𝐎𝐜𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐞 [𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫 - 𝐃𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭]

1 | Happy camper

— LEANDER PELVES GAVE HIM THE IDEA.

It hadn't taken much longer until the sun had fully set and homemade candles were lit. That was how life worked here. Much like animals, Amity folk rose and fell with the sun. So Blue was left alone, sort of. The boys all shared a room, so the sleeping forms of Miles, Oscar and Harley kept him company. Well, Harley was obviously still up reading, the curtain he used to separate his space from the rest of the room glowed yellow with candlelight and displayed his silhouetted figure slumped in the covers, pages flicking periodically. Blue had no doubt he'd transfer to Erudite when the time came.

He himself sat at the furthest end of the stretched room amongst the disarrayed mess of furniture, his bed pushed up against the large window, a beaten chest of clothes at the end and a stack of books serving as a bedside table, with crates of winter blankets and excess clothes and notepads and sketchbooks stacked in the corner, a gilded mirror perched on top. He sat on the thick concrete ledge of the window, which was wide open, ignoring the way the pockmarked stone grated at his exposed thighs in order to enjoy the quiet night. It was hot even without the sun so he chose to wear thin cotton shorts, the loose kind, like briefs but not, and a well-worn olive green plaid shirt. It was oversized even on him, and swallowed his usually broad and strong frame that came with years of plowing fields and stacking bales of hay.

He listened intently to the distant groaning of the fence and the rustling of crops as a great wind swept through the fields, this being caused by the train rumbling past. The people on the wall must be trading shifts, meaning it was around midnight now. He shuffled, murmuring quietly that Harley should go to sleep, "You've got school tomorrow, kid." The silhouette of the boy silently nodded and looked briefly at his handcrafted watch, one he had fine-tuned to give the exact time. He watched it in silence, and as expected blew out his candle and settled down the second the hands hit twelve. Not two minutes later Blue gave the room a final once-over, now submerged in darkness, and swung himself over the ledge, feet finding the climbing vines and locking in place; he lowered himself down carefully. He stood upright, now balancing on the beams over the wrap-around porch, and took them one at a time until he reached the roof of the family bathroom, using that and it's one window ledge to reach the ground. Leander was leaning against the wall waiting, impatiently tapping his foot against the crumbling stone in a messy rhythm.

"You 'right, V?" He chirped, ever the happy camper. But Leander was more tolerable in his happiness, because Leander was simply a positive person. It was in his nature to be chirpy, that didn't mean he was delusional like Blue's family. Leander was Blue's best friend, and you could tell this almost immediately because of one simple thing. Leander used Blue's actual name, because he knew that Blue hated being called- well... Blue.

The tall boy shrugged his slumped shoulders and scratched at his exposed stomach nonchalantly, lips quirking up when he heard Leander scoff at his muscled torso and chest. "'Just fine, Ands. What was it y'wanted to talk about?"