Who: Griffith and Jeremy When: After school Where: Library to Griffith's room What: Griffith and Jeremy have a really akward conversation.
Aside from Arthur and Clair's dramatic conversation, Griffith's brush with teenage drama had been kept to a minimum. This was mostly due to the fact that he didn't spend a lot of time on the network and that he mostly kept to himself around school. Oh he talked and commented when the need arose but other then that...Griffith was contented to keep to himself. Today he was in the library,it was fast becoming a frequent haunt for him, and he was looking for new books to read. He wanted something thick. Something he could really sink into. Maybe..Pillars of the Earth. But wasn't that a second book?
The library was one of the last places one would find one Jeremy McKay. He didn't read unless he had to, and he studied in his room or before a drink session with Isaiah, or not at all. But today he was desperate. He had been assigned an essay to make up some extra credit so he wouldn't fail English. He was in serious danger of failing a couple of classes.
He stepped into the library, certainly not dressed for studying. Skate shoes, baggy pants, backwards cap, and a sleeveless shirt. He quickly hurried up and down the aisles, searching for the right book. "Fuck...no...damn it....no....no...shit."
Ah yes..World without end that was the other book. Griffith smiled to himself as he spotted it. Both books looked to be epic and would probably keep him busy for a week or so. Plus he really liked historical novels. He was flipping through the first few pages when the sound of someone walk noisily up. Griffith frowned a bit and then turned to look, spotting Jeremy. Well, the boy could be noisy everywhere it seemed. "Can..Can I help you?" He asked then, calling out in as loud a voice as he dared. No use letting Jeremy walk around like that, he'd probably attract one angry librarian.
Jer looked up and glanced at Griffith when he heard him. He sighed with relief, having probably found someone far more library savvy than he was. He quickly hurried up to Griffith and grabbed the other boy by the shoulders and looked at him with a look of panicked dismay. "Oh thank Shaun White you're here dude."
Clearly Jer didn't spend much time in libraries, as he didn't hush his voice at all. "You gotta help me. This place is like a mind-fucking maze!"
Who...was Shaun White? Griffith gave the other boy a startled look as Jeremy hurried up and grabbed him by the shoulders. Someone was touching him and Griffith's first reaction was to pull away, which he promptly did. But then he had registered the look on Jeremy's face and that kept him from taking his books and hurrying away. First things first though.... "Jeremy? Could you please keep your voice down?" Griffith winced as he saw another student shoot them an irritated look from one of the tables. "I'll help you, but you have to keep your voice down ok?"
Jeremy took a breath. Oh right! This was that one place that everyone was always shushing everyone else in like, every movie ever. He looked around and nodded to Griffith. Wait...did he just pull away? What the fuck? It wasn't like Jeremy was going to rape him. He inwardly rolled his eyes.
"Thanks dude. I need to find the Grapes of Wrath? Who writes books about angry fruit anyway?" This time his voice was hushed a little. "I need it for extra credit of I'm gunna fail."
"Steinbeck." Griffith said automatically. He was acting as if he spent his whole life in the library which wasn't really far from the truth. Nodding, he tucked his two books under his arm and started to move off. They were at 'F' and they needed to get to 'S''. "It's not about fruit." He told Jeremy as they meandered down the rows and rows of books. "It's kind of like an analogy for the whole story." Of course Griffith had read the book. He had read it twice...maybe or was that East of Eden? Which was also by the same author.
"I could help you if you like..." He offered quietly. Not knowing how anyone could fail English.
Jeremy followed Griffith in tow, looking around at the shelves as if he had never seen so many books in one place before. He had only been in an actually library once or twice. A couple times here at school and once back in LA because it was a quiet place to secretly get a blowjob.
He followed Griffith and looked at him. "Yeah? You'd help? I gotta like...write about what the books message is or whatever. Whatever that means." He shrugged. Jeremy was indeed pretty damn dumb when it came to book smarts. But if you dropped him off in the middle of a strange city, you could be sure he would have place to stay and food by that night. He could out street-smart almost anyway...sept maybe Isaiah.
He had written a story about someone getting a blowjob in an LA library. Said story had him not reading books for two weeks. It was a good thing Jeremy wasn't going to be telling him about his experience because Griffith could easily match it with the story he had written while in his trance. He listened to Jeremy while he searched for the book. "Oh...you have to do a book report." Griffith said then, and nodded. That sounded easy enough. At least to him anyway. A book report was the best thing about English class.
But...he straightened up. "It's not here." Griffith reported. "Maybe it's on loan?"
Jeremy shrugged. He had heard 'book report' many times in his life, but he had never actually done one. He hardly ever did homework. He barely passed classes by getting by on tests. He had gotten caught once when he was younger, cheating, and after that punishment well...tests are one thing Jeremy no longer cheats on.
He looked at Griffith with a look of pure pain and fear. "What?" His voice was back to normal volume. "Its not here? But this place has shit loads of books! How can it not be here? Oh god, I'm gunna fail!"
His reaction was immediate. "Shhhhh!" Griffith looked around, he didn't want to get thrown out and banned from this library! Where else was he supposed to go to spend his time! "I have a copy of the book." It was his own personal copy though and Griffith was one of those people who hated loaning out their books. It probably stemmed from a deep fear that he'd never get it back, or worse he would get it back with have the pages hanging out. But...
"It's up in my room...if you like we can go and I can give it to you." He sighed a bit and looked at Jeremy. "Don't worry...you're not going to fail." Because a book report on this particular book was an easy thing to accomplish, at least in Griffith's head.
Jeremy quickly covered his mouth and looked at Griffith sheepishly. For once Jeremy succumbed to someone else and let Griffith be the boss. He nodded shyly and smiled weakly at him. "You'd let me use it? Oh my god dude, thank you." His voice a whisper now.
He nodded and looked towards the door then back at Griffith. "Lets go to your room."
"Yeah..." Griffith said and nodded slowly. There were a lot of unsaid buts and ifs in that one word. He really, really, really hoped that Jeremy was going to take good care of his book. Claudia had often joked that Griffith treated his books like they were real people. In an odd and slightly sad way, she was right. His books were his friends really. Without saying a word, Griffith headed over to the check out counter and then out the door. At least he had managed to get two books from his visit. He would have liked to spend a longer time but...
"How have you been?" Griffith asked, his voice still quiet even though they were out of the library now. But then again, he was always soft spoken.
Jeremy followed behind Griffith the whole time, absolutely silent. He continued to look around the library as if it were some strange place that didn't commonly appear on the planet Earth.
Finally once out of the library Jeremy relaxed a little and spoke normally. He looked at Griffith and smiled again. "Been ok dude. How about you? Man I never see you around." he playfully gave Griff a small nudge and smiled. "You always disappear when I wanna hang out. How you been?"
The nudge surprised him a little but Griffith flashed Jeremy a small, barely there, smile. "I don't disappear." He replied. "I'm just in the library." Which would probably explain why Jeremy never saw him around. "And I'm sure you don't want to hang out with me." Jeremy was friends with Isaiah and Isaiah wasn't really all that nice. He shrugged though, not thinking anything about his last statement other then it was the truth and continued walking in the direction of the boy's dorms.
"And I guess you had a lot of fun on Valentine's Day right?" Yes, small talk it could be relaxing.
Jeremy looked at Griffith. Did he really think Jer didn't want to hang out him. The skater boy looked almost offended. "Dude, no. Of course I want to hang out with you. That's why I ask man. C'mon now....I do." He sighed a little. Whatever, he knew that he could rarely change the minds of others.
He shrugged, looking at the floor as they walked. "Whatever, it was fine. Just went skating."
And Griffith looked back. Since his incident with Isaiah...well he found it a bit hard to trust those that the other boy seemed close to. He shrugged, wondering why Jeremy looked offended. It was just the truth wasn't it? They were on the stairs now and soon they were at Griffith's door. Which was ajar. Which meant that his brother had been in there and was now out and had forgotten to lock the door. He sighed.
"Skating sounds like fun." He commented then, pushing the door open and stepping inside. He located the book rather easily. "I didn't know Isaiah was the type to skate." Because Griffith assumed that Jeremy had spent the day with Isaiah
Jeremy followed Griffith up to his room and leaned casually against the door frame. he slipped his hands into his pockets and glanced around the inside of the room. It was neat for the most part, he didn't get too muh of a look before looking back at Griff.
"Huh? Isaiah doesn't skate." He shrugged his broad shoulders and quirked an eyebrow giving Griffith a weird look.
"But you said the two of you went skating." Griffith replied, picking up the book and then rooting around for some of his notes. He would give Jeremy those as well, just to help him out. The other boy should know better then to copy it out word for word right? "The two of you seemed all set to go out on Valentine's." Why did he care? Griffith supposed this was why small talk was. A part of him wondered why Jeremy was friends with Isaiah in the first place. Gathering all the things together he walked back towards the other boy.
"Here...and would you like some background info on the book?" He asked as he held out everything to Jeremy. "The title is from the Battle Hymn of the Republic by Julia Ward Howe." He paused and looked at Jeremy. "Which is in turn a nod towards the biblical passage Revelation." Griffith pointed at the notes. "It's all in there."
Jer looked at Griffith again before helping himself to a seat on Griff's bed. Jer didn't really think about, or care about, personal space. He shrugged his shoulders again at Griffith and shook his head. "No dude, I went skating. Isaiah went on some trip or whatever." He waved his hand carelessly.
He looked at the book, nearly fainted at its thickness, then looked back up at Griff as if he were speaking some bizarre language, which to Jer, it all was. What? He cocked his head to the side before slowly lifting his arm and taking the book and notes from him. "Uhhhhh....huh....yeah."
Oh yes, the ski trip. Griffith nodded, finally realizing that Jeremy had spent Valentine's Day alone. "Well, at least you did something fun." He had been reading and worrying about Arthur going to jail because he had known that his brother was attempting some sort of kidnap. "I like skating." He offered, throwing something about himself in this odd and awkward conversation. "Though I've only done it once or twice." Not so many times, Griffith didn't do well with a lot of people.
"You don't understand anything of what I just said did you." Griffith said then, his voice coming out sounding really grave. "How long do you have before you have to hand in this book report?" He asked then.
Jeremy had indeed spend Valentines day alone. Completely. Not many people were at the park when he went out to skate and not very many skaters were out and about. He was at least hoping to find one to hook up with but no such luck. It was probably for the best anyway. Jer had secretly decided to cut down on being a whore. It wasn't good for him. He shrugged a little but then his ears perked and eyes lit up once Griff said those magical words. "You do? Dude! You totally have to come skating with me! Its so fucking boring by myself, man!"
He sighed a little looking at Griff and shook his head gravely."I'm sorry dude! I'm not a super genius like you!" He sighed and pounded his fist against the bed. "I have a week."
He blinked. Oh no...now he'd really gone and done it. "Will you let me think about it?" He said slowly. He didn't like going out and things, not without his siblings. "I don't have a skateboard and things like that." Arthur used to have one when he was going through that phase. And that was the one Griffith had used. "And really I'm not very good. I can't even do tricks and things." Jeremy was going to end up laughing at him. He shrugged and hid behind his curtain of bangs the way he always did.
"I'm not a super genius." Griffith said. He just had a lot of time to read and research a book if he really liked it. And things tended to stick when you liked doing something. Watching Jeremy's reaction, Griffith nodded a little and then said. "It's ok..I can help you."
....Jeremy shrugged. Why did he even bother. Griffith clearly did not want to hang out with him the way he constantly tried to avoid him. Just just inwardly gave himself a slap across the face and just sighed.
"Er, you don't have to. Its whatever." He shrugged, standing from Griffith's bed. The skater could tell that the emo boy didn't exactly like his company for more than a few minutes, so he had might as well excuse himself and find another way to pass the class. "I can go like...ask someone else. Its fine."
Griffith blinked. A bit confused at Jeremy's sudden attitude shift. He was no stranger to those, his siblings were moody people. Only Griffith and his quiet ways were a constant. He nodded then, being accepting because he didn't fully understand. "Alright. You can take the book though and the notes." Griffith's notes were always clear and precise to those who bothered to read them. "Maybe you'll find them helpful." He paused, not sure of what to say now. "Good luck on your book report."
Nope, clearly didn't want him around. Jer shrugged and looked at the book he was probably only going to skim through, since he had no one else to help him. Fuck...well he should probably at least throw out an option! "Um...yeah, if you ever get like...the urge to help or whatever, just head down to my room. I'll probably need it." He let out a little laugh and shrugged again before tucking the books under his arm. "Er....ok then. Later, dude."
Did he want help or not? Griffith's own opinions on Jeremy were contradictory. One one hand the boy was nice enough and said that he wanted to hang out. But he was Isaiah's friend and probably someone Griffith should avoid really. And now Jeremy was just acting confusing. "Ok...maybe I'll give you visit." Griffith replied tentatively. He took a step back, to let the other boy go pass him. "See you later." He replied, walking towards the door as well, just to be polite and show Jeremy out.
Yeah, Griff certainly wanted him gone. Whatever, just another guy who probably judged him too quickly and didn't know what kind of guy he was. Jer was a bit used to that reaction, although this time it sort of hurt him to think that Griff just didn't want anything to do with him. He lingered for a second in Griff's room and took one quick look around before heading to the door. He turned to look at Griffith.
"Thanks again for the book dude. I'll probably be hitting you up for help." He gave Griffith a pat on the arm because, that's what Jer did really, to pretty much everyone. "Later." He didn't wait for the door to be opened. He was already being kicked out, he didn't need an escort. He opened the door, turned around, flipped Griff a salute with a dorky smile and a wink before rolling off the doorway and into the hall.