you know the deal with the spanish by now
-
gerard sighs in desperation as he unwillingly gets out of bed to answer the phone. it's not his personal phone the one who's ringing though. it's his work phone. he almost trips over his shoes as he reaches for the jet black device on top of the dresser.
it takes him a couple of tries to correctly click the 'answer' button. "gerard way speaking.."he yawns, he is still very tired,"who is it?"
a very remarkable yet forgotten voice speaks in a familiar tone on the other side of the line,"hey gee. it's ryan ross. sorry for calling you so early.. but i need to ask you something very important."
the name by itself is like a slap of reality in the form of cold, icy water; it is more than enough to make gerard aware of what is going on around him. "oh.. hello, mr. ross. what's the issue you want to know about?"
"well, i was wondering if it would be too late to join. i know you're probably packed already, but i..."
"j-join? um,"gerard pauses for a moment and wonders why would the former camper want to come back out of seemingly nowhere,"i believe we have one spot left. i would have to check with jenna later, just to be sure."
ryan's tone changes from slightly worried and possibly anxious to very relieved and delighted. "alright. could you tell me when you know? i really want to go this year and i was too busy before to do it."
"i will. would that be all, mr. ross? it's too early to be awake." rightfully so, it's 2 am.
"yeah.. thanks, gee. bye!"
gerard hangs up and places the phone back on its previous spot. the tiredness and sleepiness comes back all in a rush and he wants to sleep for seven thousand years. his energy and enthusiasm is all a show he puts on to get the teens to cooperate on the camp activities.
thankfully, by this time tomorrow, all the other counselors and helpers will be here. it won't be just jenna and him managing all the wild teenagers anymore.
he walks back to his bed, almost tripping again. as soon as he gets back into his sleeping position, he is sleeping like a baby.
✞
god knows how many days have actually passed. the events have blended together and created a weird mess in tyler's head. that's not his biggest concern at the moment though.
he looks around and sees nothing but happy faces. people smiling and talking to each other like friends do. he can hear a faint laughter from the other side of the room where pete and jon are sharing what must be really hilarious anecdotes. from the corner of his eye he sees mikey and tessa talking about the food they're eating.
each small little conversation seems normal and content. then he looks at brendon, sitting right in front of him rather than by his side to hold his hand under the wooden table or to steal a few quick kisses when no one is looking at them. his boyfriend is just sitting there, eating his breakfast and barely emitting any sounds.
"are you alright?"tyler speaks up and gives him a concerned look.
"yeah. 'm fine,"brendon shortly replies, his eyes quickly looking at him and then back at his food. the younger boy sighs as quietly as he can and shake his head dismissively,"then why are you so quiet? did you establish a word limit per day or?"
"no, i just don't feel like talking."
again, very little eye contact doesn't mean that the world is rainbows and unicorns. "did i do something? is this about me taking the last french toast? you know i won't get to eat it anyway with the amount of scrambled eggs i have."
brendon shakes his head,"what? no. you're fine, baby. don't worry about me. i'm just a little down today; really, nothing to make a big deal about."
"alright.. if something's bothering you, you know you can tell me about it. no matter what it is. okay?"
the older boy replies wordlessly, just nodding and faking a smile. it seems to be just about enough to make tyler stop wondering what's going on for the rest of the morning. hopefully it is enough for the rest of the whole day.
✞
gerard scrolls down the list of the campers' names on the excel file. he is trying to spot an empty space to see if there is any place left for ryan. he doubts it exists.
he gets to the end of the list with no empty slots left. it seems like the newbie took the last one when he enrolled. shamelessly, the director smiles at himself and proceeds to call ryan back. a small part of him hoped that this happened. he has enough to deal with the amount of teenagers that are here now.
two rings after, ryan picks up. "hey, gee!"
"hello, mr. ross. i've checked our list and unfortunately, there is no place left for you. it seems that we got full quite quickly this year. i'm sorry, but you won't be able to join us."
a small pause from the other end of the line pases, seemingly eternal, and the teenager sighs heavily. "it's alright. i knew this would happen. thanks anyway.."
"if any spot gets reopened, i'll be sure to notify you, mr. ross. until then, goodbye."
"bye, gee. tell jenna and the others i say hi."
"surely." gerard puts down his phone after hanging up. he keeps looking through the excel file, he likes ryan and wants to see him come back. mostly because he can keep an eye on his friends..
that gives gerard an idea.
✞
with a few hours of sleep in his system, josh feels alive again. sort of. he still feels very weird and dead inside, but he surely looks as good as he used to.
he only gets an apple and scrambled eggs for breakfast. he's not that hungry, but that might just be that he isn't used to eating breakfast at all.
he sits next to tyler, given that he wants to stop bothering jon with his problems. the decision is clearly anxiety based and he doesn't really recognize it. "hey,"he quietly says once tyler looks at him.
"hey,"tyler says back and tries to put on his best smile,"i thought you wouldn't be joining us."
"why wouldn't i?"
"dunno. you've been distant lately, i guess. being weird here and there."
josh shrugs and eats a forkful of the scrambled eggs. "i didn't notice i was being distant. i've been in my own head a lot. it's not fun to just seat around with people when you are questioning your existence, y'know."
the newbie puts his hand on josh's shoulder and gives him another smile,"i'm sorry you are feeling like that. brendon isn't at his best either, so maybe we can hang out and i'll take care of you two. nothing big, just a nice afternoon with moi."
"you speak french now too? how many damn languages do you even know?"josh chuckles.
"only two, you dick. although i do wanna learn either korean or french next. be more international."
brendon finds enough courage to join in the conversation with a full sentence. "you're gonna end up being a walking google translate, ty."
"pff. isn't that the true purpose of life anyway?"tyler grins and then giggles at his own sentence. he really wants to learn as many languages as he can and travel around the world. it's been a thing he's been wanting to do since he was a kid. that's why he begged his parents to let him take spanish lessons outside his school's shitty ones.
