smother

Julia laughed, shaking her head at her best friend from across the table where she sat. It felt just nice to be with him here, to be able to share in this with him, to be the person he and Cole could rely on. She felt as if it were an honor, and being his best friend, his family basically, it meant a lot to Julia. Growing up, there was no one else in the entire world like Blythe to Julia. He was more than a best friend, but a brother that fit in so well within the strings of her heart. He made her laugh and smile, and while her worry happened at times, when he spoke about his constant tendencies, she knew there was no one else she loved more. When he smiled, she smiled and when he was lonely, she was lonely too, with him. If he was in the darkness, she’d be in the dark with him. There was no denying that. 

“It is disgusting, Coley, you’re right. Icky!” Julia giggled, tickling the little boy as he continued to run around. She smiled at Blythe and playfully rolled her eyes. “Whatever you say, B, it’s your place. You make it your own, make it as beautiful as you want with as many patterns as you want. The more help, the better. Nothing wrong with stacking the odds in your favor.” She smiled, shrugging. “Oh, yeah, could you imagine Oliver’s reaction to me moving in with you? It doesn’t matter that we’ve been best friends since we were four, he would have a moment of complete big brother protectiveness. Living with a guy is not something he’d like.” Julia sighed, but shrugged. “I will take you up on it though, for sure.” She sighed, and then her eyes light up, thinking of something else. 

“Hey, guess who is graduating early, by the way? Me. I got extra tickets, because well, Oliver is Oliver and worked his magic. I want you, Mascha, Coley and Aaron to come. Aaron might not want to, that’s fine, I can only imagine he’d bring his newspaper and read throughout the entire time, but really, I want you guys to come. You guys are my other family, you know that. I just - “ Julia reached across the table and squeezed Blythe’s hand tight, smiling. “I want my B there.” 

Julia played with the end crust of her pizza, not much more interested in the final pieces, more so just finding something to do with her hands as she listened to her best friend. She smiled, shaking her head. “Oh, one can only imagine what Aaron would do. He’s a good guy, your dad, but it would be quite the lecture, wouldn’t it? He’d want to know everything about the building, previous tenants, what the contract is, the lease, haggle a bit - your dad is quite the man. He’s great, though.” She giggled, thinking back at the memories she had of Aaron when she was younger, how she would shyly go up to Aaron in the living room when she would come over and because of her shyness would stand there while he went over his newspaper. Hi, Julia. He would say, in that monotone voice, not even looking up from his newspaper. Julia would shyly wave and he would sigh, loudly. Blythe is upstairs in his room, Julia. Go ahead. Go get him. She would scurry up the stairs, but it was a pleasant interaction always. 

“You make more than enough though and you’re just as intelligent and capable as your father. You know when to ask questions about money. It’s going to be great, and Coley will love it. It’s close to things and your parents can come over and visit him.” She smiled, encouragingly, only want to give him positive reinforcement. She knew things would probably be rocky between him and his parents, as Blythe had been their baby, and also a helper in so many ways. He helped them out around the house, around the funeral parlor, and she knew his parents were. Hell, Julia considered herself a part of the Sweetwine family sometimes, just because she had been there so much growing up. It was her second home, her playground, a place she had felt the utmost comfort. Her house and the Sweetwine house - her two homes between two worlds. 

“You will get a handle on everything, I know you will. Being a guardian is going to be a lot of work, and you’re right - you can’t simply do everything all at once. It’s not healthy. You focus on Cole and your job for now, as well as telling your parents, B. That’s all you can do.” Julia smiled, reaching forward and squeezing her best friend’s hand. “Is there a room for me, in case I ever need to crash? Huh? Would you like that, Coley?” She spoke louder for Cole to hear and the curly mop of hair entered the living room again and nodded. Yes, Julia! YES! Blythe, Julia can come live with us! Julia laughed, shaking her head. “Imagine us living together with a kid. We’d be like an old married couple. I do know exactly the way you like things, though, Mister Particular. How you only like things in three sets and lemon in absolutely everything.” 

“It is a cardinal rule of interior design. Threes and fives are perfect balance. As for the lemon, I have no excuse but I’m not gonna apologize for it,” Blythe grinned, already reaching for the small plate of lemons on the table and squeezing it over his pizza after dashing it with even more sour and pepper. “It makes everything taste better. Let’s just be happy I moved on from my mayo stage, alright? I’ve been consistent with lemons for over four years now.”

He could already predict Julia breaking it down for him, giggling about some fixation on whatever he had decided in that moment was the best of the best. He exhausted all of his likes and he was well aware of it, but he never regretted it. Like people, they also had an expiration date.

“That’s disgusting,” Cole said, his nose wrinkled just like his brother’s after taking a bite from Blythe’s pizza. Reluctantly, he nibbled it two more times as Blythe placed it in his little hands. “So disgusting!”

Blythe turned his attention back to Julia. With that same grin, already twitching into a smirk, he said, “You ever wanna get out of your place, you always have… the couch.”

The Sweetwines were a family that Oliver was somewhat familiar with. Having attended school with Abraham, and Julia having Blythe around. Though they weren’t terribly close in most aspects, and it would be much worse if he knew the scattered allegiance of the Sweetwines. That’s one of the only reasons why he didn’t divert Matty away from the other child. Lilah’s book flapped as she flailed it around excited from the noise itself. The tall Faust child continued to excitedly talk to the curly hair boy, while they passed around books chatting animatedly. Oliver nodded to Blythe and motioned with one gloved hand towards the pair of children. “I get it. Matty loves picking out a new book. Lilah…not so much.” As if on cue, the board book he had given her is thrown far from her into a bookcase.

A slow sigh emitted from his lips, while Lilah became distracted with looking around with a miniature resting bitch face. One she had no doubt perfected. “Does Cole have a favorite genre? Matty is too young, but he seems to enjoy science.”

Blythe seemed to be weary of everyone, and then all at once, no one. He rubbed elbows with all the wrong people. But when you were surrounded by the bad, and dysfunction was your normal, how did you define a threat? As long as Blythe knew where he stood, he paid no mind to the affairs that didn’t concern him and more importantly the ones he couldn’t control. The Vasiles were his security blanket, but even then he could see the withering threads. His siblings were far beyond him and if anything, they always left a headache in their wake. The other gangs, as long as Blythe kept his shirt on, wouldn’t bother him. He had friends who he suspected carried reservations under their shirts, but as long as they didn’t ask, neither would he. 

There was something to be said about Oliver Faust, though. He was more than just a threat, through and through, but rather a force of nature. Blythe knew storms could be named him, and probably more than one. He had read about it in books, sacred and not. Blythe rationalized that as long as he minded his own business, he could remain in the shadow he had for so many years to the man.

The voice was one he knew very well, especially how many times Julia and Blythe used to hang out together. However, this was definitely not a person he wanted to be caught by. Trying his best New York accent he pitched his voice a bit deeper than regular. “Was she trying to toast the painting or douse it to light it on fire?” Feigning the tone to be full of confusion, “Oh..I see.. so was she.. trying to sacrifice you to Van Gogh? Or you know man like an earlobe.” Oh good god, why didn’t he just slip away?

“Now that I think about, probably. It might have been the price she had to pay to reach the perfect impression of whatever pose was going on in the Dalí painting across the room. It’s suppose to be some dreamscape bullshit, so therefore, anatomically unattainable,” Blythe said, a nod balance with three dips of his chin. 

“I think you’ve got the wrong Faust. See, unlike my angelic little sister, I don’t feel obligated to help you in the least.” He grinned, his hands moving to gently tap the clipboard against the boy’s nose. This was his typical reaction to anything Blythe asked of him. It was crazy to think that at one point in time, they were pretty close. They had a pretty strong bond until the friendship between him and Julia developed. The love between them grew bitter over time and now they spent most of their time making each other miserable.

“Like I said, my shift just started and I don’t know where the van is. Maybe you should spent less time tracking my sister and use that little brain of yours to keep track of other things. Why don’t you ask someone else? You know…someone who possibly likes you and wants to help you out?”

The amount of frustration that surged through Blythe and his frail body was almost comical. He could only imagine how much Kota was relishing in his frazzle. It seemed that only the walls of the synagogue could keep them civil. Even with patients sore and worrisome, their words carried a sharper edge. His patience even for simple tasks like picking up a body from the hospital were already starting to keep him on edge, making his tolerance wear thin.