𝐌𝐘 𝐑 | 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐟𝐞 𝐬. ⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

𝐟𝐢𝐭𝐳 𝐯.

𝐢𝐧 𝐧𝐨 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐝𝐨 𝐢 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞.

𝐔𝐒𝐀 𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐒𝐔𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐃𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐇𝐎𝐓𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄: 1 800 273 8255

Just as I was about to take my shoes off

A boy with golden hair wove his way through the many wanderling trees, the sun high the sky. He paused to take off his shoes a little while aways from the cliff's jagged edge, but then tensed, for fear, not for himself, but for another, had overcome him.

On the rooftop there I see

He straightened, eyes widening. He drew in a shaky breath.

A boy with golden rings here before me

Chocolate hair and teal eyes, so normally full of emotions. Now the boy whom they belonged to stood on the rocky edge, the trees themselves seemed to have moved to make place for him. None of his common emotions were floating through the air in the way they normally do, the anger or happiness that was commonly found floating ever so frustratingly elegantly through the air was gone. It was replaced with a desolate numbness and helpless despair so strong Keefe had to gasp for air, the heaviness was choking.

Despite myself, I go and scream

No commands raised in his throat the way that they used to. They suppressed themselves, unnoticed. This was unusual, but he had had more time to train them after he ran away. Keefe flooded with emotions and shock. Another type of words formed in his mouth, those that held no connections to his ability. Looking back, he should have used a command, to get his best friend away from the edge, but instead, he used words that everyone else had.

"Hey, don't do it please."

The other boy paused. Keefe could tell that he never expected to see him here. A wave of emotions hit Keefe, confusion, and panic. It took him a while, but he eventually drew the conclusion that they were from the other trying to form some excuse as to why he was standing so dangerously close to the edge, and why teal eyes that held the color of oceans also held tears as salty.

Whoa, wait a minute what did I just say?

Keefe thought in a panic. The other had been avoiding him for a considerable time now. Memories flashed of those teal eyes radiating rage at him, so strong, yet caged back in if anyone else took a look. Why would his best friend, no, former best friend, listen to him?

I couldn't care less either way

He laughed humorlessly at himself as he realized how hypocritical his words were, as he was doing the same thing. He was warning the other off the very cliffside he had intended to go to.

To be honest, I was somewhat pissed

A small voice rang in the back of his head. He didn't want to have seen the other there, he didn't want to have to to stop him. It pushed forward thoughts of anger and annoyance towards the other, but Keefe suppressed it, disgusted at himself, however true it might have been.

This was an opportunity missed

The other stood unmoving at the edge, a light wind blowing through delicate hair. A grieving prince, Keefe realized, perfect and composed but breaking, little glass shards, piercing a throne of which he now realized he had no right to.

The boy with golden rings told me his woes

Hesitation. Consideration. Resolve. Keefe was familiar with the way that emotion felt dancing through the air, and he readid himself for whatever the other was going to say.

"You've probably heard it all before"

Mild confusion tinged the edge of Keefes storming emotions. Defeat coursed through the other's voice. It sounded like so many have told him that his problems were irrelevant, that he had just given up. It choked Keefe, the horrible way that the defeat soaked through the air. Even with this, the sound broke the heavy silence, and lifted a bit of the suffocating weight of their combined emotions from Keefes shoulders.

"I really thought that she might be the one"

Keefe could feel the others heart shattering from where he was, at least 10 feet away. It only made the air more suffocating. Two broken hearts belonging to two broken boys shattered a little more in unison. Keefe's heart broke at hearing his best friend like this. It broke at how much he understood the other, how much he wished that he would listen, that Keefe didn't want to get between the two of them. He laughed again at himself, because why was he willing to break his own heart like this, what a broken boy.

"But then she told me she was done"

They both loved her, and the other had lost her. Keefe supposed that he should feel happy, because he had her to himself, but he only felt a numbing sadness, for his friend, for her, how she had also radiated this cold sadness whenever the other was mentioned. His friend could never see this, so now the three of them were stuck in an everlasting dance of not wanting to hurt the others.

Keefe dug deeper into the others' emotions, for silence had settled in once again, and he supposed he was supposed to say something. He found that they didn't run as deep, that this river of churning sadness was not as cavernous as it appeared. It didn't seem like she was the root, but she was still the subject of his anger, and that he was willing to throw his life away for this caused a bolt of anger to pierce through Keefe.

"For God's sake please! Are you serious? I just can't believe"

The words came out harsher than intended, but they got the other to move a bit. Shock, surprise, anger that he was being yelled at. Keefe continued.

"That for some stupid reason you got here before me"

A small, sharp inhale as the other realized why Keefe was here. Ice blue met teal raw and glossy with unhid emotions. He moved to take a step towards Keefe, but reconsidered and walked back.

"Are you upset cause you can't have what you wanted?"

Teal eyes widened, and then filled with anger. They glared until he saw Keefe, unmasked with all his scars showing, tears flowing, but not unknowing. He saw that they were nearly in the same situation, but his friend had it so, so much worse, and his fight drained away,

"You're lucky that you've never gotten robbed of anything!"

Keefe felt his realization. Keefe wanted to tell him that he knows that his friend's life isn't as perfect as it seems, and his problems are valid, but this isn't the way. And to not waste himself on this cliffside, not over someone who might not have even been the best for him. So Keefe did, quietly, voice breaking in many places, feeling like a hypocrite, and the other listened carefully. The other gave a slow nod, to acknowledge their broken friendship, and their newfound trust. Something had dawned on him while Keefe was speaking, and it looked like it had calmed the spiral of numbness.

"I'm feeling better, thank you for listening"

Keefe knew these weren't the words that he wanted to say, but he accepted it. The other looked happier than before, the numbness fading away, something else taking its place. The emotion was harder to decipher, but pleasanter. It was the feeling of thinking, considering, the feeling of new ideas rooting themselves in the mind.

The boy with golden rings then disappeared .

The other walked past Keefe, almost hesitating when he was next to him, opening his mouth for a second, but then closed it. He walked towards the entrance, not looking at the Wanderlings as if the mere sight of them would push him back to the cliffside. He lept away, and Keefe was alone.

He could have walked towards the cliffside, could have-

But he didn't, because what the other had left unsaid stopped him. He knew what he would have said.

"Come home."