Beautiful To Me (Boyf Riends AU)

Chapter 3: Riends

TW: Mention of suicide attempt? Is that a TW?

(Jeremy's PoV)

I walked slowly into the lunchroom, searching around for a particular person in it. I smiled when I saw them, and walked over to join them at their table.

"Hey, Jer!" Christine said brightly, grinning as I sat down next to her.

"Hey, Chris," I said, matching her smile. "I was gonna ask you something..."

"Okay," she said, putting her hands together.

"So," I said, fidgeting slightly with the straps of my backpack, "I was thinking earlier..."

"What do you wanna know?" Christine said, reading my expression quickly.

"Everything you know about Michael Mell." I looked into her black eyes and the confusion that resided there. "Everything."

She looked surprised. "Oh." Looking around, she said, "Do you have him third period? Is that why?"

I slowly nodded, fidgeting some more.

"Well, you're in luck, babe, because I know everything you need to know about that specific boy." I blushed furiously at the word babe.

"Okay, so...?" I prompted her, embarrassed to say anything else.

She started to rattle off all the facts she knew about him. "He never had any really good friends in elementary or middle school, so he doesn't have very good conversational skills. He smokes pot, and, when he's high, he's very defensive and will blow up or break down at the slightest aggressive comment."

"Okay," I said, nodding. She must know a lot about Michael. She gave me his phone number. And his birthday, which was only a few weeks away.

"He did get pretty good grades in sophomore year, it's just then that junior year came and they slipped. He's got anxiety, and sometimes, he self-harms."

He what?

"Why don't you try to help him?" I said, shocked.

"He doesn't want it. Blow up, break down, or both." She shrugged.

"Continue." I nodded.

"His favorite artist is Bob Marley, and he loves discontinued, outdated drinks like Crystal Pepsi and Mountain Dew Red." She sighed. "I never understood his old school personality."

"I've never heard of Bob Marley." I watched her eyes fill with shock.

"You're a sinner."

"Just keep going," I laughed.

"As you know, he has vitiligo. It only just recently stopped spreading."

I recalled the splashes of lighter color that covered his face and neck. "I think it's beauti-- I mean it looks pretty cool." I stumbled over my words, scratching the back of my neck when I slipped up.

What was I going to say? Beautiful?

That doesn't make any sense.

"He thinks it looks ugly. He got bullied for it." Christine continued on. "And that hoodie he always wears-- he loves it."

He wasn't wearing it today. "But--" I was about to voice my thoughts when she cut me off.

"Every year, he gets a new patch on it. Last year, he got, like, a gay pride patch or something."

"What?" He's gay?

"Yeah. And just last year, his mother divorced his father and left to live in Colorado," she said, nodding slowly as if confirming her own thoughts. "He got really depressed after that. Like, really depressed."