What Remains (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 15

"I guess I just want to say, that wherever I am, and wherever you are, you will never stop being my best friend. If you feel lonely, you can look at that butterfly and think of me, and I'll think of you."

Josh smiled at Carter's words and looked at him, his blue eyes sparkling almost just as bright as the figurine in the sunlight. "That's really corny. But I like corny," he said before hugging Carter, keeping his head onto his shoulder. "Thank you."

Now

The next day, Josh didn't come to class, nor did he show up during the breaks. Carter also hadn't seen or spoken to Alyssa ever since their argument, though she gave a glance at him during the lunch break when she sat with Melanie and a few other girls he didn't know a few tables away.

He listened to Chris and Paxton chattering about something funny that had happened during one of their classes while eating his lunch. His thoughts kept drifting back to the previous night, and the conversation he had with his parents. His father had, to Carter's great happiness, reacted just as positively as his mother when he came out to him. Even though he had talked with him about girlfriends a few months ago, he didn't seem to be disappointed in him at all.

Should he be in a high right now? He wasn't sure. The only thing he was sure of, was that he now felt a lot happier and more relaxed, knowing that his parents accepted him.

"By the way, did you guys hear? Alyssa and Josh broke up last night," Paxton said, which shot Carter out of his thoughts.

"Wait, what? Really?" Chris asked. He sounded rather surprised.

"Melanie told me," Paxton added. "Apparently they had a pretty bad fight last night. Poor guy is probably heartbroken, seeing as he didn't show up at school today."

"Heartbroken? Are you sure? I never thought Josh looked that in love with her, to be honest," Chris shrugged, taking a bite of his sandwich. "Plus, they only went out for like, a month or two."

Carter looked up at Chris' comment, wondering what a person "in love" should look like.

"Still, breaking up with someone sucks. Especially if it's with someone as hot as Alyssa," Paxton said, leaning back against his chair.

"Wait, did you just say something nice about Alyssa? Am I hearing this correctly?" Chris said in surprise, causing Carter to chuckle softly.

"What? Just because I can't stand her every now and then, doesn't mean that I can't appreciate her aesthetic," Paxton shrugged. Carter stared at his lunch, wondering how Josh was doing, and where he was. He assumed in his boat, but he could be somewhere else in order to avoid anyone who might be looking for him.

"...Alyssa came to me after her fight with Josh," Carter said, thinking that he should talk about it with his friends. Maybe they could help him in a situation like this. He didn't like fighting with his friends, and he did not want to lose Alyssa either. Despite the drama with Josh and her, she was still one of his best friends, and she couldn't help it that she fell for Josh. "I... sort of defended Josh and she got mad at me. I feel bad about what I said, but I wasn't wrong."

"As expected," Paxton said. "With things like these, she wants everyone to be on her side, because she's afraid of being the wrong one, and she's far too proud to admit that she's wrong. So she get angry at anyone who doesn't pick her side."

"But I wasn't picking sides," Carter spoke. "I just... understood Josh's situation, and I tried to explain it to her."

"Same thing. From Alyssa's perspective, you're either with her, or against her. To put it dramatically," Paxton said with a soft huff before taking a sip of his drink.

Carter chewed on the inside of his cheek, thinking about the entire situation. He was, needless to say, confused. Even though Alyssa was upset when she yelled at him, what she said was true in some sense. He had been away for five years, which is a really long time. He doesn't know what happened in those five years, so he understood that she got angry at him for telling her things about Josh which was knowledge from over those five years ago. But when he was with Josh, he didn't seem wrong about what he had told her.

"Hey, guys? Can I ask you something?" Carter asked, drawing the attention of both his friends. "What exactly happened when I was away? With Josh. He's changed so much and Alyssa told me that it had to do with his father."

Both Chris and Paxton shifted up in their seats a little, appearing to not know how to exactly answer the question.

"We actually don't know much about it," Chris said. "Not even Alyssa. After you left, Josh became sort of... depressed, I think. He tried to appear happy, but it was obvious that a lot was off. Alyssa told us that it was known in their neighborhood that his father was struggling with drinking problems. That he was an alcoholic. She told us that some nights things got out of hand and the police showed up, but it was never anything really serious," he spoke. "One time, Josh started crying right here at school during Biology class. I was there. I had to take him to the infirmary and he explained to me that there was a chance he couldn't live with his father anymore, and that he'd have to go to a foster family, because the situation with his father was getting unstable again and the only family he had left besides him was his senile grandmother who couldn't take care of him."

Carter listened closely to Chris, trying his best to take everything in order to understand the situation a little better.

"Though that eventually wasn't necessary and it actually started to get better after a while," Paxton added. "He said his father had gone to rehab and that he was doing better. Though a few months ago, I think about two or three before you came back, Alyssa told us that his father had fallen back to drinking, and that things were going down hill again. But that's all we know."

Even after hearing this, Carter was still left with questions. It didn't explain why Josh was so hell bent in hiding who he really was, and denying what he had told Carter before he moved away. But at least he knew more now.

The bell rang, announcing the end of the lunch break and Paxton and Chris started gather their backpacks, though Carter was, as usual, slower than his friends as he was still lost in thought.

If Josh wasn't going to show up at school tomorrow again, he decided he'd look for him to talk to him. Though he before he did that, he figured he first had to make up with Alyssa, knowing that that would be quite the task.