Here's part two. This story is now set a little more firmly around the vicinity of Blue Lily, Lily Blue. This part is a bit shippier than part one, but I still wouldn't describe it as shippy. I realized towards the end that you could probably read it as Adam/Gansey if you wanted too, so if that's your thing, knock yourself out.
As school cafeteria food went, the food at Aglionby was pretty good. However, since there seemed to be rule that school food couldn't actually be good, the food at Aglionby was just perpetually disappointing as opposed to inedible the way the food at Henrietta's public schools was. Not that Adam was in the position to have an opinion, however, if left to his own devices he would never shell out the money for lunch at all, something that a certain someone had taken it upon themself to fix.
"Do you know where Gansey is?" Adam asked, sticking a spoon into a cup of yogurt he and Ronan were both pretending Ronan hadn't bought specifically for him.
Ronan shrugged carefully unwrapping the greasy wax paper around one of the two panini he'd bought from the lunch line. He took a big bite out of the corner of one half of the just vaguely congealed sandwich and nudged the other half across the tray towards Adam without looking at him or the food. "I dunno," he said with his mouth full. "Haven't seen him since third hour."
Adam took the offered half a sandwich and nibbled off the corner, being careful not to look at Ronan. This was the way that he and Ronan had been sharing lunch for months. Ronan would buy twice as much food as he actually needed and then Adam would eat the extra so it wouldn't go to waste. It drove Gansey mad. Everytime it happened Adam could see him biting his tongue to keep from asking the big, dreaded question, "What is the difference between Ronan's charity and mine?" He hadn't actually asked yet, for which Adam was thankful because if he did Adam would be forced to start to fight to hide the fact that he had no good answer to that question. He and Gansey hadn't been fighting recently, and Adam would do anything to make sure it stayed that way. The fact that they'd lasted this long told him that Gansey felt the same way.
"He has history fourth hour," Adam said, swallowing before he spoke. He was always careful about stuff like not talking with his mouth full. Ronan could get away with it, but Adam would end up looking like trailer trash. "Maybe they talked about something interesting and got caught up in a discussion with the teacher."
Ronan snorted. "Not likely," he said. "That class he's taking is specifically about modern history. Gansey hates anything that happened after the sixteenth century."
"How do you know that?" Adam asked.
"How do you not?" Ronan snorted. "It's one of his favorite topics when he's not rambling about Glendower. You should have heard the night he spent an hour and a half discussing why it's much more important for people to know about Savonarola than Watergate."
Adam's heart leapt the way it always did when he realized one of the Aglionby boys knew something he didn't. "Who's Savonarola?"
Ronan shrugged. "You think I know?"
Adam forced himself to keep from running to the library right now and looking the information up. He reminded himself that he was a senior, if he hadn't needed to know who that was before now, he would be fine. "Fine, but where's Gansey?" he said.
Ronan shrugged. "Maybe he missed a meeting this morning and is catching up on it."
"What do you mean, missed a meeting?" Adam asked. "I didn't think he had any morning meetings."
"He doesn't usually, but he might have today, I don't keep an eye on his schedule," Ronan polished off his half of the first sandwich and moved on to the second, pushing half towards Adam again. "He overslept this morning. We got here just as the five minute bell was ringing."
Adam had been wondering why Ronan and Gansey were almost late for first hour, but he'd assumed Gansey had been dragging Ronan out of bed not the other way around. "Is he sick?"
"Don't think so," Ronan said, his mouth full again. "I think he just overslept."
Adam was just contemplating how likely Gansey oversleeping with no underlying cause was when Matthew bounced over, holding a cup of chocolate pudding and plopped down next to Ronan, chattering about some kind of news that had nothing to do with Adam. With Ronan firmly distracted, Adam had to reside himself to the end of the conversation at least for the time being.
Gansey turned up again just before sixth hour chemistry which he and Adam had together. Adam and Ronan had parted ways at the door to the classroom which had left Adam alone waiting for Gansey and worrying.
Gansey ducked into the classroom just before the bell rang, his head ducked low and his books hugged tightly against his chest. He half fell into his desk without looking at Adam.
"Where were you during lunch?" Adam asked. "Ronan and I were looking for you."
"Nowhere," Gansey said, his head still down. He sounded like he was breathless and was trying to hide it. "I had something to take care of."
"Okay," Adam said, trying to decide whether or not to push. "Are you ready for this quiz?"
"Quiz?" Gansey repeated without lifting his head. "What-what are you talking about?"
"The quiz in this class," Adam said. "Ms. Woods told us about it last week. Remember?"
"Oh, yes," Gansey said after a moment. "Yes, I remember."
"Please tell me you studied," Adam said. Chemistry and Gansey didn't mix very well, and while Gansey might have been able to dredge up a passing grade without studying, the chances of him managing to actually fail where high enough to make Adam nervous.
"Yes, I studied, I just-" Gansey dropped his pencil and it rolled across the floor to rest under the radiator. He dove after it, cursing in foul enough terms that Ronan might have been proud. When he returned to his desk his hands were shaking visibly and he still wouldn't look at Adam.
"Gansey, is everything-" Adam began but then Ms. Woods began handing out the quiz sheets and there was no more time to talk.
Gansey didn't so much as look at him for the rest of the class.
Ronan was waiting for Adam by his locker when school got out. "You don't work until late tonight," he said. "Come over to Monmouth. Blue's free too. We're going to watch a movie."
"I have homework," Adam said more because he felt like he had to raise some kind of objection than because he actually didn't want to go.
"You can do it while the movie's on," Ronan said. "Come on; it will be fun."
"Fine," Adam gave in and followed Ronan out of the school. "Where's Gansey?" he asked looking around for their friend.
"He said something about meetings," Ronan said with a shrug. "He'll be back at Monmouth probably in a half hour or so. If not Noah will probably be happy to use my phone to spam call him."
Adam thought of Gansey's shaking hands as he rescued his pencil from the floor and how crushed he'd looked when he'd handed his chemistry quiz in. He wasn't sure how Gansey would react to being spam called today. He wondered if he should point that out, but Ronan was already talking about something else and the moment had passed.
"No, let's not watch that," Noah moaned looking at the DVD Ronan was holding up. "Let's watch something fun!"
"This is fun," Ronan said looking a little offended.
"I've seen that movie," Blue said. "It's all fast cars and explosions. Let's watch something that actually has a plot."
Adam tried to ignore their minor argument by focusing on his calculus homework. The assignment would have been so much easier without all the background noise. He should have done the sensible thing and just gone back to St. Agnes. He was never going to get ahead if he continued running around doing things for fun when he was supposed to be working to better himself.
The argument broke off with the sound of an old Mustang pulling up in front of Monmouth. "Gansey's back!" Noah chirped. "He'll be able to settle this argument."
Ronan grumbled, mostly because they all knew Gansey would never watch a plotless action movie voluntarily so Ronan's choice was officially out of the running, but didn't make any outright complaints.
It took a surprisingly long time for Gansey to get upstairs, though that was probably because they were all used to him racing up the stairs like he had fifty million infinitely more interesting things to be doing (which was usually true). Finally reached the top of the stairs and let himself in.
"Hi, Gansey!" Noah waved. "We're going to have a movie night! Well, movie afternoon as the case may be, but whatever."
The look he gave them was a sort of disappointed blankness, like he really wished none of them were there at all. Adam had to be imagining it; he had never known Gansey not to want them around, if only so he had someone to ramble on endlessly too.
"Gansey?" Adam ventured.
Gansey's gaze focused on him. His face spasmed for a moment, like he was trying to put on a more positive expression and failing. "Why aren't you at work?" he asked.
Adam jumped. He had never heard Gansey sound so cold before. "I don't work until late tonight," Adam said. "Is there something wrong with that?"
"No, no, there's not," Gansey said. His voice was sharp and horrible and wrong. He barely sounded like himself. "There's nothing wrong with that. It's not like you could have told me you had plans, but I guess my life revolves around you people anyway, so what does it matter?" He threw his messenger bag onto his bed and the contents spilled across the bed, the beloved journal sliding off the comforter onto the floor. Gansey didn't even seem to notice.
Vaguely, Adam was aware of Noah fading away into nothingness and Ronan beginning to protest, but mostly he was numb. Adam had expected to fight with Gansey again, but he hadn't expected it to be like this. He'd expected a blow-out about bills or tution of one too many meals slyly bought. He didn't know how to deal with Gansey like this.
Blue stepped up to the plate before Adam could even begin to figure out what to say. "We didn't mean it like that, Gansey," she said. "But you seem kind of upset. Did something happen today?"
"No!" Gansey snapped. That was even more out of character. Gansey got annoyed at Adam all the time, but never at Blue. "Nothing happened today! Everything's splendid, thank you very much!"
Adam did not think he'd ever heard a less convincing argument.
"I'm going to take a shower," Gansey said, turning away from them. Adam heard him take a deep, noisy breath through his teeth. "You all can carry on with whatever you were doing."
None of them so much as moved until the bathroom door slammed behind Gansey. None of them moved when the water started running. None of them moved as time dragged on and on. Even Ronan, who had been seconds from diving headfirst into a rage didn't move as the true weight of what had just happened crashed down on him.
Eventually, however, without saying anything, Ronan got up and went into his room. He came back carrying another DVD case. He took the DVD out and put it into the player. As movie began Adam realized it was a Disney movie.
"What movie is this?" he asked.
"The Lion King," Ronan said without looking over. He was staring at the screen with almost single-minded determination. "It was one of the only movies we had as kids which Dad had bought instead of just dreaming a copy. It was always Declan's favorite."
Adam wouldn't have thought of Declan Lynch as the sort of person who had ever enjoyed Disney movies, but that and wondering what Niall Lynch's dreamed copies of Disney movies were like helped distract him until the shower finally turned off. It was a long time after the water had turned on had started. Normally Adam would have been jealous of Gansey's ability to just take a shower without calculating just how much each drop of water would cost him, but today that was the last thing on his mind.
Finally Gansey opened the bathroom door and came out. Adam almost wished he hadn't, because Gansey's eyes were red with tears.
Gansey looked at them for a minute, then his head dropped and he looked away. "I'm sorry about before," he whispered. "I have no excuse."
That was the worst part. Ronan would have had an excuse, Blue would have had an excuse, even Adam would have had an excuse, but Gansey didn't even try to come up with one. He was just going to take whatever they threw at him without even trying to explain why.
They teased Gansey about his clothes and his car and his habits and his obsession with Glendower. Ronan poked and screamed at him when he was in a bad mood, Blue scolded him and he and Adam had fought on a hundred different occasions, but something like this had never happened before. The things they did never seemed to touch him. The real world couldn't hurt Richard Campbell Gansey III. It had never occured to Adam that Gansey could have a bad day, that he could resent their presence, that he could want or need time alone to put himself back together. In some ways he had not seen Gansey as human enough for any of that.
Adam slowly unfolded himself from the floor and walked over to Gansey's closet. He gathered a pair of Gansey's pajama pants and the yellow sweater he wore so often. It was hideous, but Adam was also pretty sure if was one of Gansey's favorite articles of clothing. It didn't matter how ugly the sweater was, if Gansey liked it he probably would find it comforting and that was what mattered right now.
He carried the clothes over to his friend and Gansey looked away more if that was possible. He was afraid Adam was going to be angry. The realization cut Adam to the core. It had never occurred to him that Gansey might think that they were going to get in a fight now when he was so obviously upset. He'd never thought that Gansey didn't understand that.
Adam pushed the clothes into Gansey's arms and Gansey glanced up, his eyes wide with surprise. There were pretty prominent dark circles under his eyes, and Adam remembered Ronan mentioning that Gansey had overslept this morning. Adam knew that Gansey had insomnia, but they didn't discuss it very often. Ronan would mention in passing that he and Gansey had gone to the gas station to by orange juice at three am and gotten weird looks, but Adam didn't know exactly how bad Gansey's insomnia was. How often couldn't he sleep? Did he take medication? How much sleep had he actually gotten last night?
"Take your contacts out and put these on," Adam told Gansey, indicating the clothes. "You look really tired."
Gansey finally met his eyes for the first time in the conversation. He looked confused, like he couldn't quite figure out why Adam wasn't screaming at him. "Okay," he said after a moment, obviously deciding it was best not to comment.
Gansey retreated into the bathroom to change and Adam returned to his place on the floor next Ronan. His calculus homework was completely forgotten, and he didn't think he'd be able to get back in the right frame of mind to complete it for a while yet. Blue snatched the remote from Ronan and moved to start to movie again. Ronan lunged for it and she stopped him by planting her foot against the side of his face.
The bathroom door opened. "Come sit down, Gansey," Blue called. Gansey hesitated just long enough for Adam to wonder what was stopping him before he moved across the room and sat down on the couch next to Blue.
"I really am sorry for snapping at you," Gansey said after a moment. He was staring down at his hands and not looking at any of them. "And for scaring Noah away. I didn't mean any of it."
"Gansey, it's fine," Blue soothed. She patted Gansey's leg and Adam looked away feeling like he was intruding on something private. "You're allowed to be frustrated every now and then; we're not going to hate you forever because of it. And Noah will turn up again; he's not going to vanish into the ether just because you had a bad day."
Gansey didn't reply and Adam wracked his brain trying to figure out what the right thing to say. It was obvious that Blue was doing the same thing. Thankfully, it was Ronan who saved them all by shoving aside Blue's foot and snatching the remote back. "Alright," he said with an air of finality. "Now that that's all take care of, let's get back to this movie."
For a few minutes they watched the movie in silence, then Gansey's collapsed against the armrest of the couch looking like he was going to fall asleep. Blue pulled his legs up onto the couch as well and after a minute's consideration, Adam reached out and pulled Gansey's glasses off. Ronan got up and stalked across the room. A moment later he returned and dumped Gansey's comforter onto their nearly asleep friend in his characteristic type of caring.
"Go to sleep, Gansey," Blue said. "We're going to order pizza soon; we'll wake you when it gets here." She was rubbing Gansey's foot and again Adam felt like he was seeing something he shouldn't. Was there something going on there, or was he just reading too far into it?
"Wait," he said, his mind catching up with Blue's words. "We're ordering pizza?"
"Of course you're ordering pizza," Noah said. "You can't have a movie night without pizza!" He was sitting on the arm of the couch just above Gansey's head.
"When did you come back?" Blue asked.
Noah just grinned and didn't reply.
"Yes," Ronan said when it became obvious Noah wasn't going to relent and say something. "We're getting pizza."
Ronan actually got up and went to get Gansey's phone which seemed like a weird workaround of the whole cellphone thing. Adam certainly hoped that Declan didn't check the phone bill to see if Ronan was using his phone for things like ordering pizza while still ignoring calls, but after a moment Adam had to admit that wouldn't actually surprise him knowing the Lynch brothers.
"Okay," Ronan said, coming back. "What do we want?"
When the pizza guy pulled up Ronan paused the movie and Blue and Adam handed over their parts of the bill. Ronan gathered the money and retrieved his wallet from Chainsaw's beak. He made no move to wake Gansey or find the other boy's wallet. Ronan and Gansey were less diligent about paying for their own portions of food than Adam and Blue were. This was partially because Ronan and Gansey were both so rich that an order of pizza was no object and also because they lived together and were always buying each other food and groceries. This would not be the first time Ronan paid for Gansey's food and it wouldn't be the last; Gansey would do the same.
Ronan went downstairs and returned a minute later with his arms full of pizza boxes. Adam got to his feet and went into the bathroom to find napkins, paper plates and cups. When he got back, Blue was trying to wake Gansey. Adam looked away to give them some privacy and crossed over to where Ronan was laying out the pizza.
"Is that garlic bread?" Adam asked noticing the smaller box. "I didn't know we were ordering garlic bread."
Ronan gave him a look. "I paid for it myself. If that bothers you, you don't need to eat it." Then he took a plate from Adam and began loading it up with pizza and garlic bread. Adam sighed then filled his own plate, avoiding the garlic bread.
When he returned to the couch, Gansey was sitting up and leaning sort of heavily against Blue. The comforter was wrapped around his shoulders and he looked like he was seconds from falling back to sleep.
Ronan came over and handed Gansey a plate of pizza. Gansey blinked at it like he wasn't sure what to do with it. "Eat," Ronan said, not unkindly. "I know you didn't eat breakfast and who knows where you were for lunch. You need something in your stomach." Gansey nodded blankly and after a moment he picked up a piece of pizza and began to eat.
Adam moved to sit on the couch next to Gansey and tried not to make it awkward as Ronan plopped down on the floor and started the movie again. Gansey took a bite of pizza, chewed and swallowed then said quietly, "I really am sorry for yelling at you. I didn't mean to-"
"Gansey," Adam said as gently as possible. "It's fine. I'm not mad. I can tell when something else is going on."
He hoped his words would serve as an invitation to talk about what Gansey was so upset about, but Gansey didn't rise to the bait. "What I said was still uncalled for," Gansey said. "I didn't mean it."
"No one thought you did," Ronan said, banging his head back against the couch. "No one hates you, Dick."
Gansey didn't look much happier but he went back to eating without complaint so Adam figured the crisis had mostly been diverted. He took a bite of pizza and tried not to think about how good the garlic bread on Gansey's plate looked. He turned away to see Noah watching them with a strange, sad expression on his face.
"Is something wrong?" Adam asked.
Noah grinned, but his eyes were still sad. "Nothing new," he said and turned his attention back to the movie.
So there's some Noah angst randomly at the end. No idea where that came from but we'll go with it.
Hopefully everyone's in character. I've only ever written Adam and Ronan through Gansey and Declan's undeniably distorted POVs and I have next to no experience writing Blue and Noah. I also hope that the ending doesn't drag. I was originally planning to write the last scene in part one then decided not to write it. Hopefully I shouldn't have ditched it in this part as well.