bmc oneshots

richjake: chemistry [class]

Rich always makes jokes.

"Hey, Chloe, can I come over? I promise I won't burn your house down."

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, Jake, I burnt the cookies! And my body!"

"Jeremy just roasted the shit out of you, Jenna. How do you feel? Like me?"

"Jesus, Michael, there's so much smoke in here. Is that weed or did I accidentally set another house on fire?"

Rich always makes jokes, but deep down, he's terrified.

When they start to use bunsen burners in chemistry, he constantly makes jokes about it; Jake is his lab partner, yet Rich would make him do all the work. He passes it off as laziness, but Jake has an itching suspicion that it was because Rich didn't trust himself around fire. This caused him to happily comply, as he didn't want Rich to feel uncomfortable. (Jake isn't very good at it but, hey, he has yet to pull a Rich and burn down the school, so he's happy with whatever he can take.)

However, when the teacher noticed Rich's lack of participation, she threatened him with a zero on the assignment. Rich already had a bad average in the class. He decided he'd just turn on the burner for Jake and then maybe put a vial on it and then let his partner do the rest. It seemed like a good plan- all he'd have to do is ignore the intensely crippling fear and the chest-breaking beat of his heart that throbbed in his ear like a drum set that he would later learn to characterize as a panic attack.

Slowly, he turned the gas on. Then, he picks up the lighter. He looks around the classroom and he swears he can feel everyones gaze on him, but it's just Jake. He turns his attention back the the burner and clicks the lighter once. Nothing happens. A few seconds later, he tries again. Nothing happens. The third time, the gas caught and the controlled fire burst up in front of him; it was small and didn't alarm Jake at all, but the fire caught Rich by surprise and he gasped, dropping the lighter and standing up quickly from his stool.

"You okay, dude?" Jake asks, frowning.

"Fine." Rich places his hands behind his head. Suddenly, he's back.

He's back in Jake's room with the gasoline tank on his lap, on his knees, the digital voice in his head taunting him.

"Don't do it." The female-appearing computer says in front of him. "I'll still be with you."

Rich shakes his head and grips the gasoline tighter. "Not if I'm dead."

The digital woman cocks her head to the side. "I suppose not. However, if you're dead, everyone will see you as a sad, pathetic, criminal. Is that what you want? To die a loser?"

"Shut up." Rich replies shakily and stands up. He begins pouring the gasoline on the ground. "Shut up. Nobody can get you. You can't spread."

"What about Jake?"

Rich stops and shuts his eyes. "I don't have to worry about that. You said it yourself. I'll be dead. Jake's going to be fine without me."

"There's a 74% chance that Jake will get hurt in the fire. And a 12% chance that he'll die."

Rich opens his eyes and looks to the icy green of the computer. "You can't spread. Jake will be fine. Jake will be fine." He repeats this over and over again as he reaches into his pocket to pull out a match. He strikes it and drops the match next to himself- immediately, the fire spreads out along the gasoline, trailing behind him and in front of him. He can still see the door of Jake's room and it doesn't take long for the fire to spread and shouts to be heard.

Doesn't take long for Jake to find him.

Doesn't take long for Jake to wrap his arms around him-

Jake's wrapping his arms around him. "It's okay. I am fine. What's going on? I'm fine."

Rich snaps out of it and gasps, hands shooting up to grab onto Jake's arm. "Fuck. Fuck."

Everybody in the class is staring at them now; Rich realizes that he's on his knees and Jake is cradling him behind him, which means that they're in a pretty compromising position. He decides not to care. "What's going on?" Jake asks soothingly.

"I thought that-" Rich looks around the classroom. There's no raging fire, only small and controlled ones where they're supposed to be. "It's the- I'm sorry-"

"Dude, I know." Jake replies, swaying slightly. "I know."