forum Maybe We Could Be Friends? (OxO Closed)

Started September 04, 2020 by @Rainy_day_artist_classic group

tune

((It's all good, I do the same thing lol))

The evening was rather chilled this late October night, the sky rather clear. Not many stars were visible in the suburban neighborhood due to the street lights illuminating the sky. As it was reaching Halloween time, some houses were decorated in response to the event, pumpkins sitting on their front porches. The carved out faces were also glowing softly, the candles inside of them flickering at the breeze.
Leaves littered yards and the streets, some attempting to be pulled into a pile. Though the subtle breeze scattered a few stragglers from the pile. It was quite the peaceful evening all around.
All except the Hollow house, that was.
CJ ran up the stairs to her room, tears stinging at her eyes. Her tall figure brushed past her sister on the way up, ignoring the soft question of concern for her. The question had gone unnoticed to her, leaving Harmony to watch her younger sister continue on pass her. She looked hurt, but Harmony knew it was best to leave her alone at times like this.

When Chasity, preferably called CJ, made it into her room she dropped down on front of her desk. She started up her radio, reaching out for a sheet of colored paper. She began folding into a small crane in attempt to distract her busy thoughts. Which was working quite well.
Her thoughts were coming through one at a time now, mostly focusing on the hurtful words her mother had said. Of course she didn't mean them, but CJ had a tendency to overreact. She had a sensitive heart; how could you blame her?
Though the longer those thoughts came through, the closer she came to crying. So she set out to find something else to distract her. Something that took up even more of her head-space.
Quietly she sketched out the beginnings of a female body after pulling out her worn down sketch-book. Even though her room was rather dark, only illuminated by the strung lights on her ceiling and her desk lamp, she seemed content to keep drawing.
Clearly no one was bothered to check on her, assuming she was asleep as the hours went by.

Eventually she started to fill it in with color, pulling pens from her decently large collection to build a cohesive color scheme. A lot of them were dark purples and blues, which definitely stood out as the color made it's way onto her hands.
Her hands were stained with graphite, pen, and markers of different colors by the time she pushed the drawing aside. She was pretty happy with it. But the longer she watched, the heavier she started to feel. The words her mother had snapped at her were piling back up, and tears immediately started to build on her tear-ducts.
Maybe she was emotional because she was tired; or maybe she had pushed her feelings down for too long. Whatever it was, she wasn't able to stop it.

Pushing away from her desk, she made her way over to her window, tears running down her face. The choking hiccups escaped as she pushed her window, crawling out onto her window sill. The world seemed to have gone darker the longer she sat here, hugging herself tightly. Her blonde hair hung in front of her face as she kept her face hidden from the night air.
Her crying wasn't heard by anyone in the house, as she was pretty quiet about it. But if one were to be listening for something, they'd most certainly hear her.

Brenn had gotten home late from a tutoring session, feeling a lot more lost and confused with his homework and study guides than before. He knew that it wasn't his tutor's fault, the woman really knew what she was talking about, but chemistry just didn't make sense, no matter how hard he tried when he studied for his tests. His parents weren't home yet, and he knew they never left notes or let him know that they were leaving, so he was just glad to see some leftovers in the fridge. He set down his backpack on one of the empty chairs at the kitchen table and began to heat up the food, waiting for his younger sister to come back inside. She normally would play outside with her friends until he would come back, or would just do homework at the kitchen table. But, since all her things were still in her backpack, he figured she had gone out to play. After a few more minutes, he heard the back door open, and watched Marlowe -his younger sister- walk over to the kitchen table. "You had fun?" He asked as she started to take out her homework. She nodded happily, her cheeks still flushed from running around the backyard with her friends. "Okay then, dinner'll be ready in a few minutes, so don't take out everything, okay?"

After dinner, and about two hours of Brenn helping Mars through her homework, he decided that it was time that she started to get ready for bed, it was almost eight, and although they didn't have school the next day, he didn't want their parents come home and get upset because Marlowe was still awake. "Okay, Mar, time to pack up, then shower, sound good?" He said as he started to put her things into her backpack, as she nodded happily and ran upstairs to the bathroom. Once everything was straightened up and put away, he headed upstairs to his room, now going over his own homework. After making sure that Mars was in bed and falling asleep, he started to get ready for bed himself, washing up and everything. But he couldn't sleep, he knew that his chemistry test was coming up soon, and he wanted to actually do well on it for once, so he continued to study, making more flashcards and going over his notes, the notes from his tutor, and the ones from his friends, trying to actually make sense of the subject. As the hours passed by and he was the only one awake in his home. His parents were yet to come home, and Marlowe was still asleep, he started to hear someone crying. He thought that he was probably just over tired, so he turned off the light over his desk and went over to his bed to lie down. But after a little bit of trying to fall asleep, he continued to hear the sobbing, Oh god. . . is our house haunted? He thought as the cries grew a little louder. No, there has to be a rational reason for this noise. He started to walk around his room, listening for the cries, then stopping by his window, where the sound was the loudest. He opened up his window and poked his head, and not seeing anything was about to go to back to sleep when he saw a girl out there, sitting on her windowsill crying. Wait. . .that could be the ghost. . .no, it can't be, just go over or something. Deciding to maybe try to comfort her, Brenn climbed out onto his window sill, and said a quiet, "Hello? Are you okay?"

The longer CJ cried, the heavier her sobs were escaping. Her shoulders sunk down as her figure shook. She hugged her one leg, keeping one hanging in her room so she wouldn't fall. It would be rather tragic if she did fall.
Her hiccuping gasps were steadily growing louder as her thoughts came at her. Her head hurt as it pounded with thoughts of the earlier conversation. Her worries were building, the same as the headache she gained from the tears she spilled. But she couldn't make herself stop.

Except when she heard a voice— a male voice. Her shoulders tensed, her sobbing stopping rather abruptly. With a more stable breathing, she lifted her splotchy and tear-stained face to look at the other.

She was still sniffling and gasping for air a little as she looked over to him. From what she could tell, he was kinda cute. But she wasn't really focused on that fact right now. More on the fact that there was someone else up so late, and willing to sit on the window-sill.
"I- um… not r-really…" CJ mumbled in return, body still trembling just slightly. The look on her face said all she needed to say. She was completely miserable.

Now that she knew someone had heard her, she felt really awful for crying. Maybe he hadn't been up, but her crying— or rather, sobbing woke him up. She should have realized nobody else should be up so late.
"B-But I'll b-be fine… it's nothing." She whispered, trying to hide her steadily growing flushed face. Maybe he would go back to bed if she insisted she was alright? There was a chance.

Quietly she fiddled with a strand of her hair, staring down at the awning below her window. The longer she studied it, the more she felt the need to clean it off. Clearly not right now, but sometime in the near future. It was rather filthy, so cleaning it off would be for the best. Maybe then she could sit outside to draw, somewhere no one would bother her.
She'd really have to do that later. It sounded like a rather appealing idea.

Brenn stabled himself on the window sill, then mumbled a quiet, "You don't seem okay?" Well, he did mumble it, but it sounded a lot more like a question than anything else. She seemed familiar, maybe he had seen her in the hallways at school or something but he didn't really know her. Well, he didn't really know anyone in the neighborhood and definitely not at the school. His family had moved here recently, so he was yet to really meet anyone. Which, to be quite frank made the situation more awkward than before. He hadn't known that there was someone living nextdoor to him, and he was a rather awkward person all around, so he didn't know what to say to her. "Look, I'm not going back in, until you tell me what made you cry so hard to the point that I could hear you from my bedroom with the window closed." Brenn said softly, although his words were a bit harsh, "If something made you cry that loudly or something, it must be important, and may you should get it off your chest?"

CJ looked up at him when he spoke, taken by a bit of surprise. His words and tone seemed rather conflicting. As if he was trying to be friendly, but not sound like a total push-over. Not that Chasity would ever take advantage of someone like that.
She kept quiet for a minute, trying to figure out whether she should trust him or not. He was a stranger after all. Though if he was willing to listen, why would she throw that chance away? No one ever listened to her, this might be her only chance to be actually cared about. At least, that's what her head was telling her.
"I- um… my mom and I are, um…" CJ rambled, trying to gather her babbling. Her face was growing more flushed as she tried to speak, feeling so awkward and embarrassed about all of this. He had definitely caught her in a vulnerable moment.
"W-we kinda are… fighting. She… she said some hurtful things, and I just… y'know…" CJ finally rambled out, gluing her eyes to her feet. She was a total mess.

If he had really been listening, she couldn't be so sure. She refused to look up at him with her flushed face. There was no way she was going to let him get to her. She'd wait until she felt less vulnerable. Or when— if he felt like giving her some kind of advice. Maybe they could hang out later on, and-
"Stop it Chasity! You're pushing your luck. You don't even know his name." She snapped at herself.
The lower she kept her hopes, the better she'd feel when they were crushed. If he didn't want to be friends with her, which she wouldn't blame him for, she'd get over it pretty easy. It wouldn't be much different from any of the other times.

"Oh, uhm, I'm really sorry about that." Brenn said shifting his weight so that he could sit comfortably on the window sill and not fall out of the window. He waited for her to just get all of her tears out in case maybe she'd like to get things off her chest, and so that he could listen for his parent's car pulling into the driveway, or Marlowe waking up or something lie that. "Uhm, is that it though, you seemed to be pretty upset, at least from what I could hear, you know? He felt bad for her, I mean who wouldn't she had been crying for a little while, and although Brenn wasn't the most empathetic person. To be quite frank he didn't really care that much about other people's feelings except for Marlowe and his parents -the latter two to a degree. He felt bad for this girl, and also he did want to get to sleep her crying had kept him awake for a little bit. "I mean, if you there's more, but you'd rather not say, that's okay too." He said shrugging, "I can let you be if you'd like, but I'd like to help if I can."

((I'm sorry, I know it's short. . .))

((It's all good! :) Don't stress over it. ))

CJ figured her vagueness about the whole situation was probably not helping her explanation. But she was always bad at explaining things. And the awkwardness of the situation wasn't helping. She sighed weakly, looking over to him.
"I- kind of, yeah. That's the majority of it. I- um…" CJ trailed, playing with her hair nervously. Should she really be spilling her guts to this guy? Against her better judgement she continued rattling off her thoughts.

The majority of the story based around her and her mother arguing, but occasionally she brought up other key factors to her heavy crying. The day overall hadn't been so great, school having been extra rough. She didn't make as big of a deal about it as she could have. Sighing softly, she paused in her rambling, she fiddled with her color-stained hands.
"And, well, my mom hasn't been in the best mood lately. So she kind of took her bad mood out on me…" She mumbled a little, looking up at him. "And, um… my grades haven't been doing so great. And because of that she was really getting upset with me… which caused her to snap. I- um, I'm kind of an artist, and she's never really liked the idea of me 'throwing my life away, to pursue an art career'." She quoted, using her fingers as quotation marks.

"And um… yeah, she told me to kind of give up on my dreams? And… I've rambled enough…" She sighed weakly, her face growing even brighter as she hid it away from him. Her shoulders hunched together, trying to hide her taller figure.
"Sorry… I didn't mean to ramble…"

((Oh no, it's fine. It's just me and my idiot brain not remembering anything at all.))

Brenn nodded along to what the other girl was saying, and he got how she felt, to be quite honest he felt the same way. Not that his parent's ever said anything about it. He had figured out a long time ago that life in theatre, although it was an option and something that he could always do, wasn't something that would make sense financially for him. But he really hadn't figured that out on his home. At his old theatre, he talked to the director about pursuing a career in the arts, and how much he would actually love that, and that was the answer he got. _I mean, that's a fair answer, but it could always be worded in a nicer way, sometimes it was just hard to hear, or listen to if it wasn't put right.

"I'm really sorry to hear that. I'm sure you're a very talented artist, but I'm sure your mother is only looking out for you." He knew that he sounded extremely cheesy right now, but he really didn't care, that's how he felt about the situation. "I mean, it must be nice to have someone to care and get onto to you about this type of stuff, but still I get how you feel, and I know it must be frustrating." He said with a sigh. "Depending on whatever it is, maybe I can help you with school stuff? I mean, it would help me too, if you'd like, I mean, I think we have a class or two together, so uhm. Yeah?"

((Gosh, I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to you.. but alright. Just thought I'd offer.))

CJ looked back up at him when he started talking, still definitely feeling hurt from earlier. But she wouldn't say anything about it, listening what he had to offer to say. Even if she didn't really like it. She sighed weakly, rubbing at her eyes some.
"I know, I know… but you're right. It hurts, and it's frustrating… she- she never acted like this to Harmony." She whispered, sighing softly. Holding closer to her knees, she glanced up at him when he offered her help. A slightly bewildered look came over her face as she blinked in surprise.
"I- you don't have to. I've already bothered you enough with this. And- wait, you go to my school?"

From bewildered to confusion her face shifted, really trying to remember what classes he had been in with her. Periodically she would glance up at him, trying to pin his face. He definitely looked familiar- like someone she had drawn. The longer she thought about it, the more she realized he had been the boy she had been sketching non-stop at school. He had a memorable face, apparently. To her, at least. He stood out, and she definitely found him interesting to draw. But she best not tell him that right now, otherwise she'd probably scare him off.
"I- um… you're in my English class, aren't you? You sit in front of me?"

((I mean, I definetly don't mind shortening them at all, at that moment, I was overly inspired))

"It is, and it's kind of a hard truth, it just sucks." He said with a shrug, looking over at her. "Harmony?" He questioned, "Is that your older sister? I have a younger sister named Marlowe. I think she's actually.. " He popped his head back into the house listening for his younger sister's deafening snores, then came back out, "Yeah she's asleep right now." He said sheepishly, shrugging a little bit, "No, you wouldn't be bothering me at all, in fact that's how I study best. If I teach it someone or whatever - it could even be an oak tree or whatever- but if I can successfully explain it and stuff, then I feel good about the subject. That's why Marlowe is learning pre-cal." He said with a chuckle.

"Yeah, and in your Spanish class too, I hide in the back of the room trying not to get called on and stuff." He said with a smile, now seated at the edge of the window sill, his legs dangling over the side, "I think that we might have chemistry together too, but our chemistry class is giant, so like there are a ton of people in that class so it's hard to tell."