before infinity; toby mcdonough.

CHAPTER 1

FIRST CHAPTER! AHHHHHHHHHHGHHSDGKH! Four chapters to go. :) Hope you guys enjoy this. xx

"Breaking hearts just for the hell of it,

Anything so we can feel dangerous."

It was that time of the year again, where Toby McDonough and his friends decided to let someone else become a part of their group of leather jacket-ripped skintight skinny jeans-wearing clique. The 'newborn,' as they call him, was named James. They met up at the pier where there was a shallow to fairly deep body of water around. Toby arrived on his motorcycle after the 'leader' of the group, Brody, had arrived shortly with his flavor of the week, Sierra. "Brody, it's a school night, and my brothers don't know shit about where I am. Make sure he isn't late," said Toby. Brody gave him a hearty laugh. "I specifically told James that he should arrive before eight. We're fifteen minutes early, and this will take less than an hour. Calm your goody two-shoe-tits." The last two people arrived ten minutes later. Matt and Jacob got off Matt's new Hummer, since Matt finally got his license to drive without adult supervision anymore. "Where's the new meat?" asked Matt. Everyone shrugged. Brody took out his secret stash of cigarettes and passed one each to the group. Toby didn't see a reason why he shouldn't smoke that night, it's not like Connor or Riley would find out anyways. It was a little past eight when James had arrived on foot. Jacob blew out a smoke from his cigarette. "You're late," he huffed. James looked down on his feet. "I know."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get this show on the road!" said Brody, finishing his cig. Toby said nothing and continued taking drag after drag as they walked up to the pier. Once his cigarette was finished, everybody else was lighting up another stick. "You're jumping with him, McDonough," said Brody. Toby widened his eyes at him, about to protest when Brody gave him a knowing wink. He heaved a sigh out of relief, because for a minute there he thought he was going to jump over the pier with James, too. James stripped down to his boxers and under shirt, and Toby started to do the same thing. He approached James. "Did you have to go through this, too?" he asked Toby. He only nodded and led him nearer to the end of the pier to get it over with. Toby took a deep breath and clutched his hand on James' shoulder. "We jump in three, two, one--" he counted down, with the mention of the word 'one,' James jumped without Toby, which was the actual plan all along. "Stay down for five seconds and swim ashore by yourself!" yelled Brody. They could still see his head bobbing up and down for at least two seconds, only to realize that he was actually drowning. James was waving his hands up in the air, barely keeping up anymore. Toby felt like he was compelled to save him because he was there at the end of the pier with him. "Hang on, James, I'm getting you!" he yelled, dropping his new cigarette that Matt lit up for him.

Toby struggled to find the poor drowning boy as he had sunken deeper when he plunged into the water. He lifted his head up for some air and searched around for him again, finally seeing him almost floating ashore. He swam over to him and carried him to the edge of the lake where there was no water. Toby started pumping at his chest, even attempting at CPR. "Hey, did I make it?" asked James when he finally woke up. Toby smiled as he was about to say yes, but Brody walked over and said, "No. Toby had to get you because you couldn't swim your ass through. I said YOU had to swim ashore, not YOU and TOBY."

James said nothing and just laid on the ground, staring up at the sky. Toby buried his head in hands as Brody, Matt, Sierra and Jacob started to walk away. Brody took the time to walk over Toby to throw him his jeans, hoodie and his unfinished cigarette. He was angry now, and he took his cigarette, took one last drag before throwing it near the water. "You know what? Fuck you, Brody!" Toby shouted. Brody stopped in his tracks and turned around. "What did you just say to me?" he demanded. "I said it loud and clear. FUCK YOU, BRODY," Toby said, yelling the last part a little louder than he should have. The next thing he knew, Brody's fist was making contact with his eye, and Toby fell to the ground. "You can't even take a punch, loser. Just get outta here before the both of you get seen," said Brody, walking away for real. James had finally gained back his strength to get up and checked on Toby's eye. "I'm fine, I'm fine!" said Toby, swatting James' hand out of the way. He brusquely put on his jeans and his jacket before leaving James to retrieve his clothes alone.