𝐏𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 ; ⱽᵃⁿᶜᵉ ᴴᵒᵖᵖᵉʳ

v

Vance had been beating himself up. He went upstairs every night for the game, he hoped the beatings killed him every night so it'd all end but he was running on sleep deprivation and adrenaline at this point. All that was left today was for the man to notice the giant hole in the wall leading into the freezer, opposite the wall where the toilet was.

Behind the anger, and tough attitude of Vance Hopper was a sad little boy with issues of his own, who just wanted to go home and see his mom, who just wanted to go to school and see his best friend waiting outside for him. That was all he wanted. He couldn't hide the deep hole he'd fallen into the past couple months, he'd just wanted out of that hell so badly he was asking for death, pleading to just be killed already.

The blonde, out of his tough persona he showed to everyone, was terrified of death. He was absolutely mortified of actually being beaten to a pulp, the pain, mostly.

"I want to say there's hope, but sometimes things don't always go your way"

For some reason, those words rang through his ears in Thomas' voice. All it meant to Vance was that he was going insane.

He didn't know what to do at this point. So this night he'd make fucking sure he'd just die. There wasn't anything to live for out of this, so why'd it matter?

The hole he made in the wall was his plead for death, he just had to lead the man down there and basically show him.

The blonde walks up the stairs with one final hope, just to see Thomas Berman, his best friend, one more time. Even if he went to hell after all he'd done, he didn't care. There was no fucking way this was worse than hell.

And upstairs, his doom awaited.

<•>

Finally, it was over. The pain, the hurt, the dozens of feelings the boy couldn't even seperate. It finally ended, and he didn't have to worry anymore.

He awoke on the floor where he once laid, expecting to awake in the fiery pits of hell like Pastor Joe had told him he was for collecting sins like Pokémon cards. Being a closeted queer, the fighting, anger, suspensions, lying, etcetera. At least he wasn't burning and screaming in pain, he was just a kid with issues who needed help.

Sitting up on his shoulders, he sees his friend at his feet, looking down at him with an exhausted and depressed expression. Vance's eyes well up with tears as he looks up at his friend.

"Why did you give up?" Thomas speaks, brushing his dark hair away from his eyes.

Vance's lip quivers as he pushes himself up to his feet, meeting eye to eye with Thomas in the red flannel with the sleeves cut off. The blonde rubs his shoulder where there was clear fingerprints engraved in his skin, blood staining his dark vest.

"I'm sorry, okay? I couldn't fucking take it" The curly haired boy answers.

Thomas stands with his lip quivering, tears pricking his eyes. His best friend reached the same doom he did. He was so close to freeing him but was caught, then the blonde gave up because no one even cared enough to look for him except for Thomas. The raven haired boy's family probably didn't even realize his missing appearance, considering they were so wrapped up in themselves.

Thomas embraces Vance in a hug, the two standing in silence.

"I'm sorry" Vance apologizes again, "I'm sorry"

"It's cool, man. It's cool"

The two boys seperate, still standing eye to eye. Thomas moves his hands to Vance's cheeks quickly, feeling his stomach churn and start to ache as he did so.

Thomas quickly pecks Vance's lips with his, pulling his hands away and backing away about a foot. The blonde's face turned red quickly, a confused expression painting his face while Thomas tried hiding the red forming on his face, a small smile being hidden not so well.

"Oh" Vance speaks up

"Oh?"

Vance smiles like a giddy little child, pulling Thomas back in to kiss him. The blonde didn't know how to reciprocate his feelings in words so he did it with actions, grabbing Thomas and smashing his lips against his.

So much had been lost between those ten months, unspoken feelings and stupid crushes. Even if they couldn't really be together, it was nice enough to get some weight off their shoulders at least.

"Oh" Thomas smiles, laughing softly. "Thanks"

"Like you too" Vance rolls his eyes and crosses his arms. "Missed you"

"I missed you too, idiot"

"Handsome idiot, you mean."

"No. Just idiot"

"At least I didn't get decapitated" Vance spits

"I what? I got decapitated?" Thomas asks with some sort of happy tone

"Yeah. Why?"

"That's so cool!" The boy exclaims.

"This is why I hate playing manhunt with you"

"Hated" Thomas corrects

"Shut up"

AN - second to last chapter :( so sorry I'm taking so long rn, I meant to post yesterday but guess who got busy crying bc they failed an 80 point test 🤪
anyways hope ur all doing good, love you <3