take me to the moon. | salvis

II

cw: suicidal thoughts and drug use

———

Travis stared at the message for what seemed like hours.

He couldn't muster up a response that wasn't being brutally honest. And, he didn't want to be brutally honest, to be fair. So, he just didn't respond. He knew it would raise suspicion most likely, but he wanted to sleep on it and try to find a response in the morning.

He closed his eyes, and tried so very hard to fall asleep, but his mind couldn't drift away from Sal. The first time he'd met him since high school went well in his opinion. Travis was so focused on Sal, that he didn't catch barely anything he was saying. All he got was "Hey, what's your number so we can stay in touch?" And that made Travis's heart almost fall into his stomach. He could barely even write it because of how much his hands were shaking.

He eventually ended up reaching out to grab his phone, and type out a response. He couldn't not respond to Sal. He just needed to make up a reasonable and believable excuse.

Travis:
I was just sleeping lol

Now all he had to do was wait for a response.

He turned his phone off and then walked out of his room and into the kitchen. He placed his phone face down on the countertop. He sat down at one of the barstools and took a sip from a half-empty glass in front of him and pinched the bridge of his nose. He had a migraine. Even worse, he was kind of hungover too.

Travis took a small plastic bag out of his back pocket, inside was a white powdery substance. He internally groaned before laying it out into one thin line on the marble countertop, then sniffed it.

He held his head back for a few moments and then rested his chin on his hand. A few minutes passed of Travis sitting in silence and staring at the kitchen in front of where he was sitting, when all of a sudden it was interrupted by a vibration coming from his cell phone. He anxiously grabbed it as quick as he could, mentally cursing himself for moving too fast as he read the message notification.

Sal:
R u sure? That would've been a short nap

No shit Travis wasn't sure. The truth was he had been sitting on his bed for what seemed like hours before he decided to move and snort cocaine. But he would be on his deathbed before he told Sal that.

Travis:
Yea, tbh I've just been laying in bed doing nothing, my life is pretty boring if you ask me

Sal:
Nah, you seem like a cool dude, Phelps

Sal:
So, how have things been since high school? Do you have a job? What side of town do you live on? Or do you not live here lol

Travis did that often. He would lay on his bed with his eyes closed until even the silence was too loud. Either that or his brain was yelling at him to kill himself.

Travis had picked up painting over the years. He found that it distracted the thoughts for a little while.

The blonde stood up from his chair, head spinning, and stumbled to his bedroom. Black spots faded in and out of his cloudy vision, until he made it to his bed. He nearly collapsed, and rolled over onto his back to stare at the popcorn ceiling. He felt an immense feeling of euphoria fall over his still body as he sunk deeper and deeper into his mattress.

His surroundings shrunk in on him as he closed his eyes and felt as though he was floating in the void state and his thoughts stopped racing and his heartbeat slowed as he drifted into a deep slumber.

————

Sal's brain raced with worry. He was overthinking, sure. But what if something was really wrong? What if he got hurt? Or worse? Or maybe Sal was just being ignored. He groaned before climbing out of his bed and exiting the van, leaning his back against the metal wall with his phone hanging out his front pocket. He gazed up at the stars in the endless night sky. How, in a million years, did the possibility that Travis Phelps, Sal's high school bully, locate him about 10 years later in a whole different state? And come to his band's concert? It seemed impossible, yet it happened.

The blue-haired boy exhaled, before pulling out his phone once again, only to see no response. Travis didn't even read his text. He sighed, putting his phone back into his pocket.

i'm sorry this is such a short filler chapter, i really just wanna start getting the plot done lol, stay tuned becuase i have some good ideas coming out but i am also sort of unmotivated but yknow 🤲🤲