Bruce stared at the girl that stood at Vance's side. He felt that he couldn't take his eyes off her, he could feel a pit of jealousy form in his stomach and no matter how hard he tried to advert his attention to the singer or Billy, who was now dancing with some random old lady who was dancing beside him, he just couldn't. It hadn't been that long since the whole thing between them happened, he didn't understand how Vance could move on so quickly, but then again, what they had wasn't real.
Bruce felt his mouth tingling and he finally let the heat of the crowd and the summer hit his body. He looked around him, seeing his friends enjoying themselves, so he decided to excuse himself and push past all the bodies surrounding them. As he made it a bit further away, finding himself standing near the smoking pit, the fumes burning his nostrils, he could finally feel his body cool down.
He felt sick. He was having fun which was a bit unexpected but he was glad he had decided to go. He knew he needed to get out of the house a bit, he had even heard his mother talking to him about joining summer baseball late, but he wasn't really paying attention. After seeing Vance in the crowd with some girl, he felt like he should've just stayed home and used that thirty dollars on snacks or something.
He felt the presence of someone at his side, and the smell of smoke was closer. He turned his head to see some guy he didn't know but Bruce could tell he was totally stoned. The man was bobbing his head around with the beat, his long brown hair swaying with his movements. He looked at Bruce and Bruce held his breath when the man offered his joint to Bruce.
"You want some?" He asked. Bruce looked down at the man's hand and he hesitated even though he knew he wouldn't take it. He made eye contact with him again before shaking his head softly. "This guy is really good, huh? I watched him live once in Seattle, he was amazing, the crowd was absolute." Bruce just stared at him a bit dumbfound at his words.
"Um, yeah, he's good." Bruce agreed.
"His lyrics are pretty meaningful too, ya know. Like if you really sit and listen, you'll be like 'woah'. It hits deep sometimes." The man stared at the stage again and Bruce turned his hearing to the words of the singer, listening to the words of the song. The song, as far as Bruce could tell, was about driving on coasts, living with money, and girls. He didn't find it meaningful, but he wasn't going to say anything to the man. "You here alone?"
Bruce looked at him again, watching as he took a hit off his joint and Bruce couldn't help but grimace as he imagined it entering his body.
"No, I'm not. I just needed a moment, the crowds a lot." He said as the song died down to move onto a new one. The man nodded from his side. From the man's side profile, Bruce could feel like he recognised him from somewhere, maybe that was why he was beginning to not feel so uncomfortable with the man talking to him.
Bruce watched as the man finished his smoke before he put it in his pocket and turned to Bruce. He tried his best not to make some weird face to show his confusion as the man just stared at him, Bruce would pass it off as he was high.
"Wanna dance with me?" The man asked and Bruce hesitated. The song playing was pretty fast and upbeat, Bruce kind of wanted to dance to it.
Bruce looked at the crowd sharply, from where he was standing he wouldn't be able to see his friends but he knew he should get back to them soon before they suspect something is wrong or something happened to him. He turned back to the man before nodding.
The man smiled and allowed Bruce to lead him through the crowd. He remembered the path he took to get to the smoking pit, and he was able to find them quickly when he saw Billy jumping around from older woman to older woman. When Bruce stopped moving, the man instantly started dancing, grabbing onto Bruce's hand to make sure he'd dance too.
Bruce smiled at him as he danced at the same level as Billy currently was, swinging his arms around and jumping up with each beat, shouting the lyrics. Bruce laughed as the man used their hands as some microphone and he began to felt into the music as he began mimicking the man's moves.
Through the dance, Bruce looked off into the direction Vance was stood at, as far as he knew, Vance hadn't known he was there and he was too busy dancing with the girl when Bruce looked his way. Bruce kind of wanted Vance to look over and catch his eye as he was dancing with this stranger but he doubted Vance would stop staring at the girl.
Bruce decided to just focus on what was happening in front of him. At some point Robin and FInney relocated back over to where the rest of them were after Robin led Finney far away in case Donna was still lurking. They didn't seem to question who this man was and instead just joined along. The man still held Bruce's hand as the next song came on and he started the dance again, pulling Bruce by his side to jump them around with the rest of the crowd.
Near the end of the concert, when the singer had announced his last song, the man turned to Bruce.
"I gotta go," He yelled over the music and Bruce felt a bit sad that he was leaving when they were having fun. "Let me see your hand." Bruce stared at him confused as he held his left hand up. The man let go of Bruce's other hand as he looked through his pant pocket, pulling out a pen and testing it on his wrist before he moved to Bruce. Bruce felt the cold ink on his skin as the man began to write. Bruce stared at the pen as it moved along but he couldn't see whatever it was with all the flashing lights.
The man dropped Bruce's hand, stuffing the pen into his pocket before waving and leaving. Bruce watched him leave before looking down at his hand, seeing the man's name and number sketched sloppily onto his palm.
-
The four boys walked up Bruce's front steps, feeling exhausted. Billy seemed to still have a few ounces of energy left in him but he would be out of luck as the rest were ready for sleep to take over. It was almost two am when Bruce opened the door for them, hearing the television still on as he slipped his shoes off. He looked into the living room, seeing his mother asleep on the couch as a sitcom's intro began to play quietly. Bruce smiled at her before hearing someone fall in the doorway, he turned to see Finney on the floor while Billy and Robin tried to hold their laughter.
Bruce led them upstairs, pointing Robin and Finney toward the guest bedroom and bringing Billy into his room.
"Did you have fun?" Billy asked him when the door shut. Bruce walked over to the closet looking for the big blanket he used for winter to lay on the floor for Billy. He nodded.
"Yeah. I could tell you had a great time, all those moms definitely wanted you." He heard Billy laugh softly.
"Oh my god, they did. What can I say? Dancing is a secret talent." Bruce shook his head at that remark as he closed the closet, spreading the blanket on the floor, watching as it floated to hit the carpet. "What about you? That guy seemed to like dancing with you." Bruce felt his shoulders tense a bit and his palm feel tingly.
He reached for a spare blanket on his bed and a pillow before tossing them at Billy.
"Yeah, he was pretty cool."
Billy sat on the floor, pulling the blanket on top of him, watching as Bruce went to turn off the light. Bruce climbed into his bed, feeling the sweet comfort hit his body as soon as his head touched the pillow. He wanted to fall asleep, but now that he was alone with his thoughts, he began to think back to Vance at the concert. Bruce hadn't realised how much it hurt him to see him and that girl together until he was in the silence, till he had no other distraction.
Bruce could feel his sadness as he thought if Vance had cared about his feelings at all. He had to remind himself that Vance wasn't the person he had created in his mind during those days together, that by the end of the day, he was still the Vance Hopper he had known before, the one that got mad at him still even if they shared whispers at night. Whatever they had was nothing to Vance but it felt like something to Bruce and he had known that he was feeling this for a while, since they had shared that kiss in the dark and he cursed the butterflies whenever he had thought of Vance.
Bruce hadn't known what it felt like to fall for someone, to truly wish to spend all his hours just laying beside someone, he had never expected the person to make him feel this would be Vance and he hated that he just allowed it to happen.
He turned onto his side, looking down at the floor where Billy laid, Bruce could see his eyes still opened as he stared around the room, Bruce could imagine Billy was on his own race of thoughts but for some reason, Bruce needed to tell someone about this. Somehow Billy had become Bruce's closest friend, which was odd since not even a month ago they had never spoken to each other and now Billy knew more secrets than anyone had.
"Billy?" He whispered, watching as the boy turned his head to look up at him. "I saw Vance at the concert." Bruce didn't really know what to say about it, and he knew Billy wouldn't know either.
"Did he see you?" Billy asked. Bruce hoped that there wasn't any moment of the night Vance had seen, as if he would care that Bruce was dancing with some pothead. The image of the girl popped back into Bruce's head and now he was able to admit that she was pretty and seemed like the kind of girl Vance would want to be around.
"I don't think so. But, he was with some girl... he kissed her." Bruce watched as Billy's eyes widened slightly, the reflection of the moonlight shining as he stared at Bruce.
"Is that why you left and found that guy?" Bruce furrowed his eyebrows, not realising Billy saw him leave.
"What? No- no, that was just some coincidence that he wanted to dance with me." Bruce quickly rejected, he heard Billy laugh softly and Bruce rolled his eyes at the interaction.
Bruce didn't know if he'd call the man, he wasn't sure if he actually knew him or if he just wanted an excuse to dance with some random stranger. This man could've been way older than him and Bruce had a limit.
He stared out the window, watching the moths attack the street lamp and he remembered the last night he saw Vance before everything was over, before Vance decided they never even knew each other.
He thought back to the man again, his mind jumping between him and Vance. Bruce wouldn't ever think of pursuing a relationship with him when he wasn't in to men... except he was into Vance...
He rubbed his hand down his face. Whatever thoughts he had about it bounced in his skull, he only liked Vance, not this man and he didn't even want to like Vance.
-
In the morning, Mrs. Yamada made a breakfast for the group, the kitchen was the loudest it had been since his father was in the home. Bruce liked having them over, he liked hearing the conversations they had while the smell of pancakes floated around the kitchen.
Amy was sat at the end of the table, orange juice in her hand as she listened intently to whatever Robin was going on about.
His mother chipped in, asking Robin questions about what he was speaking about and Bruce could tell it was something interesting since no one else would say anything if Robin was talking. Bruce hadn't really understood the exact topic he was talking about since he kept cutting himself off to bring up random details that didn't really matter to his story, but maybe that was why Bruce was hooked.
Billy turned to him when Robin cut himself off again to add that whoever he was talking about was a total "wazz", he censored himself for Mrs. Yamada's sake. Billy's hair was a mixture of bed head and his normal hairdo, and Bruce wanted to say something so Billy could pat down those stray hairs that Bruce couldn't stop staring at, but instead, he leaned over so Billy could whisper in his ear.
"I think you should go see Vance today." Bruce quickly turned to him in surprise, trying not to make it obvious to the table that they were talking about his secrets. Billy motioned for him to come back to him, and Bruce glared at him as he did. "I just think that Vance was only with that girl last night because of those rumours, I thought he liked you too."
Bruce felt his cheeks turn pink and he had to reach for his water to try and hide it. Billy hadn't been around Vance a lot, so part of Bruce wanted to believe he was just saying that to make Bruce feel better, but he also wondered if Billy had ever caught Vance looking at him like Bruce had done many times. As he placed his cup down, he turned to Billy.
"He told me he doesn't want to be seen with me," He began, watching as his mother walked to the table. "He would kill me if I showed up to purposefully talk to him."
Bruce didn't want to know if Vance would actually be mad, if he would punch him and tell him to get lost. Billy shrugged and Bruce feared that the table could hear their conversation as Robin's story came to an end.
"You don't know that. All I'm trying to say is... for him being such an asshole, he didn't seem to hate being around you."