r1grumps

[r1grumps]

bashful-binnie-boy‌:

Jongbin loved routing through the pockets of the newly donated clothes. Since starting at One Man’s Chest he had already found a selection of treasures he’d sneakily kept for himself. Used ticket stubs and messily scrawled notes lay collected in a tin over his bed at home. Sticking his hand deep into a garishly patterned coat before him he felt paper crinkling between his fingers. Excitedly he examined his findings. “Candy!”

Jongbin felt his stomach turn as soon as the sweetness touched his lips. He looked up, guilt crossing his face. “These are not good,” he mumbled around the candy before spitting it into his palm. “You didn’t see that.”

One Man’s Chest was Riley’s Rodeo Drive. The coat he was wearing was from this shop, scavenged from a rack in the back, the zipper fixed with Pippa’s help. Here was where he found all his old records, and CDs and tapes he could only play in his car because he was still looking for that perfect boombox that could play both CDs, tapes, and radio. It might have been smarter to just buy something new but Riley was what you would call stubborn, and only a little frugal. One Man’s Chest was also where he went to feel better. It just felt like home. 

He saw Jongbin from the corner of his eye, having headed into the shop knowing his roommate would be working here today. Riley thought he’d just ask when Jongbin had a break, or when his shift would be over, and then they could go for some cocoa. What he didn’t count on was his friend eating rotten candy. 

“I definitely saw that,” he said, lightly judging in that Riley-way. “Isn’t that like the third time that’s happened? I mean...dude.” Riley rolled his eyes with a stifled smile.

[r1grumps]

ofxbeasts:

    adam’s hand gripped the whiskey glass tightly.  top shelf, the expensive shit.  he knew this party wasn’t really for him.  and quite honestly, this was the last place he wanted to be.  there were a few things that pushed him to attend.  one, he wanted to see tony all bruised and blue.  after riley had told him what happened, a part of him was dying to see tony’s pretty little face all screwed up.  two, kostya was hosting, which normally, would drive adam even farther away, but he liked the idea of wasting the man’s money at the open bar.  and three, he had noticed that belle confirmed her attendance on facebook.  adam knew he had no ownership over her, especially after his recent actions, but there was still a piece of him that needed to make sure tony didn’t try anything, even if it made things worse for him.

    so he sat alone at the bar, working on his third glass and avoiding socialization at all costs.  his eyes occasionally swept over the room, but everything was slowly getting a bit more fuzzy.  his body was too filled with anger, sadness, and alcohol to stop him from making any bad decisions.

    he’d spent the whole morning and afternoon wondering if he should go. when he knew that most of his roommates would be out of the house, he snuck back in, his car visible in the driveway but he didn’t care at this point. stop moping, get your shit together had been the mantra for the past week and he really did. he’d muttered this all the way through the house, gathering lunch as he sat in his bedroom, staring at the suit he’d fished out from the back of his closet. i’m not going, i’m not he’d said, as he cleared the suit of lint and aired out the jacket. he kept saying this even as he put on the suit and couldn’t find his dress shoes, so he just wore his nicest pair of sneakers instead. he said it once more as he parked his car a block away from the bar. “god, i’m here,” he said, once he entered the place, head lowered to avoid people. tony’s present was in his pocket ( having been bought a month earlier, before the trouble at the tea kettle occurred ).

    riley didn’t want to think anymore, so he just avoided people and kept to the sidelines, and then headed to the bar. he’d arrived an hour and a half late, so he hoped it didn’t matter. quickly deciding he shouldn’t get drunk, he ordered one of the fancier non-alcoholic drinks -- which came with an umbrella and a feather, for some reason. and it was only when he lifted his head and looked to his side, did he see adam.

    “oh, shit, you’re here too. salud, i guess,” he said, before lifting the decorated drink to his mouth. 

[r1grumps]

[r1grumps]

ohdcnnie:

    tilting his head, donnie narrows his eyes playfully at riley lounging on the couch. he’s a little surprised the grumpy boy decided to go with him ( though not really, riley had a soft spot forall his roommates ), considering he was curled up in a little ball since donnie had come out of his room. his fingers tap idly against the screen of his phone, and it only takes him a fewseconds to decide to go through with his plan. donnie’s mouth opens in a silent war cry, one riley can’t obviously see, before he runs over to the couch and all but throws himself onto riley’s prone body. he wriggles onto top of him for a moment, attempting to get his phone back into his hands before all but smushing his cheek against riley’s as he reaches out to type.

     ❝ you look like a hobo! ❞ though donnie was sure he didn’t look any better either. an old bad t-shirt that smelt surprisingly of pippa, a pair of old, ripped jeans, and his beat up chucks. it’s not like they were going anywhere fancy anyway. besides, his mind was too foggy from smoking earlier to worry about “real” clothes.  ❝ but i do too, so we match! get up, lazy! i’m hungry! ❞ though there was a slim chance of riley getting up, but only because donnie was still currently laying on him.

      he should have expected something in that silence. it was like the calm before the storm, the seconds before war erupted; riley already bristled in his fetal position, bracing himself for whatever was coming --and it was just as he thought the terror had passed that donnie landed on top of him like a perfect WWE slam.  ❝ AAAAARRRGH -- ❞ riley protested, trying to wiggle his way out of the taller boy, but then again, not really. like a heavy blanket on a cold day, being piled on by his roommates was sort of comforting. riley gave up, sinking further into the couch. 

      he wiggled his nose to try and get donnie’s cheek out of the way. 

      ❝ takes one to know one, ❞ he grumbled. riley took a deep breath in to gather more air in a bid to survive under donnie -- but he also took in a familiar scent.  ❝ you been sleeping with pippa again, don? ❞ he asked, the question completely normal, without meaning any innuendo whatsoever. riley wasn’t like that anyway.  ❝ i’d GET UP, if you GOT OFF ME -- ❞  

[r1grumps]

rosiebriars‌:

@r1grumps

“What is this I hear about fighting?” She slammed the doors of the cabinets. Thankfully the Watering Can was empty or she would never hear the end of it from her boss. “Of all the- I told you to talk to Tony, not rip him a new one!” She tore through the gauze packets, tossing it next to the ointment. “Darn it Riley, what were you thinking?”

Riley just blinked, staying seated on the stool like a kid at the nurse’s office. He flinched only once at the sound of cabinets being slammed. “....technically I did talk to Tony. And I ripped him a new one,” he mumbled. The wound on his cheekbone was the hardest one to keep clear. He slept on his side, and he leaned on his hand too much to just steer clear of it completely. “I was thinking...going to Rosie’s was easier than going to the doctor,” he sighed, before adding. “I know I messed up...”

[r1grumps]

ofandcrsson‌:

   “ oh! the thrift store! “ she said excitedly. anna loved going to thrift stores. the thrift store was a place that she liked to shop on occasion since it was easier on the wallet. especially as a college student who wasn’t exactly rich. not to mention that you didn’t know just what you would find there. her smile brightened at the invitation to come with him and she quickly nodded her head in response. “ oh, yes, that would be great. i love to go to the thrift store, “ she said.

  turning around, she altered her path then to fall in step with him as they headed towards the thrift store. her attention turned back to what he had mentioned about music, then. “ so, you’re going to look for some music? “ she questioned, “ what kind of music do you like? “

  he breathed a sigh of relief, glad they moved past the tea kettle fight. for now. riley found himself smiling, duller than hers but still genuine, and he pointed his shoulder up the road, his hands deep in his pockets. “ thrift store’s where it’s at. remember macklemore? ” he joked. 

  speaking of music, he unplugged his earphones and folded them away, revealing the bruised hands for a second before they disappeared into his coat pockets again. “ uh, anything really. mostly the old stuff. vinyls and cassettes. but that’s just what i get from the store, i have a, uh, player at home. ” the home he hadn’t been to in nearly two days now, but he’d had a spare player in his car. “ my mom likes broadway musicals so..i collect the vinyls i find and listening to them reminds me of her. ” he paused, then added: “ i mean, she’s not dead or anything. ”

[r1grumps]

😻

[r1grumps]

ofxbeasts‌:

     “i suppose,” he responded, his tone grumpy and bothered as he shoved the skateboard back towards the other.  “though a hospital bill would be significantly more expensive.”  in all fairness, adam wasn’t really that annoyed by riley’s board.  he even used to ride back in high school, and it was probably shoved in the back of a closet somewhere in the manor.  he just had a lot of other things on his mind, which made him overly moody.  “yeah yeah, she won’t miss you that much,” he said as he continued down the sidewalk, not bothering to wait for riley to catch up.

       riley had never met anyone as grumpy as him before adam. sometimes it felt like a disturbing mirror held up to his face, other times, it was hilarious. “don’t need a hospital bill if you’re dead,” he shrugged with a humorous ‘oh well’ face, and then frowned. “wait, do they still charge you if you die on their watch?” that seemed wrong. “wow. dark and depressing. something else pissing you off aside from reckless skateboarding?”

[r1grumps]

ofandcrsson‌:

   “ uh… tradition, i suppose, “ anna responded with a small shrug of her shoulders. the girl knew that the question had been rhetorical, of course. but, she couldn’t help but to notice that there encounters had involved consistent apologies. not that that wasn’t something outside of anna’s normal. the girl was always apologizing for something.. mostly things that happened around her due to her seemingly natural clumsiness. she removed the hand from his arm and stepped back some now that she was steady on her feet. stuffing her hands in the pockets of her puffy jacket, she gave a nod of her head at her words. “ yeah.. if you know the right people, “ she agreed. 

    her eyes drifted to the sunglasses that covered his face. deep down, she knew that he was using them to cover the bruises that had been left their earlier. after all, it wasn’t quite bright enough to have sunglasses over your eyes. and while anna was curious to how the fight had began at the tea kettle, she was trying to not be so rude as to blurt out the questions that stirred in her mind. even though she did have the habit of just blurting things out. so, instead, she tried to just go for a awkward smooth change of subject. “ uhm.. so where are you headed? “

    “ well, they know you now so. now you’re the right people. person. ”riley knew he should have left her alone there. said goodbye, see ya, thanks for the help. but he still had some semblance of a conscience, and leaving anna just like that after all she’d done, when she didn’t need to do anything, was low even for him. anna was a friend. and he’d screwed up too many of those to just leave her. 

    “ i’m, uh ... not really headed anywhere. might go by the thrift store, see if there’s some new music there. ” most of his records and cassettes were sourced from there. “ do you wanna...? come with? you don’t have to, ” he added quickly, looking down at his feet. “ we can just hang another time -- or, never -- whatever you want. completely up to you --”

[r1grumps]

ofandcrsson‌:

      winter meant many things for anna. memories from years long ago of playing with her sister in the snow seemed to be at the top of the list. but, nowadays, winter seemed to just bring another hazard to anna’s already clumsy feet. ice. the ginger could swear that somehow she found the only patch of ice on every sidewalk. it seemed that this winter wouldn’t be any different as she calmly walked down the sidewalk only to slip out of nowhere. anna let out a yelp as she began to feel herself fall and immediately reached out to stop herself from falling. in the process, she managed to grab hold of something solid.. or rather someone solid. glancing up, she felt her cheeks redden as she locked her gaze with the other. “ oh uh.. sorry.. i.. uh.. fell.. “ she stammered, “ there was… ice. “

      since that fateful breakfast, riley had been more wary of where he was going, and who was around, especially when he was walking about town. overnight, he suddenly made a pact with himself to never lose focus again. earphones off, eyes up around him. it was freaky, seeing so much. a man picking his nose. someone else blabbering into their phone, spinach between their teeth. and anna andersson, heading his way. riley ducked his head, burying his nose and mouth behind his scarf, and was content to just walk past her quickly -- until she slipped. 

it was just second nature to catch her then, and he pressed his lips into a thin line, as a way of a smile. “all good, all good. don’t need to apologise to me,” he shrugged, gruff. he was grateful for the scarf which covered the bruises on his jaw, and the sunglasses that covered his black, left eye. “why’re we always apologising in the middle of town, huh?” he asked, referring to their first meeting with the coffee. “at least at school, there’s free food,” he added, hoping to keep the attention off the last time they’d seen each other.

[r1grumps]

purestparagon‌:

Tony tasted copper. He brushed the blood away from his mouth. Once Riley tackled him, he dropped all pretense of being a gentleman. He was prepared to turn this into a street fight and rolled Riley on to his back, his knee jabbing him in the side. He drove his fist to the right side of his head. He spewed French profanities. He threw punch after punch.

Tony faintly felt scones being thrown at them, along with who knew what. No one seemed to want to interfere directly. There was a faint ringing in his ears as he thought about the fact that this was his fault. It was his fault for asking Pippa out. His fault for provoking Riley. But dammit if he was ever going to admit that. 

“Fuck you. I already had her over once, how hard do you think it will be to do it again?” 

“-- OW --” he shouted, doubling over as Tony’s knee crashed against him. He kept his arms up to try and cover his face, but the punches came too fast, and soon Riley was on full defense with no chance of offense. 

From the corner of his eye, he could see the regular faces of the Tea Kettle, shocked, disappointed, bewildered at what was happening. He would never be allowed here again. There was a flash of red hair. Anna? And a shock of brown hair yelling about a chair. Maryanne? He would never be allowed here again, never again --

“Just -- FUCKING --” Riley landed a punch at Tony’s ribs and took the opportunity to scramble out from under him, kicking at Tony’s head. “Leave her alone -- LEAVE HER ALONE --” He couldn’t think of anything else, that really was all he wanted. 

[r1grumps]

purestparagon‌:

Tony reacted before he even fully understood what was happening. He had been in his share of brawls before, half of them with his old man when he came home drunk from the bar, the other half when he was drunk out of his mind and some asshole tried to intimidate him. Riley was his friend, despite everything that would point otherwise, but instincts took over. Tony was pissed. No one told him what to do. No one had the right to. 

Riley’s fist hurt like a bitch. Tony pulled his fist back, ignoring the voice in his head that told him it was daylight and he was sober and that a girl wasn’t really worth it. He pounded into Riley’s cheek, blood pounding in his ears.

“What. The. FUCK.”

As soon as he did it, Riley was frozen from shock. His expression still full of rage, his hands still balled into fists, only his eyes betrayed a sort of ‘what the fuck did I just do’ until Tony retaliated. 

The impact sent him tumbling back onto the table, but he came back with just as much momentum. His brothers always did say to never leave a fight unfinished. And there was no turning back now, after months of becoming Tony’s friend, of handling whatever feelings he had -- the memory of it just made him angrier, more ashamed, more embarrassed. He tackled Tony by his torso, bringing them both crashing onto the ground. “JUST -- LEAVE HER -- ALONE --” Riley punched him again.

It wasn’t long before the other customers of the Tea Kettle started reacting. 

[r1grumps]

rosiebriars:

“Well, as her friend, you have to tell her you’re worried about her even if it blows up in your face. And if she doesn’t listen, yank her ear.” She playfully tugged his. “Well, I suppose you could talk to Tony. Give him the benefit of the doubt and see if his intentions are pure.” Even she didn’t believe that, but there was a chance, wasn’t there? Pippa certainly seemed to believe it anyways and Rosie liked giving people the benefit of the doubt.

“Okay...” he sighed. Rosie somehow always made him feel like a child being scolded. “I’ll try something. I dunno what I’ll say but I’ll make sure I’m not...harsh.” When Rosie tugged on his ear, he gave a short laugh, swatting her hand away gently. “I’m not the best person to give doubt benefits, but sure.” Another thing he had to try. “I’ll let you know, huh? But if you hear about a dead body found in a ditch, don’t rat me out.”

[r1grumps]

purestparagon:

“So you’re going to tell her I’m using her?” It was a challenge, not a statement, because he damn well knew that Riley couldn’t bare to put that look on her face. Even Tony wasn’t enough of a dick to crush her like that, though he had done it to others before. “I never promise anything I don’t deliver.” He did, however, bend the truth significantly and, when it came to Ara, he threw his own code out the window. Which, really, was why Pippa was in danger. Tony still couldn’t see straight and that could end with her as collateral damage. “She’s an adult. If she wants to fuck me, that’s her choice. What are you going to do about it?”

If Riley became any redder, he’d be as red as a tomato. His hands curled into fists on the table. A voice in his mind (sounding slightly like Pippa’s) told him not here, not here. “I’m not going to tell her anything. You’re going to -- you’re going to be honest with her.” Riley was stammering now. He didn’t know what he wanted Tony to do. If Tony dumped Pippa, she’d get hurt. If Tony told the truth, she’d get hurt. If Tony kept going, she’d get hurt. “There’s something behind this, and you’re going to be honest about it,” he added, like that made things clearer. And then Tony made it worse.

He hated that word. ‘Fuck me’, ‘Fuck me’, Riley could swear like the next sailor, but to have those words in the same sentence as Pippa and Tony. To imagine Pippa like the next person he witnessed Tony shun in the middle of a bar, like all the other people he’d laughed with Tony about. And Pippa was going to get hurt no matter what. Riley was stuck between a rock and a hard place, so he did what he always did.

Practically lunging over the table, Riley's fist collided with Tony’s face.

[r1grumps]

rosiebriars‌:

“If anyone can change him, it will be Pippa,” she said. “Not to say she isn’t being blinded by that whole French thing.” She had never seen the appeal, but had overheard the gushing often enough. “And I would if it was for your own good. But I won’t. Have you tried talking to her about it?”

Riley twisted his lips together, sniffling a little. He moved about the flower shop to avoid Rosie’s gaze for a while. It’s not that he didn’t believe in Tony. But he didn’t believe in Tony with Pippa. Not when there was so much at stake. “I never really cared much for the French thing,” he shrugged, grumbling. “I can’t talk to her about it...she’s too happy. I feel like she really believes this is it, and...isn’t that dangerous, Ro?”

[r1grumps]

purestparagon‌:

Tony was surprised by Riley’s reaction. He was used to his temper, had been on the bad side of his temper, but even then he had never seen such passion come from him. “You sound like you love her,” he said. Tony sighed. “I haven’t even screwed her yet. No need to get your panties in a twist.” He rolled his eyes. “Why can’t anyone ever picture me with someone nice? What makes you think I don’t want something solid?” 

“You think it’s okay just because you haven’t SCREWED her yet?” Riley did quotation marks in the air with his fingers. He pushed his coffee aside and leaned forward across the table, whispering harshly. “That’s your problem, Tony, you think it’s all about whatever base you’re on, but she’s got feelings. This means a lot to her and the more you bring her up and make her feel nice, the worse it’ll be when you leave her for someone else. And that’s what you do, you can’t deny that.” He ignored the part about him loving Pippa. He didn’t know how to respond to that. “And I can’t imagine you wanting something solid, like you say, because of the way you’re acting. You still talk about her like she’s just the next meal in your buffet or something. Jesus.”

[r1grumps]

ofxbeasts‌:

     adam rolled his eyes, “please, you’re so dramatic.  i wish you wouldn’t insist on riding that damned thing all over town anyway.”  the skateboard rolled away from the two of them and adam glanced over at the other with distain before chasing after it.  his foot finally stopped it before it got too far down the hill, and he leaned over to pick it up.  “can we just, walk the rest of the way?”

“cheaper than gas,” he shrugged. riley smiled a triumphant smile as adam chased down the board, smothering the smile down to an expression of lazy indifference when he came back. “fine, we can walk. if i collapse, just tell my mother i love her.” using the lamppost next to him, he leaned against it as he brought himself up.