Revelation?

Who: Bruce and Jesse
When: after school
Where: the sidewalk and Mya's

Jesse had heard about the supposed fight going down -- and then not going down -- at the flagpole, and hadn't thought much about it. He sure as hell didn't go to watch. Aaron Lancaster was not his best friend in the least, and if Bruce's sister wanted to beat the shit out of him, Jesse figured she probably had her reasons. So he'd just put his headphones back on and went about his day. At least until the last bell rang, and he found himself looking for the blonde-headed all-American cutie. Bruce, that was, not his twin. He wasn't exactly sure why, outside of his own desire for company of the Bruce Barrow variety, but it didn't really bear much thinking about. He hung out around the front door as all the jostling teenagers streamed past, headphones over his ears, eyes scanning the crowd while his mind did more or less the same thing.

Bruce was going over what homework he had to do that night in his head, and what could be put off until the next day or the weekend. He was also thanking his ancestors that his parents hadn't been notified about his little fight that morning. Hitting Aaron had felt great in the moment, sure, but the consequences were what he hated. He felt like he'd been doing so much better on the bully front since moving to Michigan, too. Now though? He was second guessing himself. That couldn't really be a part of who he was, he tried to convince himself. Yeah, so he got mad about certain things pretty easily and couldn't stand his family's name being dragged through the mud, but he had to learn some self control. Avoidance was going to have to be the key with Aaron, even if it worked better in theory if Aaron didn't randomly walk up to him bitching about his own issues. As he exited the school, hands holding his backpack straps, he was on autopilot while his mind tried to work out how to not be the same bully he was back in Salt Lake.

He spotted the head he was looking for, and Jesse started weaving through people to get to Bruce. Sure, they'd made plans to hang out Friday already, but that was with Nate, and so what if he maybe wanted some time before that? It was just ... friendly. Yeah. Bruce looked pretty spacey as Jesse walked up and fell into step beside him. He pulled his headphones down and looked over with a little smile. "Hey there, Barrow, where you at, my homeskillet?" he asked, nudging the other guy with his elbow. But without being too close, 'cause ... yeah, people around and shit.

"Oh, uh, hey, Jesse," Bruce said as he looked over to see who it was and smiled. Not that he'd ever known anyone else to use words like "homeskillet" besides Jesse. He shoved his hands in his pockets and was a little confused that his gloves weren't in there. Hopefully they were in his backpack. "Had a weird day. I've got detention starting tomorrow. Fucking lame. What's up with you, man?" Really he was glad to see Jesse outside of random glimpses of the guy in the halls, but it probably would've been weird to say something like that. He was really looking forward to Friday's movie fest, which he was also glad he wouldn't now have to sneak out of the house to attend. If his parents knew he'd been in another fight he was sure they'd try to ground him.

"Not detention, that's for sure. What'd they plug you for, man?" he asked, a little surprised. Bruce seemed like one of those ... good guys, as far as teachers and adults were concerned. Outside of the cursing and the underage drinking. And the ... boy-kissing, depending on the opinions of the adults. Everybody had their vices, right? "Not much, though, not much. Just glad to have another day under my belt, wonderin' if you're too in trouble now to hang for a bit." He walked alongside the other guy, just heading wherever Bruce was heading at the moment.

"Nah, not in too much trouble. They didn't call my parents or whatever. This time, anyway. Not that there's going to be a next time... whatever," Bruce said and shook his head. Like he needed to bog a new friend down with his lame crap. He gestured towards the old VW bus in the parking lot that he was walking towards, though he was going slower now that he knew Jesse was sticking with him. "Just heading home, but I can hang out whenever. And, uh, detention was for a fight. Not that one punch is really a fight, but you know..." He shrugged.

One of Jesse's blonde eyebrows lifted at hearing that little tidbit and he looked intrigued. Bruce was a scrapper, maybe? Or had gotten pushed. Probably the latter, since he didn't look too thrilled about it. He headed for the bus along with the guy, to find out if that gesture was an invitation or not. It was cold, after all. "So who'd you punch?" he asked, clearly interested. It was nosy, but that was the kind of shit friends asked about, wasn't it? Kind of a big deal.

"Aaron," Bruce said without holding back on letting his tone emphasize how much he disliked the guy. He frowned. That guy had a hell of a lot more problems that Bruce did, the way he jumped to conclusions and seemed to have to be the flamboyant center of attention. It was kind of sad in a way. "Stupid fucker doesn't know when to quit. I gave him plenty of warnings. But he kept calling my sister names, insulting my family and going off on how I'm homophobic just because I think his personality blows. Watch, tomorrow there'll be rumors about how me and Bree hate queers just because Aaron's an insecure prick or whatever. Guy's a nutcase."

Jesse grinned, and thought that he probably would've paid money to see that. Like, a lot of it. He laughed a little and shook his head, though it was more in an agreement of Bruce's assessment than any arguing. Aaron Lancaster wasn't always that way, but it was kinda getting hard not to hear him in the hallways anymore. "I can totally see him having that shit coming," he chuckled. "I wouldn't be surprised, though. Dudes like that ... give the rest of us a bad name, for serious." And he fought off the urge to glance over at the blonde Bruce Barrow to see if he caught it, but it was out there anyway. Might as well, what the hell, you only went 'round once. Or you actually didn't, and he knew that, but he was in this life right here currently.

"Yeah, well, he can think whatever the fuck he wants about me. But he needs to keep it to himself. I can't get in trouble for fighting again. Not like I've done it a lot, but ...whatever. I don't want to be that guy everyone thinks is a bigot always looking for some loser to fight." Bruce found that part easier to admit than the fairly embarrassing fact that he didn't want to disappoint his parents. And unfortunately Bruce was no Batman. If he were any kind of superhero he'd be Captain Oblivious. He watched his breath fog up the space in front of him for a few steps. They were practically at the van now. "Uh, you need a ride or something? Or, I don't know, I heard there was some diner everyone goes to right around here. I don't have to go straight home."

It was really almost funny, in a way. And actually pretty adorable that his skull was apparently several inches thick. Jesse just had to grin to himself as he looked down at his sneakers for a second, then back up. The hilarious impulse was lingering to just grab the guy and kiss him, in a combination of wanting to and just seeing what he would do, but he wasn't ever one to forcibly out anyone, and there was definitely some closet-action going on there. Plus, still in the parking lot. "Stick with me, kid, nobody'll think that," he said with an easy grin, slapping the guy on the back of the shoulder in a friendly sort of way. "Sure, we could go eat or something. Mya's, it's really close. Or go back to my place for a rematch or something, if you want. Your boat, my compadre, whatever floats it." God, he wanted to just say it. But the "too" that wanted to live on the end of that statement had no reasonable explanation. Unless he said he just had a sense for those things. Hrmm ...

Bruce smiled over at Jesse, already feeling better about his day now that they were hanging out. And while he was tempted to head over to Jesse's place and kick his ass at Halo again, he didn't want to get so caught up in anything like that to where he'd lose track of time and forget to pick Breezy up after dance practice. The diner really sounded like the best option since it was close. "Can we walk to Mya's? The van kind of likes to warm up before it gets going. Would probably take longer to warm it up than to drive over there." Sometimes he really just wanted to borrow his dad's car, which was a much newer model, but like that would ever happen.

Jesse glanced at the van and then shrugged an easy-going shoulder. "Sure thing." He really didn't mind walking, he'd been intending to walk home anyway. Which was farther away than Mya's. He jerked his head to one side and started off in that direction with Brucey-boy. Since they were kind of away from everyone now, the temptation to talk was greater. Which was probably bad and would get him in trouble. Just liking stubble didn't necessarily mean the kid would dig on his, after all. "So you're not a homophobe," he said, giving the other guy a sideways sort of glance.

"Not really," Bruce said with a shrug. It was a weird question in the sense that he'd never been asked it before and didn't have some canned response for it. Of course, he realized, in a sense he was a homophobe, but it was only out of necessity and not because he really felt that way. Which only made his non-committal reply to Jesse more like the absolute truth than he was comfortable with. Bruce really had no idea if Jesse was the kind of person to ask him if he was gay just because he didn't care if other people were. And as they walked he felt the need to explain, falling back to what they'd been talking about before. "With Aaron? I don't care if he was the straightest guy on the planet. He's a jerk, plain and simple. I'd still want to kick his ass for talking shit about me and my family."

"Oh total agreement there," Jesse said with a chuckle. "He could fuck dead goats and he'd still be an asshole. And deserve a crack in the face." He shrugged a shoulder. There were a lot of people like that. He just wasn't the type to ever give those cracks in the face, even if they were given to him first. "I was just ... kinda wonderin', 'cause I'm the bi-est motherfucker you're ever gonna meet, so. Just makin' sure we weren't gonna have problems later." There, that was a good enough in. He was looking forward as he said it, but he was paying attention to his blurry peripheral vision, that was for sure. A subdued vision came across the distance between them to him, but it wasn't of this-life Bruce. Jesse was internally amused to see that he used to be a black girl at one point, bitching out someone who looked like her brother in with a big sixties afro. Nice.

"Oh, uh... wow." That was all Bruce could manage to say, his eyebrows raised in honest shock. He wasn't really sure how to handle that information at first. It was a lot of happy shock mixed with a lot of oh-fuck-what-now. So far as Bruce knew he'd never known anyone who was bi. Though given his complete lack of gaydar that might not have been true after all. Now, of course, Jesse's impassioned speech at the bonfire made a lot more sense. What was it with his gamer friends ending up liking guys anyway? Bruce rubbed the back of his neck while his thoughts jumbled in his mind and made it impossible for him to find anything else to say for the moment. It wasn't like he wouldn't want to be friends with Jesse anymore. But there were rumors to take into consideration. Still, no way in hell did he really want to ask Jesse to not act like they were friends in school like he had with Danny. That wasn't fair. And he'd promised himself he wouldn't do that shit anymore. Hadn't he? He could stick to his secrets without losing good friends in the process. Fucking hell this was going to make things awkward because, yeah, Bruce realized then he'd sort of started getting a crush on the guy.

Jesse suffered through the silence until he really couldn't take it anymore, and looked over at the guy he was walking with. Really, people needed to talk more, say what was on their minds. All this quiet-bullshit really made it hard to function. Because 'oh, uh ... wow' really wasn't the most illuminating of statements. And there wasn't much more to take in on his face, either, which sucked. He knew he was right about Bruce, he had memories to prove it, but he couldn't be sure of that out loud. "... no pressure or anything, dude, I'm not gonna like ... grope you or anything if it's unwelcome, that's not my speed or bag or what-have-you. And I ain't loud about it, not many people know if you're worried about suspicions or anything. I just dig you, you're a cool cat, so ... you might as well know." He shrugged a shoulder again, now feeling vaguely stupid for saying it in the first place. He didn't know what reaction he might've been looking for, but that wasn't it.

"No, it's cool. Sorry, just never would've guessed or whatever. Hell, I didn't even know Aaron was gay until he said he was. Which, uh, yeah I guess I should've guessed that one? Bree said something about he looks like he should be wearing vinyl hotpants," Bruce said, laughing lightly and shrugging. He smiled over at Jesse, trying not to feel so damn awkward about this new piece of information. It was hard to listen to Jesse just tell him something like that freely when Bruce couldn't do it himself even if he wanted to. Yeah, it would be easy to actually say it, but what would that solve or prove? It wouldn't change anything for Bruce in the scheme of things. He'd just be even more worried the info would magically get back to his parents. At least that was all it was anyway and he relaxed a little since he didn't feel like Jesse was about to ask him if he was bi or gay.

He chuckled and shook his head. Yeah, okay, so the boy's gaydar was broken. It happened to people. And he didn't really consider himself gay, really, anyway. He just didn't put limits on love and sexuality. It was a terribly oppressive thing to do, in Jesse's opinion, and he thought people would be one helluva lot happier if they were honest with themselves more. Not that everyone was going to be attracted to the same sex, but he was willing to bet his left nut that there were more out there that were than admitted to it. "Yeah, he's a flamer, that one. ... but yeah, okay, cool." Which was a highly lame way to end that bit of the conversation, but he didn't really have anything else. He couldn't make the guy confess. The attraction was probably one-sided. So. Back to life. "This is Mya's," he said as he nodded toward the diner they were approaching.

Bruce looked up at the building and nodded. It reminded him of a diner he'd been to in San Diego once or twice, from the outside anyway. "Cool. Do they have just regular burgers and stuff?" he asked, glancing over at Jesse again. It was weird just knowing he liked guys. Not like Jesse would like him or anything, but the fact that there was a sliver of a chance ...sucked. It just sucked because he wouldn't be able to do a damn thing about it if he ever thought he had a shot. He wasn't going through that secret relationship bullshit again, and if Jesse was that comfortable with his sexuality then he wouldn't want to deal with it either. Further proof that Bruce should just stick to finding a girlfriend so he could really get used to the idea of being married to a woman in the future.

"Yeah, anything you want," Jesse said, snagging the door open as they reached it. He went on in first instead of holding it, as that might look a little strange. It wasn't that he really wanted to be pushy. He didn't. He'd just been sure there was a bit of a spark there somewhere, and had honestly been excited to find out that Bruce had the same kinds of tendencies. So far his confession hadn't brought anything promising forward, but maybe he was just impatient. Probably. He hadn't actually been with a guy in a long time, and even that once had been kind of fuckered, so ... it was a want. Just not one he could force. He slid into a booth and settled, picking up a menu to peruse and pushing his glasses up on his nose. "So whatcha thinkin', dude-ro?" he asked, leaving the question that vague just to see what Bruce would fill it with.

Bruce put his backpack onto the booth bench and slid it all the way over before sitting down next to it and grabbing up a menu. "Uh, I don't know," he said, brows furrowing as he looked at the items on the menu but didn't actually absorb any of it. His mind was swimming with what ifs and all manner of bullshit it was hard to think through. "Uh... Friday." He was shooting for anything that didn't involve further discussion of sexuality. "Movie night. It's going to be wicked awesome." Lame, he thought. Awkward and lame. Great, now Jesse probably thought he was completely weirded out about him being bi.

That was more or less what he thought, and Jesse was weighing the pros and cons of just outright saying 'hey, listen, I know you dig the cock too, so chill out, you don't have to hide with me' when their waitress walked over. Jesse got a flash of her as a child, riding her bike purposefully over a frog, and let it pass as usual before he told her what he wanted to drink. He let Bruce do the same and closed the menu, food-choice settled. "Fuck yes, it's gonna be kickass," he agreed way belatedly, and wondered now if Bruce was worried he'd try to turn it into some sort of gay-fest or something. Goddammit. He just wanted to shake people with hangups sometimes. "With anchovie-less pizza and enough gore to puke on, good times."

Bruce went ahead and ordered a burger and a soda. All this over thinking shit was making him hungry, and as it was he was going to miss dinner at home. "Sorry I can't really contribute anything but, uh, me. Sucks my parents are so uptight about shit like fake blood on a tv screen. If there's anything you want me to rent though, I'll do it, no problem. I can help with the pizza, too." He hated being a useless guest. It just wasn't the way his parents raised him.

"It's cool, between me and Nate, I'm sure we'll have plenty," Jesse said, settling back in the booth. He was highly tempted to slouch enough so that their knees were touching, but that would probably be mean of him. So he didn't. "Feel free to help with the pizza, though, if you want." He wouldn't say no to money. "But otherwise ... just you's fine," he added in with a little smile across the table at Bruce.

That smile, coupled with what Jesse had just said, made Bruce's chest feel weird. And he silently hoped that he was not blushing because that would be the epitome of not good right now. "Cool," he said, mentally flailing around for a decent and logical response that was longer than one word. "I can definitely help with the food. I get a decent allowance." He fiddled with his menu for a moment before putting it off to the side and slouching a little to get more comfortable, one elbow propped up on his backpack. "Do you have Freddy vs. Jason? I've been wanting to watch that one again. It's fucking hilarious."

It didn't take a psychic to see that that had made him flail a bit, and Jesse let up. Verbally at least. "Yeah I do, actually," he said, giving a short laugh. He reached up to run a hand through his hair to get it out of his face for a moment, though it was a constant battle. Jesse settled back a little himself, not entirely subconsciously, and could feel the presence of Bruce's knees under there. Which was kind of nice, in a way that it wasn't always with other people. "I've actually got all the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, they're honest to god classics."

"Yeah those and Hellraiser. I can watch them over and over and they still give me chills at some parts. But the scariest movie I ever saw when I was a kid was Poltergeist. Carol Anne looked so much like Bree that it freaked me the fuck out," Bruce said with a genuine grin, feeling a little more relaxed now that the conversation seemed to have fully shifted. He didn't mind admitting that much since it didn't bother him anymore. And it wasn't like Jesse was going to call him names or anything. The guy was way too cool and laid back for that.

Jesse laughed, able to picture a younger Bruce being weirded out by his sister. And if she was the type to try and throw down with Aaron Lancaster, she probably rubbed it in, too. Which was additionally amusing. It wasn't derisive laughter, just appreciative amusement. "Nice. Yeah, the first Poltergeist was goddamn sweet. I had a kick of Asian horror a while back, man? Those people are fucking freaky," he said, shaking his head with a little smirk. "The American remakes are balls, but the originals ... goddamn, they know how to set a tone, lemme tell you. Why the hell is it that little girls are so creepy? Answer me that, friend, why. Tons of good horror flicks have little girls in 'em."

"I saw the Grudge remake and thought it was pretty good till the end. The ending sucked ass. It was such a damn cop out. I take it the original one was better?" Bruce said. He was distracted momentarily by some other people coming into the diner and taking a seat on the other side of the restaurant. Then he looked over to where their waitress was, trying to gauge if their orders had been filled yet. He shifted his legs under the table and accidentally nudge Jesse's foot with his. That made his attention shoot right back to his friend. "Uh, sorry."

Was it really really really sad that that little bit of contact was kind of awesome? Or only really really sad. Jesse couldn't decide. In any case, he shrugged a shoulder casually and shook his head in a silent 'no problem'. "Yeah, the original was better. Not rememberin' how it ended just now, but I know it was surely more awesome. The Japanese don't buy into that fairy-tale 'it all worked out' ending bullshit near as much as American movies do," he said. He shifted a little bit himself, in a way that just so happened to brush their calves together for a second. "And they're not afraid to go places that our movies just wouldn't. Saw a shorter film once about dumplings that were made from dead babies that made women young and beautiful again, it was fucked." So it wasn't the most romantic subject, but hey. It was the subtle things that counted.

"That is sick... and totally fucking awesome. Who comes up with that shit?" Bruce said, his grin breaking up his look of initial disgust. He tried to ignore that Jesse's leg had brushed against his since he'd just accidentally done it himself. Neither one of them had great posture or anything and there was only so much room under the table. Right? Right. Naturally the tiniest bit of doubt was there. But he really didn't think Jesse would do it on purpose. He needed to focus on their conversation anyway. Japanese horror flicks. He apparently needed to watch some, hopefully with Jesse. "D'you own any of those movies?"

Just the fact that Bruce thought it was totally fucking awesome told Jesse a lot of things that he really liked. He wasn't squeamish, or uptight about stuff. That kind of stuff, anyway. Jesse really couldn't handle being around people who were always up in arms about something, usually stupid shit. "Oh hell yes. I've got lots. You ought to come chill sometime soon so I can introduce you to 'em. Especially Miike, that man is twisted." He chuckled and glanced over as some chattery memories came within 'earshot' again. It was the waitress with their food, and Jesse muttered a thanks as she set it all out in front of them and asked if they needed anything else. He sat up a bit since it was eat-time and oh look, their legs were touching again, and he didn't move away from it, focusing in on food.

Bruce thought his burger looked amazingly interesting for a moment as he sat up a little straighter as well. He grabbed the ketchup and poured some on his fries as he tried to continue to convince himself that Jesse was not doing that leg touching thing on purpose. Now, though, it wasn't such a convincing argument. And if he was doing it on purpose, then...? Well then what? What the hell did that mean? Definitely not what Bruce would like it to mean. That would be ten kinds of bad. He moved his feet back closer to the seat so there was no more awkwardness going on for him and worried about eating instead. "Maybe Saturday or something? I don't know if Nate would be into that stuff." He shrugged.

Jesse noted the retreat and nodded to himself internally. Trying too hard, Jericho, back off. He didn't move from where he was so it wouldn't look so stupidly obvious, and munched on the pickle on his plate first. "Yeah, sure, Saturday would work," he said. This stupid week was going to take a fucking long time. "So ... awesome slasher films Friday night, fucked up Asian horror Saturday ... it'll be like a weekend of blood and guts. And vengeful little-girl ghosts. Good times." He picked up a fry and popped it in his mouth, glancing up at Bruce and then out the big picture window they were sitting next to.

"Best weekend ever," Bruce said with a small smile. He focused on eating for a couple minutes, thinking about how fitting it was they were going to be watching horror movies right before Halloween. Devon was really excited about going trick or treating this year, and Bruce had promised to take him. He still wasn't sure what the hell he was going to dress up as though. Something not lame. "What're you doing for Halloween? Watching more scary movies?"

"Probably," he said with a shoulder-shrug, looking back over. He got another rather random memory of Bruce playing basketball with what looked like a couple of little brothers. At least they were comfortable flashes, unlike some other people he'd met. "I didn't really have anything planned out, think it's on a weeknight and everything. Not that, y'know, that's a deal-breaker or anything, but yeah. Why, what're you doing?" he asked, curious.

"Trick or treating. I need to figure out a costume, uh, really soon or my brother's going to be pissed off at me. He said I'm not allowed to dress up as a teenager," Bruce said. Really Devon had said he wasn't allowed to dress up as a dreamweaver, but he definitely couldn't say that. Inside joke and then some. He shrugged. "Not that I have a problem getting dressed up or whatever, but I can't think of anything cool. Or cool enough for my little brother to approve of."

"Ahhh yeah ... the whole ... dressing-up-while-being-a-teenager dilemma," Jesse said, a bit amused, and nodded sagely. "See, if it wasn't going to be balls-ass cold out there, I'd suggest you do like ... a zombie basketball player thing? 'Cause you've got the uniform and shit, right? And zombies are kinda done. I dunno, there's the old 'black cloak and a bit of creepy makeup underneath' standby. What's he dressing up as?" Not that they probably wanted to match or whatever, but maybe it'd give an idea.

"Yeah, I don't want to freeze my ass off. And Dev's gonna use my old Batman costume from when I was his age. ...My mom keeps everything unless it's got huge holes in it," Bruce said. He felt the need to explain about recycling Halloween costumes even if Jesse might have guessed the Barrows did a lot of hand-me-downs being such a huge family. It used to be a lot more embarrassing to him, but his older brothers had decent taste in clothes so it didn't matter much anymore. Half of his stuff was actually bought for him anyway. Devon, on the other hand, was still using all of Bruce's and Madock's old stuff. He smirked, amused. "I could be a zombie wearing a lot of warm clothes. I'm cool with that."

He didn't think twice about recycling costumes, just nodding as Bruce spoke. It seemed to make sense to him that big families would pass clothes around and such. there were precious few things that Jesse was really possessive over, and they all stayed with him all the time, in his messenger bag. While he was out, at least, and when he wasn't, the people in his household knew better than to touch that stuff. Jesse grinned a little. "You could. You could've been living in a cold climate when you died. Like, oh, say, Marquette, Michigan," he said with a quiet laugh. "Or dress all in black and wrap your face in a scarf or something and say you're a ninja. Nothing wrong with ninjas."

"Ninja Bruce. That might work. I've never done that one before," Bruce said with a grin. He took a drink of his soda and arbitrarily decided that he didn't care if he was getting a leg cramp, he was not moving his feet again. They could fall asleep for all he cared. He was not going to play footsie or whatever with Jesse. That would just be ridiculous and probably give the other guy the wrong idea. And he was starting to get annoyed at himself for his mind continually wandering back to the fact that Jesse was bi. It was not a big deal. It didn't change anything about him or how cool he was. It just made Bruce remind himself sharply that he still needed to find a girl to take on dates and things. He should really give Drea a call and see how that would go. Where were they? Oh right. Halloween. Awesome. "You, uh, not trick or treating then?"

"Nah, hadn't planned on it," Jesse said. It might've been a weird question, but Bruce had younger siblings and everything, so naturally Halloween was still a big get-candy time for them. He took a bite of his own burger and munched thoughtfully. "I'll probably hang at home, help mom pass out candy and shit." She was getting tired more and more easily now, so he might end up taking over the whole shebang. But Bruce didn't need to know that. If, that was, anybody at all brought their kids around this year. It was kind of impossible to tell at the moment, things had been quiet for a while. But if any sort of fuckery was going to happen, it'd probably happen on Halloween. Subconsciously, he shifted again and pulled his legs back a bit.

"That's cool. I think it's too cold for my parents to take the babies out, but Mom's already gone gaga over making little animal costumes for them. She's probably going to force Bree to hand out candy. I don't know," Bruce said and shrugged. He ate a couple of ketchup soaked french fries and checked his watch. They still had plenty of time to hang out it looked like. And then he was suddenly feeling self conscious for blathering on about his family. "Uh, not that any of that is probably interesting."

Jesse was smiling at him, and shook his head a bit. "No way, it's cool. Really, like ... people with normal families -- moms that make animal costumes for kids and shit -- they're like zoo animals nowadays, it's pretty awesome that you're there. And they care what movies you watch and shit," he said, chuckling softly. It wasn't that his parents didn't care, because he knew they did, they were just rather lenient when it came to him. It could be a boon, of course, he just wished that some particular stuff wasn't keeping them busy as it was. Stupid cancer, it could eat a dick. His expression sobered for a second as he looked down at his fries, and he made himself eat another one.

"You can come over and check out the zoo exhibit sometime if you want," Bruce said with an amused smile. He knew his family was a rarity so far as most of America was concerned. His parents were still married, didn't hate each other and had a large amount of kids to raise. Bruce tried to be conscious of how lucky he was in that respect every day and not take his family for granted. Yeah, so they had some overly traditional views that he didn't one hundred percent agree with. He could deal. Had been dealing. Would continue to deal with it. "I promise not to force you to play Kingdom Hearts or change diapers or whatever." His smile broke out into a grin and without thinking about it he stuck out his foot to nudge Jesse's playfully. It wasn't like he could reach all the way across the table just to fake punch him in the arm.

He laughed a bit more heartily, and felt something in his chest warm at the foot nudge. "Believe you me, you don't wanna risk that. If there's anybody could fumble a baby, it's this guy right here," he said with a grin. And tried to picture Bruce changing a diaper, which he was sure happened, and was sort of hilarious. Sweet too, in a way. He couldn't help himself, he nudged the guy back, looking at his expression and smiling. He pulled his drink over to sip on. "But y'know, I will come sometime and take pictures of your zoo life. For science, you know. To study the way you guys live and preserve it for future generations."

"You can sell the photos to National Geographic and make a killing. 'Barrows in their natural habitat' or whatever," Bruce said and chuckled. It was kind of automatic to nudge Jesse's foot again, this time to ensure he had his attention. Bruce's eyebrows shot up and he gestured to himself as he leaned forward just a little, a conspiratorial look on his face. "But only if you share the wealth, man." He finished off what was left of his burger and took a long drink from his glass. It wasn't mom's home cooking, but it was definitely good.

"Of course, of course, I wouldn't think of not slipping you a couple thou for letting me take pictures of your dirty laundry," Jesse said with a grin and a snicker. "National Geographic loves that kind of shit about endangered species. I think we have a scheme here, my friend, a genuine scheme." Following suit, he ate what he wanted of what was left and then sat back again, his foot still near Bruce's. Maybe he just liked to spread out, right? That made sense.

Bruce laughed at the idea of National Geographic buying hi-res photos of his family's dirty laundry. In the literal sense it was ridiculous in a good way, though figuratively speaking not so much. Not that his family had much to hide. Just Bruce and Breezy mostly, though only by their family's standards. Perspective was such a funny thing. Which only brought him right back to dwelling on Jesse's being bi again. Hours ago? Bruce'd had no clue. Now? He kind of wanted to go back to being clueless for selfish reasons. That was impossible, though, and he tried to get his mind back on their silly conversation instead of worrying over how what could be was the same as what couldn't be. "There's plenty of dirty laundry at my house, all the time. You could probably make a documentary on that alone," he said and shrugged, not even knowing where he was going with that, but it seemed to fit in with their weird conversation.

"I can imagine, all those kids running around ... getting dirty," Jesse said and laughed a little. Not that it was really funny, it was, in fact, lame as hell, but what could you do. Part of his mind couldn't believe that they were sitting there actually kind of talking about laundry, how gay was that? "My mom always comes and steals mine before i can like, really get to know it's habits in the wild, so you've got one up on me. You'll have to be my safari guide, through the jungles of family and stinky socks." He grinned broadly, not having the slightest problem with being totally ridiculous. It was something he did well, really.

"Yeah, if you come over, I promise not to abandon you with my mom. She'll start asking you questions and shit and never stop," Bruce said. And it was a slight exaggeration. His mom wasn't really that bad or nosy so far as he or his brothers were concerned, and thank the ancestors she'd never in a million years ask any questions about sexual orientation. Mostly just chit chat about family or basic stuff. But it was still kind of half embarrassing.

Jesse chuckled and shrugged a shoulder. "That's moms for you. Mine would do the same thing to you. She's kinda starved for normal kids, all she's got is me," he said with an easy grin. He knew he hadn't been the ideal child, by any stretch of the imagination. Quite the opposite, really, but ... he knew he was loved, and that was the important shit. "I can just see you tellin' her you do homework and play sports like a respectable boy, instead of beatin' on everything with drumsticks and readin' tarot cards, and her just weeping for joy that you exist." He was exaggerating himself, of course, but it was amusing.

Bruce shrugged, his brows furrowing a little even though he was still smiling over at Jesse. The guy might've been kind of geeky in some ways, but there wasn't anything wrong with that. "I don't know. You seem pretty normal to me," he said. Of course Bruce judged people's normality based off of his own life experiences and knowing that his family wasn't the norm. And not just because they were Dreamweavers. Most of the traditions they held onto were laughed at or looked down on by other "normal" people. Everything was so damn subjective and a lot of the time it ended up making Bruce's brain hurt.

Though he usually detested being called that n-word, Jesse grinned a bit. He knew how Bruce meant it, and okay so it was nice, so what? He could appreciate not being looked at like some kind of weird specimen under glass. One that needed to be poked and prodded at. "Don't know me too well yet, Barrow," he said, but the appreciation was still there, regardless. He twisted up the paper his straw had come in between his fingers and tossed it across the table at Bruce's chest. "We're all closet weirdos, secret freaks, underground oddballs. 'Cause 'The Norm' was invented by people with no imaginations. But everybody's got somethin'. Which is fine, the mold is bullshit and should be broken anyway." He paused, realizing he'd kind of gotten on a mini-sermon there, and chuckled, shaking his head.

"Easier said than done," Bruce said. And while it wasn't an offhanded comment, he shrugged one shoulder like it was one anyway. Jesse was this free spirit and Bruce couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy. He'd never be able to just be one hundred percent himself one hundred percent of the time. He picked the little ball of paper up from where it had bounced and landed on his seat, then lazily tossed it back across the table at Jesse.

Jesse similarly picked up the straw wrapper, and rolled it tighter for a moment, looking at Bruce. He really was kind of bad at hiding that something was wrong. Which was a trait Jesse could appreciate in a person, so many people were just ... not genuine. "Nothing worthwhile is ever easy," he said after the pause. "That's what makes it worth so much. And I know it's cliche'd and after-school-special, but finding out who we really are and being true to that shit? Best thing you could ever do, and probably the hardest." He lobbed the paper back, though his aim wasn't great as he was watching the guy's expression.

"Guess that means my life is worth a fuck of a lot," Bruce said with a wry smirk. And it always did seem like every time things started to get easy for him they turned right around and got difficult all over again. "But I already know how it all goes. My life came with a built in road map or whatever. Can't take any serious detours." He moved the paper ball over in front of him, from the edge of the table this time, and flicked it back at Jesse.

It bounced off of his neck this time, and Jesse laughed a little, 'cause it felt weird, and looked down to start hunting around for where it went. "You're gonna hate this question, by why not? I know you said there's specific shit expected of you, but if that's not what you want for your life ... they expect you to suck it up and be miserable forever? 'Fraid they're not gonna love you anymore if you disappoint? They got plenty of kids, man, life's too short," he said. He found the paper, moved his plate out of the way, and flicked it back. He blinked owlishly at Bruce and smiled faintly. "Or y'know, alternately, you can tell me to shut the fuck up and mind my own business, that's an option too."

Bruce leaned out of the way as the paper ball flew up near his head. "It's complicated," he said, his expression turning stony. And it wasn't anything he could explain to Jesse, let alone in public. He twisted in his seat to turn and look for the ball of straw paper. It had landed on his backpack, so he picked it up and put it back on the table next to his plate. "You wouldn't understand. So, uh, yeah. Shut the fuck up." He flicked the piece of paper back across the table and looked up at the ceiling as he slouched down in his seat again. His parents might've had a lot of kids, but that didn't mean he had more than one set of parents. It was extremely likely he'd lose everyone close to him besides Breezy if he tried to buck the system and do his own thing. And then there would be the ancestors to deal with. They'd turn their backs on him, and then where would he be? "You should read my cards or something sometime. See for yourself what I mean. I'm sure it's all written in the cosmos or whatever too. It's not like... just... whatever. Nevermind."

"Fair enough," Jesse said first, not sounding offended at all that Bruce took him up on 'shut the fuck up.' He could manage that. After all, the lessons that mattered the most weren't the ones that other people tried to foist on you. It just sucked to think that yet another good person was going to suffer under the yoke of family expectations, when that wasn't what they wanted. Or maybe it would just take some time for the notion of free will to weasel into Bruce's brain. "I could do that, yeah. Maybe with cards, I would understand." He plucked the paper-bit off of his lap and flicked it back, lower this time, to hit him square in the chest.

"So you're that good, huh? Cool," Bruce said, his expression softening again. The idea of tarot cards and all that was entertaining, but it wasn't like he put real stock in it. But he did believe in fate, so there was that suspension of disbelief that could go along with all of it. He picked the paper ball up again and tossed it at Jesse, a small smile back on his face.

He actually tried to catch it that time but ended up more batting it down onto the bench seat. Where it bounced and disappeared under the table. Jesse had the very brief, wicked idea of going down fishing for it, but ... yeah, public. He reached over to snag up Bruce's straw paper instead, and rolled that one up too. "I'm pretty awesome, yeah," he said with a little grin. "Been doing it a long time. Though for you, runes might work even better, they're more focused on current issues than the future." He bit down on the little paper ball to squeeze it tight, then blew it at Bruce.

"Runes?" Bruce looked skeptical, but it didn't last for long as the new paper ball bounced off of his cheek. He cast his eyes around for it, and it took a minute for him to find it under the edge of his plate. Jesse was obviously pretty serious about this stuff. "I guess we could do that on Friday or whatever, before the movies," he said and tried bouncing the paper wad off of the table this time.

Jesse caught it, then, and gave a triumphant grin. "That works, just whenever. You can come over early or whatever. Shouldn't take too long." And he had to admit, he was curious. He got the vague impression that there were things about Bruce that he didn't know yet -- beyond the normal sort of things -- and with cards or stones in his hands, he could focus better to find them. Sure, it was nosy and sort of an invasion of privacy, but the dude was inviting it, so. Fair game. He flicked the paper ball back at Bruce's shoulder.

"Yeah, that sounds cool. I won't ask you to hold back on any doom and gloom shit either. I can take it," Bruce said with a small smile. He didn't try to catch the balled up piece of paper, but he did keep it from rolling off of his leg to join the other one under the table. Then he tossed it at Jesse, aiming for his shoulder this time around.

"Deal, no holding of the doom and gloom," Jesse said with a chuckle. He let the bit of paper bounce off of his shoulder and get lost with it's mate under the table. He wasn't sure how much doom and gloom there would be, but he'd been goddamn surprised before, so. Who was he to say? He was just the fuckin' messenger.

Bruce glanced down at his watch and, unfortunately, it was getting close to time to pick his sister up back at school. Or meet her at the van, really. He leaned up to pull his wallet out of his back pocket, then put some money on the table. "Uh, we should probably head back. I can warm up the van for when Bree's done with her practice," he said and pocketed his wallet.

"Sure thing, compadre," he said, digging his own wallet out of the depths of his messenger bag. He hated having it in his back pocket, it made his ass feel very uneven. No good. He threw down enough money to cover his share of the food, and tucked the wallet away again, sliding out of the booth and heading toward the door. "I'm goin' thisaway," he said, nodding away from the direction of the school. "So I'll catch you later?"

"I can give you a ride, man. It's cool," Bruce said with a shrug as he got up out of the booth, dragging his backpack with him. He shot Jesse a smile as he shouldered the bag. It had seemed kind of an unspoken offer to him before, but he wasn't going to leave it that way and feel like a jerk about it.

"... oh, sure cool, thanks," Jesse said after a pause to remember if Bruce had said that before. He couldn't recall, but he did that sometimes with conversations. He gave the guy a bright grin back and followed along back toward the school. Perhaps sad and pathetic, but a little more time sounded like a good plan to him.