Line of Time

A Chaos

Tino sat in his room and stared at the space on his finger that used to hold a ring, a promise that he would be there forever for him. Now where was that promise, shattered in a million pieces and hurt more than he could bare. More than the thought that he wasn't real. The fact that yes he was real but that he would lie and cheat on him while he was in a broken state. It tore far deeper and twisted in his heart. It would have truly hurt less if Gunner had never been real. 

Bitter tears ran down his face, the silence of the dimmed room was broken by the buzz of a phone call. Gunner's picture appeared on the screen. He stood and walked to his desk, the lamp there lit the whole room, he looked down and picked it up. 

"I said I didn't want to hear from you." He said his voice broken and hurt. It sounded numb and dark, it cut through the air like a blade. 

"Please let me explain, I'm sorry." Gunner said as Tino pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at the picture on the screen. 

"If you were sorry, you wouldn't have done that." He said as he ended the call and put the phone down. He took a shaky breath and put the phone in his pocket. He found an old coat that Gunner had left at his house and put it on, more than a few sizes too big, he didn't care. He disregarded the mirror that showed puffy raw red eyes and a broken man. 

He locked his bedroom door, scribbled a quick note on his desk and climbed out the window. 

Gunner looked at the phone for a long while before letting his head hang, his arms were folded over the side of the river's bridge. He spent a lot of time here now. His eye was swollen shut and his lip was cut. He hated to think that he had been so stupid. He hate himself more than he ever had. He tugged at his sleeves as he felt the sharp night air burn at his arms, what if someone saw... He didn't care what they thought but he did care if he would be hauled off again, that was a true hell not a hospital. They didn't help him they only reminded him that he was a sick person. His mind and people around him had been telling him this for his whole life. Whether it was in person or through a screen, they called him dirty and unnatural. He believed them until Tino had come along, he had been the thing that threw all of those things away. But when he walked away from him, when he disappeared into that slumber and woke to find out and hate him. It crushed his soul and brought everything back ten fold. 

Gunner had fallen so far from the grace he had once been so proud of. His last chance to fix his mistake had just hung up on him. The world was a bleak place for him. 

Mathias walked down the block and when he was coming back he saw Tino leaving, making quick pace of his route ahead of himself. He fallowed his brother with a curiosity and worry that was more than he could handle. But by the time they reached the city he had trouble keeping up without being seen and soon lost him around where the river started. 

Tino could feel the panic of being fallowed the moment he step foot on this street and now as he quickened his pace even more he looked over his shoulder even more than before. Then he jolted he walked into something, he looked to see a teary face behind thick glasses. Gunner, of all the people he could have bumped into it had to him... 

There were no words, just stares that looked at each other with a broken heart. Tino noticed that Gunner's eyes were dulled and tired, almost lifeless in themselves. 

"What did you do?" Tino asked his voice small and worried, Gunner felt a ping of regret as he heard the worry in his voice. 

"If I could I would take back everything I ever did to hurt, that idea to go to that party, the kiss and the fight..." He paused for a moment as Tino's eyes grew wide at his depressive and almost tearful voice.