyone more hurtful than the last, and he felt himself drowning.
He couldn't breathe.
All he saw was darkness, nothing to defend him from the thoughts in his head.
Suddenly, a flash.
Arlo, standing almost level with him.
"Arlo!"
He just glared. " What a monster. Who let you out of your cage?" He flashed away.
"Hate you..." the words chanted in the background.
A hand on his shoulder.
A whisper of his name.
"Hate you..."
Louder, his name was called.
"Hate you..."
"John-"
"Hate you..."
"John!"
He sat up quickly, and saw Arlo sitting on his side, face pinched.
"Hate you..."
"GET AWAY!" John screamed, tears blurring his vision, kicking at Arlo.
"Hate you..."
He jumped out of the bed, stumbling away, and recognized the footsteps he heard behind him as Arlo's. He whipped around and shoved him away, lurching to the couch and glancing at the door in a panic only to see Sera walking into the room, her eyes wide.
"Hate you..."
"John!" Arlo tried to grab his wrist. John slapped his hand away, letting out a choked breath. He had nowhere to go. He snapped his head around to look for an exit. There was none.
It was-
He couldn't-
He was trapped.
"Please..." John heard a pitiful whisper and he realized too late it came from his throat.
Footsteps.
He felt a hand on his own and he let out a choked sob, flinching away. The hand was quickly removed. His mind reeled and all he could see were the faces of the people he had hurt.
No wonder they hate me. They hate me.
Why can't he catch his breath?
Why does the air trying to enter his lungs feel so horrible?
Like- like a- he was still trapped - he couldn't-
"John..." A plead. He blinked, looking up. When had he looked down?
A hand on his shoulder. "I can't-"
"You can't what?" A whisper, barely recognizable as Arlo.
John shook his head, trying to open his eyes and focus on the two people in a room. He stumbled.
A panicked "John!" reached his ears before everything went black.
- - ┈┈∘┈˃̶༒˂̶┈∘┈┈ - -
He woke up to the feeling of a bed, and people on either side of him.
A sharp intake of breath, and he moved towards the end of his bed.
Arlo stirred, reaching his hand out to where John was, and feeling empty air, he sat up. Looking over and seeing John at the end of the bed, he reached out with a murmured "Cuddle John..."
John hesitantly crawled over to Arlo, on the other side of where he was in the king-sized bed. Curling up against Arlo, who wrapped his arms around him and pressed his lips to John's cheek, he tried to calm his breathing.
The other boy tightened his hold on John and sighed.
"This is nice."
John relaxed. "Yeah."
"You comfy?"
John sighed contently. "Yeah."
- - ┈┈∘┈˃̶༒˂̶┈∘┈┈ - -
(isen: idiot)
Arlo: call off the investigation on John.
idiot: dude, are you sure?? If this is about me not doing it on the weekend cause I'm with Blyke
Arlo: it's not.
Arlo: call off the investigation.
(word count: 2472)
My writing is amazing! *my best friend/platonic spouse yelling at me about my word usage and inability to write angst in the background*
god I love them
this fic would be even worse without them
I HAVE THE CHAPTER AFTER THIS PRETTY MUCH DONE
BUT THE NEXT CHAPTER AFTER THAT IS THE CONFESSION AND IDK HOW TO DO THAT
PLZ HELP