Support Hotline (Ryden)

Anonymous

I get to the office and sit down with my cup of coffee, because God knows I need it.

A few calls pass and they're the average little closeted gays asking simple questions.

"Ryan, a caller is asking for you, I'll forward the call." My eyebrows furrow in confusion. It could just be Brendon, but why couldn't he just text me? 

"This is Ryan, how can I help?"

"So you're the faggot Brendon's dating?" A deep voice dripping in fake interest hisses through the line. My stomach drops.

"So you're the asshole who likes him?" I spit in disgust, knowing exactly who this is and what could piss them off.

"You've got it backwards, twink. Brendon wants to date me. He settles for you because you're the only other sick bastard that's like that. It's fucking disgusting."

I clear my throat, ready to unload a pile of shit onto this guy's plate. "You know what's disgusting? A supposedly "straight" Jesus boy calling a hotline for the LGBT community just to trash a kid who deserves more than an ignorant bastard who's afraid of gay people. Now, I suggest you watch your fucking back because I will find your ass and show you how a real man deals with his problems."

The line goes silent until he scoffs. "You really think I'm afraid of some little twink?"

"Well, it looks like that to me, sweetie."

"Don't you call me that, you disgusting fag."

"Sorry to break it to you, but no one likes an ignorant coward. Not even heterosexual bimbos." I say just before slamming the phone down.

"Pete!" I shout angrily and stomp into his office to see him sitting back with his feet on his desk.

"Can we find a way to track that number that just called?"

"What phone did it call?" I think back to who forwarded the call. The skinny girl with the shaved eyebrow. What's her name?

"Whatever phone Lynn's working at."

"Alright, I'll see what I can do. Why do you need it? I can't give it to you unless there's a valid reason, you know the rules."

"It's the kid who hurt my boyfriend." I spit out quickly without thinking.

"Oh." He says with realization. "Uh, yeah, I'll try and get that for you. Just bring Lynn in here, get back to work."

"Sure thing. Can I just make a call really quickly?"

"Yeah, yeah go ahead." I nod and walk out to the parking lot to call Brendon.

The call goes to voicemail and makes me even more anxious.

"Fuck fuck fuck." I whisper to myself.

He picks up after I call him again. "Hello?"

"Brendon? Are you okay?"

"Uh yeah. You just called me in class."

"Oh shit, I'm sorry."

"It's alright, we were about to leave anyways. What's going on?"

"I think that kid called me at work, is he there?"

"No, I haven't seen him."

"Do you have his number?"

"I did but I blocked him, sorry."

"No, it's okay, we're gonna track his number, but we need to do something about him. That little fucker can't just get away with acting like this."

"I know. But I gotta go, class is starting."

"Okay, call me if anything happens."

"I will. Thanks Ry."

"See you later." I hang up and check the time. 20 more minutes until my shift ends. I walk to my car to find the hidden box of cigarettes in the glove box. I hide them because it's a bad habit, but I don't put much of an effort into quitting.

I pull out one and close the glove box.

They're a bad habit, and I hate them. But there's something soothing about taking a drag and exhaling the smoke, it's somewhat calming. Letting go of the smoke gives me a sense of relief from stress, anxiety.

I lean against the stone building and look at my shoes kicking at the cracks in the sidewalk.

Halfway through the cigarette, Pete finally finds me.

"You okay?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, but you gotta get back in here, at least wait out the last ten minutes." He says as he shows his hand with a piece of ripped paper between his fingers. He gives me the paper and I see a phone number scribbled in pen.

"Thanks."

"No problem. Now get back in there." He motions towards the door. The cigarette slips from between my fingers to the floor and I step on it just before I walk through the door.

There were no calls during the ten minutes I sat at my desk and reminisced on the second half of my cigarette that was wasted.

My shift is finally over and I get into my car with the thought of another cigarette in my head.

I never smoked enough to become severely addicted to it, but sometimes when I get anxious or stressed it can be a way of release. I know how terrible it is for me, but I never got into anything else in high school.

I dismiss the thought and pick up Brendon from school.

"Hey, can we go to the store after you're finished with work?" He says once he shuts the passenger door.

"Yeah, expecting something? You seem excited,  how was it?"

"It was good. I'm starting to hang out with Josh and Tyler more. They're supposed to be there."

"Sounds cool."

"Yeah. But I was wondering if you could drop me off at yours before you go to work?"

"What, watching me snap at big hairy guys in line isn't fun anymore?" I say with a faux pout.

"No, it's just I need to work on some homework  and Taco Bell isn't the nicest place."

"You can go to the store without me, if you want."

"No, it's fine. Just take me to your place." He dismisses my suggestion.

I thought it was weird that he wanted to go to my apartment so badly, but what's the worst that could happen?

-A/N: Hey, I hope you guys enjoyed that little valentine's day thing. Anyways, here's this. Hope you enjoyed, and thanks for reading! Also, I have never smoked a cigarette in my life but I was feeling v throam today so there's that little bit.