•discontinued• i need this-Sally Face and Travis

~2~

The day after dinner with Larry Sal woke up to his alarm screaming at him. He brushed his hand over his scarred ugly face and stretched his hand out to shut up his phone. He went through his daily routine and soon he was out on the bus with Larry.

"So why do you think Travis is such a dick to us?" Larry asked.

"Dude, yesterday we discovered that the school's bologna was made out of humans and that a bunch of apartment tenants are or were cult members, and you're worrying about Travis?" Sal rambled. He figured there were much better things to discuss than the school bully, besides sal wasn't ever too bothered by anything Travis said.

"I just figured since he punched you yesterday and stuff, you might be kinda upset about it, sorry."

"No Larry it's alright, I just think Travis is probably going through a lot at home right now. You've noticed how many bruises he has all the time right? I think his dad might be abusing him, bad," Sally said looking out the window of the bus.

"So that means he can punch you? I'm telling you, dude Travis Isn't a good person, to begin with, he's homophobic and a total ass."

"It doesn't excuse the things he's done but it should shine a light on the fact that someones gotta help him get through this," Sal finished and it seemed like an unspoken rule that nobody talk for the rest of the ride to Nockfell high.

Travis arrived early as he did most days, he knew the bus would be there soon and that Sal was on that bus. He was heavily in love with the boy but he couldn't admit that to anybody. He didn't want to cry again so he just held the tears back, he didn't even know if he physically could cry again. He'd put foundation over a few of the bruises on his neck but the bruise under his eye only got worse by the day. He knew his mom would be home from her trip soon and Travis would be mildly safer. He just wanted Sal to know what he could never tell him though.

Sal arrived shortly after the talk with Larry about Travis, He made sure his prosthetic was on tight enough and he quickly threw his things into his locker. He pulled out his math textbook and his grey notebook before shutting his locker and heading straight to math.

Once in the math room, Sal sat down in his usual seat near the back while Travis sat in a seat closer to the front. The new teacher entered the room and looked at all of her students. There were mumbles asking about Packerton and rumors being spread that she was murdered.

"Alright children today in algebra two..." she began, Tarvis tuned her out from there. They were handed a one-page test in which consisted of fairly simple questions. Travis struggled in math, he was good at art but math wasn't really anything he could be proud of, he rarely got an A. it was always Cs and Ds on his report card. Sal, on the other hand, was amazing at math. He seemed to be the first to finish every test and he always aced them. Including this one. They had been doing tests all week and both Sal, Larry, Ash and Travis were sick of them.

After math class was lunch, Bologna day was over, and thank god for Sal would never come again. Sally had kept the note he believed Travis wrote the day before in his bag and went over it about a thousand times during class, analyzing every word. Sal got his pizza from Kim and sat down with his friends.

"Sal your not like, mad at me right?" Larry asked sounding fairly upset. Sal was almost never mad at Larry, they were best friends and as far as he knew Larry was a fairly trustworthy person.

"No, I'm sorry I lashed out on you this morning about the whole Travis thing, I just feel bad for the guy sometimes." Sal paused. "Larry I'm not mad at you, I care about you with all my heart and I wouldn't leave you for anything." Larry hugged Sal briefly before Todd, Ash, Chug, and Maple joined them at the table.

"How are you boys today?" Ash asked.

"I'm fine Ash, you?" Sal said.

"I'm alright, I dunno, after the cult and shit I don't know if I wanna eat anything from this school at all," Ash had a point, Chug still didn't believe the Bologna was made from human meat but Larry and Sal barely touched their pizza.

Travis was sitting alone, as usual, he didn't really have friends since he was known as 'the bully' He was upset, just staring over at Sal and his friends having fun. He didn't wanna head back to the bathroom to cry again, not after Sal had read the note and probably known it was his. Travis had screwed everything up. Before he knew it, Travis was tearing up and he threw away the remainder of his lunch and sprinted to the bathroom.

Sal watched Travis leave and sprint out. Sal looked down at the pizza that seemed to sicken him now, after the bologna he didn't think he would ever eat again.

"I'm gonna go take a piss," Sal said awkwardly standing up from the table and walking out of the cafeteria. He wanted to know if Travis was okay, mentally and physically. He walked into the men bathroom and heard faint sobs coming from the last stall. He knew it was Travis again. Sally didn't wanna scare him, he could hear the sobs growing louder every second. It almost sounded like Travis was trying to cover his mouth with his hand to muffle himself. Sal didn't say anything, he just tapped on the stall door with his knuckle.

"W-w-what do you want?" Travis managed in-between cry.

"Travis, you alright in there?" Sal asked trying to stay as calm as he could as to not freak the boy out.

"Sally Face? Why should your queer ass care?" He blurted, he instantly felt regret go through him, he didn't know why he treated Sal like this. Sal pulled a paperclip out of his back pocket and managed to pick the lock of the stall door. "What kind of gay thing is this?" Travis said stepping backward from Sal. Travis was a mess, Sal had never seen him like this, his eyes were bright red and puffy from crying. His blond hair looked like he has been trying to pull it out of his scalp.

"Travis, what's going on?" Sally asked calmly stepping forward. When Sal stepped near him he stepped away, his back was pressed against the brick wall of the bathroom.

"Just leave me be..." He whimpered. He was shivering now, his hands shaking so hard he could barely steady himself. He was still sobbing. Sal became overwhelmingly worried as Tarvis slid himself down the wall to the point where he was sobbing into his knees on the ground.

"Can you walk towards me?" Sal asked trying to hold out a hand for Travis but he didn't touch it. He stood up himself and took a step towards Sally. He was still shaking and sobbing, gasping for air. Sal touched Travis' right arm and he immediately flinched backward.

"Help." Travis managed to speak.

"Help?"

"I need you, please," He spoke sitting down on the edge of the toilet seat, holding his head in his hands. Sal touched him again which cause him to sob louder. Sal pulled him into a hug and let Travis cry into his shirt.

This went on for about 5 minutes before Travis finally pulled away and ran out of the stall. "Trav-" Sal began but was cut off by,

"The note was about you, Sally." coming from Travis as he began to wash his face in the sink. There was a long moment of dead silence.

"I know." and with that, Sal hugged the boy and walked out of the bathroom.

Travis expected it to be a lot more like the movies. He didn't expect Sally to love him back but maybe he could've gotten one kiss. But it wasn't like the movies for Travis. This was real life. He wasn't some amazing success story that overcame his abusive father and started dating his high school crush. No, he was the preacher's son, whos a total bully to the boy he loves and can't do anything about it because he's miserable. Travis sat with his thoughts for a moment before he walked out of the bathroom, and pretended nothing ever happened in the first place.