Bryan snorted and playfully rolled his eyes at her words. “You could totally be more excited for me over the fact that I figured out how to get up here,” He pointed out, still peeking over the edge of the roof at her from where he’d gotten on top of the barn, “Instead of being all sassy and stuff, you’re not Scar. Besides, you haven’t seen my best trick, which is how I get down from here.” He shifted to sit up again, moving to find the rope he’d used to climb up there in the first place.
♠: Your muse adjusting their jewelry/neck tie/ etc.
Bryan took a shaky breath, letting Fox adjust his tie for him. “Thank you,” He stated gratefully, “I couldn’t figure out how to tie it, and I know that the place Nate is taking me is like, some fancy place and I didn’t want to look all stupid and out of place.” His hands were nervously shaking, and he tried to take a deep breath to calm himself down. “I’m not going to stick out too much, am I?” He asked his friend, just wanting the night to be perfect, and glad that Fox was there to help him.
“This is the stupidest, most wonderful thing we’ve ever done.” She laughed, assessing their handiwork in Bryan’s living room. It had taken four chairs, five couch cushions, two pillows and every blanket they could scrounge up, but the result was epic. She took a picture, captioned it ‘jealous yet?’, and sent it mass to Jasper and Monty- who were off on a weekend trip with their parents-, the Blakes- one of which who was with her boyfriend and the other who refused to say where he would be-, and Clarke- who had also been surprisingly close-mouthed about her plans. Miller had work tonight and so she’d been Bryan’s only, and best, option for a play date.
She looked up and Bryan had already crawled into it and was beckoning her to join, and she giggled and tossed her phone to the side to scramble over and join him. She crawled in and shifted around the tiny space- it had looked much larger before it had a male body in it- to lie on her stomach next to him, looking up and around their fort. “This is pretty impressive.” She giggled again, cuddling against his side when he put an arm around her to save room. “How mad is Miller going to be that we trashed your place?”
Send me “Goodbye” for the last voice message my muse leaves for yours before they die.
“Hey, Fox, I know I said I’d meet you to work on that homework we’ve got, but I’ve got to cancel. Some of the cows knocked down one of the back fences and dad didn’t know about it when he let the bull out for awhile. We’ve got to round him up before he gets into town or something. Oh! There he is! I’ll call you back once I get him home and maybe we can still hang out tonight. Later!”
Bryan looked from the gooey looking mess in the baking pan that was supposed to have been a cake, to where Fox was standing in the doorway. “I never said I was a great baker,” He huffed out lightly at the girl, “But I thought I’d followed all the directions right. I did everything the box said to do…” His shoulders sank and he put the pan on the counter, before he looked at Fox again.
“You want to take a look at this and tell me where I might have gone wrong?” He asked with a slight pout, “I want to finish the cake for Nate for his birthday tomorrow, I have a whole idea planned out and everything.”
Where was the ridge? Where was home? Where was everyone they’d come out with? Too many questions and not enough answers, and she was starting to forget how to breathe calmly, how to keep her cool. They couldn’t be out here alone, they couldn’t be more than half a days’ walk away from the snow-covered territory of Azgeda, what if a grounder found them? What if it was Azedga? She’d heard enough horror stories to know they wouldn’t make it out of an encounter with the icy grounders unscathed… or even alive. it was Bryan’s hands that first broke through the panic that had glazed over her eyes, then his voice, soothing and solid, and she felt herself following his orders, and once her breathing had steadied, so had her thoughts. Still scared, but less panicky, she met his eyes for a moment before dropping them back to the ground in embarrassment. “Sorry.” She muttered. “I’m good, I’ve got it together.”
She looked around them, not leaving the safety of Bryan’s hands, shaking her head. “Maybe we went the wrong way after all…” she met his eyes this time. “We’re too close to the grounders.” She said, partially to state the obvious and partially to explain her freakout. “I’ve never been out with only one other person before, have you?”
Bryan continued to speak, slow and soothing to Fox to calm her down. He knew how to do it well; he’d learned a lot after having Hannah and some of the others do it for him when they’d been in Ice Nation and he’d panicked. He was grateful that he could use what he’d learned from them, to help Fox. When she relaxed, he gave her a gentle smile. “It’s okay,” He stated softly, “It happens. Just focus on breathing in and out, alright? It helps.” He kept her close, not wanting to let go of her, in case she started to panic again, knowing that grounding helped.
He glanced around at her words, realizing that she was right. They were far too close to Ice Nation again, and he fights to stop the tremble in his hands at thinking about it. “Maybe…” He conceded, knowing that it was a probably, not a maybe. At her next question, he shook his head. “No, we always traveled in packs of at least three or more. But you’ve got me, okay? We can do this.” He nodded again, as if trying to convince himself just as much as he’s trying to convince her.
indiebryan 