College is coming soon, and Blake Warner is sure that his life is embedded into the dead-end that is Merritt Hills, Georgia. His mother has assured him millions of times, that money has nothing to do with where his future leads.
But whenever he lie...
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Blake's hands clenched onto the steering wheel, heartfelt breaths leaving his parted lips. He seemed to be catching every red light, and couldn't help but growl aggressively at the anger leaving his body.
He didn't want to miss Jeff on his way to the airport. Because he knew if he did, Jeff would never forgive him. He'd always think that Blake didn't care enough to go and say goodbye. And to think, there was a time where the two didn't have any reason to not trust one another.
And that time was just the beginning of the summer—right when Blake began to fall for Brooks.
When he'd left his house, Brooks was still confused with what was going on—but still, there he was, right beside Blake, ready to take on anything with the two of them together.
Blake had tried to explain, but was panicked to do so, only sparing Brooks a few words of concern for Jeff and his happiness.
Blake turned a sharp corner, the tires of his old car skidding loudly. Brooks held onto the handle on the door, gasp leaving his body. "Blake, slow down!"
The taller boy didn't listen, stepping on the gas repeatedly. Once he found himself on the street of which Jeff and his family resided—he picked up the pace even more, and finally, stuttered to a complete stop right in front of his house.
Jeff's home was nice, and calming. He'd spent almost everyday of his life there as a child, when we his mother had to work late. Jeff's parents would serve the best deserts, so he kept coming back for more.
And before he knew it, the little boy became his best friend.
And Blake couldn't imagine a life without him. He also couldn't imagine what was going through his head, when he went over to Meg's house that night. He couldn't imagine what he was thinking when he lied about it repeatedly, and hid that drastic secret until it eventually, came out.
He slid out his drivers seat. but Brooks stayed put, wanting to give both Blake and Jeff time to sort things out without him hovering.
Blake trudged up the stairs of Jeff's porch, knuckles pounding on his wooden front door.
When not receiving an answer, he rang the doorbell, arms crossing across his chest to emphasize his point, whenever the door was finally answered.
The door was thrown open, and there stood Jeff's mother. She had short, black hair, that was cut into a curly bob. She had a kind smile, and held the door open wide, signaling for Blake to come in.
"Blake, it's been so long, how are you—"
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Dawson, but I have to find Jeff." He pushed passed her, and made his way up the steps.
"Oh, honey, he's a little busy. He's packing his things for school—"
"It's alright!" He called down to her, and she seemed to shrug, and closes the door behind Blake. The woman watches as he climbs the tall flight of stairs, that was left with stray items that must've been falling from the boxes Jeff and his father carried to the car.
And Blake had almost slipped a few times already. He ran faster than he could ever recall running before, his chest becoming more and more hallow the closer he came to Jeff's room.
When he found himself face-to-face with Jeff's do not disturb sign—he in fact, disturbed. He threw open the door, the back of the handle making rough contact with the wall behind it. Jeff was sat on his desk chair, their senior yearbook in hand.
"Hey!" He shouted, spinning in the chair, turning and ready to see his mother or his father. He pauses when sees that it's Blake standing there. Chest heaving and eyes glistening. "The hell do you want?"
Blake merely shakes his head in disappointment, stepping into the bedroom and closing the door behind him. Well, more slamming rather than closing. "You really weren't going to tell anyone that you were leaving?"
"I told Meg." Jeff shrugged, still irritated.
Blake laughed in mockery, "exactly, Jeff. You told Meg." Blake watched as Jeff seemed more and more uninterested as the seconds went by. The small realization being enough to make him want to ram his head into the nearest wall.
"What, so you can talk to Meg but you can't talk to me?" He spat, stepping toward Jeff, whose shoulders seemed to tense up in sudden awareness.
"Well, we did date for almost three years—"
"And you and I have been best friends since we were kids." Blake pointed out, his hand waving between the two of them, gesturing to their budding friendship.
Jeff stood from his chair, his room suddenly feeling more and more stripped of both materials and air. "I wasn't aware that you cared so much about our friendship after you fucked my girlfriend!"
"I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I seriously never thought that you would ever, ever find out about what Meg and I did. You never were supposed to find out. It was just supposed to be this horrible thing that we did together that nobody ever found out about—"
"And that makes it okay?" Jeff whisper-shouts through clenched teeth, hand reaching out for the backpack that was laid out on his bed. It was what seemed to be the very last thing that needed to be taken down into the car.
Blake reached forward, pulling the backpack out of Jeff's grip so that he wouldn't have any choice but stay and listen to him try and reason. "No, of course it doesn't make it okay. B-But I was just going through a ton of shit and I thought that because you guys were sleeping with a bunch of people we could just—"
Jeff laughed, interrupting Blake's rambling. "Blake, even if I was sleeping with a hundred other girls and she was sleeping with a hundred other guys—she was never supposed to sleep with you."
When Jeff speaks, his voice weathers, and his looks down at the ground not wanting Blake to see him cry. "Just—Just give me my bag." He says lowly, reaching out a hand.
"Jeff, dude, come on, don't leave like this." Blake quietly pleads, and just as he opened his mouth to say something else, his bedroom door is pushed open where both of Jeff's parents stand, eyes curious and watching.
Jeff walks forward, hand still held out for his bag. Blake eventually gives in, handing him the bag. Just as Jeff is about to walk off, he turns to Blake one last time. Blake doesn't like the look that he's giving him. Like what he's about to say will be the last thing he'll ever hear from him.
"J-Just take care of yourself, man. And tell Brooks the same." And with that, the tall, dark-haired boy is gone. And off to better than whatever they'd been given in Merritt Hills. Better than anything he and Blake had ever seen.
And it's something Blake would never see. This was a fear Blake carried around in the pit of his stomach. As he stood there, watching his best friend walk away because of something so, so selfish and stupid he'd done—a lonely tear fell from his eyelash. And all he wanted to do was bury himself in Brooks' arms and never leave.
