close to you ; tofuudiger

| 21 |

richard gardner

"is this some sick joke?" chris said looking up at michael after he was done reading the heartbreaking and gruesome letter from liam to zack.

"no, i found it in his room, he was going to give it to zack before he...did it," michaels hand were sweating, he keep twiddling with his fingers trying to calm down.

after michael found the letter it took him a couple days to come back, he was so shocked that his brother was abused, shocked that there was more then just zack to the reason of his death.

and who the fuck was rick?

"this is horrible," chris mumbled reading it over again, "we gotta find this rick guy."

"yeah," michael sighed, "and fucking kill him."

"you don't remember liam hanging out with anyone besides zack that could be this rick? someone you didn't really know?" chris asked?

michael thought for a minute.

"i don't know there's a lot of people liam talk to i didn't know. liam did hang out with a lot of seniors so maybe he graduated."

"let's get a yearbook and look for any rick or richards that look familiar, we are going to get this guy mike," chris wanted to touch michael hand but didn't.

michael didn't look him in eye, he was too angry. it had been over a week since he found it and he was constantly angry, constantly sad.

"yeah, i'm going to kill that man, he forced liam to kill himself."

|||

hunter, chris, and michael were all sitting outside at the school going through last year's yearbook.

"ew look at claudia's hair!" hunter giggled pointing at a blue haired girl.

"shut up," chris punches his arm, remembering when him and claudia dated in seventh grade. he kind of missed her. and her blue hair.

"do you guys remember anyone named richard or rick, i don't see anyone in our grade?"

"i don't, let's look at the seniors," said hunter.

the boys flipped a couple pages and started looking at pictures of the sports teams, classes, reading as many names as they could.

"wait," chris said as michael was about to flipped the page. chris pointed at a small picture of two boys and a girl at a football game.

"that's jenna, kam, and look!" chris pointed to the last boy whose face was almost cut off in the picture. he had blonde curls dripping down his forehead and blues eyes.

"richard gardner," michael said out loud, reading the name underneath the picture.

"look closer," chris said back, he pointed in the background near richard gardner.

"no," michael whispered holding back tears.

his brother stood in the background looking scared to death, staring at that boy. that blonde haired boy.

hunter flipped a couple pages finding richard's school picture.

michael stood up and walked away. it was too much. too much for now. he walked into the school building and saw zack at his locker.

"zack," michael said loudly and marched over to him. zack looked nervous as michael approached him.

"you need to come over after school it's important, it's bad, it's...it's about liam."

zack nodded not saying a word and michael walked away. zack shivered wondering what was going on and why couldn't liam leave him alone. it was like he wanted zack to always being thinking of him, always something about liam, always a reminder.

zack found joe in the hallway, he was crying, he had tears running down his red face.

"hey, what's wrong?" zack ran up to him and wrapped his arms around the sad boy.

"i'm okay, someone just, they said...never mind."

"who hurt you joe?!" zack lead the boy to the faculty restroom and locked the door.

joe just broke down.

"i wish we did run away, i wish we could just leave. i hate this school."

"we will leave baby," zack said on the floor next to joe, "we will graduated and leave and get joe's and have a life together."

"promise?"

"i promise," zack kissed joe's wet lips.

|||

joe remembered sitting at home when he got the call. he remembered his mother made dinner which he barely ate.

he was in his room, reading. play video games. watching tv.

and his phone rang.

"hello?"

"joe."

"zack, are you okay?" here was something wrong with zack's voice.

"someone hurt liam, we have to find him."

"what?! zack what are you talking about?"

"liam killed himself because..." zack let out a sob. "someone was hurting him."

joe could barley understand zack through the sobs.

"i'm coming over," joe jumped out of bed and hung up the phone. he ran to zack's house.

"zack, open up," joe pounded on the door but no one answered. joe noticed his car wasn't in the drive way.

"he's at michael's, you'll never believe what happened," joe turned around to see tyler walking across the yard.

"come on over, i'll tell you while you wait for him."

joe nodded and walked towards tyler.

something bad was going on.

something bad was going to happen soon and joe knew he wasn't ready to handle it.

but he had to.

for zack.