"YOU DID WHAT?" Jedidiah practically screamed through the phone at Troye.
"I didn't mean to- okay it just happened!" Troye hyperventilated.
"I can't believe you tried to kiss Jacob Bixenman on his brother's bed. After he DIED!" Jed exclaimed, not making Troye feel any better about this at all. He was already freaking the fuck out, like he always does about literally everything, and it seems that calling Jed was a bad idea. But then again, who else would he call? He didn't have any other friends.
"What am I going to do about it?" Troye asked shyly.
"Are you kidding- after last night you can never walk into that house again. EVER! I mean...Besides- this whole Connor thing? In another few days, it'll be played out anyways,"
"What do you mean?" Troye asked confused. Jedidiah sighed on the other end of the line.
"This is the peak of it all Troye. People care for a few days yes, but then it's all over. Pretty soon there will be some tsunami or third world country to raise money for and Connor will just be that dead kid that no one remembers," Jed deadpanned. Troye frowned and swallowed the lump in his throat. He didn't like the sound of that. He wasn't actually friends with Connor- he knows that...but the thought of Connor being forgotten made him sad. No one deserves to be forgotten.
"You don't know that for sure," Troye anxiously said, biting on his nail again as he sat on his bed.
"Hey, at least it was fun while it lasted. You got some quality time with your fake family and got to snuggle with Jacob Bixenman-"
"Hey stop that's-that's not why I was doing it, I was trying to help them. I wanted to help them!" Troye said convincingly.
"Whatever bro, a week from now, everyone will have forgotten about Connor...you'll see," Jed said before hanging up.
Troye sighed and hung up before putting his phone in the pocket of his sweatshirt and putting his head phones in. He rest his head against the frame of the bus stop he was waiting at and frowned at the gloomy sky above him as the soft sounds of music flowed through his ears.
No one can forget about Connor, he thought.
"EVERYONE HAS FORGOTTEN ABOUT CONNOR!" Rachel nearly screamed a few days later while approaching to Troye in the hall. "A week ago, everyone was wearing these wristbands and buttons, and people were talking!" Rachel said as she gestured to the button on her jacket with Connor's face on it and the collection of blue and white wristbands on her wrist "People were TALKING! To people they've NEVER talked to before!" Rachel exclaimed. "And now it's gone. Completely. You were his BEST FRIEND, you have to do something!"
"Do something?" Troye asked nervously.
"Yes! Or maybe Jacob Bixenman could help. Or maybe you could do something together. He would be the best one to help, I mean...he was literally his brother," she explained as if this was new information somehow.
"Yeah yeah I just, I don't think that's the best way to get people to remember him," he said nervously.
"Yeah...well if you don't do anything, no one will remember him at all. Is that what you want?" She sassed.
"No that's not what I wan-" But it was too late, she started walking away, ignoring all of Troye's protests.
Later that night when Troye was laying in bed, he couldn't help but let his mind run wild. He kind of wanted to cry, at the thought of this kid who had clearly been a loser- much like himself, and had had zero friends, at being forgotten. He remembered Connor's words from that day in the computer lab. 'Now we can both pretend that we have friends,' he had said with a face so bleak Troye had thought he looked ill. He imagines if the day at the park in the tree had gone differently. What if he had succeeded? He wouldn't be here right now. He wouldn't be here to deal with this mess. He knows that no one would've remembered him. There was nothing about him worth remembering.
