Lover Behavior (Floyd Leech/Yuu)

18 ~ Descent

Throughout the day, Yuu was given reassurance from others she was acquainted with that they would keep an eye out for Grim, and she would smile and thank them, but she knew it was futile. Besides, no one would actually put time and effort into looking. No one except for her, Ace, and Deuce.

And it just so happened to be those three that were aware of Grim's true fate. So they knew that there was no point in wasting effort looking for him.

When Yuu appeared in class, Ace and Deuce didn't know how to start the conversation. Ace didn't want to have to go through the motions of lying about how he knew of Grim's death, and Deuce didn't want to accidentally hurt Yuu by saying something insensitive.

Finally, Ace relented. "I'm sorry about Grim."

She glanced at him before turning back to the professor. "It's fine. We'll find him soon."

"No, I mean, I know what happened. Floyd told me."

"...I see."

As he watched her face, noticing the little twitches in her expression and how hard she was trying to keep a poker face, he felt a pang of intense guilt. He couldn't bring himself to lecture her about dating Floyd ever again-he was just as messed up as her boyfriend was.

"Let me know if you need anything, okay?" Deuce said, giving Yuu a tight-lipped smile. "Both of us, actually. We're both here for you." A peculiar look crossed her face for just a moment before she nodded, not saying a word.

All three of them were incredibly sad, but Yuu by far had it the worst. Sure, the four of them were best friends, but it was always 'Ace and Deuce' and 'Yuu and Grim'. Now it was just Yuu.

A part of Yuu wished Grim would come back as a ghost, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to handle it. This really was the best (as warped as it was) course of action.

"Aren't you gonna say anything about me dating Floyd?" Yuu asked Ace in their third-period class. Ace shrugged, tapping his magic pen against his arm. "I mean, I obviously don't approve, but there's nothing I can do to help you with that now."

Yuu felt her features relax as she interpreted the words. 'That's right. I'm too far gone to even try and convince.'

Ace's words had a different meaning to him. 'I'm too horrible of a person myself to try and convince you to break up with him.'

Deuce couldn't help but feel that there was a strange divide between him and the other two. He felt as though they had both changed drastically and he had remained exactly the same. Did he miss something? He wasn't exactly the brightest, so he probably did, but what was it?

And he didn't like feeling estranged from his friend group; this must've been how Ace felt when he learned he was the last to know about Yuu and Floyd's relationship.

Things had changed so much since the beginning of the school year-no, not even. Ever since Floyd came around, everything went downhill. Ace was at Floyd's mercy, Yuu was emotionally dependent on Floyd, and Deuce had to watch as his friends descended into deeper and deeper turmoil with every passing day, not being able to do anything about it.

But for Floyd, things were great. It was all going according to plan.