Killing Your Friends (& Other Fun Homework) Fin

Adam couldn't help but laugh at Eris' response. He'd nearly forgotten why they had been friends in the first place, but this served as an excellent reminder. This was the girl that could make jokes out of danger, make Adam laugh when he was feeling overwhelmed, and counter the crude humor of his older brother with some of her own design. When he was finished -- or at least, calmed down enough to talk again -- Adam smiled at her. "You're gonna do fine. Besides, if you fall off your broom, I'll just have to cause a bigger distraction in the stands, won't I?" Double-checking what few notes he had taken down, Adam put the tip of his quill to his lips as he thought and then rested it back down onto the parchment.

"Well, looks like that's it for me." Sighing, he looked over to Eris and tried to see what she had been reading. "Got anything interesting over there?" Her reply was helpful enough, and he wrote down what she had provided below his own notes. After a few more minutes passed in slightly-more-comfortable silence, Adam felt like he had to bring up an important question. It wasn't something that was easy to ask, and he expected that it may not have been the right time to do it. But they were in a good place right now, or so it seemed, and couldn't think of a better time to ask.

"Hey, so, this is going to sound kind of stupid, but...why exactly are you friends with Kaegen?"

Yeah, he really didn't know what he was thinking.

A smile grew on Eris's agitated face when Adam laughed in turn. The sound pierced through the hastily constructed external shields around the girl. Eris read the same page over twice, eyes not really seeing anything. Adam had laughed! That was good! Maybe they were on the road to becoming friends again. Adam seemed unable to stop laughing, and Eris found herself giggling too, happy to relive some of the tension that was threatening to suffocate the two young 11 year old drama queens. Eris's grin widened at Adam's comment. It was something so normal, something that they would of said before the fallout. Joking around like friends would. Eris was so distracted, she barely noticed when Adam asked her if she had found anything interesting. Truth be told, she had barely looked at the book, or retained any of the information. She had been much more concerned and focused on the ravenclaw boy sitting next to her.

Eris looked down at the book again, racking her brains for information. "Uh, so there was a werewolf named Fenir Greyback. He liked the taste of human flesh so much, that even in human form, he would eat it." That was basically all she had retained from the book so far, but apparently, it was enough for Adam. Delighted that he wrote it down, Eris's stiff posture in the chair began to relax.

Things were going better then Eris had initially though they would, once she had saw Adam's name on her assignment. Adam wasn't screaming at her, which was good. In fact, Eris was almost having a decent time. Although every time she tried to enjoy herself like old times, she remembered with a pang that Adam was no longer her friend anymore and felt sick and rigid all over again.

The silence was comfortable again, interrupted only by the scratching of quill on parchment for a long while, until Adam asked a question about Kaegen. Why was she friends with Kaegen? The question was too simple to tell all her feelings in. Remembering the night in the hospital wing, and how she had felt like her two friends wanted her to pick a side, Eris went rigid again in her seat. Oh god. Oh course he was going to ask that. Adam did have a right to know why she was still friends with Kaegen, but truth be told, she had no idea herself.

"I haven't really talked to him in a while, but um, I guess we're friends because, well," she lowered her voice, in hopes that none of the other ravenclaw first years would hear, "I feel sort of bad for him.. I mean he obviously doesn't really understand things like talking to other people, and like, he's nice enough. When he's not being strange. I just," she sighed deeply, avoiding Adam's gaze and the possible anger she might find there, "want to stick around him and make sure he hurts nobody else. Plus, you told me to stick around him. That night in the hospital wing..I thought..I thought.."she trailed off, not needing to say that she thought that Adam would be her friend again if she did what he told her to do. The thought was too stupid to say out loud. He hadn't been thinking straight that night anyways. He probably didn't remember any of that.

Crap. She was right. Adam had forgotten he had said that. Way to go, Harringtom. Well, there wasn't really any good way to answer that, was there? Adam didn't know what he had been trying to accomplish in the first place, but it seemed that he had failed terrifically. Trying not to let his face turn red from embarrassment, he mumbled out a reply and turned back to his books. "Oh. Yeah. That's right."

A minute of awkwardness passed between them, or at least, it felt beyond awkward to Adam. In that minute, he must have been possessed by some idiotic first-year child that had died who knows how long ago, because he couldn't explain why else he would do what he was about to do. Every sensible part of him screamed to leave it alone, to let it be, but apparently Adam wasn't listening to the sensible parts of himself today. That was nice to know.

"So, uh....you understand why I thought we should, you know, 'take a break', right? It was just -- it was just better. For all of us. I mean, unless you had a better plan, but..." Ooh, bad move. He hadn't meant to sound like he was criticizing Eris, especially when he was the one who had handled the situation so poorly in the first place. "I mean, not like that, just that I thought it might be easier to find other friends for me than it would be for..."

What? What are you doing? Shut up, you moron! SHUT UP!

"I mean, that's not what I meant either, it's just--" But it was too late. Adam had already said what he hadn't meant to say, and he could tell that Eris had heard it loud and clear. He was better off keeping his mouth shut than trying to alleviate the situation any further. Now, he could only wait in fear. He'd either have to face the wrath of his fiery friend or witness the pain he caused her firsthand.

There was a pause, as Adam considered something to say. In that beat of silence, Eris felt her heart drop. Things had been going fine, their friendship was tentatively going back on track. Then stupid Adam had asked a stupid question--NO Adam wasn't stupid, Eris was the stupid one--and everything was going wrong again. Feeling miserable, Eris waited for Adam's reply. Could they just have a normal friendly conversation for once? They used to have those.

Sitting in the silence, uncomfortably waiting for Adam to reply, it was almost a joy to hear him speak. Even if his words weren't pleasant. In fact, they weren't anything remotely close to pleasant. the words coming out of Adam's mouth were words Eris had hoped to hear for days. She had hoped to discuss their fractured friendship, but not like this.

She had hoped to fix it, and to move on with their lives. Eris missed Adam as a friend, but clearly he didn't feel the same. Eris wasn't sure if she should of been mad or sad. She settled for both.

Adam was her best friend, and he thought that being on a friend break was a good idea? He thought he could find friends better than her? Did he think she was worthless? Of course he did. A better plan? Of course she had one. BEING FRIENDS?

Eyes watering with tears, and face turning bright red with anger and humiliation, Tears spilling onto the pages of the book, Eris looked at Adam with an expression of dismay. "Better off, not friends?" She said slowly, as if unable to process the facts. The angry tears spilling down to the table were ignored as Eris's face turned into one of pained rage. "How could you say that? You meant, no mean, the world to me Adam! You're the first friend I've ever had. So don't you go saying we're better off not being friends!" She pointed a finger at him, unable to say anything about the second part of his speech.

It was true. She was horrible at making friends. And even worse at keeping them.

Adam could feel people starting to look over at him and Eris, and the atmosphere of the room was getting more uncomfortable than ever. "Eris, come on.....don't cry...." He looked around, nervously, trying to gauge how much time they had left before they would reach a level of argument that warranted moving from the small desk. "You know that's not what I meant, you're my friend too, I just...." This was why no one ever went to eleven-year-old boys for relationship advice. Adam was wholly unprepared to deal with this situation, and it was showing. He had really hoped they wouldn't have to do this in class, but he supposed that he had been the one that got them to where they were now. All that was left to do was wait and try to get everything under control.

"Eris, you know you're still important to me too, but how can we just go back to being friends after something like that? It was complicated, you know? I didn't know what I was thinking, and I just.....none of us knew what we were thinking, right?" Adam couldn't tell which way he wanted to present himself here, forgiving or steadfast. He wanted to stick to his original plan, like he had been, but that didn't seem to be working anymore. Maybe he should just keep powering through it? The best thing to do at the moment seemed to be calming Eris, though, so he focused on that.

"Eris, please, you don't want to cause a scene, do you? Just....just try to stop crying for now, alright? We can figure this out later, but you need to calm down, just a little bit." He hoped she wouldn't take that the wrong way. Adam hated being in the center of attention like this, and he couldn't wait for it to blow over. For now, it looked like he was in it for the long haul.

The tears stopped, and sadness faded to anger, as it often did. It was the way of children, anyways.Or at least unstable 11 year old children known as Eris Elcan. How dare he talk to her like that? Like..like..like he was shoving her under the rug. Her mum had done that. Her sister had done that. And now Adam? He was like those rowboat dragons at the fairs that used to come to town, swinging this way and that with each word, and Eris couldn't take it.

"You know what, Adam ? I can cause a scene. You're being a bully! Just make up your bloody mind, Adam. I'm not going to sit here like the damsel in distress and wait for you. I want to be your friend, but I'm not going to wait forever for you to regain your senses! You're ravenclaw, at least try to act smart!"

Oops. Once it was said, Eris's face flushed even redder. That might of been a bad idea. Although it was true. She wanted to be friends again. She had made that clear. Adam was just going around in circles, and she was no longer going to wait for him to stop chasing his tail.

Glowering at Adam, it was clear why Eris was nicknamed "confusing emotional girl." She had just went from sad to extremely mad in the course of five seconds.

"Try to act smart? Try to act smart?? I'm the only one of us that's been acting smart, Eris! Why do you think I've been so distant? I was the one to recognize that the three of us can't be friends! We'd destroy each other! But everyone else is so caught up with stupid feelings that they don't care! Isn't it better just to end it now before it gets worse?" Adam glared at her, upset that this had suddenly become his fault. Adam hated attention, but if they were going to have it out here, so be it!

Lowering his voice to an angry whisper, Adam continued, "Listen, you might want people to feel bad for you, but I don't, okay? So can you please be quiet? Maybe we could've been friends, maybe we still can be friends, but you need to stop acting so ridiculous!" This girl was driving him crazy! Friendships didn't just disappear, but they could break for a while, and Adam was trying to not let that happen. He'd seen it on TV before; sometimes, two people just needed time to think about themselves and then they'd get together again and be happy. That had always been his plan for Eris and Kaegen! It had just.....gotten lost a little bit.

She was still crying, though, and he was getting embarrassed. "Okay, I'm just going to go over there and finish writing this stuff down. You stay here and sort things out. Got it? We don't have to hang out again until the presentation, if that's what you want." Adam picked up his things and moved back to his seat, thumbing through a book and getting ready to take notes again. She was just so frustrating! And he needed a good grade, too! Well, if I have to do it alone, I will. Adam didn't look back up at his partner for the rest of the class, and when the bell rang, he was quick to get out of the room. He didn't know how Eris had reacted to his outburst, but he didn't think he'd ever know now. Their fighting had destroyed yet another situation. Maybe they really shouldn't be hanging out together....

He was acting smart? That notion was almost laughable. The boy who had separated them, had been trying to be tough by hanging out with poor Anatole Evans, who really seemed to dislike hanging out with Adam. At least from the rumors being spread around the common room about their strange competition. Glaring back at Adam, Eris was suddenly aware of all the eyes on them. Good. Let him get called out for his stupidity in front of his whole house.

Her glare vanished as he said they destroyed each other.” The three of us don’t have to be friends together, Adam. We’re not the golden trio or whatever you call those three. But why would you say I destroy you?its not better to end things now! We’re 11 years old, not teenagers in a break up! Stop being so dramatic” Face flushed with emotion, Eris waited for Adam to say something else stupid.

Sure enough, he did. She didn’t want anybody to feel bad for her! She just wanted to be friends with Adam again. Eris wasn’t being ridiculous, she was just being honest. No wonder all boys had cooties, they were so stupid! Angry tears kept falling, and Eris was feeling stupider and stupider by the moment. But she was also feeling more and more aggravated by the moment.

Before she could say anything else, Adam moved away and left Eris with the book. Why couldn’t Adam just listen? Face bright red, Eris burried her face inside of the book until the bell rang.

Eris left the class shortly after Adam did, head spinning with thoughts that weren’t particularly pleasant. Was there a chance of rebuilding their friendship?

((thread closed))