Stick around (RINNEY)

14

Finney sat in the bathtub, staring down at the metal tap with tired and heavy eyes. He didn't get much sleep last night. His knees were brought up to his chest, and his arms wrapped around himself tightly. The water was scolding hot. Hot enough to fog up the entire bathroom, covering any bit of glass in condensation. Hot enough to burn his bruised skin and make every single scar sting like he was being engulfed in flames. He just allows it to hurt. The inflicted pain he was experiencing on the outside felt like nothing to him.

Every louzy drip falling from the tap brings him back to last night. Finney could remember it so clearly in his mind that he could almost still feel the frozen air howling against his face. The sound of trees dancing behind them. The look on Robin's face before he fled off into the night. That very image replayed over and over again in his mind. He looked scared. Almost mortified. He had spilt out his feelings towards Finney and shared unspoken secrets that could ruin someone's reputation. And all Finney could do was stand there in shock and not say anything back like an idiot.

Fuck. Robin would definitely hate him now. And Finney couldn't even blame him. It was his first ever proper friendship, and now it could come crashing down all because he was too scared to admit he felt the same way. He had ruined it. Robin probably didn't want to ever talk to him again.

The sheer bitterness of the whole situation resignated on his tongue. He couldn't take much more of this.

Finney freed one of his arms and brought a hand up to his face, pressing his palm against his eyes. He sucked in a heavy breath, the hot fumes entering his lungs as he tried his best not to cry.

"Finney?" His sisters voice suddenly speaks through the other side of the door.

He jumps a little, getting easily startled. This action being so quick that he nearly bangs his head against the side of the bathtub.

"Yeah?" He answers, slightly confused and hesitant.

"Can you hurry up? We're going to be late to school." She stated in a slight rush.

Finney let out a defeated sigh into the atmosphere as he's reminded of the fact that he would have to face yet another agonising day in hell. Also known as school.

"Yeah. Ok." He quickly replies. It goes quiet for a few moments until he hears her loud footsteps descend into only a feeble sound.

Once he's sure she was gone, Finney dunks himself into the bubbley water, letting it consume his body. He closes his eyes and silently preys that someone will come and hold him under just so he doesn't have to go to school. But that doesn't happen. Instead, he resurfaces, and it becomes apparent that there was no running away from this. just yet.

(Time skip)

As lunch time quickly approaches, Finney finds himself heading towards the back of the school, where the bleachers were. He knew Vance and Robin hung back there, so that was the best possible place to start. He hadn't seen Robin all day. It was almost as if he were a ghost or something. But Finney wasn't going to give up that easy. Even if a tendril of anxiety coiled itself up in his stomach like a spring, causing his legs to shake and making him nauseous. He adjusted the strap of his bag on his shoulder and looked up at Vance. Vance didn't seem to notice the boy standing below him as he remained focused on rolling a cigarette for himself.

"H-have you seen Robin?" Finney speaks out nervously. He was still terrified of the blonde. "Do you know where he is?"

Vance looks up, finally connecting their eyes before merely shrugging.

"Sucking dick? How the fuck am I meant to know?" He replies harshly. Vance looks back down to his unrolled cigarette, avoiding Finney's intentive gaze as if he stared too long it would become crystal clear that Vance was hiding something.