1987 [BoyxBoy]

Chapter 19 - Did You Kill Brenda?

Bradley slammed his locker shut, unaware of the force he was putting on it. The people around him turned towards him, startled.

"My bad."

He rolled his eyes and started walking to class. It was the only class he had with Billy, and he hadn't seen him in what felt like forever. Bradley felt bad that he and Billy rarely saw each other. He felt like so many thing in Billy's life could have gone differently if he would have just been there for him.

Bradley had almost reached his class when he was intercepted by a short brunette who'd looked like she'd been crying.

"Brad," she uttered.

The boy just glared at her with a blank expression. The two hadn't spoken since last April when they made each other promise to never speak again. A promise that the girl was now breaking. Bradley knew it had to be important.

"Look, I know we swore we'd never talk to each other again after what happened last year, but-"

"And if it's about that, then I don't want to talk about it," he whispered, trying not to draw attention to their conversation.

"It's not. It's about Billy."

The boy's stomach to dropped. "What happened? Is he okay?"

"He..." the girl couldn't get the words out.

"Come on, Denise. Spit it out!"

She took a deep breath. "Billy got into a really bad wreck last night. He's at the hospital. His mom said he hasn't woken up and that the doctors have no idea when he will."

Tears began to form in Bradley's eyes, but he halted them, as he realized he was still in the middle of the hall. He couldn't risk everyone seeing him cry. He had a reputation to uphold. He grabbed Denise's wrist, and dragged her into an empty classroom, shutting the door behind him.

"What the fuck happened?" he shouted, finally letting some tears fall.

"His mom didn't say much on the phone just that he broke some bones and hasn't woken up."

"God." Bradley looked up, trying not to let too many tears fall, but he couldn't stop them. "This is all my fault."

"Bradley, it's not. It was an accident."

"No, it is. I'm supposed to be his best friend. I've known him forever, and he's been going through terrible shit for the past few months and I haven't been there. He lost Brenda and instead of being a good friend, I let him get blackout drunk. If I had just been there for him, this wouldn't have happened."

Denise pulled the boy into a needed hug. Bradley let all his walls down and just sobbed in Denise's arms. He had never cried like this before. He felt like he'd reached his breaking point.

"Brad, I promise you none of us could have stopped this. Me, Sarah, and Peter have been by his side every single day since Brenda's death. It was an accident. He got in his car, and crashed."

Bradley sniffled a couple times before wiping his face dry. "Where was he even going in the middle of the night?"

"Peter said that he called him, bawling his eyes out, and said that he needed to see him. Peter hung up and waited for hours, but Billy never showed. He got scared, so he took his mom's car and started driving to Billy's house and that's when he saw the crash."

"Why the hell would Billy need to see that fag in the middle of the night?"

Denise's sympathetic expression quickly turned to one of disgust. "Hey! Don't call him that. See this is why nobody tries to be nice to you. You say gross shit like that." She turned around and started to walk out of the classroom.