No Façade, No Mask.

Chapter One - Am I Right?

TWs: Religious trauma, Derogatory language, Slurs, Bad actions excused by religion, Cults, Homophobia, Mentioned child abuse, Alcohol abuse.

(Btw I am queer so I can use the slur. Travis is in a place in this story where he's hurt and spewing it constantly, so please stop here if that's sensitive. 💜)

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Travis didn't know what to do.

He had never really been the one for emotions,

So when he was busy having his own emotional crisis in the toilet stalls and someone had ran in and started sobbing on the dirty floor, he didn't really know what to do.

He wanted to leave the stall but that would mean having to make his presence known and then he would either have to awkwardly leave after clearly hearing the mysterious person sobbing their eyes out, or talk to them..

But Travis wasn't supposed to be nice, and how did he comfort someone anyway?

Maybe he'd offer them a cigarette and leave, that seemed somewhat like a compromise,

But if it was the wrong person and they said anything about Travis having cigs then his father would surely kill him.

Ugh.

Every option here was a bad one.

He eventually decided to just get up and leave, he would probably get in the least amount of trouble for that one.

He stood up and undid the lock of the door, awkwardly shuffling out.

As he thought, the sobbing had instantly stopped as his presence became known.

Travis tensed at the frozen figure on the floor, he recognised that damn blue hair anywhere.

There was no avoiding this one now..

"..Sally Face?"

Sal spoke in a quiet and shaky voice, a contrast to his usual confidence.

"Travis.."

Travis stood there awkwardly, he didn't know how to handle this. Did he call Sal a slur and run? Make fun of his masculinity? Just leave? Tell him this was the devil's doing?

Travis didn't get a chance to ponder any of that as the words spilled out of his mouth without him being able to stop them,

"Why are you crying?"

Why did he ask that? He didn't care. Sal was just a homo anyway, he didn't want to associate with people like that..

But, yet.. Travis found himself sitting besides Sal on the bathroom floor.

As his eyes trailed over Sal he noticed just how much the smaller boy was shaking, he seemed to be deliberately hiding his face. His blue hair was not in pigtails anymore, it was now falling around his shoulders.

And he noticed Sal wasn't wearing that mask anymore.

"..finally lost the mask?" Travis snared out, he didn't like how Sal always wore it everywhere.

"It's a prosthetic.."

"Oh."

A prosthetic? Like.. he had no face?

Travis had always just thought it was a weird mask,

The two fell into an awkward silence again.

"So.. uh.. you never answered my question."

"Why do you care? Do you just want to make fun of me in this state?"

Travis blinked, he was used to Sal always keeping his cool,