A Midsummer's Nightmare

Chapter 01

It was only a couple of months until the school year let up. Months of mind aching, restless sleep, silent tears, and some not so silent tears. The wind rushed past Todd Anderson's ears on the final day, making every noise sound as if they were all submerged half underwater. It was disgustingly humid outside with just the smallest amount of wind which did not help. All it did was push hot and heavy air further on the boy's face which was already hot on its own. Things at Welton Academy were downhill since the night of the A Midsummer Night's Dream performance. It was the one last good thing before it all crashed before everyone on the ground.
A patch of plants not far from the pavement was slowly dying, lack of rain. Todd sighed, walking right past it with his head facing the ground. Everything was wrong now. And if it wasn't, then it felt wrong. The air felt like it picked up in humidity, taking Todd by the throat and choking him. All in one second, he felt as if his windpipes were growing smaller and allowing no oxygen to enter, even if he was gasping for air. "Hey.. hey!" Meeks. Meeks was the only one of the dead poets that could force himself to keep any kind of normalcy when Neil died. But even his grades dropped some for a little. Bile found its way up through Todd's mouth, but he swallowed it right back down. He was in no mood to be stopped on his way to his parents car, but Meeks was the one who would take a few seconds to check on him once all Neil, Charlie, and Keating were gone. He could mind him some of his day.
"So.. this is it? You know that you can call me anytime you need... a friend. You have my number." His freckled friend offered the best smile possible to muster up; it was very weak and subtle. If you blinked, you would've missed it. But it was a smile nonetheless.
"Uh.. I'm.. yeah. I'll- I'll call. Thanks Stev.." Getting through the sentence was a struggle, hands searching for something to fidget with just to keep his hands busy. "Thank you." Todd gave his own barely there smile. And that was that conversation, ended by Mr. Anderson lightly pushing on his son's back to get a move on. "We'll all make our efforts to see each other, all right? Take care of yourself." Meeks couldn't finish his sentence before Todd was ushered off into the backseat, freely messing with the fabric of his pants. "Nasty habit." Even if his father muttered under his breath, he could still hear him as clear as day. "A nasty habit, nasty style, and nasty friends. He'll rub off on you and then I'll have a fag for a son."
That was the thing with Mr. Anderson. Once during a visit to see how Todd was adjusting to Welton, he caught a glimpse of Cameron and Stick holding hands down the hallway. Ever since then, he was convinced that all of his son's friends must be gay. It didn't help that there were no girls at the school. No matter how many times Todd tried to defend his friend group, his father wanted to hear absolutely nothing about it. "It doesn't matter to me what you say, Todd. You're friends with homos and nothing you tell me is going to make me change my mind and approve of it. If we didn't try so hard to get you into Welton Academy, I'd withdraw you from the school right this second over it." It was never a winning battle. Eventually, Todd just learned that keeping his mouth shut was for the best even if all he wanted to do was yell at his father to shut the hell up, what would be the problem if his friends were gay? Todd didn't care either way. He began to toss his phone lightly from his left hand to the right, eyes closed. He was fully expecting the car ride to be full of talking about Todd needing to go off immediately to college now that he's graduated. Instead, it was just silence, to which Todd can say he was very grateful for. The only disruption of the quietness would come from his mother, complaining about traffic here and there or other drivers on the road.
He wouldn't text Meeks yet, it'd only been a half hour at most that they spoke outside the school. Instead, he scrolled through the contacts on his phone. 'We all missed you at graduation today. Hope that you're doing all right.' Then after exactly three minutes and twenty six seconds, 'I really hope you're okay.' Todd could appreciate all that Meeks did for him, but nobody understood what he went through quite like Charlie did. The two stuck close together before Charlie was kicked out. Todd was the one that texted and called the most after the other had been expelled. They had a bond like no other.
'getting on, keeping on. ur a free man now woohoo! how u feeling?' Genuine smiles were very rare for Todd Anderson since Neil's death, but there was one on his lips right now. The Charlie Dalton effects, Knox called it. The two of them texted back and forth, mainly catching up and trying to get a plan together to hang out now that Todd was free from Hellton.
'Phone about to die, but I'll call you when I'm home and it's charged. Not far from the house, you better be clothed when I call'
'no promises toddy ;)' Todd placed his phone down on his leg, watching out the window for the last few remaining minutes of his car ride home. His limbs felt too unused from the only hour and a half drive made apparent by him dragging his suitcase behind him, not really caring anytime it bumped into something. Without giving any thought to putting his clothes away, Todd just threw himself onto the bed after placing his phone on the charger. Because it was Charlie, he would've called as soon as his phone hit 1 percent, but like a smart person, he let it charge up enough to be at a decent percentage that he could take it off and have enough battery. When they had picked up the phone on the third ring, shirtless but at least dressed, Todd put anything negative out of mind. He wanted the conversation to be positive and lighthearted at the very least.
"Okay Toddsie, how the hell was graduation anyways? I wanna hear all about it, tell me everything." And that Todd did, only ending the call when the two both grew so exhausted that they could barely keep their eyes awake. Unfortunately for Todd, his sleep would only be filled with nightmares and be followed by bickering parents in the morning.

//not proofread in the slightest lmao 🐀