The Halls of Westwood [BxB]

Chapter 2

Week 2, Tuesday

Beau had only spent half of a week in classes and he was already feeling overwhelmed. He couldn't help wondering why he had agreed to do something so foolish... On top of regular classes, there was a never-ending list of rules. Some boys even had to attend classes such as anger management once a week depending on their crimes. And where was Beau in all of this? Impulse control.

It wasn't like arsonists were an everyday thing. Sure, there was one kid in the mental hospital that had tried to burn his house down while his family slept. But that was it. So instead, Beau had been placed in the same class as many of the addicts. At first, he had been annoyed... He didn't need help. The fire was a one-time thing. He never even fantasized about doing it again...

There was one good thing about the class and that was that he got to spend an hour every Monday morning before classes talking to Aiden. Aiden had proven to be just what Sage described him as; A nice guy with an addictive personality. He liked talking to Aiden. He liked listening to his jokes, he liked how he always messed with his lip ring when he was bored, and he liked how the first person he turned to when making a sarcastic comment was Beau. And that was exactly why Beau hated being around Aiden.

The fact that he enjoyed Aiden's company combined with the fact he found Aiden to be physically attractive wasn't okay. Beau was here because of Lukas. Beau took on the challenges in the asylum because he knew Lukas wanted him to have a better life. He was there to make his best friend and first love proud... Not to betray him by running after the first boy who batted an eyelash in his direction.

Beau closed his eyes tight, letting out a shaky breath as he clutched the cheap photo booth pictures in his hand. He and Lukas had been best friends for fourteen years and had only been together for a couple of weeks. But they were the best days of his life... They had only gone on one official date. They went to an arcade afterward, Lukas has proudly won him a stupid stuffed pig and named him Hamilton... Beau had ended their time by dragging him into a photo booth.

After fourteen years of being in love with his best friend, every photo taken of the two of them had Beau watching Lukas with a bright smile and love-filled eyes. And there was only one photo where Lukas ever returned the look. One photo where Lukas stared at Beau like he was his whole world... It had only been three days later that Lukas had been found dead in his bathroom. His lips tinted blue and his eyes a bloodshot red. He was gone, forgotten to the world...

From that day the sun didn't shine as bright, even the smell of peppermint made Beau want to scream, and Beau stopped smiling with his eyes. How could he when Lukas had been his reason to smile? His reason to exist and his reason to be the happy boy everyone knew and loved?

Beau bit down on his bottom lip to keep it from shaking. He didn't need to cry on only his second week. He didn't need to fall into a wave of grief in front of his new roommate. Well... Markos likely wouldn't even notice. If Beau had figured out anything about Markos it would be that his mind was more scattered than balloons caught in the wind. One moment Beau would try and talk about school and the next he'd be watching the boy pace around the room mumbling out sentences that didn't belong together. Almost as if half of the conversation was going on in his head.

Beau's mother would probably say that he had gone mad or that he had spent too long in the sun. But Beau had decided that Markos just had an energetic mind and didn't often socialize... Okay, maybe he was a little mad, but who could blame him? The boring and plain never-ending walls would drive anyone crazy.