~{TW: John suffers in this chapter emotionally/physically}~

                                     Ya'll are gonna hate me lmao

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"Hey Thomas, do you know where..." John burst through the door, only to find exactly what he was afraid of. His hands fell to his sides, his shoulder dropping along with the slight glimpse of hope he had found, shattered. "Hey John!" The both of them jumped apart at the sound of his voice, their faces were a scarlet red. "I just wanted to know where Peggy was.." Alexander turned around and hid his face. "Shouldn't she be in school with you?" "Yeah, but uhm..it's lunch time and we were supposed to go to lunch together.." 

Thomas began to respond but, John stopped him, wanting to leave as quickly as possible. "I'll just go check somewhere else, I'm pretty sure I was..interrupting something anyway." He shut the door, making a dash, he didn't know where he was going. He just wanted to be far away from there. 

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He ran.

Why did I ever think for one second..?

His feet on fire, knees weak—his vision blurred from the tears streaming down his face. Out of breath, cheeks red, he tripped on a slab of cement raising up from the ground, forcing him down to the ground, falling on his left arm. Because of his head getting thrown around from the fall, the side of his face harshly came in contact with the ground, including his nose. He yelped and held his nose, squeezing his eyes shut when he felt blood leak from one from his nostrils. The fall knocked the wind completely out of him, a migraine gradually forming. His scattered emotions were worse than Alexander's, his physical pain wasn't helping the situation either. He breathed heavily and began to sob, gripping his arm and holding his nose.

Why didn't I take the fucking signs!? Even before he came along, he never looked at me the same way.

The Carolinian felt light taps of water against his skin, the amount of water increasing rapidly until it was fully raining. His hair and clothes were damp, his arm bruised, whether his nose was broken was still in question, crying as he laid down on the ground. People stopped and stared at the emotional wreck, yet no one made a move. Some ignored his presence completely. Others directed the children's heads the other way, whispering to their friends and partners—being the judgmental humans that they are. He didn't even know where he was, all he saw was a park bench in front of an oak tree, left on the ground only to imagine what could have been. So many situation he had lined up in his head, ever since he figured out his feelings.

Those scenarios, are fairytales..dreams. Something that one out of ten people get in reality. I should have realized that I was gonna fail from the start.

But what John forgot was that everyone can live out their fairytales. All of them have bumps in road and sometimes, they don't turn out just like you expected it to. Charles lazily held his umbrella up, yawning and shuffling his feet through the cold puddles on the hot sidewalk. His eyes were glued to the ground, not minding what he could bump into up ahead. That was until his eyes stumbled upon John, lying on the heated cement in the rain, weeping. His demeanor changed at the snap of a finger, setting his clear umbrella down and gently turning him over onto his back. He grabbed his forearms and firmly shook him. 

"John!? What the hell happened?!" John wiped the salty tears off of his face and sniffled, sitting himself up. He winced at Charles' grip on his bruised arm and placed his hand around wrist, telling him to loosen up. Charles lightly touched the side of his bleeding nose, John whining and smacking his hand away in response. "Nothing! J-Just leave me the fuck alone!" The dark haired male was tempted to say a simple 'Okay' and walk away, but he couldn't leave him out in the rain like this. So he persisted. "Johnathan, don't act like this right now." But John refused to speak and resisted his commands, picking himself up and walking away with a slight limp. 

Charles put his hands on John's shoulders and whirled him around, sighing. "Look, just come back to the dorm and get out of this rain. Then you can go back to ignoring me." John was in pain and soft couch cushions, ice, and nice air conditioning sounded exhilarating. Some time to sleep off his despondency would be rather alleviating as well. "Just.. take me back to the dorm please."

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John sat himself on the couch as slowly and gently as he could, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. Charles closes the door, immediately walking back to his room. As John heard his footsteps pass him by without a pause of hesitation, he raised his head up. "So your not gonna help me?" Charles looked back at him like he had gone mentally insane in an instant. "Well excuse me for 'leaving you the fuck on alone' like you asked me to." "You could at least help me with get some ice or something." He touched his nose ever so slightly, however it felt like he had punched it rather than caressed it. "I guess you don't even know what fuck off means." 

Despite his quite cold response, he walked over to the refrigerator, and got an ice pack out of the freezer. He threw it at John, but not hard enough to actually hurt him. He opened up the small close door at the beginning of the hall and snagged a green cloth and a few sheets of tissue paper. {Do you guys call it tissue paper or toilet paper?} "What do I need the rest of that stuff for?" John sat upright, confused. Charles held up the now neatly folded sheets of tissue paper. "We need this to clean your nose.." Then, he held up the cloth. "You put this over the ice pack so you won't get an ice burn." John chuckled. "An ice burn? You've must've hit your head too." 

He sighed. "I don't deal with incompetent people for a reason." The Carolinian gasped. "Are you calling me...the word you just said?" Charles ignored his ignorant question and picked up the tissue paper, lightly dabbing it on John's nose. He did feel a slight strike of guilt hearing him in pain after nearly refusing to help. "Ow! Could you be just a little more gentle?!" "That's what I'm doing." John huffed. "Well your not doing a good job at it.." Charles hummed and dropped the bloody sheets on the coffee table. He wrapped the cloth around the small ice pack and placed it in John's hand. "Now could you tell me how you got into this predicament in the first place?"

His heavy heart sunk swiftly back into the vast volume of darkness at the mention of this whole situation, his change rather noticeable. "I was just running..and I just happen to fall and hurt myself. Really badly." Charles raised his eyebrow in suspicion. "I have seen you actually break your arm, and you never cried. In fact, you laughed and said your arm really hurts after you fell. You didn't even know it was broken until a whole day later." John pulled on his finger, stumbling through his mind to find some type of logical excuse. "Maybe it wasn't the injury.." "Exactly, now tell me what happened." Good job, dumbass. John looked towards the left and out of the window. His unresponsiveness peaked Charles' curiosity, so he tried to persuade him with slight but harmless manipulation. 

"C'mon. Just tell me. It'll help you feel betteeerr.." His eyebrows furrowed, biting the inside of his lip and twiddling his fingers. He sighed. "Okay, but you can't tell anyone!" Charles smirked and sat beside him. "Lay it on me." His shoulders tensed up as his anxiety rose. "So I was look for Peggy so we could go to lunch together.. And I decided to go look for her in her dorm. And uhm.." He took a deep breath before continuing. "I saw Thomas and Alex. And I caught them-" Charles choked on his own breath. "Having sex?!" John shook his head rapidly, shushing him and shutting down the horrid idea. "No! Listen! They nearly kissed.."

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Samuel walked down the hall with a joyful smile, whistling his favorite tune. That was until he heard a muffled shout coming from the door next to him. "Having sex?!" The redhead whipped his head around, nearly obtaining whiplash. His eyes wide, he hesitantly cupped his ear to the door, only to hear silence. He slowly backed away from the door and continued his walk, though his walk was more of a sprint—to the elevator. 

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Charles stared at him blankly before bursting with laughter at his overwhelming dejection. "T-That's what you worried about?! Your friend finally getting SOME type of action?!" John groaned. "Thats not- well it kind of is but still!" He slapped him on the back on his head to discourage his laughing. Charles' wiped his tears away and sat still, trying to catch his breath. "I-I'm sorry. Heh, I just don't u-understand." John sighed and scratched the bridge of his nose. "Ow!" He placed the ice pack onto his nose "It's just that I kind of.." "Kinda what?" "I kind of..like him." Charles' laughing came to a halt. "The kid from the other school or-" "No..Thomas." He looked at John, seeing that he was genuinely upset. 

"You know...there are more fish in the sea." John placed his head in his hands. "But how many times do you come across a fish like that?" Charles scoffed. "Oh please. It's not like the guy's a sweet, fun, caring..rich..talented...smart.. Okay, now I see why your crying." He started to chuckle. "It's not funny! I love him.." Charles put his hands in the air as a sign of surrenderence. He turned to John looked him into his eyes. "Look. Though we may not be the best of friends..I consider you to be a friend. I think your a cool person. And I'm pretty sure somebody out there..someday..will love you." John cracked a smile, knowing that it was the best compliment he was going to get from him. 

"Well I gotta get back to class, you comin' with?" John shook his head, leaning back onto the couch. "Alrighty. Remember what I told you and you'll be just fine. I hope." He walked out with his backpack, closing the door behind him. Not before hearing a quiet whisper.

"It still hurts though.."

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Will you spare me???