Trigger warning: Heavy mention of suicide :'( (poor Richie)
Y/n's POV
I pulled myself back up to Rich's room, bringing him a bag of Cheetos and a cookie. I glanced at him in his room. He was talking to himself or to, I guess, his SQUIP. I listened for a moment before entering.
"Why can't you just leave me alone? Or not even me? Why Y/n? What did she ever do?"
I blushed.
"You know, maybe if I just put a bullet through my head, it'll solve this whole thing, huh? Is that what you want?"
I held my breath, waiting a few seconds to enter, so that he wouldn't know that I heard him.
"Hey, I brought Cheetos and a cookie," I said as I walked in.
"Hey," he said. "Thanks."
He grabbed the Cheetos with one hand, and I held his other hand in mine own. We sat in silence for a moment. Well, not exactly silence, since Rich was crunching his Cheetos loud enough for the whole hospital to hear. But I ignored it. I had more important things to think about.
"Can I ask you a question?"
"You already did," he said, causing me to glare at him. "The question should be: can I answer it? But I'll try."
I smiled enough to show my appreciation before my face fell back into a thoughtful frown.
"Why did you start the fire?"
"What?"
"You heard me. I mean, obviously, it was because of your SQUIP. But like, was it that you had just lost control. Did he do it? Why?"
Rich's smile was frozen on his face, and for a second I thought the SQUIP had taken over again. But his face fell into a soft frown, and his hand gently slipped away from mine. "I wasn't thinking straight."
"You never are." I was joking, but Rich hardly seemed to notice. He was staring at the end of his hospital bed, as if there was somebody standing there.
"I...thought that if I killed myself, I could kill the SQUIP. I would never hurt anybody ever again because he'd be dead with me." I noticed his hands were fiddling nervously on his lap. "I know it's dumb and, like, emo and stuff."
"It's not dumb," I said, pulling his hand back to me. "Or, like, emo and stuff. Like you said you weren't thinking straight."
Rich nodded.
I sighed, yawning again. "Y/n, you've been yawning all morning. Maybe you should take a nap."
"Oh, no, I couldn't do that..."
"You could sleep in my be--" I watched him stiffen.
"In your bed? Are you sure?"
"No," Rich said, but I knew it wasn't Rich.
"Alright, if you say so."
I climbed into the bed with him. I felt awkward, but I didn't get out, mostly because Rich was trying to push me out. Screw that mess. I tiredly wrapped my arms around his neck, which caused him to freeze. I grinned as I put my legs over his and buried my face on his shoulder.
I stayed like that for a while, but it wasn't until about a half hour later that he moved, wrapping his arm around me and leaning his head on mine. And that's how it was when I fell asleep.
Once I woke up, the first thing I did was pull myself off of Rich. He laughed at me. "Damn, L/n. Didn't know you could sleep that long."
"What time is it?" I yawned.
