mindcracklove | Hardships, chapter II

<.< >.> Two chapters in two days!? Hahahaha, yes, but don't expect it all to be such repetitive posts. But, regardless of my pointless points just above this, here's chapter two! Now with significantly fewer sadnesses? Because who needs grammar or being sure.

Enyoy reading, and, Luke, I'm letting you enyoy reading. You can't enyoy it unless I say you can! Muahahahahaha! :3

On to the stuffs!

"Pause, I got the groceries. Can you open up?"

Silence

"Pause, I know you're in there. Open up."

"Th- thanks Etho. But, I- I just want to be alone for the time being... Can you g-go talk to like the library or something for a bit?"

"Pause, are you okay? You sound like you're crying."

"I- I'm fine, Etho... Please go away..."

"Pause, let me in. Something's obviously wrong. Open up or I go call Beef and get you to open it for him."

"Don't talk about him...."

"What? But he's- "

"Don't. Talk. About. Him. Etho."

"Pause, please, open the door..."

A sigh came from inside and the door unlocked, but didn't open to reveal Pause. Etho turned the handle slowly and peered into the dark dorm room to look for Pause

"Pause, where are you? Why are all the lights off?"

"Just drop the groceries in here and leave, Etho. I don't want to talk..."

"Pause, I'm not leaving you. What happened?"

"I-I... Etho, he.... He hurt me... And I... I can't hold it together and I'm such a bitch and I don't even know what I did wrong!... I... I don't know what to do now... I just... Leave me alone so I can die in peace.... I don't want to live with the fact I ruined something so badly I made the one I loved most leave..."

"Pause... I'm so sorry. But, if he doesn't know how great you are, you deserve better."

"He didn't even say why... I-I.."

"Shh... Pause, don't work yourself up. Just know I'm here for you."

Pause sniffled and looked to Etho, his question clear in the sadness of his gaze.

"Come on, Pause."

Etho sat down and hugged him tightly, letting the tears flow well into the night as he comforted his best friend.

And for once, Pause didn't hate Etho for being there to see him breaking down.

~

"Pyro, come on! Come out of the closet!"

"..."

"I'm going to smash that fucking door down, Pyro. You know I will."

"I fucked up... So badly... Guude, mate, I don't think I can ever even go back to that hallway! And the whole class probably knows about it now!"

"Big fucking whoop, Pyro. Some assholes know you had a crush on a teacher. Not like that's never happened before."

"Guude, that's not very helpful..."

"The point is, it's not the end of the world. Go back to class tomorrow, keep your head high, and if you hear anything about you from those dipshits, either go punch em in the face or tell me who did it so I can do much worse to their faces."

"Guude... Thank you, but... I just don't know how I'm ever going to get past that one..."

"Are you at least going to open the fucking door now?"

"...yeah."

The moment pyro opened the door, he was alarmed to be grabbed and hugged tightly by his southern friend.

"Don't be an idiot next time, Pyro. Hiding isn't the way you deal with the shit on your plate. You have to tell people if something's wrong. Got it?"

"Yeah..."

"Good. Now, come on. Let's go find you something to take your mind off this."

~

"Hey MC!"

"Hi Milbee..."

"What's the matter? Did you lose the sword to one of your Link's?"

"No, that's not it... Sorry, I'm being stupid. Let's go start Zeldathon with Pause and the others."

"MC, are you sure? You don't seem like you're feeling good. I don't think you being stupid is the reason for it, because I know stupid like the back of my head."

"Isn't the saying 'the back of my hand'?"

"Probably. MC, just say what's up. I won't say anything if you don't want me to. Sealed lips Milbee is my name! Well, I think my name is probably Ugly Wool Sweaters Milbee, but that's not really relevant."

MC chuckled and his downcast face lightened up a bit, but Milbee could still see he was hiding the reason for his sadness.

"Well... It's Nebris and I..."

"What about you? Is he here? Did he steal something again and you have to go bail him out? Did-"

"We broke up..."

"Whoa.... That's... I'm sorry, MC. Shouldn't have been making jokes like that."

"No, Milbee, don't worry about it. I didn't tell you what was going on, after all... But, he told me that Zeldathon was a terrible idea and wasn't going to work earlier today, and then followed it up with the fact that he thought that from the day I started... I thought... He'd always been so supportive, but he just... It hurt and I lashed out and he and I argued and yelled at each other and I told him to leave. So.. He's gone..."

"Wow... MC, that's... That's terrible."

"I didn't want to say anything because you were so happy and I didn't want to ruin the good moodhon..."

"MC, it's your event. It wouldn't be the same if you weren't happy and enjoying yourself there. Come on, let's go tell the guys that we're delaying Zeldathon for a day or two while you get better."

"O-okay, Milbee... Thanks. For everything."

"What are friends for?"

Milbee and MC walked down the hall to meet the other guys in Zeldathon, MC straggling behind a bit. MC thought about what was happening.

Friends are like you, Milbee, not like Nebris...

Friends care

~

“I can’t go back home, I can’t go back to that place, I can’t!”

“Anderz! You’re not going to, man. You’re going to pass that class, I know it.”

“That’s easy for you to say, Doc! You always get the highest grades on all the tests, in every class, on every damn assignment, so it’s not like you know how this feels!”

“Anderz… This isn’t going to be easy for me to say… You keep acting like this, you’re going to fail out.”

“Thanks, Doc. That’s very helpful and makes me feel so much better!”

“IF you keep acting like this. You’ve got to change, man. And I can help if you’ll let me.”

“Help with what? My work? Ha! I'm too far beyond help, Doc, so you'd just be wasting your time."

"You're not acting any different, and that means you're not going to get anywhere. Just let me try and help, Anderz. You'll get better grades on the next test, I swear."

"Whatever you say, Doc."

But Anderz could already tell just from what Doc was saying that things really were going to change.

Even if he had to nearly kill himself to get them to.

~

"Nebris?"

"Hi, BTC. I'm going to stay here, that cool?"

"Uh, yeah... I guess. What's up? You seem a bit... Angry."

"Yeah, I am."

"..."

"..."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not right now."

"You need some help with your stuff?"

"Yeah, that'd be nice."

BTC just helped his friend with his things, grabbing some of Nebris' bags and bringing them in from just outside his dorm room. Something fell out of the last bag Nebris took into the room, so, naturally, BTC leaned down and picked it up.

"Nebris?"

"What?"

"Are... Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?"

"Yes. I'm sure."

BTC sighed. He looked around the long hallway before he went back into the room with Nebris. But BTC couldn't keep his mind off the thing from Nebris' bag.

He put it in his nightstand for safekeeping and turned out the lights.

"Night, Nebris."

"Night, Blame."

BTC only could see MC's and Nebris' faces flashing through his mind all night, their smiles pure and shining, obviously happy and in love. And a single question racing through his mind:

What happened to make that go away?

~

"Zisteau, wake up! Zisteau! Please... Wake up..."

Vechs sobbed over his boyfriends' crumpled and bruised body, looking for any sign of him coming to and saying it was alright. He needed him to say something. He needed Zisteau to wake up.

"Are you alright!?"

"Wha..?"

"Son, are you alright?"

The fire department had gotten here, Vechs thought briefly before fading and feeling nothing. The actions went by like a blur. But when he had his eyes on Zisteau, everything felt like an eternity as he looked, hoped for something, anything, to cross his face.

"Son, what happened here?"

"WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE!? SOMEONE HIT THE CAR AND NOW ZISTEAU'S UNCINSCIOUS!"

"Take it easy. I'm sure he'll be fine soon enough... Now, please, can you remember anything? Your name? Where you are?"

"I'm fine! But Zisteau isn't!"

"Son, please, the paramedics are taking care of him as we speak."

"NO! I'm not letting you keep telling me 'oh, it's alright. It'll be fine" because it won't be! I caused this and.. And... And now Zisteau's...."

"... Do you need to see him?"

"Yes please... Sir."

"Come on then. The ambulance is about to get him to the hospital. You'd better get in there."

Vechs ran and hoped into the back of the ambulance, sitting down beside a paramedic silently, Zisteau taking all of his focus.

"It's all my fault... I made us go out to get groceries and then... Damn it!"

Vechs' began to tear up, something he never did in front of anyone but Zisteau for fear of ruining his "evil image" but that didn't matter any more. He'd caused all of this. And he was powerless to change it.

And he hated the world and himself for leaving him powerless to help his Pigderp...