"I'm alright." Lucas smiled softly, having gotten used to the pangs of guilt from his lies. He knew he needed help, but he couldn't bear to push that burden on anyone. He had noticeable circles under his eyes from sleep deprivation, and he generally just looked a bit weak.
"Listen, I'm…having trouble with…" Tyler tried to make up something. "Chemistry. D'ya wanna come over to my house to study?"
"Sure! Always happy to help. I like chem, anyways…" Lucas yawned a bit, running his fingers through the part of his hair that wasn't covered by his hat. "We've got next period together, right?"
"Yep, I think so," Tyler replied with a smile. "Hey, I didn't know you liked chem. That stuff is nightmarish for me. Are you thinking about going into science when you go to college?"
Lucas's smile weakened a bit, but he managed to keep it up. At this point, he didn't exactly expect to live till college, but he couldn't tell Tyler that. "Maybe… I might do commissions on the side, too, if I can find the motivation or time. Drawing is pretty fun…"
Now that Tyler was looking, really looking, he could see Lucas' smile falter and the tiredness in his eyes. Of course he'd be tired. He probably wasn't planning for college at all at this point. "Drawing? I like art a lot, too," he said. "I'd love to see some of your art sometime."
"Sure. I'll bring my sketchbook over when I come to your place later." They walked into their next class, which was pre calculus and their second to last period of the day. Honestly, Lucas was looking forward to their study session for the sole reason that he could be away from his house.
"Great," Tyler smiled. "Fair warning, I don't have guests over that often, so excuse my awkwardness and my mom and sister freaking out."
"No problem. I'd love to meet them." Lucas sat down and took his notes from the board tiredly. As exhausted as he was, he never fell asleep.
Tyler tried to focus on his notes, but he'd already written these. Literally a month ago. He was more concerned with his, at the moment, very alive friend. His thoughts were running wild with potential outcomes. How do you convince someone with a life's worth of pain that life is worth living in only thirty days? It was such an unspeakably huge task, and here he was just sitting in precalc, not doing anything about it.
Throughout the entire class, one of Lucas's legs was shaking. It was a habit he'd picked up to sort of channel his constant anxiety, and he hardly noticed it anymore. He sighed softly as he looked at the ultimately pointless information he'd written down.
Tyler took furtive glances at Lucas. He looked kinda anxious. He wished he could do something about it but he wasn't sure what he could do without overstepping his boundaries. He sighed inaudibly. He needed to come up with a plan.
Lucas collected his things once the bell rang and walked out with Tyler. "I hate calc… It's hard enough when you've got a good night's sleep, but it's ten times worse when you're exhausted." He laughed weakly.
"Yeah, I agree," he said with a half smile. "I usually like it a little more, but today it was so boring." He gave him a long glance. "Didn't sleep well last night?"
Lucas shook his head. "I'm out of my sleep meds… I usually wake up several times during the night." They headed off to their last class of the day.
"Oh," Tyler said. He decided to make sure he remembered that, just in case it would be important later. In fact, Tyler found himself trying to commit to memory everything Lucas was saying. He wasn't sure if he was searching for clues about why Lucas would kill himself, or if he was making sure not to take any moment with his friend for granted. It could have been both. "I hope you get more meds soon, then. Until then, we can stop by the cafe near my house and grab some coffee?"
"Yeah, sure. After school, though… I'll see you after class, right?" Lucas asked, hovering at the door of the art room.
"Yup," Tyler said with a smile, heading off towards his last class. It was AP Literature, and since Tyler had already been through this class, he decided to make a list of 30 things to live for. He found that it was harder than he thought –a lot of his personal reasons were a bit stupid or not relevant. But after a while, he managed to write what he thought a pretty good list was. He only managed 29 before class ended, but he was sure he'd figure out the last one sometime soon. He'd have to show him one reason, every day, to stay alive.
When Tyler reached the art room, Lucas was nowhere to be seen, but sounds of struggling could be heard around the corner. That along with… Lucas's voice. Pleading.
"N-No, please! Let me go! I'll do it, I'll do it!" One of the older students seemed to be gripping Lucas's wrists and pinning him against the lockers. Lucas's face had gone even paler than it usually was, and he seemed dangerously close to what seemed to be a panic attack. The way he was being trapped reminded him of his father, and he was terrified every time these guys did this to him.
Tyler hurried into the room the moment he heard Lucas's voice sounding so panicked. When he saw the older students, he didn't really see kids –he saw reasons. Reasons why Lucas might not want to live any longer. And then, he saw red. "Get away from him," he shouted, "now!"
"Why should we?" The guy pinning Lucas asked. Lucas was hyperventilating and trembling violently by this point, and he didn't seem to be fully coherent. He flinched at any sudden movement, feeling lightheaded and weak.
Tyler was smaller than the guys by a whole lot. However, he'd been in quite a few fights before, and he was no stranger to violence. He knew exactly how to take these guys down. He'd just needed to get the first hit in. "Because I said so."
"T-Tyler… d… don't worry about it… just go, p-please…" Lucas managed to choke out, struggling against the guy's grip again. When he did so, the guy raised his fist, ready to punch Lucas. Lucas noticed this of course and flinched again, cowering against the lockers.
The moment the guy raised his fist, Tyler sprung, wrapping his arms around the older guy and using his body weight to send them both to the ground. He slammed his elbow into the guy's nose. "I don't think you heard me!" he shouted. "I said leave him alone!"
Lucas slid down the lockers weakly as the other couple of guys ran. He wanted to stop Tyler, but there wasn't anything he could do while he tried to force himself to calm down. He'd already sustained a few blows before Tyler showed up, but they weren't nearly as bad as he was used to getting from his dad. Speaking of injuries from his father, he couldn't find his hat, which had been covering the fresh glass wounds from this morning that had made Lucas late to school. After a bit of a struggle, the other guy Tyler had tackled broke free and ran off as well.