dirty {little} secret // colt
Apr 4, 2012 12:23:42 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2012 12:23:42 GMT -5
[/color][/center]Heaven forbid, well aware of your sins
In the wake I'll be just like the rest
Tell the sun don't fall so we'll never forget
Heaven forbid, well aware of your sins
In the wake I'll be just like the rest, past praying for
Kaelen is not a brat. Despite the fact that Alyssa manages to call him one at least twice a day, and yes, maybe it had been more than a little juvenile of him to steal her clothes while she was showering after boxing practice - she'd had it coming, though, simply retribution for hiding all of his favorite Hemingway books earlier in the week - he has a far too developed sense of poise and rationality to truly be called a brat. No, he's not a brat no matter what Lyss may think otherwise, he muses as he walks into glee club predictably earlier than the vast majority of the other members, reclining lazily in one of the moulded-plastic chairs and kicking his feet up on the back of the seat in front of him. Kaelen yawns boredly as he fishes a time-battered copy of A Farewell To Arms out of his bag (Alyssa had hidden the aforementioned missing books in the under his mattress, for Ripred's sake. Honestly, he'd thought she could do better than that. As if he doesn't change his sheets at least three times a week), effectively concealing the way his calculating gaze flicks upsward as a stumbling bundle of dark hair and half-formed thoughts stumbles too-loudly into the room.
Colt Hanlon is an enigma wrapped in a conundrum tied up with a ribbon of annoyance. Kaelen came to this conclusion within hours of meeting the new boy, but it's become even more obvious over the past few weeks. Hanlon's one of those types of people who are just so gratingly different that it sets his teeth on edge, with his easy smiles and unfailing good nature. Not to mention the fact that he's as gay as the fourth of July and makes no qualms about letting people know it, but that's a particular fact that Kaelen had planned to play to his advantage. The plan had been a fairly simple one: send a few well-placed false signals, get Hanlon to develop a ridiculous schoolgirl crush on him, and then promptly inform him that he was straighter than a ruler so he could watch his heart shatter in a swirl of decadent ruination. So maybe he's twisted. Maybe he's cruel. Maybe he plays with people for his own enjoyment.
But he'll be damned if he can't say it isn't a thrill to watch the pawns fall and shatter one by one, depraved pieces in the divine game of a god they'll never understand.
But the problem with the plan's simple brilliance is that Hanlon doesn't seem to be taking the bait. This is perhaps what makes Kaelen twitch internally every time he's around even more so than his stupid puppy-dog smiles and infallible trust in a world that doesn't deserve it. The fact that a simpleton like Colt Hanlon could manage to slip through the emotional snares he so carefully set is enough to make Kaelen want to rip his hair out, and he can't deny that the civil but otherwise distinctly detached behavior that shorter boy's been exhibiting towards him at practice over the past few weeks has been enough to make him more snappish and caustic than usual, even around Lyss, who usually serves to distract him for however short a time from what might be weighting down his convoluted paradigm. He makes a concerted effort to smile winningly rather than glare like he wants to when Hanlon settles into a seat a few chairs down from his own (one catches more flies with honey and all that nonsense, but it's harder than it looks when there's nothing but acid and ice thrumming in his veins to the beat of a phantom heart). Kaelen doesn't work with hard to get. He isn't in it for a chase because that's not his mode of operation. It's his game and it will be played on his terms.
He's not a brat. He's simply accustomed to getting what he wants.
Although the mere implication that what he wants is Colt Hanlon is hilarious enough to make the corners of his lips quirk upward at the very thought (what he wants is power, to feel his fingers tugging at another's heartstrings, the knowledge that he holds the ability to destroy him from the inside out in the palm of his hand), it's enough to make his glance at the other boy turn speculative, the gears in his mind beginning to whir as he tries to place a finger on what, exactly, he's not doing right. Although he's never played this sort of game with someone of the male persuasion before, he's always assumed the the principles of manipulating people were the same regardless of gender. But maybe, he ruminates as he watches Hanlon goof around with Sam and some of the other boys that he seems to be on considerably better terms with, there are differences. After all, girls are more attuned to emotional things, have more of an ability to read between the lines and sometimes see things that aren't there at all; it's what makes them easy to reel in and subsequently shatter. So perhaps... The realization is such an ah-ha moment that Kaelen could swear a lightbulb flicks on over his head. Despite his love of subtleties and silent manipulation, if this is going to work then he has to up the ante. Fine, Hanlon. If this is how the game works, then this is how it will be played. But I'm the one making the rules, not you.
"All right, guys!" Jace's voice screeches along his consciousness like nails on a chalkboard, all loud and fast and too enthusiastic for its own good. Kaelen will never understand how the educational system let an ignoramus like Wheaton become a teacher, but he supposes the pickings are slim in Nature's basement when it comes to music instructors. Pity. The azure-eyed drummer twitches down the front row with his default eager grin plastered across his face, waving a clipboard emphatically as he talks to each member of the glee club in turn and scribbles out his findings. "Duets this week! I'm not giving you a set theme, but I really want to see some teamwork put into the exercise because... well, lets just be honest, right now the lot of you couldn't work together to save your lives. So Christian and Isabella, you guys know what you're doing. Abril, you said you and Jackson have already started rehearsing. I need the rest of you to find partners and team up. Kaelen and Lyss, I assume you two are -"
"Assume makes an ass of you and me, Wheaton. Well, just you, really," Kaelen drawls, snapping his book shut and stretching out long limbs like a cat in the sun. "I'm not working with Alyssa this week. I figure it's time for some variety."
Alyssa's head whips around, her eyes wide with surprise even as Bentley reaches for her excitedly and mumbles something about them finally getting to sing together. Wheaton, too, looks shocked, but Kaelen finds that he takes the most satisfaction by the subtle quirk of interest he notes from a few seats down, faint curiosity sparking in bottomless, deepdark eyes. Jace eventually nods, even though he still looks suspicious as he crosses something out on the clipboard. "Then who are you going to..."
Kaelen lets a smile bloom slowly on his lips, the kind of grin that more than one person has called chilling. Game on. "I'd like to sing with Hanlon."
Wheaton's eyebrows drift dangerously close to his hairline, and Kaelen almost cackles when he catches Hanlon's expression - the poor boy looks like someone's just slapped him in the face with a trout. Jace mumbles something under his breath as he scribbles the change down on his paper but continues to move down the line nonetheless, making notes here and there before he looks up to address all of them. "All right, get with your partners and start planning. I want your song selection on my desk by the end of practice. Ready, set, go!"
Kaelen smirks as he picks up his bag and moves down the row with an almost predatory grace, more akin to a panther bearing down on a helpless, fuzzy mammal than a gangly boy walking across a classroom. He slides into the vacant chair next to the darker brunette, invisible challenge playing along his lips ans he levels eye contact and the second round of this particular game begins. Kaelen is not a brat. He's simply accustomed to winning. "I've already got a few songs in mind, but by all means, let's hear your ideas first. You never called me, by the way. I was disappointed."
Check.[/color][/blockquote][/justify][/size]