pretty boy

3. brooklyn

Brooklyn locked himself in the bathroom and feel to the ground. His cries were silent as his shoulders shook violently. He wasn't even 100% sure as of to what happened. All he remembered completely was that a girl was yelling at him and everyone was staring. Anxiety had taken over his bond and mind at that moment and took him far away from the scene.

Slowly, his tears stopped falling and his breathing returned to semi-normal. Brooklyn grabbed a fist full of his hair and cursed himself from crying in the first place. And with a shaky breath, he pulled himself from the dirty floor and out the stall before coming face to face with his number one enemy.

The mirror.

His reflection showed a boy with pale skin and mismatched eyes that were surrounded with a pinkish tint. Brooklyn raised his hand and wiped the tear stains from his face.

Pathetic. He thought angrily. Someone slightly raises heir voice and I turn into a big baby.

He stared longer into his own eyes. Brooklyn didn't know what he was looking for-maybe some sense of confidence or redemption-but for a while he just stared. People often say that the eyes are the gateway to the soul, that the longer you look the more you could see through a person.

Brooklyn thought that was a load of bull.

When he looked at himself, he saw what was right in front of him. He didn't see 'bright orbs' or 'eyes that compared to the forest and ocean'. No. What he saw was a boy. One that wore imperfections and tried to play them off as beauty.

Brooklyn tore his gaze from the mirror when the bathroom door was pushed open to show he best friend, Landon. The pair made eye contact for a second before Brooklyn returned his eyes to the mirror.

"Brooklyn, you know that she-"

"She's right." He cut off his friend. And he believed she was. He should've been watching where he was going. He should stop acting like he was higher than he really was. He should stop acting like everyone loved him.

"What? Brook, no she isn't. She was probably was having a bad morning or something." Landon said. His words fell dead upon his friend's ears.

"She looked like she knew what she was talking about. And she had a point, not everyone likes me."

Landon walked up to him. "No she doesn't. I love you. Your friends love you. Your family loves you. That's all that matters, right?"

Brooklyn forced a smile onto his face. "Yeah."

Landon's face showed that he didn't believe him. Not even a little. Brooklyn let his gaze fall to the ground as he felt the familiar feeling of his friend's arms around his waist. The two stayed like that for a while, just holding each other.

Landon pulled away when the warning bell rang through the school. "Come on, let's go to class." Brooklyn nodded his head wordlessly and let his friend drag him out of the bathroom and to their next class.

Brooklyn never said it often, but it was times like these that he was most grateful for his friend and his love for him. He was grateful that he stayed by him, even through all his flaws and lowest moments.

He was thankful that, no matter what he said or did, Landon would be by his side forever. And Brooklyn would be by his, even if he felt like he didn't deserve someone like him. He would do it. And he would pretend to be okay, as long as it made his best friend happy.