Story belongs to sunbeamed @ ao3
>keith<
keith had already gone to sleep by the time hunk got the phone call. he could hear his roommate stir around their small dorm, searching for the source of the ringing. hunk finally picked up after finding it under what he guessed was another pile of dirty laundry, and keith found himself sighing in relief once the noise had ceased. a few seconds. a groggy "hello?", muffled by lips puffed from sleep. then, suddenly, feet against the brittle floor.
"dude. where are you going?"
no answer. more shuffling until finally, finally, hunk slammed the door behind him just as quickly as he had opened it. whatever, keith thought, the guy was probably just sneaking off to meet up with his girlfriend anyways.
>keith<
by the time hunk came back later that afternoon, keith had already heard the news. a mundane greeting exchanged between the two. hunk rifling through his drawers in search of a fresh change of clothes. keith didn't dare interrupt the stale silence hanging between them. well, until he did.
"is he okay?"
a worried chuckle. hunk turned, disrupting the tears nesting in the creases of his eye sockets and setting them loose, allowing them to run down his cheeks the same way they all used to run down the beach together, hot sand between their toes and a hotter breeze carding through their hair, sopping with saltwater. keith knew before. but now he really knew.
"i don't know buddy," hunk managed, stepping towards his roommate. a tight hug. keith was seeing stars, constellations of teardrops clouding his vision as he too began to sob,
"i don't know."
they stood like that for a long time, covering each other from the reality surrounding them as they lost themselves in memories of lance. the freckles beneath his eyes instead of dark circles. the way his mouth bunched into a smile when he laughed. road trips across the state disguised as ways to get out of their dorms and "live a little for once". lance always had been so eager to live, so good at it. it pained keith to consider the idea that he might not get to anymore, shredded his ribcage and organs and left him so incredibly hollow that his heart had to get up and leave too.
>keith<
hunk told him that it had been a telephone pole. told him that lance was in the passenger seat of his date's car, axca or something, and she had been punching it like she was running from the police. which she wasn't. of course, lance was probably having the time of his life. he was probably infatuated with her.
see keith, she's someone who knows how to have fun.
it made keith feel heavy, weighed down by emotions that he wasn't entitled to. hunk said she lost control, let the wheel slip right from under her fingers the same way he had let those blue eyes dipped in honey slip through his. he said she hit a telephone pole.
suddenly keith resented the wires that allowed hunk to receive the call from the hospital in the first place, hated the poles that lit the same streets they used to walk down to get to the movies and ice cream and downtown. he wanted to go to the county - the state and make sure that every last telephone pole would be buried along with lance, deep in the ground where no one would ever run into them again. he wanted to hunt axca down and bury her too, even though she was already confirmed to be dead. more ringing. hunk picked up his phone and scurried into the hallway, softly shutting the door this time. moments passed. the door slowly creaked back open and his roommate advanced cautiously as to gauge the other boy's response before it happened. keith worried this was it, that he was really dead now.
but then hunk told him that lance would be okay
( What do you guys think of this story? )
