SOBER ; E.D.

overdose.

we offer our dearest condolences to mayor jacob lancaster. his eldest son holden, aged 19 years old, was found dead in his room this morning. his cause of death is not yet certain.
**
almost everybody in the neighborhood had come over to offer their condolences to the lancasters.

i came along, of course, and brought grayson with me.

i really wanted to see mr. and mrs. lancaster, ginger, and braxton... but i was having really bad anxiety.

did i push holden to the edge? could i have helped him?

i cringed when i thought about our last encounter, and our encounter before that. our friendship would permanently be left with so many unresolved problems.

despite everything, i always thought that in the future... my children would be able to hang out with their "uncle holden". unfortunately, those plans i had would be buried along with him.

the worst part was when braxton and ginger brought me the framed pictures of him and i. there were so many pictures of us, and it pained me to see them.

braxton shakily sighed, and pointed to three of the pictures. "these ones were on his nightstand, he put them up after he pulled that dumbass stunt in hawaii."

he knitted his brows together, and looked at me. "i don't remember any of these pictures being taken, though."

ginger had her arm around my waist, she was resting her head on my shoulder. "i can tell you when and where each of these photos were taken. i took all of them."

she pointed at the pictures, and cleared her throat.

"this one was at serena's house, after junior prom last year. masen was 17, holden was 18. i know, it's kind of a weird picture, but holden thought that it would be cute... so we all just went with it."

grayson studied the picture, and peered over at me. "wait a second, did you two date? also, what ever happened to serena?"

i opened my mouth to speak, but ginger handled it for me.

"no, they didn't date. they both liked each other before, but it never worked out. thank god it didn't work out, holden was too complicated and he would have been too much for masen. to answer your other question, we don't speak of it. she did something really shitty."

i never really thought about why i didn't see serena too much anymore, but oh well. time will tell, i guess.

ginger took a breath, and pointed to the next picture.

"this one was from halloween in 2016–"

grayson raised his brows. "you looked like THAT when you were sixteen?"

i scoffed, and ran my hand through ginger's hair. "we've all seen pictures of you and ethan from when you were sixteen, and you both looked 21. now you're both 18, and you look 28. so yeah, i did look like that when i was sixteen."

"touché."

ginger coughed, and looked at the picture. "anyways, uh... you know, i can kind of see why everybody thought you two were dating, holden included. you guys did everything together."

i groaned. "yeah, that's what best friends do. there are tons of pictures of us like this, but did anyone suspect that we were dating?"

ginger and braxton nodded slowly. "actually, yes. everybody thought that we were in a love triangle."

i couldn't help but laugh. "yeah, i had a feeling."

grayson sighed dreamily. "you and ginger? now THAT is something that i'd love to see."

ginger and i shook our heads, and sighed.

"you disgust me," ginger laughed, and pointed at the last picture.

"um," she glanced at me, and laughed awkwardly. "i was gonna let you keep these–"

i shook my head, and pushed the picture in her direction. "eth would have a fit, i think that you should keep them. that was a really sweet offer, though."

ginger sat up straight, and groaned. "did anybody tell you about what happened to holden?"

i kept my eyes on the floor. "no, nobody told me."

ginger tied her thick hair into a ponytail, and tightened it. "uh, he had snorted coke before he came home, yesterday. apparently, he had been doing that for the past few months. when dad found him today, he was in his bed. there were a bunch of dollar bills, sheets of glass and lines of coke on his nightstand. i know how you think, so i just want you to know that this wasn't your fault."

**

a/n: i was lowkey getting emotional while writing this chapter for some reason??