A New Beginning

23. Three Weeks (Part 2)

"I was there for three weeks until my grandparents flew down to get me out." 

"...Jeff" 

"Yeah?" 

"...Who found you? You said your parents were out of town..." 

"Nicky did," Jeff said, stone-faced. 

Sebastian's eyes widened slightly. He couldn't imagine what it must have been like for Nick to find his best friend, the person he cared for most in the entire world, on the floor, bleeding and barely clinging to life. 

"I don't know what changed from then to now. I don't know what I did wrong..." 

"I'm sure you didn't do anything. Nick's just dealing with some shit right now and maybe he just needs some time by himself." 

There was a long silence between the two before Jeff spoke up. "You're hiding something." 

Sebastian looked at the blond a little taken back. He wasn't expecting him to say anything off the subject of Nick. "How did you know?" 

"When  you've been hiding things as long as I have you tend to notice when other people are too" 

"You might be wrong?" Sebastian said, shrugging slightly. 

"Then how did you know something was wrong? And I don't mean me crying and seeing my arms. You know what I mean. You don't notice how fucked up someone is unless you're fucked up" 

Sebastian sighed deeply before nodding. "You're right" 

"And I figured since I shared with you my secret..." 

"You want to hear mine?" Sebastian said, finishing Jeff sentence. Jeff merely nodded. "You're right about me keeping secrets but they aren't the same as yours. I've never tried to kill myself, or even harm myself" 

"In any way...I just...keep things hidden as you do" 

"I know. I noticed that you were hiding behind that cocky, ass of a mask since I first met you. You aren't exactly that good at hiding it all the time, you know. I've seen the sadness in you many times." 

 "Then why didn't you ever say anything to me about it? You know, call me out on it?" 

"Because then you'd see the same sadness in me. I was always trying to avoid a conversation like this one." 

Sebastian nodded in agreement. "I didn't exactly want to have this either." 

"You should've said something you know?" 

"Honestly, I was afraid you were going to kill yourself. As I said, we're good friends. I may be an ass and hate most of you guys here but if I ever thought, even for a second, that one of you were going to seriously hurt yourselves or try to end your life, I would step in and make sure that didn't happen." 

Jeff nodded. "So you're actually a genuinely a nice guy without your mask on?" 

"And you're horribly depressed without yours" 

"So what's the rest of your story?" Jeff asked, trying to pull attention back off of him. 

"My story?" Sebastian asked, confused. 

"As I said, everyone has a story," Jeff said, shrugging. "Something that made them who they are today" 

"I..." Sebastian didn't know what to say so Jeff cut in. 

"Just start with the main point. As in where it all started. You can always fill in the smaller details later. Obviously, your story is like mine and has way too many parts for just one night anyway"