ｇｅｔ ｉｔ ｏｕｔ // ｍｉｓｃ

ｉ ｆｅｅｌ ｆｉｎｅ

No one really noticed until Ian and him got even closer. They were already best friends but lately they'd started spending more time with each other than their own families.

The two had been at school when Ian had barely brushed his hand across Joji's leg while sitting in his own desk and seeing his friend flinch. The former stared at his friend with a suspicious look but eventually brushed it off.

He was probably overreacting. He get's skiddish like this sometimes. Ian thought to himself, trying to eradicate the possibility of anything bad happening to his best friend. 

The proceeding day, the smaller of the two was trying to grab something off one of the library book shelves. When he reached up, his thigh had slightly tapped the wood of the shelf and he immediately fell flat footed and hugged his book, pain lingered on his features as he tried to play it cool.

When he next noticed, it was clear that something was wrong. Joji was writing in his Maths notebook when his sweater had brushed barely out of the way enough for Ian to catch a glimpse of his bruised knuckles. Most noticeable were the scabs remained on the tops of each knuckle and it broke Ian's heart. What was he doing to himself? 

Ian asked Joji if the two could hang out and, because Ian had family over at the time, they spent the night at the others. Before walking into his room, Joji warned his room was a little messy, but it really wasn't. The only 'off' thing was the dents in the walls on almost every side and the dried blood in said dents you would find every once in a while.

Of course, a few of the clues had connected in Ian's head. His friend was so upset with either himself or someone else he took his anger out by hitting the walls, resulting in his own injury. Why were his legs so sensitive.

 Ian didn't find out until later that night when Joji was changing out of his school clothes into sweatpants but that's when he saw them. Bruises littered up and down Joji's thighs.

"Dude, what the hell?" Not the softest approach to the situation he  was presented with, but Ian was scared for his friend. "Who did that to you?"

"I'm fine, man. It was no one, don't worry about it." He tried to pretend he was okay, but it was obvious he was terrified that someone had found out what had been happening.

"No, you aren't fine. Who was this? Holy shit, was it your parents?"

"God, no! They would never. Can we just drop it?" The tone in his voice was pleading for the conversation to end.

"Joji, please just tell me who did this to you. You're beating yourself up over the who-" Before he could finish his sentence Joji had interrupted him.

"It was me, okay? Are you happy now?" Ian looked stunned. 

Joji always seemed chill. He seemed like a happy guy, he was the one you could talk about your problems with. He was so busy helping others that everyone would forget he needed help too. Was he really such a bad person to not know when his best fucking friend was hurting?

Ian looked at Joji and moved towards him, pulling the other between his legs. He sat there and held the boy in his arms, kissing his forehead in attempt to console him. Joji's head was resting on Ian's shoulder and he sat there, crying. 

"I'm sorry I wasn't there for you."