Before You Lose Me (Boyf Riends fanfic)

Two

(The rest of the chapters will probably be shorter than the first one was)

"Look, you saw the way Jake panicked when we found you. Imagine how he'll react if he knows that I have this because I like him." Rich desperately rambled.

"Okay, but you could die." Michael said.

"So could you." Rich pointed out. Michael bit his tongue to keep from saying Who cares?. He knew Rich did. And Chloe, Brooke, Christine, Jenna, Jake, and Jeremy.
Once again, he began to choke and cough at the thought of Jeremy, spitting out bloody flowers into his hand.

"Look," Rich started, crumbling the iris in his hand, "I won't tell Jeremy, if you don't tell Jake. Besides, I'm not going to die. I've been living with this since I was a freshman."

"Fine." Michael sighed. "But we should get cleaned up before we go back." He gestured to the blood all over the boys' mouths and hands. Rich looked at himself, then at Michael, then he nodded. The two of them headed to the bathroom to wash off the blood. About halfway there, Michael had stopped talking. When he shut his mouth, he felt himself bite down through something and noticed the grass-like taste of the flowers in his mouth, mixed with the unmistakable coppery taste from his cut-up tongue. He ignored it and kept walking, until Rich grabbed his wrist, with a crazed look in his eyes, and raced to the bathroom.

Michael stood next to the counter, wiping off his face and hands with a wet paper towel, as Rich coughed up leaves, iris petals and blood into the sink. Michael felt bad for Rich, considering they were going through the same thing, but Rich had been in love with Jake for over a year, and it had never been not one-sided. Michael had always had a crush on Jeremy, but until recently, it hadn't been love. Rich, however, had fallen in love and come crashing down. Once Rich finally stopped, he rinsed out the sink, wiped his face and hands, and sank down against the wall and rested his head on his knees.

Then Michael noticed he was crying.

"Hey, Rich... What's wrong?" Michael asked, sitting on his knees next to Rich. Rich lifted his head up, his face now wet with tears and blood, and slammed two irises on the floor.

"It's just- this. I fell in love with Jake, and he doesn't like me like that... Even if did, he has a girlfriend... and I want to hate him for doing this to me, but I can't... I fucking love him and it's literally killing me." Rich explained, his voice breaking. "I've been here too long. I was supposed to die in the freshman year when I developed hanahaki, I was supposed to die in the fire at Jake's house... my love is literally going to kill me any fucking day now."

"Rich..." Michael's voice trailed off. He didn't know what to say. There was no way to comfort him. Rich sighed, wiped his face, and stood up, crushing the irises on the floor with his foot.

"Let's go back." He said. Michael hesitated, then followed. They walked in silence, tension hanging in the air, until Rich broke the silence.

"So yours is gorse flowers?" He asked. It took Michael a second to process the question.

"Yeah. That's why I had one with me and why I wanted to know what it was." He replied.

"Don't those have thorns?" Rich looked up at Michael, who nodded. "Jesus, that must hurt like a motherfucker."

"Yeah. It does." Michael sighed, chuckling slightly.

"I guess I kinda got lucky, not having any flowers with thorns, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess so." Michael shrugged. The two of them started back to the cafeteria.

Michael's phone started vibrating and he picked it up. Jenna Roland calling.

"Hey." Michael said. The second Michael stopped, Jenna began shouting.

"When were you going to tell us you had Hanahaki?!"