~Jake was in the bathroom of the tour bus, applying his war paint to his face as he listened to CC sing like a madman in the living-room area of the bus, sighing as he thought to himself that he wished he'd shut up.. only because he had the biggest crush ever on him, and had never been able to bring himself to say anything to CC – he was far too shy. It wasn't like him.. and he'd had enough problems of his own and in his own mind lately to worry about telling CC of his feelings and it backfiring in his face, so he'd only had the choice of keeping it to himself.
~That's when it all starting pouring into his brain again, and he gripped the sink tightly after dropping his vial of body paint on the floor, causing it to break its glass and shatter all over the floor, causing CC some form of alarm. The tears poured out of Jake's eyes as he stared at his smeared war paint on his face while looking in the mirror, which CC noticed immediately upon entering.
~”Jake, are you-- Jake, what's up?” he asked, walking over to him and holding one of his arms, being careful not to step on any of the glass on the floor. “Jake, what's gotten into you?”, he cooed to him, immediately wrapping his arms around the boy and holding him tightly. “The Army fucking hates me, I know it.. It's all over the internet.. Facebook, Twitter, everything.. They hate me..!!” he sobbed, getting war paint and tears all over CC's white tank top. “Jake.. They do not. What the hell's gotten into you? If they hated you, would they be chanting your name out there when we walk out every show?”. He shushed him after speaking, hearing sobs wrack Jake's body with every breath taken.
~CC looked into his eyes as he began to wipe Jake's eyes clean of his tears, whushing him as he placed their foreheads together, petting his head silently. “Jake.. Jake, calm dow-- Jake! Calm down or I won't be able to help you!” he finally said in an outburst, unable to even help him while he was sobbing and crying like so, not even able to form a sentence to answer him with.
~Jake immediately stopped crying as he was in shock.. - he'd never heard CC so strict with him before. He sobbed lightly and stared into CC's eyes as he listened to him talk him out of his near panic attack, eyes welled up with tears and body quivering in front of CC's. “Now Jake.. Let's go to your laptop. Show me what happened, where all of this is.. because if it's this bad, we need to stop it now.” he said calmly, taking Jake's hand and walking into his bunk room and sitting down with him, closing the door behind them.
~Jake opened up his laptop and got Twitter, where people were posting links to images on Instagram, Google Images, etc.. calling Jake a “mute bitch”, the “silent fuck”, and things similar to “the bitch of the group”, saying “he was so gay he couldn't walk straight”, some even going so far to say that “he was so weak he'd sit there and take the butt-fucking from all the rapists in town”.
~CC's eyes were wide as he covered his mouth and stared at the screen, suddenly seeing Jake take off out of the bunk room and out of the tour bus, running down the street in an outburst of tears, unable to take the pain anymore. He didn't know where he was going to go, but he wanted it to end, and wanted it to be over finally.. - it'd been going on for the past month. CC got up and took off after him, catching Jinxx's attention as he'd walked into the living area while CC was on his way out, his face looking shocked and confused as he had no idea what was even happening with CC to make him go running outside like that..
~CC was running after him, running on pure adrenalin and scared to stop as he feared if he did, if he managed to catch Jake after doing so, it'd be too late. He kept running as fast as his legs and feet would take him. It was complete horror in his mind. Jake had never been one to be suicidal, but CC knew Jake was bound to spiral downward eventually if he was breaking down, sobbing and crying in the bathroom, supposedly triggered by nothing. He knew it had to be bad enough to make him spiral.. to make him crash. When he finally caught up to Jake.. he was scared by what he saw.. and was a mixture of disappointed in Jake and shocked that he'd finally gone that far.
~Jake was lying on the ground in the park, under a tree with a knife having fallen out of his hand on the grass while blood was pooling under his side, in perfect line of where his chest was. He'd stabbed himself, and CC began to run over to him where he noticed this, eyes welling up with tears as he tried to wake him, but Jake was passed out cold, tears staining his face and blood staining the grass underneath him. He swiftly pulled out his cell phone and began to think, where his mind finally stumbled upon his memory of receiving a phone call explaining that he had only enough minutes for one final phone call before he'd have to go and purchase more. He didn't know what to do. How was he going to get home if he didn't call Andy or one of the guys? If he didn't call the ambulance, would Jake make it long enough for him to call Andy and get him to call the ambulance and meet them at the hospital? He was caught in a dilemma, but he didn't have enough time to bother thinking it over too long. He knew Jake's situation wasn't going to give him enough time to think it through as much as he would have wanted.. and so he jumped the gun and made the rash decision to do things his own way.
~He called Andy right off the bat, picking Jake up and putting him on his back piggy-back style before doing so, carrying him down the street while going through the details of what had happened to Jake with Andy, telling him to cancel the show, grab the guys and meet them at the hospital. When he got off of the phone, he was more able to run as he'd put his phone back into his pocket and hold onto Jake with both hands and arms.
~Within the next thirty minutes, he'd gotten to the hospital and had Jake sent to the emergency room, all three guys arriving and Andy comforting a distraught CC. What came next for them, they weren't prepared to hear but had to face head-on. The doctor came out to them and looked them in the eyes, all four of them, looking a bit disappointed with such news he had to bring. “Boys, we're afraid that your friend just barely punctured his heart. He'll be okay, but will be going into surgery here soon to stitch him back up. We'll take good care of him until he's better, don't you guys worry. We'll come back for you when he's out of surgery.”.
~With that, CC slumped down into the chair behind him, closing his eyes and feeling the tears fall from his eyes and drip from his chin, his war paint smearing as his hands slid down his face and stared at the floor. What if I hadn't have told him to show me what happened..? What if I had just.. not let go.., he thought to himself, closing his eyes for a moment before looking up as he felt a hand on his shoulder, seeing Jinxx beside him. It felt like a ton of bricks had been placed on his heart. All they could do was wait..
~Over the course of the next several-plus hours, Jake had gone through a successful surgery and had awoken while the doctor had gone to seek out CC since he seemed to be the most worried over him, also since they were scared to let so many visitors in to see him at once after his suicide attempt, so it was only CC that walked into the room.. Jake's face when he saw CC was that of absolute sadness and being ashamed of himself, and his eyes welled up with tears as the first words out of his mouth were “I'm so sorry CC”..
~CC shushed him and held his hand, pulling up a chair and sitting close to Jake, kissing his forehead and shaking his head. “No, please, Jake.. You don't have to apologize.. I made you show me what happened when I could have just handled it on my own instead.. I made it that bad for you, I'm sorry..” he whispered to Jake, closing his eyes as he suddenly took Jake's chin in between his index finger and thumb, turning Jake's head to give him a gentle kiss to his lips.
~Jake's eyes widened as he stared into CC's, shocked that he'd suddenly kissed him like that, out of nowhere. “CC..? Why did you--”. “Jake.. I love you.. and I'm going to protect you from anybody who hurts you like that ever again.. Even if it turns out to be me hurting you someday, I'll protect you from me too. I love you Jake.. so much.” he said, receiving a gentle, small smile from Jake, who suddenly gave an agreeing statement. “I.. love you too, CC..” he said, closing his eyes and resting his head on CC's shoulder, who then took his hand and laced their fingers together. “..and thank you for saving me..”, he whispered to CC, slowly drifting back into a deep sleep as they sat together this way for the rest of the afternoon.
