"This story is about the boy I loved. This is about his suffering. This is about my suffering. All of it due to one thing. Affluenza."
TW : Key themes of suicide.
Sebastian Grey. Golden boy, trust fund baby, and Braylen Adams' mortal enemy. Braylen...
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I PACE AROUND the floor of Devin's living room, gnawing on my nails. "I'm overreacting, right? I mean, he said he was fine."
"Okay, then he's probably fine," Devin responds back, eyes following me.
"Or, he could've been lying and just telling me what I wanted to hear to cover up the fact that he was the furthest thing from fine?"
Devin sighs. "Okay, so then maybe he's not fine."
I stop pacing, turning to face him. He's sitting on his sofa, eyes bored. "Are you just agreeing with me so I'll stop talking?"
"No, it's just we have been going back and forth for thirty minutes," Devin responds, running a palm over his face. "I'm tired."
I balk. "He's your best friend. Shouldn't you be more worried?"
"I am. But some of us handle our anxieties differently. I get high, for example. You pace holes into my floor," he mutters, pulling out a joint and bringing it to his lips. I roll my eyes as he lights up, gesturing his hands at me. "Run me through everything again."
I blow a raspberry. "Fine. He showed up at the door and we went up to my room. I asked him where he'd been and he became super closed off which he hasn't been for ages."
"Uh huh, keep going."
I sigh. "Then when I kept pushing it he said that he had to figure some things out with Rachel and Victor which was super vague and potentially a lie. If it was just something with Rachel and Victor he would've told me. I just don't get it."
"Okay, what happened after that?" Devin presses.
A blush forms on my lips. "Oh, um. N-nothing."
"Well, something must've happened! You two were up there for, like, an hour and from what you're telling me the conversation wasn't that complex," he argues, blowing out a gust of smoke into the room.
I blush harder. "Well, I...he...we—he distracted me, I guess."
"How? He started talking about something else?"
I run a hand through my hair. "No, not exactly—"
"Then what? Spit it out, Braylen!"
"Then we had sex! There!" I shout, crossing my arms.
Devin's face turns as red as mine. "Oh. Um...well, this just got awkward. Okay, uh, tell me what that was...like?"
I fall into a chair in the corner, completely pent up. "It was good, I suppose. It's always good. He seemed present, you know? But I just have this bad feeling that something's off. It's just like the Aaron thing all over again, only he's not opening up to me about it."
