Chapter Text
CHAPTER 1: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
BAZ
I am never leaving this bed, and I am never answering that phone. I don’t care how many times it rings. I hear my roommate bounding up the stairs like a golden retriever, so I pull my comforter up over my head before he opens the door.
“Ugh. You’re still in bed?” he grumbles.
Hello to you too, I think.
“Fuck off, Snow,” I snap in his direction.
He doesn’t say anything, just heaves out an overly dramatic sigh. I hear his footsteps cross the room, then I hear him open the curtains.
My phone starts ringing again and I groan, grabbing my pillow and shoving it over my head; holding it there. Snow grumbles something, but it’s so muffled I can’t tell what it is. Nor do I care.
Suddenly, my pillow is wrenched out of my grip. I glare up at him with murder on my mind.
“I am going to kill you,” I tell him.
“You have to get up first,” he says.
“Why do you even care?” I gripe, turning away from him.
“Because… I don’t… I’m a concerned citizen, okay? This isn’t healthy.” I feel the weight of Snow sitting on my bed. I’m about to tell him to get the hell off when my phone starts ringing again.
“Baz, answer your mobile,” Snow says thrusting my phone in my face. I give him a vulgar gesture and turn over on my stomach.
Snow sighs yet again then clears his throat, “Baz’s phone, Simon speaking.”
My eyes snap open and I scramble to a sitting position. I really am going to kill him.
“Sure, he’s right here,” Snow says to whoever is on the other end.
“It’s your dad”, he mouths to me.
“What the hell just happened?” I whisper yell, snatching my phone with one hand and smacking Snow in the back of the head with the other.
He picks up my pillow and promptly tosses it at my face; he easily dodges it when I throw it back.
I get up and walk into the bathroom, slamming the door behind me.
“Hello, father,” I say into the phone.
{+}
SIMON
I’m sitting at my desk trying to get some of my homework done when Baz finally opens the bathroom door. I turn around in my chair and see that he’s just lurking there staring at the floor. If it’s possible, he looks even worse than before.
“So, uh… how’s your dad?” I ask, swallowing a lump in my throat.
Baz snaps his head up to meet my eyes and sneers at me. It doesn’t last long though. His expression quickly crumbles, and he slowly trudges to his bed and lets himself fall down onto it facedown.
“Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiit,” he moans into his mattress.
I set my pen down and get up from my seat, but I hesitate. I’m not really sure what to do now. I know he got dumped a couple of weeks ago and has barely left the dorm since, but I’m not really sure how his dad could play into that. Maybe I shouldn’t have answered his phone after all. If Baz and I were friends, I would cross the room and try to get him to talk about… whatever this is.
I decide that’s what I should do anyway. I somehow made his situation worse, and I need to do what I can to make that right.
“Hey, so, Baz,” I begin, walking over to his bed and having a seat. “I, uh, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have answered your phone…”
“Doesn’t matter,” Baz says without lifting his face from the bed. How can he breathe like that?
“Well, ok, but I’m still sorry,” I tell him. I feel awkward sitting on his bed and talking to his back like this. “I just thought maybe your dad could help you out of your…funk.”
Baz scoffs at this and turns his head to look at me.
“It’s not a funk, you dolt. I’m depressed. And my father is the absolute last person on Earth that I wanted to talk to right now.”
I wince at his words. I really screwed up.
“Baz, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean… I just wanted…” I growl and scrub the back of my neck roughly.
“Calm down, Snow. Stop blustering. I would have had to talk to him sooner or later. He probably would have shown up here if kept ignoring him much longer.” Baz turns completely over and looks up at me with a strange expression on his face. “I don’t know why you care anyway; I thought you hated me.”
I don’t really know what to say. (Shocking, I know.)
It's not that I ever really hated him, but I've definitely been somewhat of a prick to him. I feel like he started it, but he probably feels the same way about me. Ever since he got dumped and started showing human emotion, I started to feel differently about him, though. Hopeful even. At first, I didn’t think anything of it. Everyone gets down in the dumps after a break up, and it’s natural to feel bad for anyone in that situation, but then he stopped going to class, stopped leaving the dorm at all, stopped showering… He doesn’t even leave to eat. He just eats whatever is in our minifridge (I may or may not have been purposefully bringing leftovers home from my meals) and orders takeout. He might be a prick, but I know what it’s like to have a broken heart, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
“I care because… I’m a caring guy,” I say. Baz lets out a little snort that is probably the closest thing he’s done to laughing in weeks. “And I don’t hate you, Baz. You’re the one who’s always hostile. I just went with it.” I add with a shrug.
“I’m not hostile,” he replies. “I’m annoyed.”
“Oh, so I’m annoying?” I ask him, shoving his shoulder gently.
“Please, Snow. Have you met you?” he asks. Well, that’s a yes.
I frown at him, and he shoves my arm. “Oh, stop that. There’s only room for one sad sack around here.”
“About that,” I say. “Do you want to talk about it? It might make you feel better.” Baz looks away from me and starts toying with the tassels on his throw blanket. “Is this about Neil?”
Baz rolls his eyes and snorts again. “Niall,” he says looking at me with a hint of amusement.
“Come again?” I ask.
“His name is Niall,” Baz says. “And yes, this is about him.”
“I see,” I say, “and talking to your dad made it worse because...?”
Baz sits up and draws his knees into his chest. He stares straight ahead, and at first, I don’t think he’s going to answer me, but then he finally speaks.
“My father’s company goes on a weekend retreat to the country every six months. They stay in cabins and do activities together. It’s for team building, bonding, and a nice way to show appreciation for employees. I go every year. I’m expected to be there,” he pauses to sigh. “I’ll own the company someday, so it’s my responsibility to be there.”
“Well that sounds like a good thing,” I interject. “That could be exactly what you need; fresh air, organized activities, a change of scenery. It could be therapeutic even.”
Baz still won’t look at me; his frown deepens before he responds. “The thing is, every year the company chooses three promising interns to come on the trip…”
“And Niall is one of them,” I finish for him. “Fuck.”
Baz just nods.
“Tell them you can’t go,” I suggest. Baz rolls his eyes. Right he’s probably already tried that. “Better yet,” I say, “tell Niall not to go. He’s the one that should have to miss the trip. It’s your family’s company.”
“I’m not that petty, Snow," he snaps.
Could have fooled me. This coming from the person that actually nailed our window shut because I forgot to close it once, and it got “way too cold in here”. It’s my turn to roll my eyes.
“Alright then, this is what we’re going to do,” I say, standing up, and facing Baz properly. “You are going to get up and take a shower, I am going to finish my homework, and then we are going to walk down to Ebb’s together.”
Baz looks at me as if I just suggested we fly to the moon together. “Why the hell would we do that?” he asks.
“You need the fresh air and some real food. I’m meeting Penny there anyway. We can discuss your dilemma together and come up with a solution.”
Baz doesn’t say anything. He continues to stare at me in confusion for a few beats then he looks down at his toes.
Enough of this. I wrap my hands around both of his biceps and tug him out of the bed.
“Snow, what the hell?” he barks.
I don’t respond. I simply grab a towel from the hook on his closet, hand it to him, then frog march him to the bathroom.