Who: Jeremy, Griffith and a bit of Isaiah Where: School lunch room When: Dinner. What: Isaiah is mean. Jer says to many fucks in his sentances. Griffith decides that Jer's safe enough to befriend.
Isaiah wondered why he was even here in the first place. Why he agreed to have dinner with Jeremy and his loser friend when he could be having dinner with Jadyn. But Jeremy had asked and Isaiah was bored. He was pretty sure he couldn't bug Jadyn to have dinner every night. Couples should have a space shouldn't they? And so he picked at his food and decided to have a different kind of fun. "Hey." He half glared at Griffith. "Be a pal and get some ketchup for me." Which was needless because Isaiah had plenty of ketchup. "And fetch me another bottle of water while you're at it."
On his part, Griffith was silent. He hadn't known that Isaiah was going to be joining them for dinner but when the older boy had approached the table there was nothing he could say. So he had spent the entire time being uncomfortable. "Um...alright." He mumbled then, wishing he could melt into the floor or something.
"Nah, don't worry about it Griff." Jer pipped in. He had been trying to balance out the dinner between the two. Isaiah was one of the few guys that could stand Jeremy enough to be his friend and Jer actually liked Griffith and yet it seemed impossible to get the two to get along. Jer turned his head, giving Isaiah the coldest of looks. He has told Isaiah to be nice but the other boy didn't seem to want to keep to his agreement.
Jer pushed away from the table, getting up to get Isiah his water and ketchup. He dropped them down on the table rather harshly, trying to convey his disappointment in Isaiah before sliding the bottles over to him. "There." He sat down again, looking at Griffith and offering the shy emo boy one of his award-winning, bright-white, skater-boy grins. "Ya like it? I can't cook too well so I asked the kitchen staff for help." Jeremy certainly had no money to treat Griff to a dinner out, which he deeply regret, and he also started to regret asking Isaiah to bother making nice.
He only raised his eyebrow at Jeremy as the boy flashed him a cold look. What? Isaiah knew that Jeremy had asked him to be nice but he didn't remember agreeing to such a thing. In fact why should he be nice to the little emo mouse? Griffith had done nothing to want to make Isaiah be nice anyway. He was just sitting there like a lump. "I asked Griffith to get me those things." He drawled as Jeremy came back. "He needs to make himself useful." He half glared at Griffith again which made the boy flinch and hide behind his hair. "And I don't know why you bothered with cooking though Jeremy. We can just have what everyone else is having for dinner."
Griffith remained silent, trying on instinct to make himself as small as possible. He looked at Jeremy as the boy smiled at him but just couldn't bring himself to smile back. He was glad that he didn't have Sammy the egg with him, since he was positive Isaiah would have done something to cause it to break. At least it was broken at the hands (paws) of a cat instead. "The kitchen staff are often very accommodating." He said softly.
Jer looked at Isaiah and frowned. This was NOT going as he wanted to. He simply wanted the evening to go well. Was that too much to ask? Did Isaiah not even care about that? Maybe this was more of a one-sided friendship than Jeremy thought. He sighed, looking at his food. No, this was not going well, and chances were Jeremy would have to choose between the two, and Isaiah was poorly loosing. "Don't ask him. He doesn't need to prove anything." He muttered just loud enough to be heard.
He pouted and stabbed his dinner before taking a bite then glanced at Griffith, an apology very clearly in his eyes before he shrugged and sighed a little. "I...hope you like it."
This was so very amusing. On one hand he had Griffith who was trying to disappear and one the other he had Jeremy who was shooting him death glares. "No the looser doesn't need to prove anything." Isaiah agreed, nodding as he took a sip of water. "But what else is he good for other then playing fetch. That is the reason why you invited him right?" Another pause, another sip of water. "It's not the best entertainment in the world, but it is fun watching him try to be as invisible as possible." And that was rather mild compared to what Isaiah could usually come up with but he didn't need harsh words really. Griffith was already blushing and putting his fork down.
"I do like it, Jeremy." Griffith mumbled. "But I...I think I'm full now." He had not touched the food really. "I think I should go or something." He started to stand up, not looking at the two boys as Isaiah started to chuckle.
As soon as Griffin started to stand, Jeremy reached his arm out and put his hand on the boy's shoulder, gently pushing him back down into his seat, instead he stood up. Jeremy looked at Griffin for a moment, as if saying goodbye to a loved one before going off on a possibly suicidal mission then turned to Isaiah. "Isaiah.....shut the fuck up!" He glared. "Shut the fuck up about Griffith. I said I wanted you to dinner if you could make nice. Looks like you cant." Jeremy moved around the table and to Isaiah's side. "Now I think you should get the fuck out of your chair and get your fucking ass out of here so Griff and I can eat dinner without you and your fat fucking mouth ruining it."
Ok maybe that was a bit too much 'fuck' for a couple sentences but Jer didn't care and he wasn't smart enough to own a larger vocabulary. He spoke sternly though because....frankly, Isaiah was bully of the school but while Jeremy was younger...if he wanted to Jeremy could beat the living shit out of Isaiah. He was young, but built like a young body builder and could use the very water in Isaiah's bottle to hurt him in ten different ways.
This was priceless. Priceless in an odd way. Isaiah watched with hooded eyes as Jeremy pushed Griffith back into his chair and then the look that passed between them. He barely heard what Jeremy was saying on account of looking at Griffith and the way the other boy was sitting sullenly in his chair. Isaiah had encountered many an angry boyfriend in the past and he knew how to spot one when they were right in his face. It never failed to be amusing though. But he was glad that dinner was over. Now he could spend his time in a more useful way. "So much trouble to go through for an ass you just want to tap." Isaiah drawled and then walked off without a backward glance.
"I think you've made him angry." Griffith said softly as he watched Isaiah walk away. "I'm really sorry." Because what else could he do but apologize. He always seemed to be doing that.
Jeremy glared at Isaiah. As far as he was concerned, his friendship with the school bully was over. He'd find someone else to hang out with and secretly Jeremy made a small promise to stick it to Isaiah in the relationship area, where the other boy had just stuck it to him. But the skater boy just took a breath and adjusted his shirt and ran his hands through his shaggy skater hair then sat back down.
"Don't....just, don't." Jeremy sighed and looked at Griff. "Don't apologize. You didn't do anything." He rested his elbows on the table, just looking blankly at his food. "Sorry....if you wanna go you can. I'm sorry I waisted your night, Griff."
He was silent for a moment, looking at Jeremy from behind his curtain of bangs. The other boy looked disappointed and it seemed that Isaiah had ruined the dinner for the both of them. Now, Griffith didn't understand why Jeremy wanted to have dinner in the first place but.... He nodded and picked up his fork again. "It's ok..you didn't waste my night." He had just made it uncomfortable but now with Isaiah gone, that was bound to change right? "And you did go to the trouble to cook so..." So he'd eat.
Jeremy glanced at Griffin and sat up a little bit more in slight surprise. "Oh...um ok." Jeremy had figured Griffith had figured out why Jeremy had asked him to dinner...why else would someone ask another person to dinner? He just started to eat again then looked at Griffith. "Heh yeah, actually my dinner was kinda....crap, so....well the kitchen staff made this one." He sheepishly shrugged. "Im glad you like it though. Er....how are your classes going? You study a lot."
Oh. Griffith looked at Jeremy curiously and nodded again. "It's alright. I mean at least you tried." Which was the important thing. He thought back to Isaiah's parting words, which had been along the lines of Jeremy going through a lot of trouble just to tap some ass. Had that been Isaiah's ass or his own? Griffith was not good at the logistics of relationships at all. He was silent for a moment as he contemplated this, chewing thoughtfully at his food.
"They're going fine." He said then, with a small smile on his face. "I'm really enjoying the egg project." Which was the truth. Jenna was such a nice partner to have. Griffith's cheeks coloured a little and he ducked his head. "Our egg broke today though...some accident involving Jenna's cat but that's alight. We should get a new one by Friday."
Griffin's ass was certainly the one Jer wanted to tap, but not just that. He wanted other things about Griffith too. Jer was one of those guys who had the most crude and stupid ways of going about asking someone out. Aside from finding Griffin attractive rather than the girl he was partnered with, Jeremy was basically any other straight skater boy. Not exactly subtle.
He laughed a little and grinned. "Yeah the egg thing is actually kinda rad. I thought it was SO lame at first, but taking care of the little thing is pretty fun." In truth Jeremy hadn't been trusted with the egg just yet, which was probably smart on his partner's side.
"It is fun." Griffith replied, reaching out and curling his fingers around his bottled water. "It's really not much trouble once you get used to carrying it around and honestly, it's not so much trouble as dealing with a real child or a pet." You could tell that Griffith really liked this project from the way he was talking. "And the budget part of the project is fun as well. As is the journal writing part." Griffith found that easy because he always wrote and such things came easily for him. "What kinds of jobs did you apply to?" He asked then, because job applications was also part of the project.
In truth Jeremy didn't treat this project much different than all the others...as in he didn't pay much attention to them, although he did pay attention to them slightly more. "Oh damn, I kinda forgot about the journal stuff....I should get on that." He looked somewhat embarrassed. "Oh erm...well they didn't have pro skater on the list so I kinda went with other stuff like...er...athlete and stuff like that." Jeremy shrugged. "What did...erm...you apply for?"
"You should." Griffith replied. He was on instinct very naggy when it came to homework and projects. It was born out of all those times he had to remind his siblings to get on with their own school work. "The thing is due on Friday." And really, he was speaking so earnestly it was obvious that he wanted Jeremy to get a good grade on this one. "Oh so you got one of those higher middle class scenarios." Which should have been really easy when the budget was concerned. Griffith finished up his food and said,
"Mm..I applied for a few jobs in retail. Something about buying a buyer for a store and things like that. We got a middle class scenario." He was reaching for his bottle of water again and realized it was empty. Maybe he could take one of Isaiah's?
Jeremy frowned and looked at his food again. He never felt comfortable talking school with Griffith. It made him feel stupid, which Jeremy was in comparison. He honestly didn't know half of what Griffin was talking about. He had paid little to no attention to this project. He should have canceled the dinner right then and there and go work on his project. Chances were Jeremy would be up all night after dinner was over, working on that project. He nodded a little, glancing at Griffith again. "Sounds like you're on the ball." He noticed Griff reaching for an empty water bottle then glanced at the full, unopened one he had gotten for Isaiah and at once slid it towards Griffith's hand with a meek smile. He felt so stupid.
Had he said something wrong? It was not very hard to notice the frown on Jeremy's face. Greatfully Griffith took the bottle of water and cracked it open, taking a little sip before setting it down on the table again. "Did I say something wrong?" He asked then, his tone soft. Spending time with Jeremy always made him feel weird. Like there was something there that he was supposed to see but didn't. He looked up from his food now and pushed the bangs back from his face, for a moment his eyes were uncurtained and very dark against his pale face. "Or are you still angry at Isaiah? You can go after him if you like..I can clean up."
Jeremy frowned even more, this time with more anger. "I don't want to talk to Isaiah...he's being a fucking asshole." He sighed a little, and hit his fist lightly against the table then looked at Griffith. "I'm sorry, didn't mean to...you know...talk badly, or whatever." Again, another moment for Jeremy to sound stupid. He took a drink of his Poweraid, which he only drank because he saw it on a commercial with skaters once.
"Sorry, heh." He chuckled a little. "I didn't mean to get all....weird and stuff...Isaiah just made me mad....he shouldn't have talked to you like that....I told him not to, I wanted him to be nice but I guess he can't be nice so...I don't want to be friends with that jackass anymore."
He was silent as Jeremy spoke. Griffith would be lying if he said that he hadn't thought that the dinner was some kind of conspiracy against him or something. But Jeremy's words killed those thoughts. And even the thoughts which consisted of him thinking that the other boy was somehow lying to him. "I think he only gets like that around me." Griffith said slowly. He watched just as well as Isaiah did and knew the older boy was much nicer to certain people. "If you meet up with us separately...things should be fine." He didn't want Jeremy to loose a friend just because of some ruined dinner.
Jeremy shook his head. He didn't want anything to do with Isaiah anymore. He just shook his head again and sighed. "No...." He sighed before standing and taking his plate and putting the silverware on top. "I'm sorry....this is stupid...you can go if you want. I'll clean up...thanks for having dinner with me. Sorry about all this shit." He took a big chug of his drink and wiped his mouth on his sleeve and just started to clean up the table as his mother had always taught him.
"It's not...you asked if to be nice and he wasn't." Griffith sat back and looked at Jeremy as he started to clear up. "You don't have to apologize because you have no control about how he chooses to act." Griffith was used to being bullied. It was something that just happened. He learned to avoid it as best he could. He stood up as well, silently helping. Well he was silent for a few minutes before he added. "You know...I'm supposed to be the emo one." Yes, he was capable of making a joke. He was doing so now.
Jeremy messily cleaned, seeming to be oblivious to Griffith until he started talking. He sighed and messily and loudly put the plates on top of one another then looked at Griff. Did....the emo just make a joke? He smiled a little, chuckling as he looked back down at the plates, his shaggy hair falling against the sides of his face. " I dont get it dude. Why the hell are you even emo? You're smart, you've got a big family that cares about you, and you get good grades, and you've got...like....everything!" He looked at Griffith, not talking to him as if criticising, but admiring. Jeremy didn't have any of that. His family was his broke mother out in LA, his one friend was Isaiah, who was no longer his friend, and he was as dumb as a bull frog. He admired everything about Griffith and yet the other boy always seemed so miserable. Jer just didn't get it.
"I don't get it....Its just...I dunno, whatever." he sighed and just was a loss for words. "I just wanted a nice dinner with you and you didn't even really want to come and Isaiah fucked it all up." He took another swig of his Poweraid.
If only Jeremy knew. But Griffith wasn't going to be telling and he continued to clean up his plates as he listened to Jeremy. "Most of the time I like to be on my own." He said then, which wasn't a lie but wasn't the right answer either. "And being around books is easier then being around people." Griffith liked silence he was one of those people who didn't need constant chatter and friends. And when he did, the company of his siblings sufficed. Of course he was learning to make friends.
"We can try again." He said then, though he didn't know exactly why he was saying this. This thing he had with Jeremy was awkward but...why the hell not. "Maybe tomorrow? We can just meet here for dinner and just eat what everyone else is having.
Jeremy was blissfully unaware of most things, mainly Griffith's lack of knowledge. Jeremy wasn't quite sure he could ever fully understand Griffith simply because he didn't open up, and that was the only was Jer could read people. He was too hyper and odd to actually bothering to read what was under the surface.
Just when Jeremy was about to give up all hope on every getting Griffith to like him back, there he went, offering dinner the next day. Jeremy nearly dropped the plates and silverwear before putting them back down on the table and looking at Jeremy. "....You serious? You want to? Really? Like...you ACTUALLY do want to try this again?" Of course Jeremy had figured Griffith knew that this indeed was a date. Sadly the poor thick skater boy wasn't wise on the fact that Griffith didn't know that.
No Griffith didn't know that this was a date. What he was doing was offering Jeremy another chance at having dinner. A nice dinner that wasn't going to be ruined by snarky barbs. In his eyes the other boy was probably just sad about having his dinner ruined so this was a quick fix. With siblings like Arthur and Claudia...Griffith knew all about quick fixes. He smiled a little. "Yes, I actually want to try this again." He tucked what was left his bottled water under his left arm and made as if to go to deposit his plates. "I'll just see you tomorrow then at around the same time?"
And since he was talking now, he might as well say what had been on his mind since Jeremy had told Isaiah to get lost. "And I know you told me not to apologize but I'm sorry with how I behaved around you before. I thought you were like Isaiah and I tend to avoid bullies like the plague." Maybe now with that laid to rest they could try to be friends. Griffith would like that.
Jeremy nodded a little with a grin. Alright, well maybe that wasn't date enthusiasm but at least he could have dinner with Griffith again without having to force hin to sit with him at a table like their first few lunches together. He just smiled and snapped his head a little to flip the shaggy hair out of his face. "Great, that's awesome."
He glanced at Griffith again before sighing a little and looking down before looking back at Griff. "I'm not a bully."
"I know that now." Griffith replied, tilting his head a little and looking at Jeremy. "And I'm sorry I thought such a thing before." But it was best to just leave it at that. They could try to be friends and as Arthur said, making friends was the important thing. "So I'll see you tomorrow then," He took a step away from the table. "Have a good rest of the evening Jeremy and you know, write in that project journal of yours?" Yes, Griffith couldn't help remind someone about their homework.
"...Thanks." Jeremy lifted his hand to give Griff a little wave goodbye. The skater boy watched the emo boy go and pursed his lips and pouted a little, raising his eyebrow, pondering just what he could do next to get Griffith to get the hint already. He just shrugged and let it be for now. Fuck trying to do anything, the point was, Jeremy wasn't a 'bully' anymore. So he finished cleaning, went back to his room....and did his project.