Her hair was tied up in a messy bun of long ginger curls, Clubmaster glasses clinging to the bridge of her nose that was stuck in the pages of an enthralling book. She had been reading all night, and the ending was coming on quickly. The novel had sucked her in so deeply that she hadn’t even realized the time, nearly 11:30 at night, and she needed to go to sleep in order to be well rested for the following school day. With a light sigh, Winnie pressed her flower bookmark between the pages and slid the book onto her nightstand beside her alarm clock. Her body felt heavy as she swung her legs off of the bed, swiped her toothbrush out of its case in the hallway closet, and wandered towards the bathroom. The door was shut and locked, but the light shone beneath the crack, so she knocked lightly. After a few moments, her knuckles rapped a little harder on the wood. “Tyler, hurry up,” she huffed impatiently, toothbrush dangling out of her mouth as she smooth the wrinkles on her frilly pink pajama cami. “I need to brush my teeth before bed.” Another long moment of silence passed, and her patience was draining quickly. Winnie lifted her hand, ready to start pounding on the door, when suddenly it swung open and a stranger emerged. Color and flames were kissing her normally white freckled cheeks, lips falling open slightly in awe. She felt exposed in her short pink cat-print shorts and revealing cami, and a mixture of dread and intrigue washed over her. This man was absolutely breathtaking. His tired blue eyes twinkled with mischief, and he smiled like the devil. The realization that she had been shamelessly gaping at him hit her when he spoke to her, causing a blush to creep up onto the tips of her ears, and she clamped her lips closed over her toothbrush and tried to play it off. “Tyler’s friend,” she murmured in a greeting, eyes darting to the mirror in the hallway, before slowly, timidly returning to his captivating face.

A cloud of smoke made itself apparent through the contrasting darkness that fell outside just beyond the window it was pointed to. As it left Ryder’s lungs to that window, as did a bit of anxiety that was for the night to come – or so he convinced himself.

more than six feet was crouched down under the square windowed view of the guidance advisor’s office to ensure he wasn’t seen. with a screwdriver in one hand messing around with a few locks and knobs, ryder had a plan to continue his random reckless behavior - his way of somehow letting out the disappointment and anger felt, expressing his careless ‘so fucking what’ attitude. that office carried a scene of a series of lectures to the boy, the most recent being how unfortunate it was for his potential and work to be lost, unable to apply to university and unable to leave this wretched city due to events he refused to explain. “yo— let me know if someone’s coming,” he murmured to the knees that were at his eye level after hearing footsteps nearby. ryder continued his plan of locking the advisor inside her small office, probably ending the prank with a stink bomb rolled underneath the door crack. 

task 007/?? —— i wanna know you

Bodhi groaned the first few times Ryder would jerk him around, but the longer it went on, Bodhi simply bit his lip and grimaced. He decided to just remain quiet and shut up until Ryder finally decided to speak. That would probably make things easier, plus, it gave Bo a chance to rest his sore jaw. As they walked along in silence, the younger of the two kept himself occupied by chewing on his lip, worsening the cut that was already there. He knew that, in his own way, Ryder was worried. And for a split second that comforted Bodhi. But, that thought immediately fell away. Ryder probably just felt sorry for him and was embarrassed. When the pair finally made it to Ryder’s dorm, Bodhi felt relief. Part of him wanted nothing more than to hide out there and never come out. And he would try to until his cousin inevitably forced him out. He was harshly brought back into his senses as Ryder shoved Bo onto his bed. “Piss off,” Bodhi muttered, “We deal with shit differently, you have no idea what this was about.” He glared at Ryder for a second before deciding the window was a much better victim for his stare. “You have no idea what I need. What I need is to get the fuck away from here. What I need is for these stuck up asswipes to get a taste of their own damn medicine,” he growled. Bodhi let out a slow deep breath, trying to calm himself. For the first time, he realised how angry he really was. How hurt. No sound came out of Bo’s mouth as Ryder more or less shoved the icepack onto the side of his head. Bodhi did as he was told and held it, moving it so it sat over his aching jaw. He was so caught up in the aches that seemed to be popping up all over his body that he didn’t notice that Ryder was cleaning up the cut on his eyebrow. “I do need to learn to fight… when 2 people aren’t holding me down,” the teen murmured in a bitter way. He looked over at Ryder and his mouth drew up halfway into a small one-sided smile, “You can’t fight all my battles.” Bodhi sucked air in through his teeth as Ryder began to clean a cut on his cheek. “Feel like shit,” he agreed with Ryder. Bodhi moved the icepack from his jaw to his eye and looked up at his cousin. “Thank you.”

It was early, extremely early, and Ryder was in no condition to deal with Bodhi’s misplaced anger and unfamiliar harsh words; he was exhausted and his drooping features could represent that. He continued wiping off some dried blood from his cousin’s face until it was time to move on to making sure things wouldn’t get infected, using a solvent that stung and hardly caring about the pain on the other side. He’d use these small actions as his defense since his mind wasn’t yet working properly to argue with such venom back. It wasn’t until the younger of the two spoke with such rage and hatred that made Ryder’s brows raise, letting out a mumble, “Throw a fuckin’ tantrum, why don’t you.” He scoffed, tossing the dirtied fabrics to the side and taking a seat at his desk chair in front of where Bodhi sat. “What the fuck are you talking about, Bo— Who?” Knowing who these ‘asswipes’ were would help Ryder get back revenge he felt was appropriate – but the world being plural made him a bit more skeptical. Since when did Bodhi emit this much rage towards someone – or more? Something was up. “—Just fucking promise me you’re not gonna’ get into any more fights, or at least don’t be dumb about it and go after shitheads with friends around.” Ryder eyed the obvious pain the rest of his counterpart’s body was in and reached towards the fridge to grab another ice-pack for his torso, ignoring the comment regarding him fighting his younger cousin’s battles. That was kind of what they did – look out for each other. “—Fuckin’ I don’t know, go to sleep or something,” he said, ignoring Bodhi’s ‘thank you’ just the same. “You’re not going to class today and dealing with teacher’s asking about why you looked so fucked.” Ryder was just about to stand up to head towards his first morning class, and on no sleep of course, but refused to for just a moment as he locked eyes with Bo once again. “You’re alright, right?” The way he paused should’ve given the backing to his question right away; he wasn’t talking about Bo’s new wounds, but his mental state as he promised himself to never ignore a sign again since Bo’s birthday.