Tuesday: One Thing at a Time Who: Trevor and Torin When: evening Where: Spencer residence
Trevor had spent most of the day agonizing over what he should do about his problem with Taryn before he ran out of time instead of writing. It felt like he should finally man up and take his own advice. And it felt as if he didn't do so quickly, he'd miss any opportunity he might have. It didn't help any that he was now convinced Taryn was determined to sleep with that Noah character. A man who wasn't even an elemental. It was abhorrent at best, even from a purely brotherly perspective.
But what could be done? Surely blurting out his feelings wasn't the best way to handle things. It would be the same as ripping a band-aid off as quickly as possible, just to get the sting over with. He'd thought of asking their parents if they'd consider the match, but he couldn't do so without first knowing how Taryn felt on the matter. He wouldn't condemn her to a life of unhappiness just to satisfy his own ultimately selfish wishes for her life. That would make him no better than their parents in regards to match-making.
That left one person he could logically seek advice from. And while his brother might react in any number of ways, Trevor felt certain he'd at least give him an honest assessment of his situation. No matter how much it might hurt to hear.
He tried Torin's room first, but had no luck. Eventually he found him in the den watching television. Trevor sat down on the couch and pretended to watch whatever was on the big screen for a few seconds. "Torin, if you're not terribly busy I need to ask you for some advice," he said, attempting to give his words an air of indifference. As if he asked his little brother for advice all the time instead of never.
Torin's asthma had been a pain in the ass today, but once he'd gotten home and done a nebulizer treatment, he'd felt a bit better. The thing to do was probably stay inside for the rest of the day, and so he'd done that. He'd been lazy, taken a nap, talked to his sister about her spectacular date with the writer dude with the boat-- and been secretly glad she hadn't gotten busy with him. Somehow, the thought of his baby sister hitting it with a dude who wasn't even elemental wasn't a happy one. And yeah, it was a double-standard, since he'd messed around with non-elementals before, but he couldn't help it. Taryn had told him that she thought Noah wasn't as into her as she was into him, and that made him even more glad that nothing major had happened. Some kissing was how she'd put it.
He wasn't really that into what was on the television screen, mainly because he was thinking about his texting sessions with Jess and Jordan earlier. He'd had to ask them what they knew about Cooper Perry, because that dude was smokin'. Evidently he hadn't always been, though, which would account for why Torin hadn't remembered him. It was amusing to think that a guy who looked like that had been a complete nerd in the past. When his brother sat down on the couch with him, he barely noticed until his sibling spoke.
When Trevor said he wanted to ask him for advice, Torin turned his head, the slightest wariness in his expression. Taryn had also told him that Trevor was pissed that the two of them had been speculating about his sex life, and he hoped it wasn't anything about that. He was in no mood to be bitched at by his older brother tonight. "Do I look terribly busy?" he asked mildly, his eyebrows arching.
"You could be terribly interested in ...whatever program this is," Trevor offered and looked over at his brother. This was already ridiculously painful and he hadn't even said anything of consequence yet. He hated feeling unsure of himself. And while he'd thought of fifty different ways this conversation could go, he was still not certain which way would be the best way to start it off. But he had to pick something, and quickly.
Torin sat up with a sigh, picking up the remote and punching the button that would display information about the program that was on at the bottom of the screen. "'Most Shocking Moments in Music History'," he read. "I haven't seen anything that shocked me yet." He put the remote down on the couch cushion between them and sat up straighter, half-turning toward his brother. He was curious about Trevor wanting to ask him advice, apparently, and he said, "What's up?"
"Have you ever been in love?" Trevor asked after a short pause. He frowned a little. No, that probably wasn't the best way to start this conversation. Hypothetical situations rarely helped anyone that wasn't a scientist. Though it was technically what he needed Torin's help with. Why did love have to be so damn complicated and ridiculous? "I am. In love. And I've no idea how to tell her or gauge her reaction ahead of time to know if it would be worth it to bother telling her."
In love. Somehow, that was the last thing Torin would have expected to hear from his older brother. How could he be in love with someone? He barely left his room some days! "I don't think so," he replied when asked if he'd ever been in love. "I've been seriously in lust, I've been... in like." He shrugged a little. "Dude, this is a shocker for me. I didn't even know you were dating anyone." Was it someone he'd met at that writer's conference he'd gone to? Torin wondered.
"I'm not dating anyone. This is, to my knowledge, an unrequited affection," Trevor said, frowning even more as his face screwed up in annoyance. Perhaps he'd been mistaken thinking he could talk to Torin about this. Especially given the jibes his little brother had made about his sex life all too recently. "Is it that unbelievable that I could be romantically interested in a woman?"
'How can you be in love with someone from afar?" Torin asked, honestly trying to figure it out. "Have a crush, yeah. Get the hots for, sure." Only his older brother would say he was in love with someone he hadn't spent much time with, he thought. His mind wasn't grasping any other possibility. He pushed his fingers through his hair in a futile attempt to straighten it and shook his head. "Nah, it's not unbelievable. You just never talk to me about shit like this." And he didn't often talk to Trevor, because he knew there was no way his brother would approve of his liaisons... particularly since most of them were either with guys or non-elementals.
"It's Taryn," Trevor said softly with a heavy sigh and turned back to the television. He wasn't really watching the inanity on the screen, but it was safer viewing than his brother's face at the moment. He tried not to brace himself for any negative reactions Torin might have to such insight as that would mean he expected the worst.
It was probably a good thing that Trevor had turned away, because Torin did a visible double take. He was torn between what the hell? and seriously? It wasn't that sibling relationships were completely unheard of among elementals-- although not anywhere near as much as cousin relationships-- but the thought of it was just--. Yeah. Torin didn't even know what to say, and that was odd for him. "Taryn," he repeated, his tone not giving away anything he might've felt about that.
"Yes, Taryn," Trevor said, pursing his lips slightly in annoyance. He wished Torin would just laugh at him or tell him he was a complete idiot. Something. Anything aside from a simple parroting that told him nothing. He traced invisible patterns into the arm of the couch for a moment before daring a glance over at his brother. "You see the full breadth of my dilemma."
Torin still didn't know quite what to think. He almost wanted to ask if his brother was serious or just yanking his chain for some reason, but it was Trevor. That answered that. "Yeah," he replied, sighing and propping his head on one hand, elbow braced on the back of the couch. "'Cause if you tell her and she's flipped out, you still gotta live in the same house. Could be really awkward." There was also the fact that Taryn had two more years of high school to go, too. If she did ever decide she was into Trevor, what could they do about it? Besides, well, bang each other, he guessed. The thought icked him out a little.
"Do you think she'd flip out?" Trevor asked hurriedly. Because truth be told, Torin was closer to Taryn than Trevor was. In his mind anyway. And while he would like to think that was his doing for reasons of propriety on his part, it was mostly due to his being such a hermit.
"Man, I dunno," Torin said, his mind still pretty well blown by this conversation. It was hard to shake Torin Spencer out of his vaguely supercilious, jaded complacency, but Trevor had done it. "What if the situation was reversed, and it was Taryn who was into you, and you'd never even thought about somethin' like that before? Wouldn't that freak you out a little?"
Trevor took a few moments to try to mentally distance himself from his feelings, to look at things from the reverse point of view. Even if he hadn't ever thought of Taryn in such a way he knew he'd still find the match a good one, regardless. But that was a technical viewpoint only, and it all snowballed back to her making his heart ache. "I don't know. Maybe? I'm having difficulty pretending I'm genuinely uninterested in her."
"How long has this been going on?" Torin asked, wondering just how long his brother had been harboring this secret thing for their sister. There was no way Taryn could have even an inkling about it, because he felt sure she would have said something to him. They talked about nearly everything, after all. Technically, it would be a good match... both metal elementals, both attractive in appearance. It was just that it seemed so peculiar, considering that it had never occurred to Torin before.
"Too long," Trevor said with a grumbling sigh. He sank down uncharacteristically and put one hand on his forehead while he propped his elbow on the arm of the couch. "Years." It had been easier to say so to Taryn herself, not that she'd known whom he'd been pining after. "You must think I'm a complete pervert." And he couldn't blame Torin if that were the case. He used to chide himself for the same thing.
"Years? Damn," Torin said. He knew that he personally wouldn't have had enough patience to sustain a feeling like that for years with no return on it, but then he couldn't say he'd ever been in love. The way he looked at it, there was no point. Nobody he'd been with was anyone he could ever marry and continue the line with, as he knew he was expected to do, so why invest that much emotion in it? His brow furrowed a little when his brother said he must think he was a pervert. "It's kinda pervy, yeah," he said, as usual not censoring himself overmuch. "I mean... not necessarily in a bad way. I guess it would be if we weren't elementals." Thinking about it was a little bit freaky hot, actually.
"If we weren't elementals we'd be banished to Alabama," Trevor said, deadpan. Of course the entire joke depended on Taryn reciprocating such feelings, but that was the issue here. He wasn't sure if it was a good or bad thing that Torin didn't seem to have any life altering insight into their sister's opinion on such things.
Torin snickered, surprised at Trevor's joke. Maybe he did have a sense of humor buried under there somewhere. "Are you gonna try to talk to her about it?" he asked, curious. And damn, now he had an even huger secret to keep from Taryn than his crush on Sam Boesch, didn't he? He knew he couldn't breathe a word about this to her. That wouldn't be fair to his brother; this was something of much more significance than any other secret he might normally spill. Damn, this was going to be tough.
"I'd always planned to," Trevor said, thinking over the same arguments he'd been having with himself for what felt like forever. What would he say? How might she react? Would he ruin their relationship permanently? Or did he risk losing her forever if he kept his mouth shut too long? "Eventually... Once I found the right words. The best approach. But now she suddenly seems bound and determined to seduce the published author with the boat." His dislike of the random man he'd never even met was obvious in his increasingly sharp tone. "I can't stand the idea of him touching her. Of her throwing herself at him just because she's tired of being a virgin, or whatever it is she's got in her head. And the worst part? I may have encouraged her to behave this way without meaning to. Some lofty speech I gave her about finding someone worth fighting Mom and Dad for." He laughed bitterly and shook his head. "She skipped the part about this person being appropriate. Torin, I'm beside myself. This entire thing is spiraling out of my control and I feel completely foolish."
"That's what it is with her, I think," Torin said of Trevor's comments about his sister and the author dude. "She's restless, kinda reckless." He paused as he realized that Trevor either knew or had guessed that Taryn was still a virgin. Until a short while ago, he'd thought that there was no way she still could be. He'd still be thinking that if not for the conversation they'd had not long ago where she'd let that slip. Interesting that Trev either knew that or had intuited that. "I'll agree with you: some human dude who lives on a boat definitely isn't appropriate." He had different standards for himself than he did for his sister, and he didn't savor the idea of her losing her virginity to someone who wasn't an elemental. He couldn't help feeling sympathy at his brother's words and tone, and he reached over to rest a hand on his shoulder. "I wish I knew what I thought you should do," he said, "but I just don't." He hated the thought of their sibling relationships being blown apart by strife and unease if Taryn freaked out about Trevor's revelation.
"Thanks for listening, anyway," Trevor said with a small but warm smile. He felt a little better at least, but there was no telling how long that feeling would last. The fact still remained that he had no idea how to approach Taryn about his feelings for her. Not in a completely safe way, at any rate. But maybe that was part of the problem. Maybe there was no way to do it without the risk of sacrificing their happy home life. "You know, I've always hated that phrase 'if you love something let it go' and the idea of it coming back to you and so on. It's complete bullshit."
"You're welcome," Torin said, reclaiming his hand after giving his brother's shoulder a squeeze. It was rare that they had a serious conversation, really, but not unwelcome. He settled back into the couch, smirking at Trevor's comment. "Complete bullshit," he agreed. "Hippy dippy new-age crap." He wasn't usually much for the soft and sweet approach. Biding one's time until the time was right was a completely different thing, in his opinion.
"Maybe I should just... woo her," Trevor said as he toyed with his watch thoughtfully. He didn't see why that wouldn't work, exactly. And if she wasn't receptive in the way he hoped, she could just see it as him being a sweet older brother. "Take her on dates, treat her like the princess she is. I sincerely doubt boat boy will win any prizes for taking her out for coffee over me taking her somewhere truly nice." He was being petty and ridiculous, but he couldn't help himself.
Torin nodded. "That might be a good idea. Kinda ease into it, see how things go." He almost couldn't believe that his brother had come to him for advice concerning dating their sister, but then again, they were an elemental family. That made them different-- and better-- than everybody else. Right now, he could understand the need to ease into it, see if a person was receptive before making any moves. "Tar said she didn't think that dude was majorly interested in her, anyway." It didn't sound like there'd be any flowers or proposals coming her way from that guy.
"He could be playing hard to get. Or be put off by her age if he's significantly older. Both of which only need time to change into overt interest," Trevor said, his mind running through the possibilities. He couldn't understand how any man wouldn't be interested in Taryn. Unless he was completely gay. "I have no doubts that Taryn will get what she wants, given enough time and sustained desire on her part."
"Taryn's good at getting what she wants, and she doesn't give up easily," Torin said. He wasn't saying that to discourage his brother, but because it was simply the truth. Anyone who knew Taryn at all could see that determined stubbornness just beneath the surface. "So, I guess, if you can subtly try to find out if she'd be interested or horrified, that might be good." He knew that Taryn loved Trevor, but was that love the sort that could transition into something else? He had no idea.
"If she's completely horrified, I'll just willingly put myself into our parents' match-making hands," Trevor said without feeling the need, for once, to disguise his sadness. He was much too relieved at knowing his brother, at least, wouldn't disown him. With a sigh, he pushed himself up off of the couch and put his mind towards planning the perfect date. Something elegant and entertaining. She'd seemed to like their walk on the beach, so that was something to consider.
Torin watched his older brother rise from the couch, shaking his head a little and not even tempted to complain about the fact that he now had a super-gigantic secret to keep from Taryn. "One thing at a time, bro," he said, although he wasn't sure if Trevor heard him. His mind seemed to be elsewhere, and Torin figured he knew where.
"Yes, one thing at a time," Trevor parroted with a nod. He headed out of the room, needing to get a little air so he could better think about how and when he was going to implement this grand plan of his.