Dorm #3: People are Weird

Three hours. That was how long it took Harley to make orange ice-cream tarts, but she wouldn't admit that. Anyway, Elijah's birthday was coming up and she wanted to bake him something new. Something a bit more special than the usual carrot or chocolate cake, but once she had made it, Harley realized she had no one to tell her if it was good, or a total waste of time. After becoming aware of that fact, she realized she had a best friend who would eat anything she made, so after picking up two slices of the dessert from where she put it in the kitchen, she made her way to his dorm. Besides, she hadn't spoken to him a while, so they both probably had stuff to talk about.

Harley quietly walked up to Ryan's door before knocking twice and saying, "Open up." When he didn't answer the door, she carefully balanced the plate that held the tarts in her hand and used her other hand to dig out the dorm key that he had given her from her bag. She located it at the bottom of her bag before pulling it out and unlocking his door. She poked her head in his dorm before calling out, "Hey, Ryan! You here?" Of course she hadn't bothered to check if he was out doing something or not. Sighing softly, she invited herself in and placed the plate on the table after moving around the books that cluttered it.

She sat down at the table and twirled her wand between her fingers to pass the time. Of course, being the unluckiest person ever, when the door opened loudly, it startled her, causing her to drop her wand and rainbow sparks to fly out of the tip. The stream of spark hit the canopy above the bed, turning it a blinding array of colours. She spun around to face the person while suppressing a smile. "I am so sorry."

Ryan had been seeing a lot of Malachi lately. At first he couldn't stand the boy but now it was hard to hate him. Granted they didn't have much in common, it was still nice to hang out together. That's where he was now, hanging out with his friend. He didn't spend much time with him though because Kai had some excuse to go study or something. He didn't mind that his friend left him, he could do other things to occupy his time.

As he walked around the courtyard, a lady grabbed his attention. She had to be about a year or two older than him but that didn't mean he wasn't going to try. He didn't have to make sure he looked good because he already knew he did. He strolled over to the girl and used one of his best pick up lines. Without a doubt, the girl melted. He got her name and dorm number and a promise to meet him at the Village next weekend.

He was in a chipper mood when he arrived at his dorm. He twisted the knob to find it already unlocked. Maybe his dormmate was back early? He opened the door to find a surprised Harley and a colorful canopy. "You're lucky I'm in a good mood or I'd be mad about that."

She let out a small laugh at his reaction. "You could never be mad at little ol' me. Plus, I'll try to fix that eventually. Who knows. Maybe rainbow is your style." Harley picked up her wand off the wooden floor and slid it back into her bag carefully. "Plus, I brought food. You literally cannot be mad if someone brings food. It's, like, taboo."

She pulled around the platter the tarts were placed on and took off the plastic sheeting that was covering it. She waved it around in from of him, letting him smell the frozen orange dessert that she was ever so graciously letting him taste. "They're orange ice-cream tarts. Figured we could eat them while chatting about our hopes and dreams or what happened last week. You in?"

He couldn't say he cared much about the splash of color. It didn't matter much to him, it didn't bother him one bit. "You better fix it soon," he joked, a grin played on his lips to show that he wasn't being serious. "You alway bring food so I guess I can never be mad at you."

Once the treats were shown, he bit his lip. He wasn't a big fan of oranges. He didn't like the taste very much. "I know you took time to make these," he started. He paused to look back at the treats then at her. "But I'm not a big fan of orange. Sorry. But we can still chat." He was sure that she would be able to find someone that would like the treats.

Harley shrugged, looking at the bed. "It can't be too hard to change it. I'll stop by the library later and grab a book on counter-spells. You'll have a proper coloured canopy in no time." She already knew the right spell to undo the rainbow effect, but she figured it would be worthwhile to leave it like that for a tad longer.

She noticed the uncomfortable look on his face as soon as the unveiled the dessert. Harley tried no to look too disappointed, so she smiled and said, "It's totally fine. I'll take it over to Charlie later and see if she wants one." For now, she would have to keep them cold (they were ice cream after all), and she didn't want to go back down to the kitchen and put them in the freezer, so she took her wand again and tapped the plate with the tip. "Glacius." The plate and everything on it immediately covered with a thin layer of frost, effectively keeping the food cold. "So," she said, after moving her stuff aside and sitting down, "What's shakin', bacon?"

There were some things he could talk to her about. One of those things he could talk about was what happened how the summer with Malachi. He had kept everything to himself and hadn't brought it up with Kai since. It was like nothing ever happened. "Actually, I do need some advice," he sighed. He walked over to his new bed and sat on its colored sheets. He usually didn't ask people for advice, he usually dealt with things on his own. He could hardly deal with not seeing his brother, the rejection from Kai made things much worse.

He let out another sigh before continuing, "Well," he paused to sigh once more. "Malachi was visiting me for a week over the summer and during that weel, we kissed. I saved his life 'cause he didn't know how to swim and he slipped. He kissed me after I saved him them I kissed him. And then he rejected me." He still wasn't sure how to react to rejection, all he did was act like it didn't happen at all. "You can't tell anyone."

He wanted to further explain himself, since there were more to it than what he was saying. "I like girls and guys," he explained. "Just thought I'd clear that up."

Advice was never Harley's area of expertise. Especially about love (which is what she assumed it was about). It was like a fish giving advice to a snail on flying. She got up from her chair at the table and moved over to sit on the comforter with one of his pillows bundled up in her arms. "My advice is crappy at best, but I'll do what I can, I suppose. So, what's up?" Ryan didn't seem like the type to ask for advice either, which was one reason she enjoyed being friends with him, so there was a fairly good chance that whatever he was concerned about was a big deal.

Needless to say, she didn't expect his response. Her first reaction was choking on air (which was pretty lame for her), then coughing a couple times and saying, "Well, hot damn. Malachi was making a move on my man." At the look on his face, she laughed and said, "Kidding. Kidding. I'm not gonna tell anyone. I've got no one to tell anyways. You're practically my only friend. As for rejection, all I can say is that don't act like it doesn't matter. That's probably the worst thing you can do, because then you just get kinda insensitive since you're harboring secret emotions that you don't want anyone to know about and eventually it explodes in your face. That's not cool."

He looked genuinely worried about trying to explain himself, though, so she attempted to comfort him. "Listen, Ryan. You're bisexual. In all honesty, I couldn't care if you had a sexual preference for fish. Whatever makes you happy is cool with me. That and Elijah is bi also. I'm used to it. As far as I'll ever be concerned, you're Ryan Green, my best friend."

All Ryan could do was listen to her advice as she said it. If she was correct, then he had been going about it all wrong. He would be happy for his friend, no matter what. He didn't want his feelings to get in the way of their friendship. He was Ryan Green and he could get anyone he wanted. Well, almost anyone. He was already starting to meet up with girls in the Village. But none of them held his attention like his friend did. But if it wasn't meant to b, then it wasn't. It was just time to get over it. "I'm chill," he saod softly. "I mean, it doesn't get to me THAT much. I want him to be happy and I want to be happy. Worrying over the situation isn't going to help anything." He could just start dating, maybe not even that. Just find kissable people and kiss those people. "I don't know, Serah is kinda cool, I guess. I could always hang out with her, maybe date her a little."

He didn't like to be judged, it didn't happen often but he hated when it did. Well, he hated when people made their opinions known. "Don't tell anyone," he said. He knew it was wrong to hide part of him, but he couldn't deal with things right now. Besides Malachi, he had to worry about his brother. The brother he hadn't talked to in so long, the one he was missing so much. The brother that kept him in check and grounded. He turned away as a tear slipped from his eye, he quickly wiped it away. "I haven't talked to my brother in over a year," he admitted.

Harley looked at Ryan with concern. He seemed to perk up a little after her advice, but he still seemed a little put down. She just hoped he returned to his normal, sarcastic self soon, because, even though it made her sound like a total bitch and completely selfish, she had things to deal with too. Harley listened to him, though, because they had been friends for so long that whenever he was troubled, she was worried also. "You can do so much better than Sarah, Ryan. If you want to hag out with her so you can be friends, thats totally cool. Just don't suddenly become friends with her because you're confused right now."

She smiled softly at Ryan. "It'll be our little secret, m'kay? Pinky swear." She held out her little finger and waited for him to respond. Eventually he did, but he seemed more worried than before now. Suddenly a small tear dropped from his eye and he turned away probably so she wouldn't see, but she did. When she was an orphan, she hated when people felt bad for her. She hated when people told her that everything would be okay, because sometimes everything wasn't okay. Quickly, she wrapped her arms around Ryan in a big bear hug and whispered, "No matter what, I'll be there. I'm sure your brother has reasons."

She let go and sighed softly. "Remember when I told you about my little brother, Jeremy? How he was so young when they left with him? He sent me a letter a couple days ago. I went up to the owlery to pick up a letter for my roommate. Normally I'd never go, but she was sick and was expecting a care package from home so I agreed. He's a wizard over at Hogwarts. I-," She stuttered. She could feel herself about to cry. "I never thought I'd hear from him again, but now that I have I don't know what to say." Harley knew she was probably just whining about things Ryan didn't care for, but she needed to let someone know.

It felt nice to just get things off of his chest, to tell someone how he was feeling. He knew he could trust Harley with anything and everything and he hoped she felt the same. He may act like a sassy fucker, but deep down he actually had feelings. He didn't let them show much though, he rather not show them at all. He sighed and wrapped his pinky around hers. "Pinky promises are for little kids," he grumbled but a small smile still appeared on his face.

He knew she'd be there for him, she was just that amazing of a friend. He trusted her. Then she began to tell him about her own brother and his story. It was nice to have a heart to heart. "Just take your time," he said softly. "You don't have to say anything now, just wait til you have the right words." Even in his pain, he could still give advice. He was glad that they could help each other out.

And without thinking, he did the unthinkable. He placed his lips on Harley's for a few seconds before pulling away. "Sorry," he whispered. But he wasn't sorry.

Harley returned the smile. "Good thing we're still kids then." She remembered how in the tower they had made a pinky promise and Ryan had said that he and his brother used to do that. She also remembered how Ryan had said the moon looked like a giant toe nail, which it did, in fact, not.

People weren't normally there for her. Sure, there was Elijah, but sometimes he couldn't understand what she was going through no mater how hard he tried. Ryan wouldn't ever fully come to terms with what she was dealing with, but he could get damn close. She stifled a small sob and smiled. "Yeah, okay. I'll wait." I was weird how different they were but how much they understood each other. They came from different families and lifestyles and their personalities were as opposite as night and day, but somehow they were friends.

As much as she understood Ryan, there was no way she could have predicted what happened next. One second she was rubbing tears off her face, and the next, Ryan's lips were connected with hers. She froze up in shock until he moved away a couple seconds later. Her heart was doing this weird thing like it was trying to jump out of her chest. What that was being nervous was like? "No, don't be," she said. Slowly, she leaned forward and kissed him. It was a dumb move and she knew it, but she had to.

He remembered the night that they stayed out after curfew and they had shared a pinky promise. He couldn't recall why they had made that promise because it had been so long ago. "You camt force yourself to do spmething if you're not ready." He thought he was giving perfect advice, advice that she would actually take. He hoped he had helped, at least a little bit.

His random act of not thinking seemed to pay off though because after he pulled away Harley kissed him again. Of course he kissed backed. He placed his hands on her cheeks as they kissed. He had never thought about kissingnhis best friend but he couldn't deny that he liked it.