THE COACH.

“I mean, no? It’s about a dude that builds a replica of his dead son. Scary in a mortality way, but heartwarming in a you way.” Ryland shrugs. “I figured we’d stick with something you’d like, keep the scary to a minimum if you’re gonna be sober.”

The whirr grows into a weird clank in his chest for a brief second, hesitantly leaning onto the other. “You’re my best friend too, dude. I’ll try not to get mysteriously stabbed in the eye by nothing anymore.”

“It didn’t feel like dust, it… it almost felt like a shock, it sucked..” He finally opens his eye, a glimmer of bright orange fading into brown. “I’m fine. Just… just sit and eat pizza with me, light up if you need to… it’s fine.” Ryland flops on the couch again, grabbing a slice.

He nods, hissing through his teeth as he pulls his hand away. “I’m fine, I’m fine.. it felt like a knife was in my eye, but I’m good..” Ryland pats his arm a bit, keeping his eye shut. “I think I’ll be fine, anyway…”

     ❝  what do you mean, what am i doing up? my bedtime’s not for another few hours and i’m going to the pool. what are you doing up?  ❞   brows raise ; thinly masked concern for her friend, that’s a near - constant state when it comes to alex. she’s gotten used to it.

@canthurtfeelings   /   starter call.

Ryland rolls his eyes. “Hit play on this fucker so we can–!!” His hand flies up to cover his eye as he lets out a yelp, feeling something akin to a needle jabbing into his cornea.

Behind him, the movie starts.

He sighs, moving over to sit on the opposing side of the couch. “Do whatever, bro. I’m not your fuckin’ babysitter.”

It’s not like I care about you or anything.

Ryland gets up to put the movie in, and looks around for the remote. “Alex, is the remote under your ass again?”

A hurt, kicked puppy expression painted across his face. No, this was’t a bad thing. He just had to smile. Be the Alex he was known to be. His fingers danced along the glass of the bong before he put them away. Sober. Just...try not to think too hard about anything.

He huffs quietly when Alex reaches for the bong, using his foot to try and push it away. “Dude, do you have to get high right now? Can’t just enjoy pizza and a movie with me, am I that bad?” 

Okay, Ryland definitely still needs some work on that. His chest twinges even as he says it, like something stopping and starting again. A thought of his heart stopping creeps in, but he does good on that and brushes the thought away.

“I can do those with this too, Ry. You know I love yah. I just...I don’t know.” He finished lamely. “We ran out of beer. And being sober is weird, y’know? I feel weird when I’m not something.” Years of alcohol and drugs had made him dependent. He needed it. He thought Ryland got that since Ryland needed his shit.

Ryland smiles, a rare occurrence for the grumpy man. There’s something about the strange, almost mature naiveté, as weird as that sounds, that Alex exudes that makes something inside him make a weird whirring noise. Well, okay, the weird noise is always there, some sort of funky lung thing or whatever, but it’s stronger when he talks. So it has to mean something.

He flops on the grungy couch and sweeps the random shit from the coffee table to be dealt with later as he sets the pizza down. “Yeah? Fuckin’ sweet man, finally get to watch something that isn’t Care Bears or whatever the fuck it is you like.”

Ryland was always amazing him. After all, his best friend was amazing. He was so good at shit even if he tried to hide it with anger. He was doing so much better than he had before they’d started the team. Now, he was kicking ass and standing up for himself. Even if they still fought over some of the things that happened.

Mitch understood how Alex was feeling. This kind of shit was tough and unenjoyable, but Mitch was willing. He didn’t want their relationship to be bitter and angry forever. Especially now after they’ve established contact again. “I’m…I’m willing to deal with that.” He’s already been slapped by Ash. How worse could it possibly be? “It’s not like I’m moving in with you guys. Just wanna take a day to get to know ya better.” He had no idea exactly what happened to Alex after the band broke up. He thought it’d be nice to hear how Alex got to be so successful.