#106. –––– 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐮𝐩 𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 - 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 // * asphodel.

[voteoakes]

“dude, no worries. honestly, i’m stoked to talk about somethin’ that’s not my relationship or that funeral.” or the secrets, which wove, ever-present, into both… the chan talk is in fact a very welcome respite, one that brings a grin to his face. “do i think chan could measure the angle of the sun and deduce the time if he really wanted? yeah, but you should still get him the watch. i think tal would thank you individually for making his chronic t-shirts look like, at all more intentional." besides, let's be real, that round-eyed, puppy-dog look of dom's says he thinks it'd be romantic, the same way he willfully reads fitz's uncertainty as perfectly charming.

"shit, speaking of the party though,” dom leans his elbows on his knees, turning entirely conspiratorial as if his ensuing statement is not a facet of every college kid everywhere, "i can't go toe to toe with chan, but since it's his special day, it's the one time i try and get supremely fucked up. i've got aileen's permission, but i've embarrassed myself like, five years running, so i need your expertise out there. watch my back, talk me down, all that?"

it's really quite odd, hearing the boy genius described with such a fond tone, having to remember that despite chan being a morbid little monster in fitz's presence, that's not what he's like all of the time. it feels like fitz is at a house party and there's a cat, and he tries all night to cajole the cat to let fitz pet it, going pspspspsps and drumming his fingers along the wooden floors, and then dom shows up and the cat plops into his lap without hesitation. all of which is to say maybe fitz is a little jealous of this fact, that fitz tries so hard to get those laughs out of chan that dom's talking about whereas dom probably earns them just by virtue of existing. how is fitz supposed to live with not being the most magnetic thing in every room?

"yeah bro, totally," fitz says, flaunting a big smile to hide his increasing uncertainty. fitz places his skateboard back on the floor and hops back on it, balancing on it from one foot to another, mainly just to do something with his ever-thrumming body. "one more chan-related question and then i promise i'll forget he ever existed," fitz says. "that birthday party tallie's hosting is coming up, i'm sure you got an invite. anyway, i was thinking over what to get him as a gift, and i noticed he doesn't wear a watch - do you think that'd be lame, getting him one as my gift? like, i don't know, has he evolved past the need to tell time?"

[voteoakes]

despite the fact that chan had said essentially the same thing and despite the fact that chan had tried to reduce fitz to head game, comma, decent, dom, as the world's worst best friend and local love-lover, grins entirely too knowingly. 'unless he said something to you?' oh, fitz may as well be flashing him a diamond with talk like that. in dom's version of the front porch test, there's always chan: the question simply became of who else would accompany them. "no, christ, i plead the fifth. i'm such a horrible liar, chan would brick my laptop if i said anything even close to leading."

perhaps rightfully. dom is way too sappy to deal in the collective chanfitz attempts at aloofness, and he laughs, warning, "it's real fuckin' cheesy. you sure you wanna hear it?" he dusts off sugar granules from his hands and holds them up, palms forward, in a gesture of you asked for it. "he was assigned to tutor me in math. i maintain that he got stuck with me, 'cause even when we were kids, he still had that real... self assured vibe. like, he knew what he was doing and expected you to catch up." naturally, this worked out well for a self-doubting rule-follower like dom. "plus, making chan laugh is the best. it's like getting membership into a super exclusive club, i mean - you get it."

this feels weird, very weird. their professor is fully dead - murdered, of all things - and instead of discussing any of the implications of that, fitz is standing around, shuffling his feet, wondering if his next question should be 'do you think chan like-likes me?'. maybe it's crazy, but maybe it's incredibly healthy, finally discussing something else after talking about nothing but stabbed in the back this and murderer on campus that conversation after conversation.

"woah woah woah, double date?" fitz asks, the term jolting his attention back to the conversation. "oh yeah no, nah, no, me and chan aren't - like sure, yeah, we fuck around, but that's not - i mean, unless he said something to you that he didn't say to me?" fitz feels pathetic, schoolboy with a crush when he's usually the fuckboy prince of australia. "me and chan are very whatever, i don't think he has any interest of spending time with me while the sun's up." he grabs another couple gummies and devours them, ripping with his molars and chewing thoughtfully. "you and chan are kind of an odd pair," he remarks. "how come you guys became friends instead of like, the nerd and the jock who shoves him into a locker?"

[voteoakes]

"hey, man." this is the best, i'm sure many would agree, of knee-jerk reactions to the sudden presence of a pink-buzz that dom could manage. fifitz, true to form, announces his presence in many ways at once. the scrape of plastic wheel on rough concrete, the faint blare of music that floods from his headphones, the nickname— “wait, what did you call me?”

dominic is a strong believer in an offense routine. a regular sleeps schedule, an accurate water intake, navigating without a map whenever possible to keep his brain's grey matter... soft, or whatever it's supposed to be. in reality, today's daily run and nyt puzzle have a snowball's chance in hell at keeping him alive long enough to see him greying and finally out of the public eye, but a man can dream. that’s what fitz has caught him in, a contemplation of what the fuck do referee and candy cane have in common?, and thus understandably, eager to exit.

“fuck an açaí bowl, i think i’d settle for like, a sole sprig of broccoli. he’s definitely broken the world-record for most orange dye consumed without contracting real-life scurvy.” dom is contemplative a moment, looking between the silvery glitter on his own skin to fitz's flawless looking complexion, before he's leaning in, mouth agape for the gummy a la worm to be deposited into. "i worried he was gonna give our dorm room ants for like, years. i'd say we could do dinner, but... shit, scale of one to ten, how much you think asking him out on a double date'll make him break out in hives? worth the risk?"

@voteoakes

although skating started out as a vanity hobby, a way for fitz to entice the baddies with the whole he was a skater boy vibe, it quickly turned into one of fitz’s fool-proof stress managers. not academic stress, of course (fitz didn’t believe in all that), but the kind of stress that comes along with losing a brother or, in light of recent events, a professor with whom you shared a complicated relationship. he weaves across campus, skirting against bannisters and curbs when the opportunity strikes, his 5-grand headphones blasting tunes all the while. i like them girls with big butts and golds in they mouth / i come from the back road and a dirty house. admittedly, it was hard to relate to certain hip-hop lyrics as a billionaire’s baby.

at the sight of dominic sitting on a nearby block, fitz slows his swerves until he’s at a halt in front of the other man. “yo domma momma, what’s popping?” he asks. “you’re looking awfully contemplative, something gotcha down? besides, you know…” he trails off. “the obvious.” he reaches into his pocket and pulls out whatever snack is lingering in there, which happens to be a pack of sour gummy worms today. “can i offer you a gummy a la worm for your troubles?” before he gets a response, he dangles three over his mouth and drops them unceremoniously. “i nabbed them from chan the man’s kitchen,” he says between undignified chomps. he follows it with a chaser of a water bottle squirt straight down his throat. “have you ever seen him eat a protein source? or like, a fruit? he knows everything except the essentials of the food pyramid - somebody needs to get boy genius an acai bowl intervention, stat.”