:January 27th, XX47; Monday.

:RESOLUTION BETWEEN PROTAGONIST AND ANTAGONIST.

•~~~~•

"Why can't I just stay home again?"

Joe was laying on the couch in his living room at 6:10 AM, which was far too early for him to already be ready for school, but he barely got any sleep the night before because of all the stress the coming day was bringing him.

For starters, now that he literally had no one to talk to, it was just gonna be boring. And he was scared that at the sight of one of his ex-friends, he would get over emotional and have to go cry in a bathroom stall. No one wants to cry alone in a men's bathroom stall in their junior year of high school. And then there was the fact that when he got home from school, his father might be sentenced to jail for who knows how long. He only just found out within the past year that a "life's sentence" in prison is maybe only 15 years- but that was still way too much for him, or anyone in their family, to be able to handle.

So, yeah. Not a fun day.

"Because, Joe, you have a lot of schoolwork and if you miss too much they won't let you graduate. We really wish you could stay home longer but I don't think that would be a good idea," Joe's dad answered him from the kitchen, both of his parents having awoken before Joe did, showing that they didn't get a lot of sleep the night before either.

"We can absolutely help you with your work if you need it but we can't help you with attendance," Joe's father commented. Joe sighed.

"We? How am I supposed to go to school knowing that we could only be one of you soon enough?"

"...We're really hoping that won't be the case, Joe, honey."

"We have a plan now. I'm fairly confident in it, which is a bit surprising based on how I obtained it... but we have a plan."

Joe sat up. "What do you mean? Did you buy a plan off the dark web or something?"

Both of Joe's parents went silent. They glanced at each other, and Joe fought the urge to roll his eyes, knowing they probably weren't going to tell him the real answer.

"I... no, Joe. I was just offered help."

"By who?"

Joe's father stayed silent a moment longer, and then he huffed, glancing down to the floor and then looking back up at his son. "It- by Remy, Joe. I'll be blunt with you."

Joe's eyes widened. "R- what? He's- he was here? When? You saw him?"

Joe noticed how uncomfortable both of his parents looked at that moment, but regardless, Joe's father kept talking. "I... yesterday afternoon, actually. I don't understand how or why I was able to see him but I was. It was jarring, quite frankly, and I did not enjoy it, but... well, he told me he only wanted to help for your sake."

"My sake?"

"Yes."

"But- but that doesn't mean he's someone to trust, Joe," Joe's dad butted in. "He's just very attached to famil- er... he gets attached to people easily."

"...Sure."

Joe stared at the ground. It definitely brought him a bit of hope that his uncle was trying to help his parents for his sake, just so he wouldn't have to deal with the stress of having his father be in jail, but that didn't change the fact that his parents hated Remy and Joe's number was still blocked by him. Maybe he just had a random surge of sympathy. Or something. Maybe, even, this was just like the last time Remy ghosted Joe, and Remy would just appear back randomly at any second now.

Joe really hoped that last part would come true.

"...I'm gonna go to school now, I guess," Joe said aloud after a moment. He hoisted himself off the couch and threw his backpack over his shoulders. His father raised an eyebrow at him.

"This early? You could stick around for a bit, you likely don't have to leave for another hour or so."

"I know. I'll just walk slow."

Joe hesitated before he walked to the door, and he made eye contact with his father, who let out a small sigh. After a moment, Joe slowly moved towards him, and then they hugged, Joe trying to revel in the feeling of hugging his father just in case he would never experience it again or at least not for a very long time.

"...I love you," he mumbled as he pulled back. "I really hope it goes well today, I really do."

Joe's father smiled gently at him. "I love you, too."

"Bye."

"...Goodbye, Joe."

Another moment, and then Joe was out of the house, walking down the sidewalk towards his school and trying to force the image of his father out of his mind for the time being. He really didn't know shit about how the justice system worked, he didn't have to take government until the next year. For all he knew, they'd just take his father away as soon as he was possibly pronounced guilty and they'd never see each other again.

It was still hard sometimes to like his parents... but Joe did love them.

As he was walking down the sidewalk, he suddenly turned on a 90° angle and headed right into the woods that lined the sidewalk path. He wasn't even fully aware he had done it until he realized where his feet had taken him, which was a good seven or so minutes into the forest, right to his uncles' therapy office. He wasn't quite sure what to do with himself when he arrived, but he thought he might as well try to go in and see one or both of his uncles, maybe to pass a thank you along to Remy.

He knocked at the door. No sound was made inside. After some hesitation he went ahead and opened it, and as it creaked his eyes locked on the reception desk, which had an empty, transparent chair sitting behind it. The light in the actual therapy office was off, which meant either his uncles were asleep upstairs or they weren't home. He walked in a bit further over to the desk, and that's when he noticed a small note, written in all-lowercase in a sort of half-print half-cursive handwriting:

not in at the moment; dr. picani's number is posted on the sign outside if you want to make an appointment. will be back when we get back.
~the receptionist

Definitely his Uncle Remy's words, that was for sure. If they weren't asleep, he wondered where they could be. Maybe Remy had just wanted coffee or something..?

Joe sighed. It didn't really matter. He needed to get to school.

•~~~~•

For some reason, school was a hell of a lot more stressful than Joe remembered it being.

Of course, he was coming into his first day back after a week or so of being gone, and at the beginning of that week he had practically lost the love of his life. Which- Oliver hadn't even shown up to school that day. Maybe that was good, though, maybe it was good that Joe wouldn't have to see him.

But Sage was there, of course. Joe noticed that as the day went by Sage would just stare at him a lot, in a way that told Joe his parents might've needed someone to "keep an eye on him" so they asked Sage to do it. But every time Joe tried to look over, Sage would look away. So really, nothing with that had changed.

And, of course, Joe had a shit-ton of school work. But his dad, at the very least, would be able to help him with that. Maybe.

Joe blinked as the bell suddenly rang- he had been in English class, where he was pretty much zoned out the entire time because he just didn't feel like paying attention. He got himself packed up quickly, but then realized that his next period was lunch, and he had absolutely no one to sit with.

Joe slowly made his way over to the dining hall, and as he was getting his food he glanced to where the seating was, seeing his usual table empty. Not even Sage was sitting there. It was definitely open for Joe to take, but that would probably just be sad, him sitting alone at a lunch table that usually had two other people sitting at it. He sighed through gritted teeth and instead turned around once he had his tray, entering a hallway that was nearby the dining hall, one that not a lot of students walked down, especially not during lunch. It would probably be an even sadder sight to see Joe sitting on the floor eating lunch all alone, but at least no one would actually see him there. No one in the dining hall could probably even hear anything coming from the hallway, so... maybe that was a plus. For some reason.

Once Joe was seated, he just had to wait out the rest of the lunch hour... or, the rest of the lunch forty-five minutes, to be exact.

How fun.

...

It was really boring being alone. Might as well be a lunch hour, that's what it felt like.

Right in the middle of Joe's silent wallowing in self pity, though, he suddenly heard footsteps, and he ducked his head down, quickly stumbling to get his phone out and hoping whoever saw him wouldn't realize who he was- not that it mattered, really, the only two people Joe had ever really interacted with at school were Oliver and-

"...Joe?"

-Sage.

"Uh- oh. Sage."

It was Sage. Why was Sage walking down that hallway? Was he looking for somewhere silent and lonely to eat lunch, as well?

Regardless, the two stared at each other, probably having the most eye contact between each other that they had had in a week or so. Joe bit the inside of his cheek, wondering why Sage was suddenly interacting with him at that moment, and why he couldn't have just kept walking.

"...Why are you eating lunch in here?" Sage mumbled.

"I, uh... where else would I go?"

"Table's empty. So..."

"Yeah, I know. Just- I don't know, I guess, actually."

"Ah."

"Would probably just look sad if I was sitting there alone."

Sage looked him up and down. Joe made a motion with his head of yeah, I know this isn't much better either.

"Hmm."

"Uh... why are you in here?"

"I honestly don't know."

"Ah. Great."

"Yeah."

The two stared at each other for a moment more. Joe could tell Sage was wondering why he even bothered starting a conversation.

"...Sorry," Joe then mumbled, practically out of habit of trying to apologize as much as he could to Sage out of hope that one day he would be forgiven, even though that wasn't likely.

Sage sighed. "I know, Joe."

Yet that was always the answer instead.

They idled for a moment longer, and then Sage glanced to the other end of the hallway. "So... I'm gonna go now."

"Yeah. Okay. Bye."

"Bye."

Sage almost hesitated to walk away, but he did, eyes glued to the tiled floor beneath his feet as he disappeared, out of sight from where Joe could see. The latter sighed to himself, leaning back against the wall behind him.

This sucked. All of this sucked. So much. He was sitting on a dirty floor eating mildly freezer-burnt food in the middle of January, alone. There had been six people at the beginning of the school year that kept him happy and giddy all the time, but now four of them wouldn't talk to him, and one of them was possibly about to end up in prison.

And that was just Joe's reality. Loneliness.

To be fair, he brought that on himself.

"Damn, do you always look this depressed when you're by yourself?"

A voice was suddenly heard, coming from directly next to him. Joe blinked. He knew who it sounded like immediately, but no way could he actually-

"That food looks like it's gonna poison you. Come on, get up."

"...R-Remy?"

It was him!

Joe stared in utter disbelief, seeing his uncle sitting right at his side, and Emile standing behind him, a content smile on his face.

"That's my name."

"You- so, you're back? You're here now! I- Right?"

Remy stared at him for a moment, and then he sighed, glancing up at the ceiling.

"You know? Yeah... yeah. Guess I am back."

•~~~~•
:/

See ya in the next chapter!😌
~Maxx(SanderShipper)