Broken Strings

6 : 2 1

"Everything is grey. His hair, his smoke, his dreams. And now he's so devoid of color. He doesn't know what it mean."

- Halsey

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Six Months Later

Ryan walked out of math, slowly. His eyes were set on Lucas, just another classmate who he barely knew. Ryan followed him, following him to his locker.

He looked around, making sure no one else was around before approaching Lucas.

"Um hi." Ryan nervously ran a hand through his hair as Lucas nodded at him.

"That math test was hard. Quadratics are fucking stupid." He mumbled nervously, his voice trailing as Lucas raised an eyebrow, amused.

Ryan shrugged, taking a deep breath and stopped his rambling. He looked around again. The hallway had cleared out, mostly.

Ryan sucked on his lower lip before facing Lucas again.

"How much do you want?"

"What?"

Ryan sighed as Lucas slammed his locker shut, leaning against it as he faced him.

"How much money do you want? Or charge? I don't fucking know." His voice was a little unsure. Yet, he was sure. More than sure.

He pulled out a twenty, some allowance money he never spent.

Lucas smirked, chuckling as he realized what was going on. "You smoke?"

Ryan didn't reply, staring at the twenty in his hands. He crumbled the dollar bill as his phone vibrated.

A text from his father.

Where are you?

"My dad's here. I gotta go." Ryan hesitated as Lucas continued staring at him, eyeing him.

"Thirty-five for a vape pen."

Ryan pulled another fifteen more dollars handing them to Lucas.

He stood there, awkwardly as Lucas opened the front zipper to his backpack, stuffing the money into the small pocket and pulling out a yellow pen.

"Here."

Ryan stared at the yellow pen before quickly grabbing it and stuffing it into the front pocket of his jean. He quickly turned around, walking away before Lucas could say anything else.

Two Years Later

The music was blazing. Loud and screaming.

Ryan leaned back into the couch, carelessly sipping from the red cup every new and then. He didn't say anything as Karissa Wu sat down next to him, her dress a little too short and the neckline a little too low.

"Hi."

Nodding, he barely acknowledged her. Staring at the cup in his hands instead, he scooted over a little, putting more than enough space between them.