Prologue
“Awake?” said Nathan, the blue in his eyes gleaming in the morning sun, staring down into the pile of broken wood and Matt amongst them.
“Argh.. fuck me..” Matt, hauling himself out of a pile of broken crates in the dank alleyway. “Fine, if you insist.” teased Nate as he was helping Matt up from the debris.
“You know what I mean you weirdo.” as Matt ran his fingers through his messy red hair, attempting to fix it while soothing his throbbing headache. “Here, figured you needed this” as Nate dumped a bottle into Matt’s hand, “Aw, a gift from ol’ Nate? Thank you for the drink!” as Matt popped the cap and downed the hangover cure, trying not to contort his face into an expression of disgust.
As per usual, Matt was out drinking the whole of last night away, and is now again completely oblivious to how much Nate worries about him.
Walking down the streets of Aurelia, the two boys walked and bickered, it was a regular sighting for anyone this side of the city. “Matt please! I swear to-” “Argh shut your mouth Nate, no one wants to hear ya go on on one of your rants again.”
“For FUCK’s sake Matt!” Matthew seemed stunned by this. Nate never swore or raised his voice in anger for the 7 years they've been friends, he was always the calmer of the pair.
“EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. you go off and have your fun while I stay at home and worry about you while you’re wildin’ yourself to the fucking ground out there, and I STILL take care of you and I STILL find you every time you’re on a bender and try to help, when will you ever-”
Nate stops. And he remembers..
It was just a regular day, nothing really special about it, the sky was as blue as always, Nate and Matt were doing the usual, school was over and they were just chatting.. Having fun, just chatting on a bench, but everything, the atmosphere, the sounds that faded as Nate stared into Matt’s pretty green and red eyes.
Nate never wanted to leave that moment behind, the way Matt was smiling.. Happy.. Nate hasn’t seen Matt smile a lot, especially recently.
He misses seeing the smile he fell in love with, but as always, Matt deals with things himself and never bothers to reach out for help and Nate can’t put into words how much he wishes Matt would rely on someone else for once. But he sees it now, Matt never really cared about anyone enough to be able to confide in them.
Why would he be any different?
“Fine, do what you want, I’m DONE.” “Wait Nate!” Nate stormed off, leaving Matt in the middle of the bustling mid-day street, yet all Matt could focus on was the silhouette of the boy he was closest to leave him, and he fell to the ground and held the bottle close to his chest, regretting everything he’s ever done until now.
As he saw Nate walking away from him, disappearing into the crowd, all of the alcohol seemed to have left his system as he turned as sober as he ever could be. Realizing all of the mistakes he has made and how much he has wronged Nate.
He really wanted to let him know how much he really loved him, but it's all too late now, he couldn't possibly mend what has been broken so thoroughly.. right?
