Room 307, Sunday Morning... Through Afternoon

[dollpocalypse]

So lately? Topher had been getting a little bit better at getting people. He wasn't great at it or anything, wasn't even really good, and still needed to ask a lot of questions, but at least by now he knew what to ask. And who to ask, and how to ask, and just generally the right way to figure things out.

Which he thought he had, yesterday. Figured stuff out, that was. Because... Billy. There had been Ben's advice and everyone else ever's implications and he'd been pretty sure he was right. Because of, like, the scientific method, where Ben and Kenzi and Tony and Peter and Ender were all test subjects and they'd all given him data to suggest that: yes, Billy was okay, Billy was cleared, he should try this with Billy, because it wasn't like he was ever going to get anywhere with anyone else this kind of thing made people happy, and Billy made Topher happy and maybe it would be a good thing. To try it. And he'd thought he was right. Been pretty sure, as a scientist, that his data proved his hypothesis.

Except he definitely had not been right, because he'd tried to do what everyone else thought he should do and wound up getting laughed at.

So. Fuck that. Fuck talking to people. Fuck going outside, too. Today he was buried under all his blankets and reading a comic and wondering why it wasn't helping him feel better yet.

Any second now.

[[door closed, post open, emo within]]

Comments

[dollpocalypse]

"Yes!" Keep up, Ben. Honestly now. "Why'd you let me do that?" he whined.

[momslilassassin]

Ben flailed. "I wasn't trying to set you up!" he said. "I'm not like Peter."

[dollpocalypse]

"Huh?" So confused, Ben, so confused. "Peter wasn't trying to--!"

[momslilassassin]

Ben paused for a beat too long, then said, "Never mind. Are you sure it was Billy?"

[dollpocalypse]

"...yes?" Duh, of course it was Billy. "What if he doesn't want to hang out anymore?"

[momslilassassin]

"I can talk to him if you want?" Ben said, looking really mortified. The last thing he'd wanted to do was set Topher up for rejection.

[dollpocalypse]

"Won't he think I'm weird?" Topher, if he didn't think you were weird by now...

[momslilassassin]

"He won't think you're weird," Ben said firmly. "He'll think you're hurt, or at least he should."

[dollpocalypse]

"Oh," Topher said, ducking his head. "Um. No. I mean. I'm not, uh. Hurt. Really."

Except you quite plainly were, Topher. That was why you'd been hiding under the blankets, you see.

[momslilassassin]

"Says Captain Blanket Fort," Ben said with a tiny smile. "It's okay to admit to it--I kind of know anyway."

[dollpocalypse]

"'s stupid," Topher mumbled. "He's Billy. He's all... a good person, and whatever." So of course he didn't like him.

[momslilassassin]

Which was why Ben was kind of surprised that he'd turned Topher down...

"It's not stupid," Ben insisted.

[dollpocalypse]

"Is too," Topher mumbled, picking at his blanket.

Mature.

[momslilassassin]

Ben sat down on Dave's bed like the dirty bed-modder he was and frowned at Topher. "Your feelings aren't stupid," he lectured.

Ben's feelings could be ignored until he felt like dealing with them, but he didn't hold his friends to the same stupid rule.

[dollpocalypse]

"People don't usually like me," Topher mumbled, wringing his hands a little. "Was dumb to say something."

[momslilassassin]

Well, that was just depressing.

Ben sighed. "I'm really sorry."

[dollpocalypse]

"'s not your fault." Topher, please, enough with the emo already. Please. Desist. "'m gonna... apologize to him, or whatever, I guess."

[momslilassassin]

"What do you need to apologize for?" Ben asked.

[dollpocalypse]

"I don't know," Topher mumbled. "Making it weird? And. Like. Putting pressure on him. Or whatever."

[momslilassassin]

"You just asked a question," Ben said. "Unless you repeated it a dozen times or got it skywritten or something, I don't think there was that much pressure."

[dollpocalypse]

"But it'll be weird now," Topher insisted. "What if he doesn't want to... you know?" Be friends anymore, he thought, but didn't say. "I should... I don't know. Say something."

Topher, you neurotic weirdo.

[momslilassassin]

"If you feel you have to," said Captain Repression.

[dollpocalypse]

"'Kay," Topher said, nodding. "Um. So. I'm gonna do that. And. And yeah."

Topher, please stop twitching.

[momslilassassin]

Ben moved from Dave's bed and onto Topher's, then reached out to touch his shoulder. "Relax," he said, putting a little bit of the Force into his voice. "Really."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher... well, at least he wasn't twitching anymore. His posture relaxed somewhat, too. Way to go, Ben.

"He won't hate me?" he asked, a little desperately.