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Post by Rhys Adler on May 29, 2010 2:02:11 GMT -5
Rhys leaned back awkwardly in his seat and looked out the window. Most of it was clouds, but he could make out land down there, so they'd gotten over the Atlantic at least. They would probably be in Paris soon enough.
He could hardly believe this was actually happening; they were actually going to Paris for a week, and his jackass roommate had bought him a first class ticket. Rhys kept glancing around himself every few minutes, and the one time there'd been a sudden loud noise, he'd nearly bolted out of his seat. The sudoku book he'd brought for the trip was down to two puzzles, both of which weren't so much impossible as annoying enough that he didn't care enough to finish them, and he was down to drawing stick figures of his friends and teachers in the margins and wondering how much of a dork he'd be if he just looked up how the damn math worked in number squares.
He sighed.
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Post by Blaise Park on May 29, 2010 2:54:11 GMT -5
Blaise sat on the aisle beside Rhys with his seat leaned back and slumped down in the soft chair, half watching the in-flight movie -- it was a pretty decent romantic comedy with Gerard Butler -- and half watching his roommate. He'd sampled most of the food, drank a few sodas, and more or less exhausted himself of any source of entertainment at his disposal. His phone got no reception during the flight which meant he couldn't text Alex, which left his only source of entertainment as Rhys.
The flight was about half over, which meant it was probably as safe a time as any to let Rhys know what was going on. It wasn't like he could just up and leave Paris, after all.
"Just to let you know," he began casually, "my mother might be under the impression that I'm bringing my boyfriend home for spring break." Blaise shot his roommate a cocky grin.
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Post by Rhys Adler on May 29, 2010 2:59:34 GMT -5
Rhys looked at Blaise.
Rhys narrowed his eyes into tiny slits and glared at Blaise.
Rhys' nostrils flared, his eyebrow began to twitch, and a deep growling noise began in his throat.
"What."
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Post by Blaise Park on May 29, 2010 3:21:40 GMT -5
"I was talking to her about bringing a friend home, and I mentioned having a boyfriend, and my mother might have drawn some inaccurate conclusions."
Rhys was probably trying to be threatening, but after being around Rhys for a while, it was sort of amusing... and kind of hot. He wondered how far he could get away with pushing him before he started actually trying to kill him.
"I couldn't bare to correct her. She'd be so disappointed." Blaise's grin never left his face.
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Post by Rhys Adler on May 29, 2010 3:41:28 GMT -5
"And why the hell would somebody believe you're my..." Rhys couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence. "What does this- what the hell are you even trying to do? Do you just randomly bring up gay shit to piss me off or does this have some purpose?"
"I mean... I'm not gonna pretend we're dating. She'll figure it out, unless you're saying your mother's an idiot."
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Post by Blaise Park on May 29, 2010 3:50:53 GMT -5
Blaise snorted. "It's not all about you, stupid," he said, bitterness creeping into his voice. "I told my mother I was bringing a boyfriend home before I even asked you to come. Besides, my mother has an unfortunate tendency to only see what she wants to see. She probably wouldn't know the difference."
Despite everything, Blaise was actually kind of happy Alex wasn't coming over. His mother might have actually liked Alex. For all of the potential problems with Rhys, if nothing else, Blaise knew his mother would hate him. And that was going to make this entire trip worth it.
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Post by Rhys Adler on May 29, 2010 3:54:27 GMT -5
Rhys leaned back in his chair again and crossed his arms. Stupid Blaise and his stupid everything. "Then why the hell do you look at me like you're trying to fuck with me?"
The tone of Blaise's voice made him curious, though. "Why'd you tell her that, then?" he said much more calmly. "You asked Alex the same night you asked me. Or was this a different boyfriend I just never met?"
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Post by Blaise Park on May 29, 2010 4:02:36 GMT -5
"Because she's my mother." He shrugged. "We started arguing and I said what I thought would piss her off most. Don't you ever do that with your parents?"
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Post by Rhys Adler on May 29, 2010 4:11:28 GMT -5
Rhys thought about that for a moment. It never really occurred to him that someone like Blaise wouldn't get along with his parents. If they didn't get along, where did Blaise get all that money?
"No? My mom's... I don't... I try not to pay attention to her. And my stepdad's nice, really, so." He sighed and looked at Blaise. "So your mom's gonna think you're dating me because it pisses her off, and you're bringing me in to get yelled at. Or is she just gonna be all passive-aggressive or... y'know, nevermind. So long as I don't have to get screamed at I'm fine."
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Post by Blaise Park on May 29, 2010 4:20:18 GMT -5
"I've never heard my mother scream at anyone. If she's angry, she just ignores you and talks to you through the servants. Besides, if she gets mad at anyone, it's going to be me." Blaise smirked bitterly. "When she's around you, she'll probably pretend she doesn't speak English."
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Post by Rhys Adler on May 29, 2010 4:23:37 GMT -5
Rhys looked over Blaise's expression and shifted uncomfortably.
"So... what d'you... wanna do when we get there?"
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Post by Blaise Park on May 29, 2010 4:39:44 GMT -5
"We could make out in front of my mother and see how long it takes her to have an aneurysm," he suggested, leaning toward his roommate. "I'm betting on about three minutes, honestly, though we should probably save that. We've got an entire week to make my mother uncomfortable. "
"Other than that...My house has an indoor pool, we have a tennis court, we could do basically anything you wanted in Paris." He shrugged. "Museums, shopping, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Versaille, restaurants, Euro Disney, the zoo, you name it. Hell, if you just want to cruise around the city in the limo, we probably could."
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Post by Rhys Adler on May 29, 2010 4:52:43 GMT -5
Rhys thought about that. He missed swimming, but that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. The zoo would be fun. The rest... he really had no idea. Euro Disney? He had no money, and he had no idea what Blaise was offering. Museums were boring, shopping he wouldn't know what to do with, and he didn't even know what was in Notre Dame or Versailles except probably not an actual hunchbacked guy who rang bells.
"No, what do you wanna do?" he insisted. "I'm not gonna be able to think of anything the first day- hell, if it's half the place you say it is I'm probably gonna walk around all day with my mouth hanging open lookin' like I just got here from Mars." He made an exaggerated dumbstruck gaping face, then looked back at Blaise and... couldn't quite help smirking. "Your house, you be the tour guide?"
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Post by Blaise Park on May 29, 2010 5:01:56 GMT -5
Blaise grinned. "That sounds good. We'll see which guest room you would rather stay in, introduce you to the servants..." Blaise trailed off and looked thoughtful for a moment, then shot Rhys an evil grin that would have put Dunehelden's headmistress to shame.
"You know," he mused, "in France, the drinking age is sixteen. You've never drank before, have you?"
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Post by Rhys Adler on May 29, 2010 5:04:46 GMT -5
"Nnno," he said slowly. His mother would've murdered him if he'd even tried it anywhere near her- not that he'd thought about it that much. "Why?"
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Post by Blaise Park on May 29, 2010 5:20:03 GMT -5
Blaise's grin widened, if it were at all possible. "Just curious, really."
Oh, that was definitely going to be fun. The main question was whether it would be better to use the good wine or just take him out and try to make him drink German beer.
"We'll have a few hours before dinner when we get to my house, which should give us enough time to get settled in. After dinner, we can go swimming or set up the X-Box or something." Blaise folded his arms behind his head and settled back in the seat.
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Post by Rhys Adler on May 29, 2010 5:31:11 GMT -5
Rhys smirked, then turned to look out the window again.
"Actually, I figured out what I want to do. We haven't seen real sun in like three months, and that was winter. We can play the X-Box or something, but I want to go outside."
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Post by Blaise Park on May 29, 2010 5:45:55 GMT -5
"Well, we can always wander around Paris, though if you want trees and grass and all that, it's going to be a bit harder to come by." Blaise thought for a bit. "There are a few parks and gardens in the city, there's a country club about five minutes from our house though that's mostly for golf, and... there's a stable for horse back riding near the country club. I've never been, but one of my friends is related to the owner."
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Post by Rhys Adler on May 29, 2010 5:51:59 GMT -5
The first thing that twigged Rhys' interest was the statement that Blaise had friends; he quickly felt guilty about that, however, and shoved it back into his mind somewhere he could use it next time he actually needed an insult.
The second thing was horses, to which some small part of him lit up in a kind of glee seldom seen outside 11-year-old WASP girls who'd just discovered Black Beauty.
"That sounds great," he replied softly, eyes brightening. "Yeah, uhm. That, we can do that, maybe both of those things. Whatever works."
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Post by Blaise Park on May 29, 2010 6:07:34 GMT -5
Blaise smiled, more than a little pleased that Rhys seemed to have found something that interested him. He wasn't exactly looking forward to horseback riding; he'd only tried once before and he'd genuinely been pretty terrible at it, but he'd be willing to put up with it if it would make Rhys that happy. He'd only seen the other boy smile maybe a total of five or six times in the four months they'd been rooming together, and he seemed really damn excited about riding horses.
"Alright, we'll go horseback riding before dinner," he said. "And for dinner, my mom probably won't care if we're not there, and I haven't had McDonalds in months. Then we can go home and go swimming."
They would have plenty of time for swimming and video games, especially considering that the timezone in Paris was six hours ahead of the timezone Dunehelden was running from. They would probably be up until at least six in the morning.
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Post by Rhys Adler on May 29, 2010 6:20:40 GMT -5
Rhys grinned broadly, but it dropped after a moment.
"That's great. Uh- heh, I didn't know France had McDonald's. Uh." He licked his lips. "That sounds great, but... I can't swim. Only thing. You can if you want? I'm not gonna make trouble intentionally."
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Post by Blaise Park on May 29, 2010 6:27:06 GMT -5
"Yeah? I have no idea how to ride a horse, so this will be an adventure for both of us. Besides, you don't need to be able to swim to get in the water. If you need swim trunks, I probably have some that could fit you."
Blaise laughed. "And everywhere has McDonalds."
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Post by Rhys Adler on May 29, 2010 6:31:37 GMT -5
Rhys grimaced. Stupid fucking generous pretty French bastard.
"No, uhm..." He sighed. "Chlorine helps, but I- I don't do 'submerged in water'. It's kinda like silver t'me," he said in a low, sad voice. "I used to swim. I can barely take a damn shower without a production now."
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Post by Blaise Park on May 29, 2010 6:39:29 GMT -5
Blaise looked at him sympathetically. "Is it just water? We could try filling the pool with wine or Coca Cola or something." He smirked. "I'm sure my mother would love that. Or you could just shove me in the pool until it gets boring."
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Post by Rhys Adler on May 29, 2010 6:47:17 GMT -5
Rhys barely managed not to flinch. He had been gearing himself up for his roommate deciding to use that as a great excuse to stick his hand in a bowl of water while he was asleep. He still wasn't sure that it wouldn't be used against him in some way, and the only reason he'd said anything was that he expected it might be more dangerous if Blaise didn't know.
He looked over the boy, not sure of what to do, forcing himself to think over some of the things Blaise had said in a more comprehensive light than 'jerkass roommate'.
"What would you do if I stopped being entertaining?" he finally replied.
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