Wrong Impression

When Jimmy Dumped Izzy

⚠Warning! This bonus contains mature themes in terms of language and sexual content.

Jimmy leaned against the street lamp, massaging his forehead with one hand, holding his cigarette in the other. He'd had a horrible day. Juggling three jobs, school and a demanding girlfriend was not easy. Izzy was not a problem per se, but she still kept him from sleeping.

And he needed sleep. A lot of it. He wasn't sure how much more coffee his body could take. Just the thought of it made him want to throw up. His ears rang already from his tidal blood pressure.

I need a solution. A better schedule. Or maybe just to convince Izzy for once that he needed to catch up on sleep. Which was weirdly the hardest part. He could already see Izzy rolling her brown eyes at him and complaining that he was one weird teenage boy.

He wasn't. He was a completely normal, hormonal teenage boy, but even he couldn't live without resting. Or he could just tie her to the bed and go sleep on the couch...

"Yo, Jimmy."

Jimmy ashed his cigarette and turned to his friend Derek. The blond guy approached him, wringing his hands.

"Hey, Derek. What's up?"

"Eh, the usual." He looked from Jimmy to the school building behind him, his fingers still twitching with nerves.

Jimmy frowned and tossed his cigarette butt into a nearby trashcan. He wanted to take out another one, but changed his mind. He only had four left anyway. "Why are you so nervous?"

"Am not. Just--" He faltered and wrung his hands some more. His state of anxiety wasn't helping Jimmy's headache at all.

"Come on. You obviously came out here to talk to me." Hell, they were the only ones on the sidewalk. "So spill. If it's bad news, stalling won't miraculously turn it into good news."

"True, true," Derek said distractedly, his eyes once again darting towards the school building.

Jimmy waited for a few moments, focusing on the pattern of the pulse drumming in his temple. It almost sounded like music if he tried hard enough. Who needed an iPod when you had exhaustion? Exhaustion was free.

"The thing is, I've been hearing some rumors for a while," Derek finally said, lowering his hands. "I'm not one to spread rumors. They suck and it's what makes high school hell for many people. But I actually saw something. And I can't just sit by and not do anything about it."

Jimmy frowned. "Okay. What did you see?" Whatever it was, it already sounded way too overdramatic.

"You know I don't gossip. You know I don't exaggerate." He took a deep breath. "And you know I'm your friend. "

"Yes, I know. I trust you wouldn't come and bore me with some random shit." Jimmy was starting to get impatient and it only made his entire body tense painfully.

Darren took in a huge breath. "I saw Izzy and Tom together." He paused for a second before driving the knife home. "Kissing."

The pounding pulse in Jimmy's temple disappeared. Every sound in the world disappeared as he stared at his nervous friend. A sense of balance and peace settled inside him, but he knew it was nothing but the calm before the storm, only there for the fraction of a second it took his brain to process Derek's words.

Izzy. And Tom. His baby brother. Kissing.

It crashed. His back hit against the street lamp as his head pounded so hard, he was sure it would burst open. But that was nothing. The vertigo, the pressure on his skull, it was nothing compared to the pain in his chest, like a thousand hot knives stabbing his heart.