Mitch sighed under his breath, watching as the phone call ended. 11:56. 3 hours straight they had been talking, not even taking a single toilet break. Just straight up talking.
'My family's moving. They said where we move, we'll be able to see each other more often.' He couldn't stop reading over that sentence. For 5 whole years they've last seen each other. And the last time they saw each other, it wasn't that long.
As much as he didn't want to admit it, Jerome is definitely someone special in his heart. Being both his childhood best friend and his hidden crush.
Mitch missed everything about him. His voice, his hair, his eyes, his adorable wild and crazy personality.
He could feel tears start welling up in his eyes. The memories are just to painful to remember. He craved for time to go past quicker. Let Jerome come back into his daily lifestyle, and he'll be back to his cheerful self right?
A text message popped up on his phone saying:
'Hey Buddy, You go to Raven High School right? :3'
'Yeah. Y tho?'
'Cus I wanna go to the same school as you so we won't be lonely!'
'Thank Jerome.'
Mitch switched his status to Offline, not wanting to hear his voice in his head anymore. He let out a broken sob.
5 minutes later, he turned on his phone again, switching it back to Online.
'Sorry buddy! Didn't see the time there! But see you in a few weeks at your school!'
'You idiot' He wanted to type. 'If you come to my school, you'll forget about me and just find some new friends!'
The words felt true, even though it was meant to be a joke the whole time.
*A few weeks later*
Mitch ran down the stairs, pulling up his jacket at the same time to not waste anymore time. He had been waiting for this day for months.
"MOM! HURRY UP!" He yelled to the back of the house, in the direction of the bathroom that was currently occupied.
"I'm coming alright?! Be patient! I'm almost done!" She responded. He was already in the backseat of the car.
When she finally came out and sat in the front seat, He immediately started nagging on her to go quicker.
In his hands, he held the small gift he had been given from Jerome months ago. He hadn't dare to forget about it.
As the car pulled up to a driveway, Mitch's immediately searched for any sign of dark curly hair on a human. After only 2 seconds of looking, his heart dropped.
"Go ahead," His mom told him and he immediately scrambled to open the door and book out of the car.
"Mitch! It's been a while!" Mrs Aceti greeted him and opened her arms for a hug. He hugged back but used his eyes to glance around the yard in hopes of finding the boy of his dreams.
"Jerome! Mitch's here!" She called out into the house. There was the thumping of covered feet and Jerome emerged from upstairs, looking very excited.
He looked exactly the same as before, not that Mitch expected him to change. Dark brown curly hair, dark brown eyes and a baseball hat.
Mitch couldn't move. He's been waiting for this moment ever since the first night he moved away. And now, he's just standing here, stupidly.
Jerome made the first move, and came out the house to give him a hug. The smaller boy felt something from the hug and flushed, hugging back immediately. It felt more than a hug, at least to him anyway.
Mitch only had 2 seconds to enjoy the scent of Jerome before he pulled away.
"Hey buddy," He said, grinning and eyes shinning.
"H-h-hey..." The other boy smiled back. "It's been a while... I missed you..."
"We talk almost every night!" He laughed and Mitch joined in with his own chuckle. He heard his mother come out of their car and walk along the gravel path.
"Alright Jerome, go show Mitch your room," Mr Aceti said. Jerome grinned at him and grabbed Mitch's hand, not wrist, hand.
He didn't have time to respond before he was pulled upstairs into his room, stumbling multiple times.
The first thing he said was:
"I'm going to Raven High School!"
Mitch didn't know how to feel. He felt scared, scared that he didn't know what the future was going to bring for him.
Should he feel happy and excited since his best friend (and long time crush) was going to be in the same school as him, and he'll get to see him everyday?
Or should he feel terrified that he has a feeling Jerome will be finding new friends, and possibly replace him?
"That's great," He smiled softly.
Jerome smiled back. His smile disappear when he reached down to grab Mitch's wrist and immediately he flinched.
"You've been cutting?" He asked in surprise and Mitch pulled it away. "Miiiiiiiiiiiiiiitch!"
Mitch yelped when Jerome pounced on him, causing both of them to land on the mattress behind them. A giggle escaped from his throat when Jerome started whining and complaining.
"You promised me to not cut anymore Mitch! Miiiiiiiiiiitch! Whhhhhhhhy?!"
"Jerome!" Mitch laughed, and laughed harder when he buried his head into his neck. "Stop! It tickles!"
"No more cutting okay?" He stopped and asked, straightening up when he felt the boy under him nod. "Good boy,"
"I missed you," Mitch whispered, a little broken. But it felt better when Jerome grinned.
"I missed you too,"
*The first day of school*
The moment they walked into class, Jerome immediately drew attention to himself. Mitch felt anger build up and without any word, he bee lined to his desk.
"You're the new student right?" He heard the teacher talk to Jerome. He responded, and was pulled aside for a few moments, before he came back to Mitch's side again.
"Hey Mitch, what's wrong?"
"N-nothing," Mitch told him. He smirked and ruffled his head, before going off to go to his table. Girls were giggling and boys were whispering. Mitch took out his phone in hopes to block them out.
There was one new message:
'You sure you okay? :('
'Yeah, I just don't like school :I'
'Lol :P'
"Hey what's your name?" Mitch's head shot up immediately to Jerome's direction. It was Jason Probst, one of the 'popular' kids. His heart sank; He knew what was going to happen in the next few days.
Jerome wasn't exactly sure what to do. The boy in front of him looked friendly, so he told him his name.
"I'm Jason, you're new right?" The boy-Jason- asked again. He nodded, and wanted to turn to Mitch to check on him.
"My friends-" Jason pointed behind him to a boy with similar curly hair, a boy with earphones on and a boy in a hoodie with a mass amount of books. "-forced me to come greet you, cus well, someone was too scared too,"
Jerome laughed. Their behavior somehow reminded him of his and Mitch's group of friends from before.
Mitch heard the laughter and looked up again. Immediately he felt every happy feeling drained out of him, seeing how they're interacting made it feel they were naturally born best friends.
It felt like Jason had already replaced him.
"So uh. If you need help, just come talk to us okay?" Jason ended and shuffled off, looking very awkward. The guy in the curly hair said somethings, before starting to scream and block attacks from Jason, the other two just shaking their heads.
Jerome smiled, before getting up from his seats and approaching Mitch again. He had his head down, presumably playing his phone but raised his head as soon as he heard him approach him.
"Hey Jerome,"
"Hey Mitch!" He greeted, grinning adorably. Mitch flushed, and looked away.
"What do you want?"
"I just wanted to tell you I care about you, and no cutting!"
Mitch softly laughed and nodded.
*Lunch Time*
Mitch was just waiting for his best friend when Benjamin, Ian and Quentin showed up. Immediately he flinched and backed away the slightest when Benjamin walked up to him.
"Hi Mitchell!"
"Hey."
Ian whispered something into his ears, something like:
'Dude, you're actually serious?!'
"Uh, we just wanted to ask you some questions about Jerome,"
His heart dropped again.
"Y-yeah?"
"Is he gay?"
Quentin snorted and laughed.
Mitch didn't know how to respond. He wished he knew this information so that he can figure out if he should even be crushing on Jerome.
"Uh... I don't know, I don't think so,"
"Oh," Benjamin sounded disappointed.
Quentin snorted again.
"Well, see ya,"
The three of them walked away quickly, with Benjamin making obvious disappointed noises sounding like a dolphin dying.
"Mitch!" Jerome called and said boy turned to him, a bit down. "You okay?"
He smiled in response.
"I'm hungry,"
Jerome laughed.
And in the next 15 minutes, everything felt fine. They talked about everything they missed out in the last 5 months, weird teachers and classmates and ow they felt about different female classmates. They both had the same opinion:
Most of the cheerleaders looked really slutty as expected.
"Jerome!" Jerome stopped mid-bite and turned behind him, before smiling.
"Hey Adam!"
Adam's name just made Mitch's heart stop. The most popular kid in school, although not for very good reasons.
"Ben asked Ty who asked Jason to ask you to come with us to the park after school to catch birds," He said cooly. Jerome laughed and looked over to their table to see Jason glaring Adam down.
"Well, sur-" He cut himself off to turn to Mitch, who flinched. "Can Mitch come too?"
Adam was silent and looked back at he table, the other two also following his gaze. Benjamin nodded.
"Yeah sure!"
"You guys are hilarious!" Jerome laughed and Mitch's mood dropped. Adam laughed as well before ruffling Jerome's head.
'I can't stop him from making new friends," Mitch thought. 'And I can't stop him from replacing me,'
*After School at the Park*
Benjamin and Mitch were the only ones not running around the park screaming and trying to catch birds. It was pretty embarrassing.
Mitch turned to the other boy, who immediately turned away as if he was staring at him for the past few minutes.
"Hey, uh... why did you ask about Jerome's sexuality," He asked shyly.
"No reason, I just want to which gender he prefers to be shipped with," He shrugged. Mitch let out a sound of understanding, and looked down at the stone path again.
"Hey Ben! Come one! Join us!" Adam's voice yelled to him. The boy beside him let out a laugh and stood up and Mitch blurted out:
"Tell Jerome I'm leaving early!"
"What? Why?" Ben asked when Mitch stood up as well and grabbed his bag.
"I- I just, uh... n-no reason," He stuttered, and started swiftly walking away with a sickly feeling in his stomach.
"Jerome," Adam called. The boy looked up from the birds he was stalking, but before Adam could say anything, he spotted his best friend walking away from Ben.
"Where's Mitch going?"
"I thought you would know,"
Jerome immediately turned to Ben, who was slowly scaling up the hill they were standing on. Anger boiled in him. If Ben had said anything unnecessary to Mitch, he's not afraid to hurt.
"Jerome! Mitchell told me to tell you he was leaving early!"
"Why?" Jerome asked when the anger went away. "Did you say anything wrong?"
"No! He just all of a sudden wanted to leave," He defended himself. "I think you should go talk to him, he didn't look very happy,"
"You are his best friend," Adam reminded. Jerome nodded. "Oh yeah, uh, do you want to eat with us tomorrow lunch time?"
Ben, behind Jerome, started silently swearing at Adam.
"Yeah sure!" He smiled, and grabbed his bag. "See you guys!"
"ADAM YOU IDIOT!" Ben yelled at him as soon as Jerome left.
"What? I was being friendly!"
"You're gonna make Mitchell lonely again!"
"Oh, shit,"
Jerome was almost out the park when he heard a distant Adam yell:
"BRING MITCHELL TO LUNCH TOO!"
Hopefully Mitch was willing to.