Benjamin was playing with one of the keychains he kept hooked to his jeans. It was a little game, where you have to roll it to get all the pieces in the right place. He was sitting on Taryn's bed, and seemed quite absorbed in the game, oblivious to the surroundings. He was trying to distract himself from the (hopefully) civilized discussions he was going to have with (a guy who might possibly be) his brother.

And he was really hoping it wasn't going to end like their last 'discussion'.

Taryn was perched on her desk. This was mostly because she didn't quite want to look like she was avoiding Benji, but she didn't want to sit too close to him, either. (Unlike Keye, she was kind of uncomfortable having him in her room, especially alone. Another difference between them.)

And she didn't intend to let the discussion get out of hand, either. Hopefully she could handle the stress without flipping. She'd done it before, though, and she'd do it this time.

Keye entered without knocking, fidgety and flustered and not thinking clearly. He was wearing his thickest, blackest pair of shades, and the expression on his face was pinched and miserable.
He stood just inside the door, one hand still on the knob, waiting.

"Hi," Benji said, hastily putting away the keychain to give his full attention to Keye. A sheepish, forced smile flickered briefly across his face. Well, wasn't this going to be fun. "Um,... so... yeah..."

Taryn got up and pulled out her desk chair, gesturing to Benji. "Sit here, 'kay?" Then she did the same with her roommate's chair and beckoned to Keye. "Sit down, please? 's okay, remember?" There was a difference in the way she talked to them, and it wasn't because she might kind of sort of like Keye.

His eyes flickered from one to the other, hidden (as usual) behind his glasses, and a straggly mop of messier-than-usual, and purpler-than-usual hair.
He did an odd sideways dodgey sort of thing to get to the chair, sat heavily, and said nothing.

"Okay," Benji shrugged and moved over to the indicated chair. He leaned back and crossed his arms, trying to appear at ease. Benji glanced at Keye, noting with some relief that he looked just as uncomfortable as Benji felt. "Let's... get this going, shall we? I'll start. I take back what I said. You're not a whiny bitch."
He smiled weakly.
"Your turn."

Taryn favored Benji with a raised-eyebrow glance--You didn't mention thatpart--and looked at Keye with an encouraging smile. She'd even go so far as to hug him and comfort him, if it became necessary.

Keye kept his shoulders hunched (he was bent almost double, in fact), shaking his head.
"Nah. You...you were right. I'm a whiny bitch. Sorry I was an ass about it."
He probably needs that hug, Taryn.

"No, you're not. S'alright," Benji shrugged. He frowned, chewing on his lip before he spoke again. "But being an ass about what exactly?... I think that's where our last conversation started to go wrong. Why?"

And this is where Taryn steps in, just to make sure that things don't turn into a mess.

She gives Keye a quick squeeze and whispers a reassuring nothing in his ear--probably something about him being safe, because she's here--and glances at Benji, shaking her head slightly in warning.

"Think you can tell him a little bit, Keye?"

"I, um..."
He really, really doesn't want to. Turning a little towards her (almost as if he was talking to her rather than Benji, and expecting her to convey the message), he said "I just...I didn't want to talk about mom. That's all."

"Oh,... well, 'kay..." Benji looked a little puzzled, and couldn't help feeling (oddly enough) that they were ganging up on him. He risked a question, wincing a little as if he was expecting it to ignite another yelling match. "Your mom, who,... might be my mom, who might be the 'she' you were talking about who abandoned me? That one...?"

Ganging up isn't a good thing. She gave Keye another brief hug and sat back down on the end of her bed. That way, she was about halfway between them both, and hopefully wouldn't seem to be favoring Keye.

There wasn't a lot she could do, right at the moment, so she settled for smiling at Benji and glancing back to Keye.

"He have it right, Keye?"

Keep things simple. Keep things coherent. Keep the lines of communication clear.

"Y-y--" his voice caught for a moment, and he struggled to force the word out.
"Yeah. Yeah, that's the one."
Tense. Angry.

"Okay..."
He blinked, feeling a little better once he had that smile from Taryn.
"That's fine, then. I won't ask. So... that's really all this was about?"

"I dunno, I wasn't involved in the conversation. Was there anything else that made you angry? Either of you?"

She's looking at Keye, cocking her head and looking like she wants to go and give him a hug again. Would that be a good idea or not?

"Lots of things." he said, almost inaudibly. But then he (wonder of wonders) looked up, at Benjamin. "I know they're stupid though, and they aren't actually your fault."
A weak, bitter laugh. "I'm neurotic."

"Mm,- nope. Nothing 'cept getting randomly yelled at." Benji shrugged, in response to Taryn's question.

"Hey, so long as you know I'm not trying to piss you off on purpose, I'm fine with that," he said, smirking. He shifted in his seat, looking like he was really at ease now, instead of only pretending he was. "You wanna tell me so I can see if there're any of them I can avoid in the future?"

Taryn didn't say anything this time, because she didn't want to interrupt them, as long as they were going to communicate without her help.

"I don't like to talk about pretty much anything before I turned eighteen," he said wryly. "I was a messed-up kid. I get nightmares."

"Ten-four," Benji said, grinning and offering a mock salute. If he didn't want to talk about it, that was his choice. It didn't bother Benji very much. He was curious about Keye himself, but he'd decided he probably didn't want to know about his (possibly) biological mother or anything involving her. The woman (might have) abandoned him, when he was a baby, in the middle of one of the coldest months of the year, after all. She didn't sound like the kind of person he'd want to know.
(Yes, he's still leaving that 'maybe' in there. Nothing's been proven).

And Taryn still said nothing, just sat there looking from one to the other. If she didn't have to intervene, there was no reason to interrupt.

Keye frowned, feeling entirely disconnected. He didn't want to talk about it, no, but if Benji didn't know, didn't ask, and if Keye didn't ask about him...
"What's the point?" he said, pushing his fingers into his hair. They came out coated in bright purple dust.

"What's the point of what?" Benji inquired, clearly not a passenger on Keye's train of thought. "I'm not following you, man."

"I don't understand either," Taryn offered softly, cocking her head at Keye and scooting a little closer to him, in case it turned out that he needed another hug, or maybe something else.

"I feel like we're not connecting." He frowned, lacing his fingers together. "It's my fault. But I dunno how to fix it."
Because, for all his anger and bitterness, he really does want a brother. There's just something about blood relation.

He chewed over it for a moment, frowning.
"Well, we aren't. Connecting, that is," Benji said bluntly. "It's not your fault,... it's just ... difficult. Think about it. We've only just met,... and as cool as it would be to just hit it off, like that-" he snapped his fingers "-It's just not going to be like that. We barely know each other. It's gonna take time, if it's going to happen at all..."

"Tell him about what's going on now," suggested Taryn. "Where you're living, what you're doing... What's been going on? I mean, you don't have to tell him everything, but there's more recent stuff that you can talk about, right? And I guess you could do the same thing." She doesn't know anything about Benji, unfortunately, or she'd have suggestions to make to him, too.

"Okay..."
Ah, if only Taryn was everywhere, all the time.
"I, um...I live with Dr. Barclay. You met him, right? We kind of adopted each other, only not really, not with papers or anything. Um, I still haven't turned in my college application, and my essay isn't all edited..."
Apparently uncomfortable talking about himself, he shot Benji a grin.
"Your turn."

"Oo-kay. I... live on my own. Lived with my parents until I went to university. I was studying math and tech for two years at a university down south. I've transferred to Keaton for next year, because I wanted more variety in my classes." He paused. What else? "I'm helping organize a LANparty for next week,... um,... yeah."

Anything else?

"Eh heh..." he smirked sheepishly. "My... favorite food is, um,... anything with pepper in it. What's yours?"

And Taryn is back to sitting there with an encouraging smile, waiting to either intervene or make suggestions as necessary. (She gets a lot of practice at this kind of thing at home, with fighting siblings.)

"I like...um...all kinds of food!" a hesitant smile. "Especially trifle. Um, I like computers, too."

"Yeah, we've mentioned computers before,..." he grinned. "What's trifle? I've never heard of it before."

((Pass. Eh heh. Taryn's not doing anything, unless they get into trouble again.))

"I dunno, it's got chocolate and cake and stuff. It's my favorite." he reiterated, nodding. While he was clearly more in-control than he had been, he wasn't happy. He was wringing his hands, but still that (rather pathetic) smile stayed on his face.

"Heh. Sounds good," Benji smirked. "Speaking of tasty things - You should come to the LAN party next week. It'll be fun. Just bring your computer - it's going to be an all-nighter. Gaming and junk all night long."
He put on a mock-enraptured expression.
"Could anything be more fun?"

He looked shocked. Completely blown away (of course, it wasn't really such a big deal, but...well, to him it was).
Then, his smile widened.
"Y...you mean that?"

"Absolutely," Benji nodded, looking thoroughly pleased that Keye liked the idea so much. "Really- it'll be a blast. I can send you to address and time and stuff when I get it finalized, but, yeah. You're more than welcome to come along."

"Cool. I don't game very much...I have a hard time with keys and controls and stuff. You should see me write a program, it takes hours just 'cause of the typos. But I'll be there."