townes zamoras. 18.

mid-january, 89 add.

morning.

He found his first class of the new semester without too much trouble and settled into the first row, waiting expectantly for Esper to arrive.

He never did.

The professor passed out the syllabus, but Townes barely paid attention. He could read it himself later.

Did they not have the same class schedule anymore? Had his father finally given up on forcing them to spend all their time together? Had he slept through it? Did he drop out?

He had to know. So after class, he went to introduce himself to the professor- as he always did.

"Hi, Professor. I'm Townes Zamoras," he said, shaking the man's hand. "I'm looking forward to this class."

"Excellent!" the professor replied. "I hope you find the course engaging."

"I have no doubts," Townes smiled. "I also wanted to ask- I know someone who should be in this class, and I didn't see them today. Is it okay if I take an extra syllabus?"

"No problem," he replied. "What's their name? I can check my list."

"Esper Myrellis-Verilla."

He didn't even bother double checking. "Yes. He's in this class. Feel free to pass along the syllabus. Glad to see you looking out for your classmates!"

"Of course. Great to meet you, Professor."

"You as well, Mr. Zamoras."

He repeated the process in his afternoon class, confirming Esper should have been there and taking the syllabus.

Now he had two.

And he'd been told to pass them along…

…and literally everyone knew he lived in the Victor's Village…

…and it wasn't like he had anything better to be doing…

…and it had been weeks since he'd been able to get a rise out of him…

…and maybe this would be fun.

So Townes took a bus across the city.

A teenage girl opened the door. She wore her long, wavy brown hair loose, and her features were gentle- her nose was rounded, and her jawline soft, and her blue eyes warm. Her brow furrowed as she took him in.

"Hello…?" she asked.

"Hi," he said, giving her a warm smile. "My name is Townes Zamoras."

"Ohhh."

"Sorry, what?"

"Nothing," she rushed. "I've just heard a bit about you. Sorry. You can come in."

"Thanks," he said, knocking the slush off his boots before stepping inside. "This place is pretty nice!"

It was nice. The Victor's Village in Six was made up of a dozen houses that comprised a few blocks, and was circled by a gate. All the houses were more or less similar- three stories of red brick and white window panes, luxurious less in their design than in their size and stature. He'd found the right house easily- it was the only one with lights on inside. The inside was nice, too. Well-furnished and clean.

"It's big," Rhylee agreed. "We each have our own room, and there's still extra bedrooms."

"Wow."

"Yeah."

"I don't think I caught your name, by the way."

"Oh! Sorry. I'm Rhylee," she answered. "I was about to make some hot chocolate if you wanted any. The Fenleys left some of the powder mix stuff here when they left."

"That sounds amazing."

She nodded and led the way into the kitchen. "Ryden!" she called. "Townes is here!"

Footsteps thundered against the ceiling. Townes glanced at Rhylee, who seemed to be holding back a laugh. In no time at all, Ryden came crashing down the steps, coming to an abrupt stop as he saw Townes. "Hi," he said, breathless.

"Hi," Townes said, grinning.

"Hot cocoa?" Rhylee asked him.

"Yes please," Ryden answered. He followed them into the kitchen, and both he and Townes sat at the kitchen table. "I didn't know you were gonna visit," he told Townes.

"I wasn't planning on it," he replied, "but I have some class stuff for your brother."

"He should be back soon, I think," Rhylee said.

"What kind of class stuff?" Ryden asked.

"Two syllabi," he answered. "Where'd he go?"

Rhylee and Ryden shared a look. "He had some appointments," Rhylee said.

"So he'll be back tomorrow?"

"I think so," Rhylee said.

"Townes," Ryden said, "I told my teacher about the thing you said. She said she thinks we could have gotten up to fifteen bricks!"

"That's really good!"

Ryden shook his head. "I want to get to twenty."

"That's a lot of bricks!"

"Yeah."

"When's your next event?"

"It's in February, I think," he said. "And the big competition is in April."

"Exciting!"

"Yeah. I'm kinda nervous too, though."

"Don't be. You've got plenty of time," Townes said. He turned to Rhylee. "How was your break?"

"Good, for the most part," she said. He caught her looking at Ryden again. "It was nice to have a break. I think we all needed it."

"For sure."

"We played a lot of games," Ryden said.

"What kind of games?"

"Board games, mostly," Rhylee said.

"I won Sorry the most," Ryden informed him.

"I believe it," Townes replied. "I used to have this game where it was like… a tower with a bunch of bricks in it, and you'd have to pull them all out. If you made the tower fall, you lost."

"We don't have that one," Ryden said.

"I think you'd like it," Townes said. "My Science Olympiad team used to play it all the time."

"Oooh," Ryden said, "you should bring it next time!"

"Next time?"

"Yeah."

Townes smiled. "All right," he said. "Next time."

Rhylee pulled four mugs out of a cabinet. "Are you okay with the orange one?" she asked, showing him the mug.

"It's perfect," he said.

Back towards the front of the house, Townes heard the door open and shut.

"Esper?" Rhylee called. When there was no response, she sighed and tried again, louder this time. "Esper?"

"Yeah. It's me."

"We're in the kitchen."

"Be there in a sec."

"He doesn't know you're here, right?" Rhylee asked, bringing her volume back down to normal.

"Probably not."

He walked in just as Rhylee passed Townes his hot chocolate. "What the ffff…frick?"

Townes gave Esper his sweetest smile. "Hello!"

"Why are you in my house?" he asked.

"Rhylee let me in," he said.

Esper looked at his sister. "You what?"

"It was cold," Rhylee said. "Do you want some hot chocolate? I made enough for four."

"Yeah, thanks," Esper said.

"Next time he's gonna bring a board game," Ryden said.

"Next time?"

"Next time," Townes said, still smiling. He took a sip of his drink. "Rhylee, this is really good."

"Thanks!"

"Why are you actually here?" Esper asked.

"Uh, hello? You missed a whole day," he replied.

"It was syllabus day."

"Yeah, and I brought the syllabi."

Esper's eyes narrowed. "You came all the way here to give me syllabi," he said slowly. "That you could've given me tomorrow."

"No, no no no," Townes replied. "I came to see Ryden too."

Ryden nodded helpfully.

"I thought that was a joke."

Townes cocked his head. "I never joke about my Science Olympiad friends."

"Me neither," Ryden said.

Esper sighed, crossing his arms. "Can I have the syllabi?"

"Don't do homework right now," Rhylee interjected. "Just relax. Sit down."

"Yeah, Esper, relax," Townes said.

"I just wanted to look at them," Esper said, but he did sit on Ryden's other side.

"They're pretty standard stuff," Townes said. "The professors say hi, by the way."

"Do they?"

"No. I was just being polite on their behalf."

"You, polite?"

"I'm very polite," Townes said. "See? Look at how good of a houseguest I am."

"A houseguest that came over uninvited?"

"Yes, because that's more exciting."

Rhylee looked over at Ryden. "Were they like this at your invitational?" she asked.

"No," Ryden said.

"It's not exciting to have strangers in your house," Esper said.

"First of all, since when am I a stranger?" Townes pointed out. "Second of all, yes it is. That's what a party is."

"I thought we established how I feel about parties."

"True," Townes said. "I saw your speech for Six, by the way."

"What about it?"

"Took a while to get the party started after that."

"Oh no. What a tragedy."

"Not really," Townes said. "I mean, my father hated it for sure, but other than that…"

"What was his problem with it?"

"It took longer for everyone to get in a party mood. And he was the one in charge of the parties and blah blah blah. I wasn't really listening."

"Well, that's not new."

"You ruining a party? No, it's not."

"You not listening. See? You just did it again."

"Esper, here's your hot chocolate," Rhylee interrupted, half-smiling. "I think I'm gonna take mine upstairs. Ryden, wanna come with?"

Ryden looked confused, standing slowly from the table. "I…"

"Great," she said, picking up their mugs. "It was nice to meet you, Townes."

"See you next time," Ryden said, doing a little wave.

"Thanks again for the hot chocolate," he said.

"No problem," she said. They headed out of the kitchen, their footsteps fading as they made their way upstairs.

Esper sighed. "Can I have the syllabi now?"

"Sure," Townes said. He reached for his backpack, which he'd put on the floor. "Where were you today?"

"I had some appointments," Esper said, taking a sip from his mug. His was covered in blue swirls, the lighter and darker shades mingling as they swooped across the surface.

"For what, Victor stuff?"

"No, you idiot, with a doctor."

"For your ear?"

"For PTSD," he said.

"Oh, shit."

"And insomnia."

"I could've told you that one," Townes said.

"Well, I didn't ask."

"Does this mean no more falling asleep on me?"

Esper scowled. "It was one time."

"Yeah, for one entire class."

"That was a one-time thing," he said.

"Uh-huh. Oh- how was the tour?"

Esper was silent, taking a long drink of his hot cocoa. "Bad," he eventually answered.

"Yeah?"

"Very."

"It must have been nice to, like… go somewhere, though."

"It might have been, if it wasn't so fast and so awful," Esper said. "And in the middle of winter."

"Were any of them nice?"

"Seven was pretty. And I didn't know either of the tributes. That helped a lot."

"Which one was the worst one, then?"

"Four."

"That was the kid who cut your ear off, right?"

"Lio."

"What?"

"His name was Lio," Esper said. "And I fucked Sirenna over, too."

"I thought you fucked over a lot of people."

"I did."

"Well it makes sense that it would suck, then," Townes said. "Since you did all that shit."

"I didn't want to," Esper said. "It wasn't like I enjoyed it."

"Really."

Esper set his mug down. "Has it ever occurred to you that I never signed up for the Games?"

Townes furrowed his brow. "What do you mean?"

"I didn't Volunteer," Esper said. "I wasn't a Career. I just allied with them so they could get me to the end. I had a normal life before that. I just wanted to go back to it. I just wanted to go home."

Townes didn't interrupt.

"I had to make sure that they-" he pointed at the ceiling, towards his sibling's rooms- "weren't left with no one to look out for them. But I didn't enjoy a second of it. I think it's easy for people like you to forget that just because I'm not dead doesn't mean everything was a great fuckin' time. Everything didn't go back to normal when I got home. Ryden spent a couple months afraid to even be around me. I couldn't even look at myself. You said it yourself- I've been a fucking mess over it. Because it was awful, and it was never something I wanted."

Townes listened.

"So yeah, I fucked them over. And they're dead, and I hate that. I do. But that went both ways. I wasn't the only one doing that stuff. They fucked me up, too, and I just- it's not like I moved on from that. It's not just over for me. And I never wanted it in the first place. They were victims, but so was I. Does that make sense to you?"

"Yeah," Townes said quietly. "It does."

"Good." Esper slumped in his chair, and he reached for his mug, rant completed.

"If you had to do it again," Townes asked, "would you?"

"Only if it was for them," Esper said without hesitation, gesturing upwards again.

"That's the only reason?"

"The only reason."

Townes regarded Esper for a long moment, and Esper stared back, his gaze more alert than Townes remembered seeing it in a long while.

"Good to know," Townes said.

Esper broke eye contact with an eye roll. "Great," he said. He pointed to the packets Townes had set on the table. "Can I have those now?"

"Oh. Yeah. Here," Townes said, passing them along.

"Thanks."

the next day.

morning.

The next morning, Esper was in class.

"You look terrible," Townes said cheerfully.

"You never shut up, do you?"

"I'm just excited to have some decent competition in this class," Townes replied.

"Excited?"

"Isn't that what I said?"

"That I'm here?"

"I think you're misremembering again," Townes informed him.

"No, I'm reading between the lines."

"You can read?" Townes asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Don't be so surprised. There's plenty of proof."

"Weird, I'm not seeing any."

"Sounds like a you problem."

"That you can't read?"

"I can read."

"Prove it."

"Give me a second." Esper flipped open his notebook and jotted something down. "Here," he said. "'Townes Zamoras is an idiot.' See?"

"You just showed me you can write, not read. You didn't even prove your own point."

"You have to be able to read to write."

"Not necessarily."

"How the fuck would that work?"

"Tracing."

"What was I tracing?" Esper demanded.

"That's a good point," Townes mused. "No one's ever written that sentence before. There would be no reference."

"Pretty sure that sentence has been written plenty of times-"

"Good morning, and welcome to the first day of class," their professor announced. "Make sure you took a copy of the syllabus from the table by the door."

Esper fell silent, but when Townes stole a glance, he caught a smirk.

(He wondered if that meant Esper had felt a shift between them, too.)