Artificial Happiness

"Why"

"The most confused we ever get is when we try to convince our heads of something our hearts know is a lie."

-

"Don't chase him."

That thought flashed through Gaelyn's mind the second Valac turned to leave, it was obvious the other male was tearing up, he felt bad, but he did this to himself. Right? Why should he chase after the older male and comfort him, when he had been brought to tears over him far more times than he would like to count. Val would be fine, he knew what he did wrong and eventually... maybe even by tomorrow he'd be getting an apology. Unfortunately for G, that wasn't the case at all.

It was weird not having Val around, it was weird, not hearing his voice, the other was almost silent the days he did show up to school and soon enough he disappeared completely.

"Jack, I'm worried about him."

The blue eyed boy shoved his book away with an angry huff, he couldn't bring himself to focus on the words, or really focus on anything for that matter. He thought that after scolding Val, his mind would be cleared, but no. He was thinking about the other male more than ever, guilt was constantly eating away at him and he hated it. 

"We all are G, but Mark said he's... okay."

"You paused, what does that mean?"

Gaelyn asked, picking up on his best friend's hesitation as fast as it left the Irishman's lips.

"Well, he's alive. That's what I mean."

Jack replied calmly, slowly twirling the straw in his glass.

"He's been almost completely silent for the last couple days, he stays out of the house, Mark said he's been going out during school hours by himself a lot."

G sighed, letting his head fall into his hands and then slip further down until his forehead was resting on the table.

"This is my fault isn't it?"

He asked, slowly starting to but the blame on himself, even though it was completely untrue.

"I shouldn't have gone with Rae, this wouldn't have happened, and everything would have been fine! Right!?"

Jack's face fell and he looked at his friend, deadly seriousness flashing in his bright blue eyes. 

"Don't say that. This is not your fault, Gaelyn. You know that! I know that! Hell even Val knows that! You're allowed to have other friends G, Val doesn't get all your attention, and based off of how he's been acting, he doesn't deserve it at all. Just because he doesn't have the guts to properly apologize to you just tells me he's not good for you. Don't get me wrong, he's a nice guy, and a good friend, I'll admit that... but I'm not going to sit here and let him continue to break your heart over and over and over and-"

Jack pulled out his phone, cutting off his sentence and pulling out his cellphone to text Mark.

"Midori- what are you doing?"

G's head lifted from the table, trying to figure out why Jack had stopped talking and found the other boy texting. 

"Niwa please. Please don't tell me you're texting him!"

"I'm not. I'm texting, Mark." 

The Irishman replied stiffly, shoving his phone in his pocket. He normally didn't like getting involved in drama, he liked to step back, in a way watch, maybe offer some support, but he never wanted to get in the thick of it. However, this time it was different, with G involved, he would most definitely step in, this whole thing was just getting ridiculous.

"Oh. Sorry."

Glyn sighed quietly, dropping his head back on the table and letting out a loud groan. Would this ever end?

-

"Are you sure this is a good idea to surprise him like this?"

G halted outside of the Fischbachs' front door, Mark was standing just inside and Jack was next to him.

"G I told you, just wait at the bottom of the steps, I'm going to talk him into this and then you come up okay? I'll set up a text, and then send it when he's ready okay?"

Mark explained, typing out a quick okay in the text thread he had with G and then slipped his phone into his back pocket. 

"G you'll be fine, I promise." 

Jack reassured him quietly, pushing Gaelyn through the front door and stepping in after him. 

"I'll be in the living room, you're okay."

The Irishman gave the younger boy an encouraging smile and nudged him a bit.

"Google it'll be fine. I promise, you know he's more scared of this whole thing than you are."

Mark whispered, he was standing near the stairs and he didn't want his adopted brother to hear him talking. Val had no idea G and Jack were in the house as well, and if he found out before Mark got the chance to talk to him, this whole ordeal probably wasn't going to to go as smoothly as he originally planned it to go. That was the last thing an of them needed. 

"If you two want to talk while I'm up there, please, just text back and forth, stay as silent as possible."

Jack's boyfriend warned as he turned to head upstairs to talk to Val. The section Mark was out of sight, Google whipped out this phone.

G: Jack this is a terrible idea, he hates surprises.

J: You can't back out now! You're almost there, it's not going to go badly.

G: But what if he gets mad?

J: .... G. You realize he really has no right to be mad at either of use right?

G: How do you figure, we're practically ambushing him.

J: Well, he can get mad at Mark, but it's his fault this even has to happen.
J: You don't need to worry.
J: Just stop blaming yourself, it honestly hurts to see you this upset.

G: I'm sorry- 

G typed out quickly before locking his phone. He should just leave, that would work better, Dark could just come to him on his own time, when he was ready and not surprised and everything would get better- the blue eyed boy stood up getting ready to just walk out when his phone buzzed.

M: Okay

Gaelyn swallowed hard and stared at the stairs. Could he really get up there, was this really going to work or were things just going to get worse?

"Google, go."

Jack whispered, shoving his friend a bit more toward the steps. G took in a  huge breath and walked slowly up the stairs. He was more than nervous, at this point the feeling probably had morphed into flat out fear, but he could only imagine that Val felt the same way too. They hadn't spoken in almost a week. Reaching the top of the stair, he took in a deep breath and forced himself to smile as he moved to grab the door knob, but before he could it was pulled open and he was met face to face with Valac.

"Um... hi?"

G choked out, his face flushing immediately as awkwardness settled over the room.