SORRY SORRY. I changed last chapter because YELLED at me saying I need to go to THERAPY instead of putting my PURE and INNOCENT BOYS in such HORRIBLE SITUATIONS. So basically now to summarise, Aubrey's fine. Weeeell I mean at least compared to before

TY U FOR READING LOVE U.

Also if you've been enjoying up till this point then please support my very delicate self esteem and vote for the chapters. Me and the boys will be eternally grateful, thank you

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After twenty minutes of using trickery and having it repeatedly thrown back in my face, we eventually settled into a decent game of handball out in the courtyard. Most of us, anyway.

Jude sat on the concrete nearest to Liam with his legs stretched out, taking the initiative to kick his ankles and annoy him. Since Liam had the best hand-eye coordination out of any of us, he usually destroyed us. This time, good guy Jude was here to save the day while he idly sipped on a frozen drink, watching.

Goose happily hit the ball away with one hand while he sucked on a sippy cup with the other. Ben looked annoyed and somber, but it wasn't exactly unusual for him these days. Trey must've been giving him smack about Ikeisha, but it seemed to escalate these days. Ben never said much about it besides shrugging and saying Trey's a pain, but I never hounded him for answers either.

Instead, it was nice to make up scenarios and pretend like I knew all these scandalous answers for myself. It definitely took some of the stress from my own reality off.

Even as I spent the entire day so far keeping my mind off the crappier stuff, a lot of thoughts kept lingering. Plaguing me. Like Aubrey asking me to tell him what happened in the bathroom. It's gross so I didn't want to say, but also, I didn't want him to do something stupid like get himself in trouble with Jesse or Donovan. Aubrey needed to stay out of the spotlight.

Seemed like for the moment, I was that spotlight.

"Charlie, think fast," Liam yelled and slammed the handball on the concrete. At least I thought he did because I dove for where I thought it'd land, but it arrived at my square in a clean and simple bounce. I'd watched it arrive there from the ground. "Hahahaha! Sucker!"

They all teased me as I picked myself up from the ground. "Ahh, haha," I said, scratching my head sheepishly. "You got me."

He used my own trick from earlier against me. And did it better, too. Ben perked up at some classic humiliation play and patted my back. "You win some and get your ass beat, some," he said with a tired grin.

"G-got to hand it to Liam," Goose said, developing his nervous stutter he often got when I opened my eyes wide and stared shamelessly at him. Deliberately, like I started doing right now. "'cause he s-sure handed it to Ch-Charlie."

We all had a good laugh when Ben's disappeared the fastest. He was looking at the direction behind me, so I turned to see him staring at Ikeisha's group. They seemed to be scattered around the field and courtyard, walking around and talking to people. I vaguely wondered what was going on but turned back to the handball square.

Goose had the ball now when and was about to hit it towards me I noticed Ikeisha come up to me. "Hey, Charlie. Did you have a good chat with Aubrey?"

"I sure didn't," I said, sparing her a quick glance before turning back to Goose, signaling that I'm ready for the ball.

"Oh?" she seemed worried. "You think he'd have gone off alone somewhere upset?"

"Huh?" I asked, pausing my throw and turning to her. The guys came over as well, except Ben, who seemed to look anywhere but at Ikeisha and Trey who was heading towards us as well.

"What 'huh'? You talked with him, right? He said he was going to meet you like forty minutes ago."

"Meet me? Where?" I looked back at my group, wondering if they knew something and forgot to mention it, but everyone looked as clueless as I felt.

Ikeisha's brows furrowed; she looked genuinely worried now. "We can't find him. We weren't worried before 'cause we thought he was with you, but you're here and he hasn't texted or replied to any of us."

What would he be doing then? Why would he say he was going to be with me? I hadn't spoken to him since we walked to school this morning. I couldn't say anything for sure, but images of Jesse and Horse-Face Hughes popped into my head, and I suddenly had a bad feeling.

He wasn't already dragged into my mess, was he?

"Guys," I said to my group. "I'm gonna go look for Aubrey. Stay here if you want."

"Nah, dude," Liam said, holding his hand out to help Jude up from the ground. "We'll go look around the classroom's and stuff."

"I'll go to the office," Goose said. "Maybe he went home early for some reason."

Ikeisha nodded. "Good point. We haven't checked yet."

There were fifteen minutes until the bell went for class. I didn't know for sure, but I think I had a feeling about where he might be. Without a word, I sprinted off towards the gym building and rattled the door open. It'd been locked. Ikeisha and Trey had followed me over here.

"Charlie, why would he be in here? They locked it for the day ages ago."

"Call it a hunch," I answered and sprinted around the side, looking for an open window. "The signal goes low from the closet we've met up in a few times. He might be locked inside."

My eyes grazed along the structure. The brick building had some old white plumbing coming down just near an open window. I'd have to scale it and hope it didn't cave under my weight.

"I'll get the building keys from the office," Ikeisha said. "Wait up."

Trey was still here, watching me climb across pipes. He had his hands up by my back, spotting me across. "Wait, but don't closets lock with a key from the outside? How would he get himself stuck when only janitors hold the key?"

"If he's in there," I panted, "then we'll find out."

It was scary, what I was doing. I walked sideways across the pipe with my body pressed against the brick wall. While it definitely helped that I was skinny so this wouldn't cave under my weight, I still had ridiculously big and clumsy feet that made this remain a challenge.

Soon, I reached the window. My leg was too low for me to pull up and through the gap, but Trey tiptoed and pushed my foot, giving me a little extra momentum. Then I was inside. I hit the floor with a resounding thud, barely missing a pile of steel pipes, very much unlike the white plastic one I just climbed. I think I was in a back room somewhere and had to find my way across all this crap.

Since I was trapped behind steel pipes, I had no choice but to stand on them. They wobbled beneath my feet, and soon they rolled and crashed all around me. The sound was high pitched and gave me a helluva fright. I stumbled off them and hit the floor, grazing both my knees.

"Ow," I muttered and picked myself back up. There were a few more tries of this as I finally reached the door. It was completely dark bar for what little light streamed through the window.

The gym building was, to put it simply, huge. It took some effort to find my way across the halls from an area I entered and had never been before, just to find the main gymnasium we all used. It felt like forever, but I finally got there. And there was the closet door, with a shelf pulled in front of it.

I say pulled because the rest of them were stacked right beside it. There was no sound coming from inside, but I approached it anyway. "Aubrey?" I called out. "Aubrey, are you in here? Answer me if you can hear me."

I walked to the shelf and tried to move it, but it was hard to make it budge. I had to exert more effort, and when I finally got to make it slide an inch, something dropped and hit the floor. It was dark where I stood so it was hard to see anything small on the dark floor, so I pulled my phone from my pocket and used its light to see. Aubrey's hearing aid.

"No way... Aubrey..." My mind went blank for all of two seconds before it went into overdrive. "Aubrey, Aubrey!"

Reaching past the steel slats of the shelf, I pounded on the door and continued yelling. "Aubrey, answer me! Can you hear me?"

I raised my voice and my pitch to make it easier for him to hear. Unless he fell asleep, he should be able to. "Aubrey!"

"...Charlie? Is that you?" He sounded defeated; uncertain.

I thought I'd die from the overwhelming relief that he was okay. The entrance doors slammed open and I heard coordinated footsteps and yelling as people came running.

"He's here!" I shouted to them, then turned back to the closet. "We're gonna get you out, Aubrey. Just wait!"

Trey, Rangi and Sua brushed past me and worked together to move the shelf. The moment Trey opened the door, I busted my way inside and wrapped Aubrey in my arms. I felt him hold me tight against him, too.

"You came," he mumbled into my shoulder.

"What the heck happened?" I asked, pulling away to look at him.

His top lip hung over his bottom one in a stubborn, embarrassed frown. Then I remembered he couldn't hear me. I quickly handed him his hearing aid, but he flinched and stared at it. When he didn't take it, I placed it in his hand and pulled his fingers over to cover it.

"You need to hear," I said, but of course he couldn't hear me. All he did was stare at it with tired, red eyes. It was almost like he was dissociating, spacing out and not even seeing his hearing aid in front of him. I switched it off and put it in my pocket. We'd have to try again when he was feeling a bit better.

Lights flickered across the gymnasium, pouring in and illuminating the small closet space. I could see that his eyes were red and puffy. I brushed some fallen strands of his hair from his face and kissed him softly. Somehow, he managed to smile. Ikeisha pounced on him the moment we stepped out.

"He won't put his aid in," I told her. "You'll have to sign."

They started signing amongst themselves, but it was too advanced for me to understand. I could pick out some small words here and there, but not enough to string any sentences together. I reattempted to hand Aubrey his hearing aid, but his response hadn't changed.

He'd lived so quietly before I jerked around with him and forced him out of hiding. What could possibly make him pass off such an essential tool so flippantly? I shoved it back in my pocket and decided to let it go; it was his call whether to use it or not anyway.

Mrs. Anderson arrived and came straight over to Aubrey. "Let's go to my office. Charlie, you too."

"I'll come, too," Ikeisha said. "He's not wearing his aid so I'll need to interpret."

Mrs. Anderson agreed and they started walking away. Aubrey buried his hands in his pocket and slumped his shoulders, letting his hair fall over his face. I knew for a fact that this was the work of the pervert and Horse-Face Hughes. Now I had no choice but to speak up. It happened because of me, after all.

"He doesn't blame you, you know," Trey said, startling me out of my self-deprecating reverie. I hadn't realized he was here.

"Huh?"

"It's written all over your face. Your expression this whole time was freaking him out. Stop that."

"My expression?" I asked, dubiously. "How do you even-"

"You might be an idiot half the time but even when you knocked his aid out, he never blamed you once. I don't know what your relationship is with him but he's definitely a sucker when it comes to you. Don't abuse that."

I didn't understand what he meant. "...Sorry."

Trey slapped my shoulder, in what I thought was supposed to be some form of encouragement. "Just keep positive. I reckon he'll be good as long as you are."

"Oh." I looked up at him. Since he was taller than even Aubrey, I was genuinely forced to look up at him. "You... might be right. Thanks."

"Don't sweat it," he shrugged. "Better hurry up though 'cause they're pissing off without you."

"Oh!" They were already heading out the front door. Even Sua and Rangi had walked off ahead. I ran followed them out to Mrs. Anderson's office.

We hadn't been inside for long before both of our mums arrived.

Aubrey looked as shocked as I felt. His mum rushed over, pulling him into a protective hug. I felt envious. He towered over her, leaning down and burying his head on her shoulder. He remained quiet while she wept.

I looked at my mum. She looked miserable. "Charlie..."

Their work was only five minutes away, so it made sense that Mrs. Keats got here so quickly after what I'd presume to have been a quick phone call about her son. But what was my mum doing here? Was she that shaken up about Aubrey, too? Didn't even realize she'd warmed up to him that much.

Feeling a little awkward, I flicked my hand up for a brief wave. "Hi Mum."

She took my hand and excused us from the office. After leading me out into the hallway, she closed the door behind her and took my hand in both of hers. She looked at me with a grim smile while tears started to pool in her eyes.

"Um, you okay?" I asked, super confused. "Did something happen? What's wrong?"

It was confusing to see her like this. I didn't know how to respond. All I knew was that it broke my heart.

"Aubrey..." she paused, momentarily overwhelmed with sobs.

"Mum?" I asked, trying to ignore the pang of jealousy that she was so heavily affected by him. "He's gonna be fine, don't worry about it so much."

Not that I thought I was some guru at consoling crying mums, but I didn't expect her to completely freeze up and stare at me.

"What?" she sniffed. "I'm like this because of you, you idiot. What you had to go through and what you must be feeling... Everything. I notified the school right away when Aubrey told me what'd happened."

"Huh? He told you?" I asked, wracking my brains for when any time they might've spoken. "I didn't know you knew... you didn't say anything."

"It's not like I could burst in and act like a sniveling mess in front of your friend," she said with a bashful giggle. "I figured there was a reason you asked him to stay. In any case, I've contacted both the school and the police-"

"The police?" I cut her off, surprised to hear it. "You called them?"

"Of course," she said, as if that was a given. Or maybe it was a given. "Not that we really have anything to go by without an official statement from you, but it absolutely needs to be investigated. I hope that what just happened to Aubrey has inspired you to speak up on your part."

"Yeah, I get it, Mum," I said, honestly. "I thought it'd be fine if it was just me, but even I've gotta draw a line somewhere."

She sniffled and nodded before kissing my forehead. "That's my good boy, Charlie."

We stepped back inside together. Mrs. Keats took Aubrey's hearing aid back from me. Any time she tried to have him put it in, he'd just look at it with an empty blank stare. It was scary. It was terrifying. Whatever was going on in his head, I wanted to protect him from it. But I couldn't even sign well enough.

By the time we went through all the motions, the afterschool bell had already long since rung. I felt shattered by the end of it, and by the way Aubrey looked at this point, I think he was, too.

Who knew that reiterating crappy stories and being forced to face our conflicting emotions would be such a laborious chore?

His mum took him home first. I didn't even have a chance to talk with him or hug him or comfort him. He was right there the whole time, but I missed him.

On the way home, Mum made a surprise stop at the supermarket and came out with sodas, biscuits, chips, popcorn, and ice cream. We ended up having a movie night with the promise of a late start tomorrow, allowing me to go in for a half day only. She'd apparently heard from Aubrey's mum that he'd be doing the same, so I agreed because of it.

She cuddled up to me on the couch, absentmindedly stroking my hand. She didn't feel distant, or like she found me a bother. Instead, she genuinely seemed like a scared, worried, loving mother. We felt genuinely close.

Sleep was trying its hardest to overwhelm me, or even just whelming me at all.

He never once blamed you.

Trey's words came back to me. Things might be different now. Maybe this time Aubrey would finally realize I bring him nothing but crap luck. I was going to have to learn how to protect him if I wanted to be with him.

If he still wanted to be with me.