close to you ; tofuudiger

| 7 |

falling down down down

joe got a text from zack when he woke up in the morning.

| messages |
zack: hey im not going to school today and i won't make it to our date im sorry
joe: it's fine
delivered

joe wanted to ask why so bad. but he didn't.

he felt like zack was avoiding him. he kept canceling plans and joe had no idea why. since joe had no medicine, no zack, and no sleep, today was going to be bad.

except his mother was in a good mood. she drove him to school and told him she loved him as he got out of the car.

tyler and josh weren't at school either. joe's first thought was zack, tyler, and josh all skipped to hang out without joe.

all joe wanted was zack. but zack wasn't here. he was either sick or ditched for some reason.

he was mad. he didn't know why.

when lunch came, joe did something drastic. something he shouldn't do.

he went up to michael, who was alone. he was smoking a cigarette leaning against the brick wall of the school.

"cigarettes can kill you," joe said walking over to him.

"isn't that the point?" michael spat back. he looked over at who was talking to him and his eyes widened. "what do you want fag?"

"why do you hate zack?"

michael stared at joe for a minute before turning away and taking a puff of the cigarette. he looked at the sky and sighed.

"he hurt me and my family."

"w-what happened?" joe was nervous. he felt like michael could beat him up any second.

"you really want to know?" michael gave joe a look.

how bad could it be thought joe.

michael took once last puff of his cigarette and threw it on the ground.

"i had a brother, a twin brother. his name was liam."

joe was automatically confused. zack told him liam moved away yet michael who was apparently his twin brother was right here.

"liam loved zack, too much. he knew about how his dad beat him and liam couldn't do anything to help. liam committed suicide because of zack. my brother is dead because of your stupid boyfriend!" michael began to yell. he leaned against the brick wall and tried to calm himself.

"i'll never forgive him."

"zack didn't mean to do anything-"

"no! liam's suicide note literally said 'for zack, i'm sorry i'll never be able to help you'."

"i'm so sorry michael," joe said quietly.

"yeah, it's whatever," michael mumbled.

the bell rang and it made joe jump.

"bye," joe said and michael pulled out another cigarette.

joe hurried to class and tired to get everything michael told him out of his mind.