Sun and Stars // One-On-One // CLOSED

Damien shook his head, “N-No, I’m just a.. a um…” Of course he had to forget ‘friend’ the one time he didn’t want his condition to come out.

Astrid saw what was happening and spoke for Damien. "Damien is my friend."

“Yes. Yes that’s it. I’m a-a friend.” Damien tried his best at a smile.

"How's Connor? Enjoying Grade 12?" Peter asked Astrid.
"Dad. Connor's 20. He's in College."
"Oh. Right."

"Should we um… um get your bags to the uh… the uh… the car?" Damien asked, fiddling with his sleeves.

"Yes, that would be lovely," Peter replied. He could see that Damien was nervous so he didn't press anything.

Damien nodded and took Peter's bag from him and lead them towards the car, letting out a shaking breath when his back was turned.

Astrid left her dad for a minute to talk to Damien. "You OK?"

Damien nodded, "Yeah… just um… just uh… mad at my own… own brain."

(do you wanna skip to night? I have an idea)

"Hey. It's OK. I'm here if you need to talk."

(Sure, so I was thinking maybe Astrid doesn't know about Damien's past and just thinks the stutter is something he was born with?)

"I-I know… it's just… um… uh personal."

(yep, ok)

Astrid and Damien sat on the couch, waiting for people to arrive. "I'm really excited that you're here," She said nervously. "We have a campfire every month. We sing songs, tell stories, make smores." A knock at the door came and Astrid ran to get it. "Markus! You made it!"
"Of course, Baby Baby!"

(Markus is not Astrid's boyfriend.
Damien can't currently see them though)

Damien stood from the couch when he heard a new voice. He didn’t know how Astrid managed to convince him to come along. He slowly walked towards the door when Astrid had went.

(Imma stalk!)

Astrid jumped on Markus' back in a piggyback. "Man, you're getting heavy."
"Deal with it, Markus."

Damien sighed and headed back to the couch. He definitely shouldn’t have come.

Markus walked into the lounge room, Astrid on his back. "Hi there. I'm Markus."

“D-Damien. Nice to uh… nice to…” He shook his head, “Nevermind…” He muttered.

"What's up with him?" Markus whispered.
"He has a stutter. Be nice."

“You’re not very good at… at whispering, you… you two.” Damien said, walking out the room and outside.

Astrid got down and slapped Markus, yelling his name. He walked outside to apologise to Damien just before Connor and Natalie walked in. "Markus here yet?" Connor asked.
"Yes. He went outside to apologise to Damien."

Damien rubbed at his face and bounced on his heels for a minute. He only stopped when he noticed Markus and looked down.

"Hey look buddy. Sorry about what I said before. I didn't realise."

Damien waved a hand idly, “I-It’s fine. I should be used… should be used to…” He frowned, “Stuff like that.”

The other three came out. Connor wrapped Markus in a hug and pecked him on the cheek.

Damien smiled a little and slipped his hands in his pockets, “So, um… wh-what do you guys do here?”

"We do trivia, sing songs, play truth or dare, tell stories," Natalie answered. "Tonight were having our competition."

“Com… competition?” Damien raised an eyebrow.

"We have rounds of genres and you have to sing a song to it. We might as well start now," Natalie explained.

Damien rubbed at his neck, “Oh… okay then…”