brooks & hale ✔️

hale

twenty one ;
h a l e

HALE HAD SAT THROUGH his fair share of awkward dinners, the majority of them in this house, but this one had to take the icing off the cake.

Sat opposite from him, Bellamy stabbed her chicken breast with such vicious intensity you'd have thought she was trying to kill the damn thing all over again. Occasionally, she'd glance up and shoot daggers so deadly at Hale that he would have been dead if they weren't entirely metaphorical. This had been the routine ever since dinner began; Bellamy would repeatedly attack her piece of meat with deadly looks in Hale's direction when she got bored of glaring at her chicken.

Brooks managed to avoid being the recipient of such delightful looks, but he still managed to look like the guiltiest person at the table. He kept shooting furtive glances in Bellamy's direction, as if waiting for her to blurt the truth out, and Hale had even watched him put nothing in his mouth. Literally, he was too busy zoning out to realise his fork had missed actually spearing any food, and yet he continued to move the fork mechanically towards his mouth without realising.

Even Lisa and William seemed to realise something strange was going on at that table between the three teenagers, although neither were tactful enough to bring it up. They were the only reason this table hadn't drowned in awkward silence. They kept up a meaningless and pointless chatter if only to fill the silence, and gave up on involving Bellamy when it became apparent her poisonous mood wasn't about to fade any time soon.

Things had been awkward after Bellamy walked in on them, to say the least. Hale couldn't believe he'd been stupid enough to do that in the living room, where anyone could have walked in. And anyone did walk in. In fact, Hale couldn't believe Brooks had been that stupid. Hale was the reckless one. He was supposed to be the smart one, for gods sake. And now he was acting like he'd just robbed a bloody bank with how edgy he was acting, fidgeting with his cutlery like it was about to do a runner.

It had taken a good ten minutes to calm Bellamy down, who could screech like a banshee when she put her mind to it, and then another ten to convince her to keep her mouth until after dinner when they would explain everything. Well, Brooks had promised to explain everything. Hale figured it was all pretty self-explanatory. All there was to do now was to make sure she permanently kept her mouth shut about what she'd seen.

"So, Brooks," Lisa said pleasantly, once she'd completely exhausted the topic of the weather.

Brooks dropped his knife. "Y-yes?"

"How's school going?"

Hale kicked him under the table as a way of telling him to get his shit together, or at least he had meant to kick Brooks. Judging from the positively murderous look Bellamy shot him, he'd missed. "Oops," he whispered under his breath. Riling her up further was probably a bad idea, but it was just too tempting. "My bad."

She leaned across the table to hiss, "If you fucking touch me again, I swear to god - "

"You'll what?" Hale smirked. "Scream some more?"

"Hale, Bellamy," William chided, with a stern look. "We have a guest. Can you stop the squabbling and behave for one meal?"

Hale rolled his eyes. "Whatever, dad."

The only reason he spent these sporadic weekends at William's house - his biological father, but he sure as hell wasn't calling him that - was because his mum insisted on them. She seemed to think bonding time with him was key to his growth as a healthy individual, and didn't listen to him when he pointed out spending time around Bellamy was anything but healthy.