"This story is about the boy I loved. This is about his suffering. This is about my suffering. All of it due to one thing. Affluenza."
TW : Key themes of suicide.
Sebastian Grey. Golden boy, trust fund baby, and Braylen Adams' mortal enemy. Braylen...
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TW// DRUG ABUSE
I TAP MY finger on my thigh, sighing dramatically and leaning my head onto Bethany's shoulder. She laughs softly. "Oh, come on, Braylen! These Christmas parties aren't that bad!"
I lift my head back up and make a face. "Are you serious? If I have to hear the neurosurgeons singing 'Ave Maria' again I'm going to puke."
Every year around Christmas time Oba's job hosted a get together in the break room of the hospital. The pros: an unlimited amount of cookies, cakes, and junk food. The cons: way too many off key Christmas songs sung by the doctors and the ugly sweater rule.
I was in a particularly ugly one this year with Santa Clause in a Speedo riding on a surfboard. It reminded me of Sebastian when I grabbed it at Target. But it was either that or a sweater that was practically an ode to Elf on the Shelf so I chose the former.
Sebastian and I hadn't so much as looked at each other since that night in my bedroom. I figured that since we'd never even officially been together, it wouldn't hurt so much that what we had was gone. I was wrong.
It hurt so much. It hurt because I thought that I could trust him. It hurt because I thought that I could love him. I was wrong about that, too.
Coupled with that, I had to deal with my guilt over Hayley as well. I was sure she was faring much worse with the situation than me, though we hadn't spoken.
And it sucked. I showed up to the community college twice, but she always avoided me. I'd called and texted, but it was like trying to contact a ghost.
"Guys!" Bridget says, walking up to us with a plate of treats. "I cannot believe I almost missed this! Look! Carrot cake!"
I roll my eyes at her excitement. "You're an idiot."
My phone blips in my pocket. I raise up a bit off of the crunchy couch that we'd all settled onto and grab it. Devin's name pops on the screen and I frown.
None of us had really spoken since everything went down. It seemed that we all had split off into our respective sides. Me and Robyn were on one end, Sebastian and Devin were on the other, and Hayley and Hunter remained neutral. He was neutral because he was too kindhearted to even notice the tension; she was neutral because I hadn't even heard from her since our breakup.
Needless to say, him calling me right now was discerning. I click accept call.
"Thank God," he hisses. "Braylen, I'm at Sebastian's house. He's in the bathroom and—"
My breath catches before he even finishes. He'd done it. He was gone. He was dead.
"I think he's seizing," Devin finishes. I look up at nothing in particular, relief flooding me. He wasn't dead. But he was in trouble.
