I involuntarily gasped. Jack was sat on the bathroom floor with blood dripping down his wrist. I knew what he had done immediately, because I do the exact same thing every night. I wanted to hold him and tell him that everything would be alright, but I just froze. Jack’s so incredibly good looking and even though I’ve never talked to him much I know he’s an amazing person and it pained me so much to see him so hurt.
“I’m sorry,” Jack breathed out, letting out more tears.
“It’s okay, I do it too. Can I sit with you?” I asked shyly, afraid that he’d say no. Jack nodded and I sat next to him on the stall floor, not caring about the extreme amount of germs, and shut the stall door in case anyone else came into the restroom.
“Hey, it’s okay, alright? I’m here with you and I’m going to stay as long as you need me. We can talk if you want to, or we can just stay silent.” I tried to sound as reassuring as possible, but I was so afraid of saying the wrong things. I just want him to be okay, and I’ve no idea what to do.
“Thank you. I just…- I don’t know. Thank you so much, no one’s ever really cared as much as you.” Jack was beginning to regain his calmness and his tears had significantly stopped, with only a couple here and there.
“Don’t worry about it,” I grabbed some toilet paper, handed it to him and he began to wipe his face of his previous tears.
“Alex…? You, uh, said that you do it too, do you really?” Jack looked at me with the deepest brown eyes you could imagine, although they were slightly red from crying.
“Um yea, I do.” I rolled up my sleeve to show him my scars and my fresher cuts from last night. I had never showed them to anyone before, and it felt sort of odd. For some reason though, I felt comfortable around Jack and it didn’t bother me.
“I was hoping you had lied to me. I’m so sorry you do that. I’m awful and ugly and just a complete failure, it makes sense for me to do it, but you? You’re smart and thoughtful, and not to mention attractive…” Jack had trailed off after he said the last thing. It made my entire stomach jump. Had he really just said attractive? It didn’t mean anything though, right? It couldn’t have. Jack would never like someone like me, he was just bullshitting to make me feel better. It hurt though, knowing that he thought those things about himself.
“No don’t say that, you’re actually kind of amazing. You just can’t see it.” I rested my head against his shoulder and put my arm around his torso for a hug. I could feel his entire body relax when I did so, which made me feel extremely happy. “Is there anything you want to talk about?” I asked, not moving my head from him.
“Not right now, I just want to sit here with you if that’s okay.”
“Of course it is.” I closed my eyes and tried to process the event that was taking place. It was tragically beautiful almost. I was so upset over what Jack was doing to himself, but I was in complete aw over the fact that we were finally talking. It’s amazing how much you can care for someone that you barely know, but for some reason I felt like I had known Jack my entire life. Nothing else mattered at this point. Not school, not teachers; just Jack
I felt something warm cover my hand, and I realized that it was Jack. I opened my eyes and smiled, moving my hand so that he could properly hold it. We interlocked our fingers and he rested his head on top of mine. It felt incredible. Even though we were sitting on a disgusting boy’s restroom floor in a shitty high school, everything felt beautiful. I wanted to stay here forever, but unfortunately the school schedule had different ideas.
