Hmmmm...... this chapter took forever!!! I kept saying "holy shit holy shit holy SHIT we're maybe finally kinda getting to the good part!!!! Ive been waiting for this since chapter two.... how about i dont actually get to the plot and just dance around it like i did for the past five??? :)"

But no!! I did it. I did the ting.

In other words, i heard some of yall like h2ovanoss :^)

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Luke never did like school. It's loud, cold, frustrating, and full of people Luke can't stand. They, the general student population, can't stand him either.

The whispers coming from people watching him walk down the hall reminds him of this. He's not sure what they're saying this time, but he's sure it isn't good.

"What have you done this time?" Luke watches as Bryce effortlessly walks through the crowd of students, coming up to Luke with a playful smile. "Ryan keeps saying you did something special for him! Come on, you can't just keep this stuff a secret!"

Luke sighs, pushing Bryce away gently. "You have your own boyfriend, do you really need to be this invested in other's love lives?"

"Yes," Bryce pouts. "Jonny's been busy lately. We haven't gone out since the week before Christmas when he and I went to his house. He keeps saying he has homework and his job and I don't wanna stress him out."

Luke heaves a sigh. "Didn't-"

"Well, I mean, yeah, we met up about a week ago, but all we did was stop for milkshakes on the way home! He told me it could be a date because we'd watch a movie too, but I fell asleep and woke up all alone! And I didn't even sleep through the whole movie!"

He raises an eyebrow. "And this still justifies you being a nosy bitch how?"

"Because!" Bryce throws his hands into the air dramatically, narrowly missing a student walking by. "I basically don't have a love life anymore! So I gotta live through you and Ry, because you guys are, like, the cutest-"

"Alright!" Luke gives an exasperated cry, slapping his hand over Bryce's mouth in an attempt to keep him quiet. "Before you go off on some rant, tell me, have you seen my boyfriend?"

Bryce shakes his head. Luke sighs, letting Bryce free.

"Do you want me to go look for- Oh hi, Ava!" Bryce waves to Ava, who is now standing next to the two.

Luke nods at her, a simple, silent greeting. She smiles at them, then grabs Bryce's arm. "Sorry to steal your friend, but I need Bryce for something important!"

He takes in the way Bryce pouts almost immediately and laughs. "Sure, do whatever you want with him."

"Are you gonna make me dress up and pretend to be your sister again?" Bryce looks defeated by Ava's knowing grin. He whines, running a hand through his hair and staring down at his clothes. "But I like my outfit today..."

"But we can also get free food at that cafe down the street!"

They're both off before Luke can even process what just happened. He looks around. Is nobody gonna help him find his boyfriend? Sure doesn't seem like it. Luke sighs. It's fine. He can search by himself, like lonely people do.

He closes his locker (and Bryce's, because theirs are right next to each other) and begins to search the halls for his lovely bunny of a boyfriend. Luke starts by going down the hall, then down the second hall, and even searches a classroom. Ryan is nowhere to be found.

He gets frustrated after the fifth failure, and is now tempted to call a search party to help him. He would call Ryan, but guess what? The whole reason Luke is searching in the first place is to give Ryan his phone back!

He kicks the wall in frustration, then continues walking along.

He finds Ryan some ten minutes later, sitting by himself in the library, staring blankly at a computer. Lunch is halfway over by now, and Luke sees no point in dragging Ryan over to eat. He goes up to Ryan with a smile.

"You doin' alright, bunny?"

Ryan glances up at him, smiling slightly. "Yeah. I'm okay."

Luke doesn't know if he believes Ryan, but doesn't say anything about it regardless. He's better, Luke tells himself. He's doing better and that's all that matters.

"You eat lunch?"

"No," comes the small sigh. "Had to finish an essay... does this make sense to you?"

Luke glances down at the screen, scanning over the paragraphs.

... and because of these injustices, it is within reason for the people to be as enraged as they are. They are seeing ones they love suffering horrible, unimaginable fates, and the leaders they once relied on are now giving utterly horrid...

"What's this essay on?"

Ryan smiles shyly. "Why animal abuse laws should be generalized nationally instead of varying state to state. America is messy, you know?"

He's... not wrong? But...

"Why so many big words?" Luke feels his mind reeling the more he looks across the essay. He's not sure if some of these words are actual words or just fancy gibberish.

Ryan chuckles under his breath. "My English teacher wants us to improve our vocabulary, so we use words nobody ever uses in daily life."

Luke smiles at that. "That's nice. Come on, baby. You missed lunch. Let's just head to class, alright?" He tugs at Ryan's sleeve innocently, pulling him out of his seat as soon as Ryan shuts off the computer. As much as he hates class, there's not really anywhere else to go right now, considering there's roughly... what, five minutes of lunch left? Might as well, you know?

He leads Ryan through the halls, passing the occasional person. He makes sure they're going to Ryan's locker over by the art room which is, thankfully, not far from Ryan's next class, some stupid math course. They turn the corner to a dead end, where Ryan's locker is, and almost instantly they're met with a familiar blue hoodie.

Luke almost calls out to him. Almost.

There's something very, obviously not right about the scene before him that keeps Luke from saying anything out loud. It could be the fact that Jon has literally no reason to be over here, or the fact that Evan is next to him with his hands on Jonathan's waist.

Or, you know, it could be that they're making out against some lockers, hands roaming free and too lost in each other to notice Ryan and Luke intruding.

"What the actual fuck," is what comes out of Ryan's mouth from besides Luke, a tiny confused whisper that normally would've made him laugh.

(Sadly, this situation is anything but normal.)

Jonathan and Evan spring back apart, and before Luke can think it through, he's glaring down at the two angrily and crossing his arms. "Evan? Jonathan? What is this?"

The momentary disbelief Luke had is gone in an instant, being quickly replaced by anger. Why anger, he doesn't know. But it's this same, unexplainable anger that makes him step forwards, fists clenched, ready to throw some hands.

"Don't you guys have better stuff to do than snoop in our private business?" Despite the smug, brave expression on his face, Evan steps back as Luke comes closer. He crosses his arms and scoffs dismissively at them. "What we do shouldn't matter to you."

"What the hell?! How- how long have you- You guys- what... What about Bryce?!" Ryan stomps over to Jonathan, looking like he's ready to kill a man.

Evan shrugs. Jonathan is still eerily quiet, now staring at the ground and avoiding Ryan's stare. Luke has the sudden urge to go over and punch him in the gut.

"I can't believe my best friend is fucking crazy," Luke says, feeling all the metaphorical pieces slowly slide into place. "It's not like, you know, you spent months- literal months- going after this guy, you know! And now you've been cheating on him for how long now?" He screeches at the two angrily, his voice gaining volume by the second.

Evan gives no response, his expression having changed to a nearly unreadable poker face.

"Since... since Craig's party," comes a small murmur. Jonathan's eyes are still cast towards the ground as he speaks, his arms wrapped around himself as if he is trying to hide.

That was in what, late October? November? What the fuck has Luke been doing to have, by some absolutely ungodly means, missed this?

He almost resorts to yelling again. And he would've gone through with his yelling plan if it hadn't been for Evan stepping forwards and standing in front of Jon. Evan stares at the two coldly, a concerning lack of emotion in his eyes.

"Haven't you guys picked on us enough? So what if Bryce loses his man? He's got enough money to find another. Come on," Evan snaps. "Aren't there more important things to do? Dead fathers to grieve?"

Luke freezes in place. He can feel the raw emotion coming from Ryan. What emotion it is, though, is something Luke can't tell. He just knows that was a pretty low blow from Evan, and now instead of beating some sense into Evan like he wants to, Luke's boyfriend instinct puts him on damage control and makes him fuss over a frustrated Ryan.

He must've taken the lack of response as surrender, for Evan mutters something unintelligible under his breath and walks away.

Luke finds himself panicking when he sees tears beginning to fall from Ryan's eyes. He reaches into his bag for tissues out of habit, and holds one out to Ryan.

(Though he'll never admit it out loud, Luke has very much began to carry tissues in his backpack at all times. Not just a few either- an entire box of them. The nice kind, too, because they feel better against your face than napkins or whatever else you may use....)

(Luke now wonders when he began to be like, well... this. Is this what happens when you're friends with a bunch of emotional wrecks?)

"I'm not sad," Ryan hisses, pushing Luke's hand away, wiping his tears away with his sleeve instead. "I- I'm just angry. Really, really angry."

He nods. "That's okay. I am too."

"I wanna punch him."

"Me too, baby."

Ryan sniffles. "He has no right to- to-"

"I know, baby." Luke pauses, thinking over what just happened. He sighs. "We... we don't really have a right to-"

"But that's different!" Ryan chokes back a small sob, now snatching the tissue from Luke's hand and wiping his eyes again. "My dad and infidelity are different. They... they..."

Luke nods, patiently waiting for him to finish.

"They're different."

He nods again, humming in agreement. And as much as he'd love to sit here and talk it over with Ryan, he has places to be. So does Ryan, actually. They're at school for a reason, after all.

"I'm so angry," Ryan whines, crossing his arms and glaring at the wall like a frustrated child. "That makes me angry."

Luke sighs quietly. He begins to rub circles into Ryan's back. "Angry at Evan for being a homewrecker, for saying shit about you, or at Jon for doing it in the first place? I know you're upset, bunny, but... I don't think this is something we can just make them resolve."

"Yes we can! We just tell Bryce and-"

"And then what? Just destroy the only thing the kid has going for him? Ry, babe, I know you wanna help but..." Luke bites his lip, thinking his next words over. "Maybe we should solve our own problems first, baby."

Ryan glares up at him, though Luke can tell there's no real anger behind it. "What problems do we have, huh?"

"Well, there's the obvious problem of you avoiding your mother-"

"I do not avoid her!"

"I'm also waiting for my mom to process some divorce bullshit with my dad across state," Luke continues, "And babe, I know you hate to admit it, but you bottling up whatever it is you're feeling is gonna bite you in the ass one day."

Ryan seems defeated. He turns away from Luke with a small, tired huff. "But you do the same thing..."

"And guess what? It came back to stab me in my fucking dick. I don't know if you remember, but I had a goddamn meltdown over you kind of rejecting me."

To his delight, there's a tiny laugh from Ryan. "Yeah... what was that even about?"

"That's a long story. Maybe one for when you come over tonight to avoid your mama?" Luke grins knowingly at Ryan.

Ryan gives a small grunt in response to the accusation. "I do not avoid her."

"Don't think Bryce didn't tell me about him finding you in the cemetery," Luke says, using his best efforts to sound like he hadn't freaked out after learning his boyfriend nearly froze to death.

Ryan rolls his eyes, the air around them becoming lighter and happier, like it had been earlier today. He stands up and grabs his stuff. "You say it like it's a bad thing. What if I'm just trying to become an icicle?"

Luke makes a disgusted face. "Then I'm never laying in bed with you again. Icicles are fucking terrible to cuddle."

"Oh come on- you know you'd cuddle anyways. Hug me and my cold little hands closer, and not complain when I freeze you in the process..." Ryan sticks his tongue out at him like a child.

He's right, Luke realizes. He is very, very right.

Of course, he doesn't dare say this out loud. He just sticks his tongue out back at him and goes about his day.