Still 'anyone but Henry' on Magical Arts Room and Sports

Oz Spellman

July 15, 2021 9:12 AM

Still 'anyone but Henry' by Oz Spellman

Oz had given the cake to the posh but not horrible Graham kid from Crotalus, telling him he would be checking up with Henry that he’d received it. The Graham kid didn’t need to know that Oz was absolutely not gonna venture a discussion of that, or anything else that had happened at the party, with Henry. Ever.

Henry was back where he was supposed to be, which was far away from Oz.

It gnawed at him, the same way it had when he’d thought that he and Henry weren’t allowed to sit together for meals. It was the sting of separation, that left him feeling like half a person. Or less, given he was the useless, no brain, slug half of the two of them. With the meals, it had been a mistake. It had been a line he was allowed to cross again, once he figured out the system. But friends? Social lives? Everything else was a bad idea. Oz should know—having those was the one thing he excelled at.

He wondered if Henry would stop wanting to eat with him. Oz had only meant to push him away from his own unsuitable friends (and Ray—Ray was not his friend) but he’d hurt him in the process. At home, Henry would rarely stay mad, but at home they had to share a bedroom and not upset Mom. Henry could choose to ditch Oz here if he wanted to. And why wouldn’t he?

He made his way to the MARS room, trying to find a place he could vent some of his feelings. It was a batting cage, covered in broken glass and… well, just broken glass because apparently there were PG limits on how faithfully MARS was willing to replicate his home environment. But it was the crappy, dead-end place he’d never seen himself crawling out of, because he didn’t deserve any better.

He missed the first few balls, swinging wildly out of sheer frustration. But after that, he settled into it. That was why baseball had always been good for him. You couldn’t be mad and bat well at the same time. You had to screw all your feelings up and push them somewhere where you could focus and be calm. And at the same time, you were hitting something as hard as you could. So then at the end, you felt relieved and sometimes a bit tired, and both of those helped stop the feelings coming back. Sometimes. Or like, it let you calm down enough that you were calm again, but he guessed it didn’t really make any of the actual problems go away.

There was so much to hate about the world.

He hated being poor. He hated being a twin. He hated that people were mean, or dangerous, or bad influences.

But most of all, he just hated himself.

13 Oz Spellman Still 'anyone but Henry' 1514 1 5

Billy Cobb

July 16, 2021 9:17 PM

I think we both qualify, right [Gus]? by Billy Cobb

Billy wanted to talk to Oz. That was a bit unusual 'cause Billy wasn't really much of a talker. Well, it weren't like he never talked, but his conversations weren't very serious or laden with much deep philosophical thought. This time though, he wasn't sure that'd be the case. See, Billy'd noticed the way Oz and Henry acted 'round each other and at first he'd figgured it was just city folk sibling stuff, but even if that were the case, he didn't much care.

He'd gone looking for Oz, and had found Gus. Well, that was fine Gus would know more about city folk stuff than he would, so that'd be good. After securing Gus' assistance, Billy resumed his hunt, it wasn't to long before he got word that Oz'd been seen heading for MARS.

Opening the door to the sports room (because he hadn't been in the water one), Billy spotted his friend and roommate. He was in a weird place filled with broken glass and swinging a hefty looking stick at some balls that were being thrown at him magically. Billy was at a loss at what was going on here and looked over at Gus with an expression that clearly showed as much. He didn't have a club like Oz did with which to fend of them balls.

OOC: Gus' involvement approved by his author

2 Billy Cobb I think we both qualify, right [Gus]? 1519 0 5

Augustine Reed-Fischer

July 18, 2021 12:13 AM

Definitely by Augustine Reed-Fischer

Gus wasn't entirely sure what was happening - he'd missed the whole party scene in favor of lingering near food and away from exercise - but he knew that Billy was worried and that was good enough reason to go with him. Partly, he didn't want to be left out. Partly, he thought he probably knew a thing or two more about people than Billy did, even if Billy's naivete was sometimes exactly what made him a good friend. And partly, he just cared. He wanted to be there for Billy and he wanted to be there for Oz. Billy had other people there for him as far as Gus could tell but Oz was one of the types of boys that was either all the way carefree or all the way sad and wanted everyone to think it was the first one. Gus was the first type. Billy seemed like he was the first type. It didn't seem likely that all of them were the first type, so Oz must've been the second type.

At least, that's what Jezebel said. He'd talked to her about his roommates and even about this situation when he'd heard about it and she'd offered some insight. She was terrible with people though, so Gus only took it with a grain of salt. Near as he could tell, Oz was just fine. Except that they found him in a real bad looking place. It was the sort of place that kids around where he'd grown up had gone but he wouldn't have ever been allowed to go alone for sure. Possibly not even with other people. Billy, for his part, didn't seem to know what it was at all.

"Batting cages," he explained, remembering that Billy was from someplace where such things probably didn't exist. "The machine throws baseballs at you so you can practice hitting them. You know what baseball is, right?"

It wasn't really that important what baseball was and he was happy to drop the subject in favor of addressing what needed addressed now, but he thought it was interesting all the same. Go Royals.

"I'm following you," he added, making sure Billy knew he was here as a sidekick. Sidekick was his preferred role in most situations; he got the cool outfit, the impeccable timing, and only half the action. Half the action was plenty of action in Gus' mind.

22 Augustine Reed-Fischer Definitely 1509 0 5

Oz Spellman

July 18, 2021 12:29 AM

I suppose by Oz Spellman

Henry was number one on the list of people Oz really didn’t want to see right now (and also number one on the list of people he wished was walking through that door—well, of people who actually could. Mom would have been absolutely number one, even if he didn’t really want her to know he was fighting with Henry. He definitely wanted a hug, and Mom was the only person he let hug him properly, and she didn’t always have to know what was wrong to give him cuddles). The person who actually walked in was number two on the list of people Oz really didn’t want to see right now, and definitely didn’t place on the other list. And also Gus.

The glass shimmered and pulsed, as if trying to decide whether to disappear from existence, as Oz vacillated between not wanting them to see inside the bits of his life he hated and was ashamed of, and the still pulsing anger and frustration that said he didn’t care, and that if they didn’t like it that was their problem.

“S’up?” he acknowledged briefly, before returning to the balls, smacking the next one that flew at him very, very hard. He felt the hit pulsing through his body. He heard the thwack. He saw the ball sail away. In that moment, everything was fine. But it was cut short, because the ball could only go so far before the mesh caught it and dropped it back down to earth. And in the breathing space between that and the next ball, there were still two people standing watching him, and a whole host of unresolved feelings.

13 Oz Spellman I suppose 1514 0 5

Billy Cobb

July 18, 2021 2:05 PM

Alright then, since we're all agreed... by Billy Cobb

Billy had been ready to hunt down Oz and either give him a piece of his mind 'bout how you treat kin, or (possibly and... probably and) wrestle some sense into him. But if there was one thing his roommates might know about him, it was that he was easily distracted. "Baseball?" he repeated back to Gus with a vague nod of his head. Sure he'd heard of baseball, it was kinda like the stickball game he played sometimes with his cousins, it had weird rules though. "Yeah, sure. You hit the ball with your club and then only go to three bases without worrying about the other team capturing your king." He shook his head in a ruefully disbelieving sort of way.

Gus' comment about following him gave him a momentary pause, was Gus volunteering for the king position? He didn't think he'd ever explained the rules to the two of them. Though maybe he should sometime, it could be fun, but they'd need more people.... Oh! Right! Oz! The thing with Henry! He turned back towards his club wielding roommate. A club wielding roommate that smacked a ball really hard. "Why ain't you a beater?!" Billy called out to him, distracted once more. He was going to have to try this! Some of the glass crunched underfoot as he took a step forward. Maybe wrestling wouldn't be such a great idea here. Wrestling? Oh yeah, the Henry thing. "Also, what the heck you got against your brother?"

OOC: For some reason I'm seeing most of Billy's games back home winding up something along the lines of good ol' Calvinball.

2 Billy Cobb Alright then, since we're all agreed... 1519 0 5

Augustine Reed-Fischer

July 24, 2021 12:15 AM

I'm agreeing to be support. by Augustine Reed-Fischer

Gus wasn't about to get into the middle of this whole thing, especially since he only sort of knew what was going on anyway. He did figure that both sides should be heard and he'd only heard Billy's so far, but even Billy seemed keen to hear what Oz had to say so Gus didn't feel the need to jump in and insist on equal air time for the two of them. As a result, he mostly just chilled, looking around the 'room' and admiring the scene. It was a pretty cool place. He wondered - and maybe hoped - that Oz had gotten it from a movie.

It was sort of amazing how fast both his roommates' minds could jump to be honest. Oz went from moody to talkative to moody and talkative faster than Jazz slammed bathroom doors when she was interrupted doing girl stuff, and Billy went from sport to other sport to not a sport but somehow still felt a little like a sport about as fast as Patience could throw a fit over said bathroom door being slammed. There was probably some deeper metaphor there about Oz closing doors to keep people out or something but Gus wasn't think about that because he was pretty sure he'd stuffed some snacks in his pocket and . . . there! He opened a bag of chips as quietly as he could while the other two talked.

22 Augustine Reed-Fischer I'm agreeing to be support. 1509 0 5

Oz Spellman

July 27, 2021 4:23 AM

We're all agreed to leave Henry out of this? Sounds good by Oz Spellman

OOC: CW health insurance/medical poverty

Am assuming Sonora healthcare is free, but Oz just doesn't know that. BIC:

At first, Billy seemed to just be his usual, haplessly wandering self, and Oz could easily believe he'd strayed into the room with the intent of playing a game. The least likely part of that was having persuaded Gus to come with him, but Billy had that kind of personality where sometimes just going along with him was less effort than arguing, especially if it was for something you could put a half-assed job into once you got dragged there.

Initially, Oz let the question about playing Beater wash over him as rhetorical. He would have liked to play, and he spent every practise and every game envious of everyone who was out there. It looked wicked fun. However, there was this not-so-little thing in the way of that. He wasn't really planning to go into it, until Billy asked a question he wanted to answer even less.

"He stole my face and he won't give it back," he grinned, the familiar quip about Henry falling easily from his lips. The non-joke version of that was kinda the root of a lot of his problems, but he preferred the version of this conversation where they all just laughed it off. Or got distracted...

"As for Quidditch, we don't have health insurance." It was weird how vulnerable it felt admitting that. Back home it was rarer to have it, and the perils of life with limited medical care was an average topic of conversation. He doubted Billy's family had it either, but they just seemed to live out of touch with modern reality. It seemed like the screwing-people-over aspect of the health care system wasn't something that had ever stopped Billy doing anything, judging by his stories. It might not have always shown in his behaviour, but the one broken arm Oz had had in his life had shocked him enough to put a little more logic and self-preservation into his system. It was less the injury and the pain, which he probably would have easily forgotten, but the number of double shifts Mom had picked up afterwards, and the feeling that he was personally responsible any time ends didn't meet. Plus the things he'd found out once people were reliably able to tell him and Henry apart... "Can't afford to get hurt bad," he summarised, muttering slightly, although he more or less shook off any trace of embarrassment, his demanour easy and casual, as if he didn't have a care in the world.

"Whatcha got there?" he added, shouldering his bat and sauntering over to Gus. It was an unspoken rule of the playground that if you pulled out snacks, you were sharing. Unless you were the biggest and hit the hardest.

13 Oz Spellman We're all agreed to leave Henry out of this? Sounds good 1514 0 5

Billy Cobb

July 28, 2021 8:56 PM

Wait.. what now? by Billy Cobb

Billy stared at Oz for a few moments with a confused expression on his face. Henry stole Oz's face? How was that possible? Was it some sort of charm the ain't learned yet? No... wait... it'd be a transfigurthingy, wouldn't it? But Oz had his face, it was right there in front of him. Billy was looking right at it. Maybe Oz was just confused. "If he stoled your face," Billy responded, "What'cha got there on yer head?" He gestured vaguely towards Oz's eyes, nose and mouth region. Maybe it was just him though so he turned back to Gus, "You see he's got a face, right?"

"Health insurance? What's that? I don't think I got any neither." Billy ruminated over the term for a moment until Oz clarified a bit more. Then he let out a quick laugh, "You can't get hurt bad here!" He lowered his voice to an almost conspiratorial whisper, "I thought about trying sometime, but didn't think it might be the smartest thing to do." He gave Oz a wink before resuming his former volume. "Just the last wee... wait, no... two weeks?" Billy contemplated a moment, counted some fingers then shook his head as if it was getting to complicated, "Don' matter, during a practice one of them bludgers knocked me clean off my broom! I dropped at least for the height of them bleachers and hit the ground." He clapped his hands together simulating the impact. "I was fine, woke up in one of them nice beds in the hospital wings with nothin' wrong with me." He grinned at Oz. "You should try out."

He turned with Oz as he addressed Gus. By the looks of things Gus had brought a bag of them chips with him. They weren't super high on Billy's list of favorite things to eat so instead of moving in along with Oz, he started poking though his own pockets. Gus had taught him that it was always good to have some food on you. Looks like it was snack time. What did he have though?

2 Billy Cobb Wait.. what now? 1519 0 5

Augustine Reed-Fischer

July 29, 2021 12:31 AM

I only have enough snacks for three. Well . . . now I do. by Augustine Reed-Fischer

Gus laughed a little at Oz' quip but shut up fast because quipping was rarely a good thing in these moments. He wasn't sure how he knew that except that it was the kind of thing he did when he was in trouble; Oz wasn't in trouble as far as he knew, but he was qupiping, which meant he thought he was in trouble and that was bad news. Or something like that probably.

"Yeah, he's got a face," he assured Billy. Assuming Billy was asking questions seriously was usually the safest bet because if you laughed like you thought he was being sarcastic, that was when you were going to find out that you'd just been a jerk by accident. "It's a joke 'cause they're twins. Same face." It wasn't really the same face though, but he wasn't sure exactly what the difference was. Sure, different hair, but there was something about the way they moved their face that was different. Like Oz was always angry at himself and Henry was always angry at everything else. Or maybe it was the other way. Or maybe no one was angry except Gus, who was angry with himself for not really having enough snacks to share.

"Chips," he said, offering Oz some of his bag. "I've also got a pack of cookies if you want something sweet."

He tossed another glance Billy's way. "That sounds like a great reason to watch sports and not play them," he said with a grin. "My mom would pray over us a bunch if we got sick or anything. Gave us soup though too. Does the hospital here have good soup?"

He looked at Oz again and stifled a sigh because he was going to have to help make this conversation happen and he didn't want to. The other option was wait for Billy and Oz to figure it out themselves and that seemed almost more painful. He loved these two dudes, they were great, but wow were they slow to the point sometimes.

"Really though, what's up with you and Henry?"

22 Augustine Reed-Fischer I only have enough snacks for three. Well . . . now I do. 1509 0 5

Oz Spellman

July 31, 2021 7:50 AM

Good counting skills by Oz Spellman

Billy was joking back, except his jokes weren't very funny. They were more like the kind of non-humour that people deemed to be "dad jokes," not that Oz had any way of measuring the accuracy of that label. He rolled his eyes at Billy's comments, though only in a light you-think-you're-funny way, not in an actually exasperated way. Gus actually went on to explain it, and Oz wondered which of them had the problem in being overly literal. Did Billy not get Oz's joke, or did Gus not get Billy's? Oz would have said the latter was more likely, given that Billy wasn't funny, but Billy missing the point was a far more regular occurence. But seriously? That his family didn't have TV or toaster pockets had stretched the limits of Oz's credulity, but they'd also missed the invention of sarcasm?

Oz took advantage of being able to cram some chips in his mouth, which meant that he didn't need to keep an easy, friendly smile on his face as Billy talked so casually about ending up in the hospital wing.

"Doesn't mean no one had to fix you up," he pointed out once he had swallowed. Part of him really didn't want to bother being the one to educate Billy, but he knew the sick look on his mom's face when she knew she was gonna have to deal with a medical bill. It wouldn't be Billy who suffered for his idiocy, it would be his family. He didn't want that horrible feeling hitting anyone else if he could do something to stop it. "In the real world, that costs money," he pointed out. He had meant the world he inhabited, as opposed to Billy's weird frontiersville mountain, but then it occurred to him that this was a school where they brewed potions and sent post by owl. 'Real life' didn't seem the most apt descriptor. But whilst he could just about get his head around all those other weird things, the idea of medical care without strings attached was an idea too far. "Right?" he added to Gus, both as someone who knew better than Billy how their shared real world worked (the one in this century with moving pictures, snackfoods, and sarcasm) and because he knew more about the magical world.

Gus turned traitor on him though, pushing the point about Henry. Oz gave him a puzzled look like he didn't know what he was talking about, though he held back on actually asking that. He was pretty sure they all knew, and all knew that they all knew (even Billy) what incident they were talking about.

"Siblings squabble," he shrugged, his puzzlement more at why they were bothering to dredge it up than what they were talking about. "If that's a thing we do interventions for now, shouldn't you be first?" he nodded at Billy. "Why'd you drop ice down Iris' neck?" His tone was light, pointing out that none of this really mattered, rather than accusatory. He suspected he would get an answer, even though he was doing one of those questions that didn't really need one.

13 Oz Spellman Good counting skills 1514 0 5

Billy Cobb

August 01, 2021 8:06 AM

And excellent provisioning skills by Billy Cobb

Okay, it wasn't just him then. Oz did still have his face. Billy got the feeling sometimes that there was something weird going on here around school that he just didn't quite catch. The brief and ludicrous thought of someday paying attention to things flitted through his mind but was quickly dismissed. "Right," he responded to Gus' explanation with a chuckle. He'd known that. Yup.

Billy grinned at Gus' commentary about playing Quidditch. "Bah! That makes it all the more excitin! Ma does that as well," he continued, "If it's real bad they'll find some more folk to join in while the doc's workin'. As for the soup," he thought for just a moment, "I think it's the same stuff they serve in the hall."

Oz cut back in once he was done with his mouthful of chips, "I suppose..." There had been that other time or so he'd got taken up to the hospital wing and fixed up. "Which world's the real one?" he wondered, "I ain't heard nothing from Ma or Pa 'bout them needing to send more money for that." There had been a letter or so about being more careful, but he could tell they were written because they were supposed to with the knowledge that the advise would most likely be ignored. As it usually was when he got the same sort of message while getting hurt at home. Pa would probably have had extra words in there to say if they had needed to find some money to send to the school for it. He turned to Gus as well as Oz asked him about the situation.

Right! Oz and Henry! Boy it was a good thing Gus came along. Billy burst out laughing when Oz brought up the ice incident again. "'Cause she can take it and give back in return," he replied mirthfully. "You saw her after that, if the professor hadn't stopped her, we would of had a blast of an ice fight!" He chuckled again, then sobered. "But it weren't like that with you and Henry. You came in, told him to get lost and he slunk away like a beaten dog!" Billy visibly flared up a bit with the analogy.

2 Billy Cobb And excellent provisioning skills 1519 0 5

Augustine Reed-Fischer

August 03, 2021 12:27 AM

Funny. But really, I'm not here. by Augustine Reed-Fischer

Gus was more and more sure that he would rather just be chillin' somewhere, eating chips and thinking about the best way to sneak something into Jazz' pockets, than part of this conversation. Not that he was really part of it but wow did it feel weird. He didn't particularly find his mother's prayers exciting, although he guessed Billy meant the risk of getting hurt and not the maternal response to such injuries. Hall soup seemed alright but it wasn't good enough to make him wanna take the risk so he just shrugged.

He cocked his head though, confused at Oz' comment. "That's all free," he told him of the medical services here. "I've been sick before and had to get medicine, and I know Jaz-- Jezebel has too. She had to go every month one year, I swear she was sick all the time . . . anyway, it's part of the school stuff. My family doesn't pay anything for medical stuff." He bit into another chip, thinking that was probably a good thing.

He nodded along with Billy's description of a sibling squabble though, having experienced many of his own, especially with Patience. She could certainly give back, although she usually just pouted first. Medical care he would comment on but he wasn't about to join this part of the discussion with anything more than a nod, especially as he hadn't seen the incident under discussion.

22 Augustine Reed-Fischer Funny. But really, I'm not here. 1509 0 5

Oz Spellman

August 04, 2021 7:17 AM

I really don't want to be by Oz Spellman

Oz swallowed hard, even though nothing was in his mouth. The chip he was grabbing for snapped as his fingers closed too tightly on it. Don’t rise, don’t rise….

“I wouldn’t have had to do anything if you hadn’t been being an idiot,” he snapped.

Anger was a confusing emotion. It was one of the few that his peers didn’t berate people for showing but it did get used against people especially if it was something like this. There were times when, if someone was acting like a jerk, you could get annoyed. Sometimes you had to get annoyed to get anywhere. But there were others when all it did was let everyone know it was a button and it worked to push it. Anything feelingsy was on that list. At least, for him. Different people had different rules… There were some people who were big enough and tough enough that if you said something they didn’t like, you were damn well gonna apologise for it or deal with the consequences. The ever shifting rules of the playground were just one reason why it was so hard not to wind up in trouble. The fact that people plain sucked was another. The fact that he was a hopeless case was probably the biggest…

Case in point, now that’d he’d opened his mouth, he had to follow up. He tried to think past his frustration, but that in itself was hard to do, and it all just kept coming back around to the fact that nothing that was true was anything he wanted to share. He hovered, again walking that tightrope line which seemed to comprise so many conversations… He needed to convince Billy to stay away from Henry, without implying that Henry was in any way weak or fragile.

Henry didn’t want to play, but he’s polite too say ‘no.’ Any form of the truth let them know exactly how to take advantage of one or both of them. ‘I’m the one that does stupid stuff…’

“I told him to go get skating lessons from Xavier, instead of playing stupid deathball with no pads on with you. He said he’d rather leave.” He settled for the bare bones of the truth coated with enough glaring and crossing of his arms that he hoped he could intimidate Billy into feeling bad. After all, if someone was looking at you like Oz was looking at him right now, how could you not think you’d done wrong? You had to scare the other person into agreeing they were in the wrong, otherwise they thought they’d hurt you.

“It can’t work like that,” he shook his head at Gus. “Your family has good insurance you mean? Like, it covers it? Or it’s no worse than whatever you had to do on your old plan? It can’t just be free. Have you seen the way that place looks? There’s just… There’s no such thing as that. Maybe it’s fine for the two of you, but Henry and I cannot afford to break bones. So you - seeing as you seem incapable of going a week without doing that – had better stay away from him,” he glared at Billy.

13 Oz Spellman I really don't want to be 1514 0 5

Billy Cobb

August 05, 2021 8:46 PM

I have heard that where ever you go, there you are. by Billy Cobb

Billy gave Oz an appraising look somewhere between confused and defiance. "I'm the reason you had to be terrible to your brother?" He asked with a hint of accusation. That didn't make no sense. "We were goin' to get the pad things on when you showed up, start orderin' him around and insultin' Ray." Billy was pretty sure Ray didn't need anyone defending her, she seemed capable of handling herself, but Oz had been a bit of a jerk at the moment and it was another point to make.

He wondered if Oz didn't remember so good what had happened. "Nuh-uh," Billy responded to Oz. "Henry didn't say he wanted to leave," he leveled a look at Oz again, "He asked you if he could leave." This bothered Billy and it might have showed. "If he didn't want to hang out, which we were doing fine 'till you came showed up, he coulda just said he didn't want to and head out. That's fine. But he didn't. For some reason he thought he needed your permission to leave. Why? After you finally threw him aside for Xavier, he ran for it. What the heck?"

"Ha!" Billy barked out a quick laugh, "I'm gunna have to agree with Gus on this one." He shot Gus a grin, "You ask Professor Skies 'bout it after next Transfigurthingy class. See what she says. Dunno what insurance is, but I don't think I got none of it, and you know darn well, that your family has more money than mine." After all their conversations and such, Oz shouldn't be under any illusions on that front. "The school knows what we got as well... or at least that feller that came to help us buy stuff for school knows anyway. Buy stuff pretty much all with money he'd brought along from the school or somethin'." He hadn't really paid attention how that had all worked, it'd sounded boring. "Anyway, point is that if the school wanted more money from us fer fixing me up, I'da heard about it by now from Pa."

2 Billy Cobb I have heard that where ever you go, there you are. 1519 0 5

Oz Spellman

August 13, 2021 6:02 AM

Can you not be? by Oz Spellman

OOC: CW - intellectual/accent snobbery

Gus gave permission to skip his turn BIC:

Oh, now he'd been rude to Ray too? Who gave a monkey's? He was pretty sure Ray herself didn't, seeing as she had been equally "rude" in almost every conversation Oz could remember her having with anyone ever. Maybe the problem was Billy, and along with eighteenth century living arrangements, he had similar ideas on how to talk properly. It was a weird thought, because 'manners' 'talking properly' and 'Billy' were not words he would have naturally put together. But maybe, somewhere between teaching him to trap a squirrel and forgetting to teach him to chew with his mouth shut, his parents had seen fit to throw in some bull about how you had to defend a lady and right wrongs that were none of your business.

The fact that some of what he was saying was true only made it worse. He was so wide of the mark that he was off the target for most of it, but the accusation that Oz had been ‘terrible’ to Henry prickled under his skin. But Billy was wrong when he said he’d thrown Henry aside - all Oz had ever done was push him to safety. And it wasn’t like Oz wanted to stay tangled up in the messy, unpleasant parts of the world, it was just an unavoidable consequence of keeping Henry out of them.

Most of all though, he didn’t owe Billy any frigging explanations, and nor was he gonna stand here and be lectured on his interactions with someone he had known since they were fetuses, by someone who had had all of one, five-minute, utterly disastrous interaction with him, and who didn’t seem to know his butt from his elbow.

“Yeah? Well, forgive me if I’m not interested in taking social lessons from someone who copies how the rich kids talk, but sounds like he was raised in a barn, and who can’t recognise a joke or a reference to anything invented after the 1800s,” he glared. “You don’t know squat. About me and my brother, or about… basically anything. Maybe try learning to put two and two together and actually getting to four before you stick your nose into other people’s business. Gus can explain metaphors or jokes or whatever that is if you’re confused,” he added, before Billy took that literally and started going on about ‘learnin’ his numbers’ or whatever.

13 Oz Spellman Can you not be? 1514 0 5