The Roof | Afternoon | Sunday | July 11

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

It felt like a day to get out of his room. Really, everyday felt like that but today more than others. He was getting that restless, walls closing in feeling that he tended to get every few months. It'd put him into a bad mood (though he hadn't gotten out of that from a few days ago) and made him snappy and irritable.

That, naturally, brought him to the roof and had him sprawled out on the edge of the roof, cigarette stuck between his lips, earbuds in his ears playing some raucously loud, and hand tucked underneath his head. It was warm and he'd probably get some sun but he wasn't one to burn. Benefit of coming from the Midwest where you either got sun or you moved.

At least he'd foregone walking along the ledge of the roof and probably causing a panic in a few people that didn't know him. He was being safe by contrast. Laying on the roof's ledge meant he'd have to roll over to fall instead of missing a step and falling. Completely safer.

[Roof's open. Summer is too long.]

Comments

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wes didn't want to bug Alex, but he kind of hoped he could help with the bad mood. He stammered, "Er - I - ah, I was just wondering if everything was all right."

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"It's never all right, Wesley," Alex said, shrugging, "but I deal. What's up with you?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Nothing - ah, that is to say, nothing particularly noteworthy," Wesley replied. He sat down on the ground next to the ledge. "Is - is there anything I can do to help?"

Because he did kind of like Alex, and he did not want him falling off the roof.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"Nope. My life is shit and then I'll die," he said, sounding resigned to that fact. "I just live it up while I'm here. And I wouldn't ask for help anyway."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wes understood feeling maudlin. Sulking and brooding were two things he was pretty familiar with, especially after this past spring. "Ah - would it be beneficial for you to talk about it?" he offered. "You wouldn't have to ask for help, just - just discuss the nature of the problem. That might be helpful."

"Alternatively, if you'd prefer, I could leave," he added.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"I don't talk about it," he said, sounding amused. "I'm not a feelings type of guy but it's cute of you to offer."

Alex shook his head and tapped some ash off his cigarette. He couldn't help the sarcastic answer even if he didn't too much mind Wesley. "Having a good weekend?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Fair enough," Wes answered without any trace of trying to nag Alex to share. "My weekend's been a bit hellish, in fact, but nothing unmanageable. Are you certain you wouldn't prefer your privacy?"

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"Nah man, it's a free roof," he said, shaking his head. "What's been hellish about your weekend? Something weird happen that I missed?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"I'm sure it's nothing compared to whatever's troubling you," he offered as a disclaimer hesitantly. Then, thinking it might help Alex to hear about someone else's problems to shift focus from his own, he said resignedly, "Well, I discovered this week that I'm to take a class taught by a girl who tried to kill me in my universe. So I've spent the bulk of my weekend on the phone with my father, trying to persuade him to allow me to drop the class, but he seems to think I've earned this experience."

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"Well," Alex said, taking a drag from his cigarette and trying not to laugh, "I'm sure that's interesting. Why'd she try and kill you?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Possibly because she's evil," Wes answered dryly. "Or the more popular opinion is that I was so unfit a guardian to her that trying to kill me could hardly be considered an offense."

Realizing that that might have sounded a bit confusing, he hastily clarified, "I was, ah, appointed to be her Watcher, or a mentor of sorts. I was fairly incompetent, so she turned toward murder as a response to my ineptitude." He was completely resigned to this. "Perfectly reasonable," he said flatly.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"Jesus fuck," Alex said, brow furrowing at that explanation. "How old are you? You're in high school and you're already getting tasked with mentoring people? What the fuck's going on where you're from?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"I'm seventeen. As a high-performing student in training to be a Watcher, I was considered a prime candidate for an experiment in which a trainee was appointed to assist another Watcher who seemed to be having difficulty managing his charges. It was - well. Disastrous."

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

Alex shook his head, clearly not wanting any part of that sort of thing. "They gonna give you a second chance?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"No," said Wes flatly. "No, I was expelled and fired."

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"Suck," Alex said, shrugging a shoulder. "What'll do you now?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"I'm to finish my education here at Fandom, then apply to college, I suppose," Wes said. "If I'm accepted to a school my father deems appropriate, I'll go there. If not, I suppose I'll find something else to do."

Wow. He'd gone into this hoping to make Alex feel better, but now Wes felt kind of miserable.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"Why the hell are you listening to your father so much?" Alex asked, shaking his head. "Fuck your parents. They can't keep controlling you."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wes stared down at his lap. "I suppose," he mumbled.

"Are you - do you feel a bit better?" he asked tentatively. "Distracted, at least?"

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"Distracted, yeah, but I don't get to places where I feel better," he said, looking back up at the sky and closing his eyes.

"You don't need to try and make me feel better," he added. "Not gonna work."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"I'm rather terrible at boosting morale," Wes admitted. "I was simply hoping I might contribute in some way."

"I believe I brought some scotch with me to campus," he said after a pause. And he had, because he was moping and scotch was good for that. "Would that be at all beneficial?"

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"You brought scotch?" Alex asked, looking down at Wes now. "I should have known you'd be a liquor drinker. Good scotch?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Quite. One of my father's bottles, in fact." Aha! So he could be helpful.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"He give that to you or did you gank it before you left?" Alex wondered.

Wesley's dad didn't sound like he'd just give up some nice scotch.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"I - I took it," Wes confessed, a little guiltily.