(Hockey Bxb) Whistle In The Wind -𝐕-

╔══《”A haunted house, with a 》══╗
picket fence, to float around, and ghost my friends.”

       Váli had quickly forgotten about his injuries. The moment Lucien said his name, he was reassured. Before, he had stressed over whether the two would converse, or simply fall right to sleep.

       Glad that Lucien initiated a conversation, Váli found himself happy that they had at least exchanged pleasantries.

       “Hi,” he shyly responded after a couple seconds of silence.

       “Did you shower?” Lucien asked, noticing Vál’s dripping hair. It was sopping wet, as he rushed out of the bathroom before he had time to do his night-time routine.

       “Oh yes,” he verified, noticing now how he forgot to get ready for bed. “Would you mind if I get ready for bed?” he asked, “I rushed to text back and never got around to doing it.”

       “Of course,” Lucien smiled, “You don’t have to ask, silly.” His wide smile was genuine, as he watched Váli, mesmerized. The blonde got up, grabbing his phone as he hobbled to his bathroom. The conversation had died off, but Váli didn’t find the silence awkward.

       Upon entering the bathroom, he propped his phone up against the mirror. One by one, he got out product after product from his sink drawers. His voice startling Váli, Lucien spoke, “Woahh. That’s a lot of products,” he awed.

       “Yeah,” Vál muttered. “I take care of my health a lot, it’s important to me,” he added, trying to be nice.

       “That’s so cool, oh my god,” Lucien marveled. “You should do them on me one time. Oh my god, we should have a slumber party!” he exclaimed like a little kid, sounding like the smartest man on the face of the Earth.

       Laughing, all Vál could say was “Maybe one day,” before trailing off. Gosh I suck so bad at keeping conversation. He cursed at himself.

       “What is each product?” Lucien questioned, genuinely curious.

       “There’s a lot…Are you sure you wanna hear about all that nonsense?” Vál puzzled hesitatingly.

       “I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want to,” Luc reassured, “Now come on, you can explain each one as you use it,” he smiled. He smiles a lot, Váli noted.

       “First you have to cleanse your face,” Vál started, putting a fluffy headband on to protect his hair from the products.

       “Woah, woah, woah–slow down,” Lucien interrupted. “What is that,” he pointed to the pink headband.

       “A headband, haha,” Váli giggled behind his hand. “It keeps everything out of my hair,” he elucidated.

       “Ohh, got it, got it,” Luc nodded. “You can continue, sorry.”

       Vál smiled, “No worries.” Picking up where he left off, Váli continued, “So, as I was saying, cleanser comes first. It pretty much gets all the gunk out of your face.” Vál glanced down at his phone, noticing the intense and concentrated gaze on Lucien’s face. He’s really paying attention.

       “There’s two types, oil and water based. Oil based ones are usually used first if you have makeup or sunscreen on–or something. Always use a water based cleanser after, though,” pausing his discussion, he grabbed his cleanser to show off to the camera.

       “Ohh, okay, I get it,” Lucien nodded again, showing he was paying attention to Váli’s rant. He watched as Váli warmed the liquid in his hands till it foamed up, then rubbed it all over his face. He was hunched over the bathroom sink, and after scrubbing his skin, he washed it off for a long minute.

       Right after, he picked up the next product, showing it off to the screen while laughing slightly. “This right here, is toner. This gets rid of like, oil and stuff in your pores,” he rambled, unscrewing the cap. Pouring a bit on his hands, Lucien watched through the screen as he rubbed the clear liquid on his face. “I let mine sink into my skin.”

       “Ooo, that one looks refreshing,” Lucien commented. “What does it smell like?” he asked curiously.

       Sniffing his hands, Váli responded matter-of-factly, “Like clean.”

       “Excuse me? Care to explain what that smells like,” Lucien joked with a teasing smirk.

       “You know… Like clean! It smells clean, I can’t really explain it,” Vál huffed, turning toward the camera.

       “I think I understand,” Lucien pondered, making a finger gun, resting his chin where his thumb and pointer finger meet creating a ‘thinking’ face.

       This made Váli laugh. “That’s so stupid, stop that,” he giggled, watching Lucien’s faux concentrated face.

       “Okay, okay. Continue. I’ll stop interrupting.”

       As soon as he said this, Váli held a different bottle up to the camera for Luc to see. “Serum?” Luc read off the label.

       “Yep! Serum just, like, hydrates your skin.” He began rubbing it on his face. “I have really dry skin,” he added.

       “Me too! Maybe I should get a serum,” Lucien queried.

       “If you have dry skin, you should start with a simple moisturizer,” Vál recommended instead. “That’s the next step,” he commented, holding the large bottle to the screen. A stumped look crossed Luc’s face.

       “La… Roach Pus-say?” he questioned. “How the hell do you pronounce that?” he puzzled, laughing.

       “Now that, I can’t tell you. But this is a really good moisturizer. I can let you use it one time,” he said absentmindedly. The oblivious boy failed to realize that this implies they are going to hang out. Are we going to hang out?

       Shaking the thoughts from his head, he removed the headband. His hair had dried slightly. Taking a t-shirt, he ran it through his hair. “Is that a t-shirt?” Lucien asked.

       “Yes.”

       “Why not just use a towel?”

       “Towels are too rough, they damage hair.”

       “I use a towel and I don’t think my hair is damaged,” Luc replied while reaching to feel his hair. Váli turned his attention to Luc’s annoyingly good hair, his annoyingly perfect brown curls. The kind of brown that looked gold when the light hit it.

       “I think you just got blessed with good hair genes,” Vál shrugged. “Every man over 50 in my family is bald,” he added. He wasn’t telling the truth, but it seemed more impressive than it was. He only knew one person in his family that met that criteria. His grandfather, whom he had never met. He had only seen him in the occasional old picture.

       “Yikes, If I were you I would just accept defeat,” Lucien smirked.

       “Easy for you to say!” Váli huffed, “You’re male family members probably all have their hair!”

       “They do! Good guess,” Lucien flirted. At some point during their conversation, Vál had left the bathroom and limped back to his bed. Lucien had turned his overhead lights off, his face being lit up from a small desk lamp on his bedside table.

       Following suit, Vál snuggled up in his blankets. Yawning, he glanced over at his alarm clock. His body was used to staying up late on weekends, but for some reason he felt his eyes getting droopy at 11p.m. What’s gotten into me… Was his last thought before his eyes closed once and for all. Falling asleep to the peaceful sound of warm laughter…

…

       Lucien didn’t remember falling asleep. But he did remember waking up. His door slammed open, like every morning. His mom raced inside, having too much energy for 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning. Luc squinted, being jolted awake. “Luc! I need help downstairs, get up, it’s late!” his mom cheerfully exclaimed.

       “Huh,” Luc mumbled, half asleep. His moms screeches falling to his blind ears. Through the chaos of his mom, he heard groaning.

       It was faint, but the noise startled Lucien. He had sat up, his thick blankets falling off his bare shoulders. The winter chill bit his bare chest as he shivered. With his eyes still closed, he felt around his blankets.

       His hand came into contact with something metal, the hot temperature making him open his eyes. Goddamn, my phone’s over-heati-

       His brain short-circuited. Without thinking, he panicked. Dun-dun. The sound alerted Lucien. He heard that sound everyday. The facetime hang up sound. Me and Aksel don’t facetime overnight thou-

       He rushed to check his phone. Last night wasn’t a dream? He questioned, nerves coursing through his blood. Sure enough, when he went to his call logs, ‘Váli’ was at the top. I just hung up on him. Luc realized. He’s going to think I’m an asshole.

       It’s okay, he was asleep. I’ll just text him and explain. He reassured himself, nodding. Clicking out of the phone app, he opened messages. Returning to Váli’s chat, he typed up a message.

       Lucien: My phone must’ve overheated overnight hope u slept well!

       Was the exclamation point too much? He overthought. His brow was furrowed. Nah, if I don’t add it Váli might think my tone is rude. He contemplated. With a heavy sigh, he sent the text and closed his phone.

       Looking up, he caught his mothers eye. Sometime when he was distracted, she had calmed down enough to stand still and silent. She was examining Lucien, a look of confusion and curiosity on her face. “What just happened,” she said in disbelief, “I’ve never seen you get up so fast.”

       Marveling, she continued, “What was on your phone! I need to use that tactic again, you bolted right up,” she cheered, walking over to the edge of Lucien’s bed. Lucien was now upright, clutching his phone to his chest.

       “Nothing mom, don’t worry about it,” he sighed while swinging his legs over the side of his bed. Once his socked feet hit the soft carpet, he hauled himself off the mattress and in the direction of the hallway bathroom.

       “Well now that’s suspicious,” his mom followed. “Got a secret girlfriend?” his mom teased, wiggling her eyebrows in amusement.

       “Something like that,” Luc grumbled, the words too quiet and muffled for anybody to understand what he said.

       “What was that!” his mom called down the hallway, as Lucien walked further and further away.

       “I said you’re being ridiculous,” Luc replied loudly, closing the bathroom door to end the conversation. He heard padded footsteps descend the stairs, as he released a breath.

       His mom was nosy. She was loving and cared about her son, but nosy nonetheless. Lucien was an only child, and his mom worked from home. This combination led to a lonely mother with too much time on her hands and a son who was the victim of his mothers bored-ness. She often begged Lucien to tell her about his life. His non-existent life. Whenever something remotely interesting happens, she’d freak out and make a big deal. Ugh.

       When inside the bathroom, Lucien didn’t hesitate to grab his toothbrush. He clutched the blue handle. Lathering white toothpaste onto the bristles, he began the long two minutes of brushing. As he brushed, his mind wandered. Last night was…

       He laughed a lot, taking joy in Vál’s night routine. It was complicated, but Vál was passionate, and that’s all that mattered to Luc. Váli became animated when he talked about things he loved, Lucien remembered noticing.

       He recalled when Váli laid down in bed, and drifted off to sleep no less than a minute later–his soft breathing luring Lucien to sleep shortly after. They had gone to bed fairly early, and Lucien found that he had an unfamiliar amount of energy for 9 a.m.

       At that moment, he thought back to a conversation he had with Aksel once, months ago. They were up late playing video games. Lucien mentioned how late it was getting and Aksel replied with, “Nah, Váli’s not asleep yet either.”

       Lucien remembered checking the time–4 a.m. “Seriously? It’s so late!” Luc commented, shocked.

       “He doesn’t get much sleep. Whenever I ask about it, he always says that he finds it nearly impossible to fall asleep. Like ‘his mind won’t let him rest,'” Aksel stated, his attention still on the game in front of him.

       Lucien’s focus was however drawn away from the game by Aksel’s words. “Why would his mind…not let him rest?…That seriously makes no sense,” he scoffed, doubtful.

       “I don’t know, his words, not mine…Ask him yourself if you’re so curious,” Aksel laughed, his comment ending the conversation and bringing Luc’s attention back to the game

       As the two minutes came to an end, his mind hadn’t moved on. Why had he fallen asleep so early? Maybe he was super tired or worn out from school. Maybe I’m overthinking this. Or maybe…

Question of the chapter: Do guys prefer complex skincare routines, or just the basics?

╚══《Word Count- 2,086》══╝

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