(don't worry there's going to be an epilogue but no sequel. thanks for reading. hope you're happy. tw on this chapter. read at your own risk. also this is easily the best ending i've ever written but it's still not that good. enjoy.)

brendon and ryan were driving to the tracks five minutes later. brendon had taken his parent's car keys from their room without waking them and drove the two of them there. their hearts were pounding, ryan was listing off things that could've happened. 

"do you-do you think something happened to one of them?" ryan asked, tears welling up in his eyes. he wiped at this quickly with his sweatshirt sleeve covered hands. they were both still in pajamas and were too nervous to change. so, ryan was in brendon's old, lavender hoodie and black boxer briefs, while brendon was shirtless and in a pair of long, baggy boxers. 

"everything's going to be fine, ry," brendon tried to assure ryan, but he wasn't able to believe himself, so his voice crack when he said 'fine'. 

ryan nodded and stared at the window, wiping at the tears streaming down his cheeks. they pulled up by the tracks and quickly got out of the car, slamming the doors shut and taking in the scene in front of them.

jack was seated on a tree stump, the heels of his hands digging into his eyes. melanie sat on the right side of him, ashley on the left. max and steven were in front of him, jenna and tay behind him. lynn and alexa were standing by the tree behind the stump jack was on, lynn crying while alexa gently held onto her. josh and tyler were seating far from the group, slightly crying.

"hey, what's up, is everything okay?" brendon asked, even though he already knew everything was not okay.

jack removed his hands from his eyes, both of his eyes wet and bright red. his voice, cracking and quiet and raw, muttered out, "no."

the two, hand in hand, quickly made it over to the group. "what happened?" ryan asked. 

tyler made their way over to jack and crouched down to him. they whispered something into jack's ear, and he nodded towards them. they stood back up and walked to ryan and brendon, backing them up a few feet from the group.

"pal, what happened?" brendon asked in a low whisper.

tyler wiped at their eyes and whispered to them, "alex's father called jack about half an hour ago, told jack that alex had-" tyler let out a small, choked sob, before forcing themselves to continue, "alex had killed himself last night. his father didn't-didn't tell him how."

the two stood there, in shock, and both almost immediately began to cry. "is he," brendon gestured to jack, who was still crying into his palms, "gonna be okay?" 

tyler shrugged, "he lost his, probably, first love. he's gonna need some time." 

the three of them came over to the group and they sat. brendon was behind jack, a comforting hand on his back, ryan, tyler and josh more towards the side. 

the group surrounded jack, with the first move being made by brendon, hesitantly wrapping their arms around him in a warm embrace. jack felt like he couldn't have better friends to help him through this tough time.

and even though the pain of the loss of his first love could last forever, if the group could make the pain subside for even a moment, they were happy to do so. 

(get fucked)