Back To Our Roots, Book One

LX. Maybe He Shouldn't Have Kept Shutting TFU

"Guys, can we talk?" Jeff asked as they headed to lunch.

Sebastian smirked. "About Hunter's little outburst? Gotta say, I love seeing him make a fool of himself."

"No– well, I think we all do– but that's not what I'm talking about. His paper. I turned it in with mine, and it was really..."

"Self-centered?"

"Pretentious?"

"Arrogant?"

"Egotistical?"

Jeff shook his head. "That's what I thought it would be. But he was, like, bashing himself. Saying that he hated his mom and his mom hated him, his dad was in jail because of him, just... I don't know. Dark."

"So a week ago you wanted to murder him, and now you want to help him?" Thad asked.

"I mean, I don't want to become his BFF. I just don't want him to die."

"You think he'd- Matt?" Sebastian cut himself off as Matt suddenly grabbed his arm.

"Just- just give me a minute," Matt said, pausing. Then he let go of Sebastian. "Sorry."

"What happened?" Sebastian asked worriedly.

"I don't know, I just got really dizzy all of a sudden. I'm fine now, though."

They kept walking and Blaine silently handed him a box of juice.

Matt blinked, confused.

"Dizzy spells and fainting are commonly caused by low blood sugar. It'll help," Blaine said softly.

"Oh. Um, thank you," Matt said, surprised. Did Blaine just... carry around juice boxes?

"What was I saying?" Sebastian asked.

"You asked if I thought he'd and then stopped," Jeff said.

"Oh, right. You think he'd kill himself?"

"I mean, you never know, do you? Like, I could kill myself tomorrow, and nobody would have expected it." Jeff paused. "That's not foreshadowing. It's just an example."

"The guy who used to harass me killed himself," Kurt piped up unexpectedly. "He dealt with a third of what he had been giving me for years for a week and cracked."

There was a silence at that.

"So you dealt with this for years, but he could only deal with a third of it for a week?" Jeff asked, shocked.

"Yeah, people found out he was gay. I didn't tell them, of course. Word got around, I guess. I found out when he kissed me."

"He kissed you?"

"Yeah. You know when Thad asked if we've never been worried about being raped our whole lives and I said give or take a few months? Those are the few months."