Problematic // Vikklan Au

Chapter 9

-Edited-

Mitch's POV

Having arrived at school, I met up with Rob and Preston, who had been currently looking for Lachlan for more than ten minutes now.

Well, so was I.

"Maybe Lachlan is sick," I tried to assure, patting their shoulders. Preston shrugged and nodded, and Rob hummed.

We walked down the corridors, hearing people chatting about a fight, about someone breaking it up, and then I heard Vikk's name.

I rushed to a girl who had been informing her friend, and she immediately looked at me with excited eyes.

"Um, hello? Do you possibly know why there is such an uproar?"

She looked like she could faint from me talking, and I had to refrain myself from rolling my eyes and trying someone else. "Well, Vikk got in a fight and Lachlan showed up right before it got nasty. Well, let me tell you! Lachlan was not happy. He helped the boy getting bullied and started confronting Vikk why he did it. It got sloppy, and Vikk threw a punch that Lachlan stopped. Then he threw another, but this time Lachlan caught it and slung him into the lockers. Looked painful. Lachlan said something about Vikk loosing his friends and him, and then left. No one's seen him since, but he isn't here for sure."

I stood in silence, taking in her words while swallowing hard. I nodded at her, thanked her, and gave a simple cheek kiss before walking back to my friends with the thought of not liking girls lingering on my mind.

I repeated what I heard, and we began to text Lachlan worriedly. He sent us a text in a group chat, and it made my heart drop to the bottom of my stomach.

I dialed his number and walked away quietly, and I was relieved as the line picked up, "Hello?" His voice was hollow and wrecked from crying, and I nearly bolted to his house right then, but I had no sure clue that he was there.

"Lachlan, dear god, where are you?" I whispered, and I heard him start to sob loudly, "Please, please come to my house. I need help. I don't want to do it again. Please, don't let me do it again. Keep me a secret, okay?" He was rambling and voice cracking, and I could tell he was just an overall mess.

I assured I'd be there and hung up. I didn't tell Rob and Preston anything as I turned and rushed to the doors.

Before I could push them open, a hand stopped me, and I turned around to see the person who caused all of this chaos.

"What do you want?" I spat, and he flinched back, but I didn't care. He has put Lachlan through too much, and I wouldn't take this.

Lachlan's voice repeated in my head, still the same broken and hollow tone, saying, "I need help. I don't want to do it again."

And something clicked together, and I nearly screamed, begging Lachlan could hear me from here at school.

"Look, I can't speak right now. You better straighten yourself out because you've nearly killed a friend." I rushed, not thinking about my words as I turned and ran out of the doors.

I jumped into my car and made sure to go as fast as possibly to his home.

I ran up to his door, nearly tripping multiple times, and pounded on the door hard, "Lachlan, I'm here, buddy. Let me in, yeah?"

Like a scene from a movie, the door opened slowly, but on the other side wasn't some morbid doll wanting to kill me.

Rather, on the other side was the image of a broken boy, almost as if he was a mirror that had broke and would never be fixed. His eyes were dead, and his skin was sickening. His hair was matted from him possibly yanking at it, and his cheeks were shining with tears.

"This is me," he whispered, almost not able to be heard, "it's all fake. The happiness, the joy and smiles- it's all fake." He cried harder, and I cried with him, letting myself inside the house to cradle him to me and shut the door with my leg.

His clothes were wrinkled and baggy, and for the first time, I saw weakness, vulnerability and fear. His clothes never looked so big before, but now they seemed three sizes larger, and his eyes were to the point of being considered lifeless.

Everything about Lachlan turned to darkness and sadness, and the façade he had put up crashed down the instant I stepped inside. He wasn't happy.

He was broken.

Was the Lachlan we learned to know and love not really the Lachlan we thought he was?

"What Vikk did," he squeezed me tighter while sobbing, "hurt me." I held his head in my hand and rocked us. He was breaking, and I couldn't do anything to save him.

"He broke his promise! I thought I liked him, and I thought he felt the same. Mitch, he attacked me!" I felt him shrivel in my arms, curling into himself.

He yanked away, his lips permanently sad; tears flooding from his eyes.

"This," I heard him breathe sharply, "is Lachlan. This is me."

He began to fumble with his sleeves, and I held my breath out of fear. This couldn't be happening.

He rolled his sleeves up, exposing years worth of scars. Some were fresh, and it made me think he had just done them. "Not the fake Lachlan I put on for society," he whimpered, pulling up his shirt and showing more slits across his stomach and hips.

His stomach was sunk in dangerously, and his bones showed off more than humanly normal. His frame was more bones than flesh. I shook my head in shock, tears falling faster because of all the emotions overloading my head.

I grabbed Lachlan again, holding him all the much tighter, "Please, I'll help you. Just don't harm your body, Lachlan. I'm not like him, and I will try to help heal you."

I pulled back and covered my mouth with my hand, muffling the sobs escaping my lips.

"Does anyone know where you went?" He whispered, and I shook my head.

He nodded, "Great. No one is to see me, besides you. I want to be absent from the world until I can handle myself. If anyone asks, just tell them I'm out of town to clear my mind."

"I'll do anything, okay? Just as long as you promise to stop. If not stop for me, stop for the people who care, trust, and love you as much as I do," I whispered, and I saw a faint smile cross his lips.

"I promise."

Suddenly, my phone had ringed, and I looked at it to see Rob messaging me to come back to the school as soon as possible.

"Something happened, Lachlan. I have to go, but I'll be back as soon as possible, okay?" I quickly said, rushing to the door. "Text me if you need to, and I will answer as quickly as I can," I added, and he smiled with a worried nod.

I ran out of the house, starting my car and speeding off back to the location Rob sat to meet him at.

Why did this day have to happen?