Robin Richards (arealcircusact) wrote in genome_project, @ 2010-05-23 23:16:00 |
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Current mood: | confused |
Who: Robin & Riley
What: Riley saves Robin from a dumpster and proceeds to confess his biggest secret o.O
When: Monday, during school hours
Where: School
Rating: PG-13
Status: Completed
Riley rubbed his hand across his face, ducking out of the hallway, down the front stairs and around the corner. He was glad that there was always five minutes of chaos before lessons started for the day. He continued down the side of the building until he came to the area near the back where several of the dumpsters were kept. Really, he'd just wanted to get away and grab some air. The people he hung around with were complete meat-heads. His sister was right. She always told him that the company you kept defined you. If that was the case, he didn't like who he was. If wasn't any wonder that no one else liked him all that much either.
It had struck him recently that he didn't really have anyone he could really trust and confide in save his sisters and probably Nora, but they didn't count because, hello, family and boss. He didn't have anyone amongst his peers that he felt comfortable enough to talk to about the things going on in his life. It was bad enough that he didn't have anything in common with any of his "friends" other than the sports that they played and not even then because Riley resented them all for loving the sport. For doing it because they loved it, not because they felt like they had to. He didn't have a best friend either, no one that he could turn to and go 'yeah, I'm gay'. In fact, for a popular guy, Riley was actually really lonely.
He knew that he could have a friend in the people that he wanted to if he tried. If he was brave. People like Jacen and Mao who talked to him nicely enough when he was on his own. He enjoyed their company when no one else could see and he knew that was shit of him, he did, but he didn't know how to go about rectifying the situation. Or people like Robin, who never ever seemed even the least bit grateful for Riley's help. Robin always had a snarky comment lined up that let Riley know just how much he didn't appreciate the help or the concern, or Riley himself. He didn't know why he was always so affronted by Robin's reaction. Every time, without fail, Riley was left feeling like an idiot. Josie he could hold his own with, when they got snarking he was at least on a level playing field, but words seemed to just abandon ship and automatically fail him whenever he was being verbally attacked by Robin.
He really hated the fact that Robin always attacked him when he was just trying to help.
Ugh. Boys. There was a reason Riley said that he wasn't interested in anyone. Really, it had nothing to do with the fact that boys were frustrating and more that he didn't think his private life was anyone's business. It was another thing Josie hated about him: he really hadn't wanted to walk down the halls holding her hand and kissing her in the corridor. Yuck. No thank you. Also, no one had ever asked him straight out (pardon the pun) if he was gay or not. He didn't know how he'd answer if he was asked. But the answer was definitely "yes" and he thought sometimes that he'd say that. Even if it meant getting kicked off the team.
Sometimes he thought that it might be better if he just came out (not that he was ever in, people just assumed and he never felt the need to correct their assumption), came clean. Told everyone that he was gay (and absolutely sure of it: Josie had taught him that much) and that he wanted to be a performer, a dancer and singer. He'd almost done it a couple of times, then some crazed self-preservation instinct always lifted its head and stopped him.
He slumped against the nearby dumpster. The lid was down. He knocked his head back against it a couple of times, listening to the dull thud that his skull made coming into contact with the metal, fingers tapping the same beat as his toes restlessly on his thighs in time with the music in his head.
As much as it sucked that this was like his third dumpster dump in the space of a few hours let it never be said that Robin went quietly into the smelly dark recesses of the school dumpster. Hell no, he kicked, he yelled, he even swore and insulted, but most of all he refused to show those ape jock assholes that they'd gotten to him.
Even if they had.
How many times could a guy get thrown into a dumpster or shoved into a locker before he started to feel a lot like a loser? More times than you'd think, for Robin anyways. He was a lot like Teflon in the sense that not much stuck to him, but sometimes, just sometimes this sort of thing got to him.
Today was one of those days, especially as they'd taken it upon themselves to shut and lock the lid. Robin knew this because he'd braced himself on a couple black bags and attempted to push up on it only to fall right back into the mess he was trying to escape.
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.
Thank God high school didn't last forever.
Not even his ridiculously bendy body seemed to do anything to help. He'd even tried flattening his hand and using his fingers to catch the lock, but it hadn't worked. Bah humbug, bah humbug indeed.
Okay so... he was apparently stuck in this dumpster until somebody happened across it. Ugh, this sucked. He was probably going to get another detention as well. Resigned for the moment Robin slumped back into the depths of the dumpster, but opened an eye when there was a sudden thud against the metal.
Did that mean somebody was- Without waiting for his brain to finish that question Robin was knocking the side of the dumpster with his foot. "Hey? Anybody out there?"
Whilst Riley would never admit it, he would recognise the sound of that voice anywhere. He'd heard it coming out of enough lockers and dumpsters over the last year that the sound was kind of... carved into his brain. His eyebrow arched and he pushed off the metal. Suddenly it started thumping underneath his back.
"Robin?" he called, lifting his head and looking at the dumpster. His eyes slid to the lock. They narrowed a little and he reached out and twisted it, dropping the lock to the floor and kicking it underneath the dumpster itself. That one, at least wouldn't be easy to lock again. He pushed the lid up. It hit the wall and bounced a little, but didn't shut again.
Standing on his tip-toes (because the bin was high), Riley looked in. It didn't smell as bad as some of the ones Robin had been thrown in in the past. "Shit, you need a hand getting out?" he asked, bracing himself on an upturned box and reaching one hand into the dumpster. "C'mon, man, I'll give you a hand."
Riley, why did it always have to be Riley? He always seemed to turn up when Robin was a) stuck in a locker b) enjoying a rinse of toilet water or c) sunning himself in a dumpster.
He very stubbornly didn't take Riley's hand before he caught himself and reached out with his bruised hand from his failed escape attempt. He'd have to ice it later for sure and then spend the next couple days hiding it because he didn't want people to think his folks were abusive.
They weren't, it was just his stupid bendy body.
Riley lifted an eyebrow at the clear bruising that covered Robin's fingers from halfway down his fingers and the back of his hand. A frown ghosted across his features. "What did they do to you?" he asked. He always referred to them as 'they', never as 'we' because he didn't think of himself as a jock, even if he hung around with them and was on the sports teams.
"Gimme your other hand? I don't wanna hurt you."
And Riley's turning up, by the way? Nine times out of ten he actually meant to turn up and help Robin out of lockers or dumpsters or sit with him when he dried off (until he was chased away by biting sarcasm, that is). Today was that rare one in ten though. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
Robin changed hands, gripping Riley's with his good hand. The pull was enough to have him over the edge of the dumpster, body feeling a lot like jello when he eventually settled his weight on both feet. He might have been a little taller as well, but it wouldn't be that obvious, just obvious enough to anybody who paid attention to him.
He pulled a face as he picked an egg shell off his knee and then leaned down to peel an empty banana peel off his converse. "Same thing they do every single time they throw me in the dumpster." Was that- Oh it was, that was gum on the back of his elbow.
"Gross," Robin muttered as he attempted to remove the gum.
When they took hold of each other's hands, there was a spark, kind of like a static shock that caught at the edge of their hands. Once Robin was out, Riley let go of his hand. He rubbed it against his other one, like that would dispel the tingles. One finger on his left hand drooped a little, like it had lost the bone that kept it stable.
He shook his hand like that would stop it from flopping around. He eyed it for a second, and then looked at Robin, who was trying to pull gum off his elbow.
He reached out, plucking a piece of candy wrapping out of Robin's hair. "Well, then how'd you get the bruise on your hand?" he asked.
Robin frowned a little as he felt a lingering feeling of electricity across his fingertips, glancing over at Riley as he seemed to be having an issue with a finger on that same hand. Huh, weird.
He jerked a little when Riley plucked a wrapper out of his hair before going slightly red when he realised what he was doing. What? He got smacked in the face a lot.
"I must've knocked it on the way into the dumpster."
"I'm not gonna hit you," Riley said, looking hurt for all of a second at the idea that Robin would be afraid of him. He hadn't ever hurt the guy, never done anything except try and help him. Granted, sometimes he was too late, but it was better than nothing, right? He waved the wrapper in Robin's direction before tossing it in the bin.
He bit down on the inside of his lower lip and took a slow breath. He hated that he sucked at actually talking to Robin. He wrinkled his nose. "It looks painful." He shook his left hand again. His fingers just didn't want to stay solid. The problem there, was that he hadn't touched anyone who... wait, Robin.
"You should maybe get it checked out?"
Robin's mouth was opened into "You get used-" before he realised what he was saying and caught himself. Wow, way to make his parents sound like dicks. Which they weren't. Far from it.
"Nah," he said with a shake of his head. "It's just bruising and I would know if something was broken." He touched the fingers affected and frowned a little as they felt so loose in the joints.
He cleared his throat a second later, feeling the weight of where one of the big gorillas had had their hand. "So, thanks, for you know getting me outta the dumpster."
"It's alright," Riley said, looking like he wanted to reach out and touch Robin for a moment before he changed his mind and stuffed his hands into his pockets. And then he realised that he'd just helped Robin climb out of a dumpster and he'd touched it and now he had germs on his hands.
Ew.
He pulled them out of his pocket and shook them a couple of times like that would get rid of the germs. "Ugh," he said, looking at his hands in distaste.
"And as long as you're sure," he added, still looking concerned. He reached out and touched the back of Robin's hand. There was a bruise forming on the edge of his own hand now, the little finger. "Still. Looks sore."
Robin's eyebrow arched quite dramatically when Riley gave quite the dramatic "ugh" movement and sound. Wow, he just sounded really, really gay. Granted it was kind of hard to define a person as gay just by their hand movement and vocal expression, but, wow, gay.
He frowned a little when Riley touched his hand and he just curled his fingers in towards his palm, shrugging his shoulders. "No big deal."
So this wasn't weird or awkward, noooo.
Hell, Robin had no idea what to say to Riley of all people. They didn't exactly share the same sorts of friends and well they only ever really talked when he was being pulled out of lockers or snarking via the journal system.
At the curling of Robin's fingers, Riley dropped his touch away and rubbed the back of his neck, then grimaced. Oh God, he needed to shower. Thank God there was no bin-juice. Otherwise he would have been even more grossed out than he was.
"And you walk around all day after having been thrown in there? How do you not feel totally disgusting?" he asked, wondering if he could get away with talking to the coach and getting the use of the showers.
He was trying, he just didn't know what he could talk to Robin about. They had one thing in common and that was it, as far as he knew and no one knew that. Riley didn't really want anyone to know, none of their business. Not that anyone would mess with him. But he was trying to start a conversation, say something, do something that would at least begin to build a bridge. Even if he was failing miserably.
"You want me to speak to coach? See if you can clean up?"
"I'm used to it," Robin pointed out. "This happens a lot. I can't go home every time an asshole decides to throw me into a dumpster."
He tucked his hands into the pockets of his inhumanly tight denim jeans and shrugged. "No, don't. I really don't want the coach riding my ass as well." And he probably would, Robin had seen him with some of the scrawnier kids.
"I should probably get to class," Robin finally said after a moment, tucking a long strand of dark hair behind a pierced ear.
"You know-" Riley said, almost reaching out but not quite, "-Coach wouldn't ride you for it. Not if I said that it was for me. He wouldn't know the difference." He didn't often take random showers, but it was well known that the Coach favoured and gave his team players a bit extra slack when it came to lesson attendance, grades and using the showers.
He swallowed and glanced at the way Robin was standing. He just wanted to help. That might have been lame, but he wanted to. So badly. He didn't even know why (well, he did, he wanted friends and people he could talk to: he was lonely).
"And- but- yeah. Class." He didn't look enthused. Riley really didn't want to go.
Tempted? Robin? Never.
"Well," he began in a slow drawl. "It does kind of suck smelling like bin for the rest of the school day. When my mom picks me up she gives me this look as if to say oh you're a teenager it's okay if you smell it's normal."
He was taking a chance here, trusting Riley enough to go with him to the Jocks sanctum where potential ass kicking could happen, but his dad was always talking about giving people the benefit of the doubt.
Dad was so going to get an earful if this was a total waste of Robin's efforts.
"There's nothing normal about smelling like trash," Riley said carefully, lifting one shoulder. The wrinkle of his nose showed how he felt about smelling of garbage. "Besides, even if we're teenagers, there is such a thing as personal hygiene. There's never any excuse for stinking."
His lips turned up in the corners, grabbing Robin's bag from where it had been discarded. He offered it to the other teen. "C'mon."
Robin's eyebrow twitched at Riley's remark and surreptitiously took a quick sniff of himself, pulling quite the expressions as the muscles in his face were looser and skin was able to pull into movements that most other skin could never manage.
He took his bag and had a quick look around before he slung it over his shoulder, falling into step beside Riley.
Riley had noticed the pull of skin, the facial expression that shouldn't have been possible, and definitely shouldn't have been anything even remotely close to adorable, but it was both. Weirdly. There was something immensely wrong with that.
He led the way around the back of the school towards the locker rooms so that they could make use of the showers. Thankfully, Riley knew that they'd be empty at this time, at least, they just had to be quick. He wanted to wash his arms and possibly his head. What? The trash was gross.
"In here." He pushed the door open and waved Robin in. The little finger of his left hand had a bruise forming around the knuckles that there shouldn't have been: he hadn't smacked it, but it had tried to collapse on itself. Weird.
Robin took one last look around himself before he entered the locker room of the jocks, trying to stem the sudden surge of panic that threatened to have him turning tail. It was empty, quiet and still, no sign of the other jocks.
He slipped past Riley and was awkward for a moment before he moved in the direction of the showers, figuring he should get this shower done and quickly.
Without further ado Robin stripped out of the layers of clothing before slipping under a a stream of water, cold at first, causing him to curse briefly. Hopefully it would warm up, if he was in there long enough to get to that point.
Robin scrubbed at his hair like he had something against it, trying to get rid of that bin smell before doing much the same to the rest of himself.
Riley had made a very quick turn on the spot when Robin had pulled his shirt off. He'd made sure to keep his back to the other teen because yeah, there was no point in looking. He kept his eyes on the door, covering the entrance to make sure that no one walked in on Robin in the shower.
"You doing okay?" he called, voice lifted to be heard over the sound of the shower. He stood in a stall at the end, turned the shower there on and washed his hands. He'd fished out a towel for Robin, draped it over the end of the stall next him. "Here, just- Towel."
Oh, smooth Riley.
The water was cold in the shower he'd run for himself. Tugging off his own shirt, he leaned forward and wet his hair, letting the water slide over the back of his neck, his own towel tucked into the waistband of his jeans.
Robin turned his head at the mention of a towel, hollering a quick "thank you" before he returned to scrubbing the smell of bin off of him.
Once he was happy he no longer smelt like bin he reached out to turn the shower off, squeezing as much water from his hair as he could before simply raking it off his face and behind his ears.
He grabbed the towel from the side and after having dried himself off he wrapped his hips with it, completely unaware that he'd left one hipbone exposed. For a kid that got his ass handed to him on a regular basis he was better built than most would have thought, tone instead of hard muscle mass.
Robin came out of the shower, flicking a couple stray droplets of water off his stomach.
Riley shifted a little from where he was bent over washing his hair, he saw Robin and swallowed. Stop it, Riley. He straightened up and rubbed at his hair with the towel, turning on his heel and stopping short when Robin was right there and not wearing a whole lot.
Okay world, he thought, you win. He wondered if there was something out there determined to make him out himself. If it kept throwing things like this at him he might end up doing it anyway, without giving the world a chance to catch him unawares like it had done other people.
Riley himself was toned, lithe in the form of a dancer rather than a sportsman, he'd never been on the field as much as everyone else, and he was always a runner. Better at track than football. But his muscle tone was all down to his dancing.
"Better hurry up and- uh-" he wet his lower lip, eyes unconsciously moving over Robin's exposed chest without his conscious permission. "Dressing. Yep." He scratched the edge of one of his own exposed hipbones, his towel draped over his shoulder and head ducked because, yeah. Stop. "Dressed."
Robin totally hadn't noticed Riley's state of undress. Totally not. Why would he? Riley was a jock and he'd dated that blonde chick so yes, not looking. He collected his clothes and started to get dressed, body twisting in various ways as he fought with the material that seemed determined to cling to his still wet skin.
He stole a look at Riley from beneath a strand of hair before catching himself, dragging his gaze away to fix it on someplace neutral like the nearest wall.
"Nearly done," he muttered as he finally tugged his socks on and reached for his Converse.
"Yeah..." Riley muttered, rubbing his hair dry and picking up his shirt, watching for a second as Robin finished up the dressing thing and started working on putting his converse on. He chewed the inside of his lower lip.
He tugged his shirt on to distract himself from the sight of Robin getting dressed. Wow, distracting. He'd caught sight of a lattice of bruises that spanned the length of Robin's back, and Riley wondered if that had just been from the altercation with his meat-head 'friends'.
Instead of asking, though, he merely said, "Told you we wouldn't get caught. We're not all assholes." Did his voice sound weird? Maybe. He hoped not. God, he hoped not.
Robin tightened his laces and finished up with both his sneakers, straightening up a second later, wishing he hadn't because it meant pulling at the already abused skin on his back. Ugh, this bruising thing after stretching was really getting old.
"You have your moments," Robin remarked with a shrug of his shoulders even though it did pain him to admit that outloud. "Thanks for the shower, guess I should get going to my next class."
Riley shrugged again and he just gave Robin a smile, kind of disarming in its intensity. He adjusted his shirt and rubbed at his hair again before he tossed the towel and slung his bag back onto his shoulder. "Yeah, have fun in class."
He tilted his head and just nodded a couple of times, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "Look, I'm-" He took another breath and wanted to say something, trust Robin in the way that Robin had trusted him. "I'll try and keep the guys off you for the rest of the day."
Robin put the strap of his backpack over one shoulder and turned in time to catch that smile, kind of wanting to hate on Riley for having such a nice smile. Seriously, he was one of the jocks, he wasn't supposed to have a nice smile.
"Thanks," Robin said with another nod of his head. "I wouldn't want a swirly to ruin this freshly washed hair. Bad enough it got bin juice in it."
He cleared his throat, tucked his hands into the hip pockets of his jeans and headed in the direction of the door.
Riley chuckled and watched Robin move off. Nerves for some unknown reason were twisting and turning in his stomach. That rebellious part of him that had no care for his personal wellbeing was lifting its head again, rearing up on its back legs and trying to force its way out of his chest.
"Robin-" he started, brain frantically trying to shut his mouth up. They were still alone - thankfully - and when Robin's footsteps stopped, his mouth continued talking even though he thought that he might die of mortification. When Robin turned, his mouth kept talking. "-I'm gay, you know."
...Yeah, well done. He took a half-step backwards because, shit. He hadn't actually meant to say that. Usually he could stop himself before his mouth ran away with him.
Robin wasn't entirely sure how to process what he'd just been told. Wait, what? Riley Dawson was gay? Huh? Wait, the world was no longer making sense. Or it was, but Robin didn't want to admit that. All the comments about hair, smell... he'd suspected it, but this... this was HUGE.
"You're... gay?" He repeated, turning completely at this point. "But you- I mean, you've dated girls! I mean sure Josie's always ragging on about how you never.." And then his eyes widened before realisation seemed to dawn on him a second later. "That's why you and her never did the nasty isn't it? You're gay and she was missing some vital components!"
Cue a momentary silence before a very quiet, "Why are you telling me?"
Riley shifted, taking a couple more steps backwards. He didn’t know why he’d told Robin, why should he trust Robin with something like this? That would give the bendy kid a hold over him. But something made him want to, made him need to tell someone. He really was pathetic when he examined his reasoning.
“Josie’s just... insane. Even if I wasn’t, I think the idea of sleeping with her would have freaked me out.” She’d kind of talked him into ‘going out’ with her anyway. Somehow, one minute she’d been flirting with him and the next moment they were the new ‘it’ couple and Riley didn’t quite know what to do with that. He’d never wanted a girl - he hadn’t even wanted Josie - but apparently it had to happen. Josie had said as much. Riley freaked out when it started getting sexual, and he was always highly uncomfortable whenever she tried to kiss him. The memory made him feel vaguely queasy.
He wet his lower lip, suddenly looking extremely vulnerable, more than he ever had done before in front of anyone. “I- I don’t know,” he said finally. “I just- I have no one I can trust, you know. At least you’ve got- I mean, you might get shit for it, but you have people you can trust and turn to and-” his hand raked through his hair, “You have friends. That’s something I-” don’t.
Robin was really having a hard time processing what was going on, he really was. "Wait, are you saying that you Riley Dawson of the infamous jock brigade has no friends?" How was that even possible? Riley was popular, he had people who looked up to him, and everybody kissed his ass, but he had no friends?
He was quiet for a moment and then shook his head. "What is it with people and omitting the truth?" He then frowned, scrubbing his fingers through his hair. "But you know- Okay, so you're gay and nobody else but me knows, is that right?"
Robin might have been a lot of things but a bastard he was not. "I won't tell anyone."
"I'd really appreciate it if you didn't mock me right now," Riley grumbled at Robin's incredulous statement. "It's hilarious, I know, that a jock actually doesn't have anyone he can trust, but it's seriously not actually all that fun. It's... kinda lonely."
He sighed and rubbed his hand over his face, then the back of his neck before he just dropped it and stuffed it into his pocket again. "I couldn't- To be fair to me, no one's ever asked me outright." If he had been asked, he might have answered.
Surprise flickered over Riley's face as Robin promised not to tell anyone and he just gave another smile, that same disarming one from earlier except this time it seemed more genuine, softer at the edges. "Thanks, Robin. I just- it-"
"Well excuse me for being human," Robin muttered with a roll of his eyes. "It's not often I hear that sort of thing from a popular guy."
He shrugged. "I'm not an asshole, Riley. If you wanna hide your sexuality then go for it, I'm not going to be the assface that outs you. I'm sure that's something you gotta do for yourself."
Robin tucked a wet strand of hair behind his ear. "You ever stop to consider maybe if you stopped being what the jocks want you to be then maybe you'd have more friends? I bet it gets kind of tiring, being what everybody else wants you to be."
And with that he shrugged and turned, letting himself out of the locker room. Holy mother of crap, Riley Dawson was gay.