❝𝐁 𝐈 𝐓 𝐄 | 𝐁𝐨𝐲 𝐱 𝐁𝐨𝐲❞

Chapter 6: Escalation

Johns eyes were burning as the bright light from his computer screen eluminated his dark room.
His door was locked and the curtains drawn tightly shut.
He reached up to push his glasses back up onto his nose bridge since they were slipping down.
His eyesight was so bad that he still needed them to read even from this distance.
He clicked and another page plopped up.

@RaMONSTER

It was Ramons social media profile.
It had taken some time but he eventually found it through some profile of one of his other classmates.
But now that he looked at it he was surprised that he hadn't found it earlier.
It had over 200k followers and a lot traffic.
His bio also held a link to his tiktok profile which John was hesitant about downloading so he shoved that into the back of his mind for later.
What surprised him even more was that he himself only followed five other people.

@Juanpén_the_Pumkén
@BETTERjonaTHAN_YOU
@TednChess
@VICTOR_Offical
@ⁱᵃᵐRamBOSS

What kind of lameass usernames-
Anyways.
John clicked through them one by one.
@Juanpén_the_Pumkén mostly held cute if unprofessional pictures the person obviously took themselves, selfies and dog pics.
He apparently went to the same school as John but was in a year below.
Nothing overly interesting.
In addition to the profiles Ramon already followed this guy also followed someone called @CedisYellow who stuck to his name and wore yellow in every picture of himself (and there were many) he posted.
Upon closer inspection he realized that he was the leader of a local football club that had a wasp as their mascot which explained things.

@BETTERjonaTHAN_YOU had nothing on it and John guessed that the person only used their account to consume content on the site.
The profile picture was just a white circle.
They had 5 followers but didn't follow anyone back.

@TednChess was someone John actually recognized. He was in the year above him and was the leader of the chess club.
Jacques had told John about him.
Ted Campbell.
His account had some pictures of himself and many of his club and tournaments they went on.
He also posted recommendations for books he read and strategy game reviews.
He had around a thousand followers and followed about 50 people.

@VICTOR_Offical was by far the most popular account with close to a million followers.
He was a sort of celebrity in their city after he won gold in some national competition.
John didn't know in which discipline and didn't care to find out.
He only followed @ⁱᵃᵐRamBOSS  and about 10 others that were all in his team or whatever at some point.

Johns breath hitched when he clicked on the last profile.
@ⁱᵃᵐRamBOSS had a typical gym bro account with thirst traps, work out advice / progress and an alpha male mentality which John couldn't take seriously.
He had around 300 hundred followers and followed the same people Ramon did.
This wasn't what shocked him though, no.
What shocked him was the face staring back at him from the profile picture.
It was the guy who attacked him and Jacques.
Apparently his name was Rambo.

John was exhausted but the fire rekindled in his chest and he couldn't hold back a no doubt savage grin.
He had been right.
John let out a disbelieving laugh and ran his hands through his tangled greasy hair.
Ramon could try to smooth talk his way out of this as much as he wanted but now John had proof that they were friends.
John winced when he could hear the birds singing outside and decided to lay down.
He fell asleep with a plan already forming in his head.

---

Ramon had many admirers and people that claimed to be his friends.
What they didn't know was just how worthless they were to him.
Resting his back against a wall he listened as Ramon freely told a girl about her sisters intention of fucking her boyfriend, all the while playing the sympathetic and worried friend as he sweet talked her into taking revenge.
What he neglected to mention was that he was the one to plant the seed of desire in the sisters head and was the one who pushed her over the edge.

"After all why should she have him when you clearly love him so much more? Stop holding back, it's finally your turn. Or be a coward and watch your sister keep him all to herself when she doesn't even value him."
Those were his words.

John felt sick.
Ramon played and manipulated these people that trusted him for his own sick amusement.
He had been following the redhead for three days now and each discovery made him more sure that he was right about him.
He had done something horrible to Jacques.
He didn't have proof of anything distinctly sinister yet but it was only a matter of time until the other boy slipped up.
John didn't know why Ramon decided to save him from Rambo but it wasn't for selfless reasons, of that he was certain.
He must have had some kind of ulterior motive and John's mind raced to find out what that could be.

Ramon left the now crying and furious girl to her thoughts and went downstairs.
John waited a bit, then silently followed after him, avoiding eye contact with the girl.
He kept enough distance that it would be easy to hide and so that Ramon wouldn't be able to hear him but was still close enough to keep an eye on him.
Ramons red hair helped with that.

John tensed up a bit with both fear and anticipation when he realized that Ramon was leaving the school entirely, waking in the direction of the town.
The redhead didn't linger at any of the stores and instead walked straight to some unknown destination.
Johna entire body froze up when he took in where exactly they were.
He didn't look around much, focused on keeping his eyes on Ramon but he should have.
Because now John was once again staring down the dark alleyway.
Ramon didn't go in, in fact he walked straight past with not even as much as glance but John couldn't help but linger.
Would there still be blood if he went in?
Probably his from when his hear was cracked on the wall.
But what about Jacques?
John trembled.
He didn't even know what exactly Rambo did to him.
Was he even alive?
Ramon said he was just unconscious but John now knew more than anyone not to trust a word he said.

Despite himself John could feel his legs give out, knees stinging painfully as he hit the concrete floor.
His skin split and blood stained his nice uniform pants.
He took deep breaths trying to calm down and steadied himself against a brickwall to help him get back on his feet.
When he looked to his left his stomach plummeted as he realized that Ramon was of course out of his sight by now and he hit the brickwall hard, not caring about the ensuing pain that exploded in his fist.
Fuck!
He had one job and he let him get away.
What if Ramon saw him break down?
He would surely realize that John was following him and be more careful in the future.
And how would he find out what happened his only friend then?
His face flushed shamefully when his vision blurred with tears which he stubbornly blinked away.

John shakily took out his phone and opened Jacques contact, looking at his picture which displayed a smiling truly happy Jacques after he got appointed head of the student council.
Fuck.
Was everyone he cared about doomed to disappear?
First his sister, now him.
John wouldn't be able to live with himself if he never got to see him smile again.
He knew it was in vain but clicked on the call button anyway.
Jacques wouldn't pick up but he'd at least get to hear his cheery voice tell him to leave a message after the beep.

Instead he jumped hard when a hand landed on his shoulder at the same time as a familiar ringtone disrupted the quiet of the night.
Could it really be..?
He almost didn't want to but forced himself to turn his head around and face whoever was standing behind him.
His blood ran cold.

Ramon.
It was Ramon.

The boy still had his hand (his slender hands, that night in the garden, the finger print, the badge-) on his shoulder.
His expression was solemn, face pale.
He used his free hand to pull out the ringing phone.
Jacques phone.
He clicked on the red button and the screen went dark, casting his face in shadow again.

"This is not what I wanted to happen.
This is truly unfortunate John, I'm sorry."

John couldn't reply and any attempt at it faded into nothing as a sudden sharp pain took his consciousness away.