#* ryan speaks.

    with hair slightly disheveled and clothes slightly displaced, ryan runs his hand through his hair and tilts his head to the side. as he goes to leave the apartment, he finds himself almost colliding with another. ❛ oh —- oh, luca? ❜

  ❛ d’you mind? i’m trying to do work and you’re being incredibly distracting to the point where i literally might just slap you. but then again, that’s mean. so i won’t. ❜

         he tries listening, he really does. but there’s something else bothering him, gentle whispers in his mind that’s got him tripping over his own words and squinting at table in front of him — it’s one of those days. ryan fails to comprehend a single word, fixated on the lime green color of the table in some attempt to chase the thoughts that haunt his mind away, but they only come back. his body begins to curl inward in an attempt to make himself smaller, hands slowly inching their way around himself. discomfort at it’s finest. ‘ sorry, what ? ’

     ‘ couple to the left. they're probably on their second date, what do you think ? ’ it's about noon, and he's sitting across from the other with eyes occasionally sparing glances over at the duo sitting besides them. the couples feet are touching, and they're talking about family as far as ryan can tell. shifting his gaze back over to the other sitting in front of him, his lip quirks into a grin.

       he's been waiting ( patiently, at that ), seated in one of the chairs backstage. it's usually like this, he notices. not that he necessarily minds it — really ! but when he sees luke walking back over to where ryan sat, he can't help but grin so wide. ‘ luke, hey — so sorry for not being here earlier, there was already traffic getting down here. kinda crazy. ‘

      soft, red lips part for a moment, alabaster lungs inhale the cold air as forest green hues flutter shut. ❛ my father doesn’t like you. ❜ words are blithely spared into the atmosphere between the two of them; there is no tension building, it’s almost laughable. ❛ but i could give less of a shit on what he thinks. ❜

       IS ryan avoiding luke? yes. yes he is. but, there's logical reasoning behind it. ryan's mind works like this: avoid the crush, maybe the crush will go away. listen to music very loudly whenever said crush is nearby, do not make eye contact, do not imagine kissing them, do not imagine their touch or their soft words in your ear. he tells him this like it's some kind of mantra to his life. he hasn't talked to the cousin that works for luke's band for about a week, he's gotten off twitter and socially, fallen off of the face of the earth. but whenever he sees a picture of luke in a magazein, his heart aches. so yeah, getting over luke is going great.

   " hey, " voice so gentle and delicate, coming out like a tiny whisper. gentle hands brush against skin as he gives the other an adoring smile. " it's getting kind of late, you okay ? " both sat in an empty room, ryan's ears pick up on the blaring music only a few rooms down. the reason why they're in this room instead of the other is beyond him.