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It wasnt rare for gary to send petey off out of their dorm so he could be alone, it also wasnt rare for petey to comply with minimal complaints. Petey liked to think he had a somewhat of a good understanding of why gary would want to have the dorm for himself for awhile, sometimes the whole evening - in which petey would end up having to wait until gary fell asleep to creep back inside. knowing gary, he didnt fall asleep easily unless he had taken his antipsychotics. They make him sleepy.
the actual truth was, no matter how much petey observed gary and made little mental notes on his habits, he could never actually find out what gary needed alone time for. Nothing that wasnt a little crude, but petey really didnt want to think about that. It was unlikely anyway, if gary were to do something like that, he'd probably do it with petey in the room.
petey didnt want do dwell on it, however - curiosity killed the cat, and gary taught him this the hard way multiple times, for example, after showing petey how the biology department got their specimens, or telling petey what really happened to Ms. Philip's missing cat. Petey shuddered at the thought...
He didnt really know why gary chose the dorm of all places to do whatever it was he needed to do, peteys best guess was that gary just didnt enjoy wandering around with his own thoughts unless there was a purpose for being outside, especially since gary used to get bullied a little..
Petey didnt really mind being sent off, even if it did bother him at times when he was actually trying to get stuff done. Its not like petey wanted to find out what would happen when gary got frustrated, anyway... he mostly sat in the recreation room and, sometimes if he acted invisible enough, the nerds would let him watch the movie they rented that day. If not, he'd just go to the library to study and feel sorry for himself until he decided to head back to his dorm and see if gary has had a change of heart.
petey had been walking in circles around the school after gary had once again kicked him out of his own bedroom with very little explanation. Sharing or not, petey was still entitled to a bed!
He absently kicked around a pebble, soft eyes following the smooth greyness of the stone until it nudged against a prefect's shoe a couple feet away. Said prefect was angrily telling off a student to get going to the dorms, followed by a stern reminder of what curfew was. How long had petey been walking? Was it really 7pm already?...
Deciding he didnt want to be next (it would have pushed him over the edge), petey did a quick 180 and walked with a little more urgency to the direction of the boys' dorm. He was praying gary would let him in..
Peteys dainty hand rapped against the door one last time, before falling uselessly back to his side. The boys' dorm was getting a little more rowdy as more students returned for curfew. Getting a bit nervous, petey decided to speak up a little.
"Come on, gary..." petey sighed, his voice already suggesting defeat. He's been knocking for about a full minute, and he was sure gary wasnt sleeping because he could hear wrappers crinkling and cloth shuffling around. Gary hasnt said anything yet, however.
despite himself, petey twisted the gold doorknob and pushed it open, half-bracing for gary to have set some trap for him. Peteys eyes glance around the room, landing on garys back. He was sitting on the edge of his bed facing away from the door.
"i almost got busted.." petey informed lamely, in a way that wasnt half as snappy as he wanted it to be. He was about to sit down on his bed, but after staring at gary long enough, he just...could tell something was wrong. Gary wasnt making any vulgar comments or jokes, he wasnt even looking in his direction. Petey lingered where he was for a moment.
"Um, gary?"
garys head was bowed down, and his shoulders were tense.
"What is it, pete?" gary basically hissed, lifting his head slightly and grabbing a few tissues that petey hadnt realised were sitting beside gary. Petey had no idea what to expect by this rate.
Petey opens his mouth to reply, but finds he hadnt actually had a response planned. All that left his throat was a weak huff. The two are silent for another beat, then gary stands up and turns to petey.
..the room felt smaller. Maybe it was just the realisation of how close gary was standing, or how clearly petey could see the thick, red jagged cut that slit right down gary's right eye, just to the top of his cheekbone. Petey couldnt tear his eyes away despite feeling his stomach churn, eyes locked onto the uneven deepness of the wound on his face.
Garys facial expression was unfamiliar, maybe it was because gary never showed vulnerability, that petey couldnt recognise how he was feeling. Gary was just staring at petey, his breaths coming out heavy. Was he trying to scare him?
It started to bleed at his eyebrow again. Dried blood was smeared everywhere, on his hands and his face and his collar, even colouring the ends of his hair at the front a darker colour. His right eye was squinty, and the sclera had gone a pinky reddish hue. Petey felt sick even more, feeling bile rise slowly up his throat, trying desperately to swallow it.
"G-gary?" Petey gasped, after what felt like forever, just watching gary stare at him with that wide-eyed look. Garys pupils were so wide his eyes just looked black and devoid.
He didnt get a response, gary just turned away again and sat down, avoiding eye contact and pressing the tissue back to the slit. For once, petey wasnt scared OF him, he was scared FOR him.
"What happened???" Petey persists, somehow finding the courage to make a tiny step forward.
"Gary, what'd you do?"
Its quiet again. Peteys own heartbeat starts to drum in his ears, a familiar ringing sound distracting him from being able to think.
He wasnt getting a response. Petey walks over properly, now being able to better see all of the bloody tissues and bandaid wrappers scattered around the duvet that were covered in so much blood it didnt even look usable anymore. Among them, a singular razor with dark red smeared over it. Petey didnt even want to think about how- *why* gary would even...oh god.
"Y-youre crazy...i knew you were nuts but not this n-nuts..!"
Pete swallowed and hesitantly stood back. He didnt know whether he should have stayed in the dorms or if he should have took his chances with curfew and stayed out longer. What the fuck was gary thinking?
"You need help-" he eventually blurts out, the only thing that seemed worth saying amidst the numerous exclamations running through his mind.
Gary did need help. Not the 'hey pete, come help me plant a firecracker in this locker' help. Real help. Medical, mental... all of the above. It made petey feel helpless, he felt like he wasnt making good use of his time in terms of thinking of something to do. He was just standing there looking like a goddamn deer in headlights.
The radiator humming was the only noise apart from peteys shallow breathing. Only then did petey notice garys breathing had calmed down, like this...was normal.
"Gary!" He pleads one final time, then sits down on his own bed, head in his hands. The bedframe made an unstable creaking sound.
Gary had been abnormally silent. Not looking at anything, just holding a tissue to his eye.
...
"Its badass, isnt it?"
Petey lifted his head out of his hands, craning his neck over to look at gary, who now had something of a sick grin on his face that borderlined fake. Petey could only stare in bewilderment.
"You cant be serious.." he gasped, a pit forming in his stomach forming after seeing the cut again. Petey knew he was going to be sick, he was just biding his time.
"You- you need to see the nurse, gary..!" petey adds, throwing his hands out incredulously.
Gary doesnt reply at first, he just looks away again.
Petey bit the inside of his cheek, making the small realisation that the school nurse didnt work past curfew. He rocked back and forth nervously.
"Can you still see?"
Petey watches gary take the tissue from his eye, closing the left one and staring at petey.
"No."
"Y-you CANT? gary, what are you gonna do? Youre just gonna be- visually impaired for the rest of-..."
Gary was..laughing.
"Im *joking*, moron. I can still see your dumb little face."
Petey bows his head and furrows his brows even more, adjusting his seat on the bed.
"Youre not funny gary...hhm.."
Petey put his hands over his face.. Garys laughter eventually began to fade, and petey felt...weightless.
"I said get up, femme-boy,"
Peteys eyes open slowly then squeeze shut as soon as bright lights stung his eyes. Whatever he was laying on was stiff, and the lights were too bright to have been the dorm.
Something was poking his face. Petey lifted his hand to rub his eyes, and slowly opened them. It was a little easier to adjust to the light because now something, or rather someone, was blocking it.
Gary retracted his hand from peteys cheek, staring right at him curiously. He had gauze wrapped around his head, which was holding a thick bandage over his right eye.
"Gary.." petey mumbled, not really intending for it to have sounded so plain. He slowly sat up, only then realising gary was hovering over him like a nosy dog.
"What happened?" He continues, eyes darting around the somewhat pristine nurses office. If only the classrooms were as clean as this...
"You passed out in the dorms like a wimp, then woke up to vomit all over yourself, and passed out again." Gary said calmly, kicking his legs back and forth and nodding towards peteys bullworth vest balled up in a plastic bag.
Petey stared at the bag, then over at gary again. The blood that had been all over him was now cleaned off, excluding his hair, which still had dark red tips that seemed redder in this sterile light.
"How'd i get here?"
"You just love to ask questions, dont you?"
Gary jumps up off of the bed (if you could actually call it that) and dusted off the front of his vest.
"Now hurry up, pete, we're not meant to be here." Gary huffs, already answering the next question petey was about to ask.
Petey let his legs dangle off the edge before sliding off of it, crouching down to lift the bag with his vest in it. Meanwhile, gary was dumping all sorts of painkillers, pillow cases, clean duvet sheets and sedatives into another plastic bag. The amount of questions petey had was bizzare.
Why did gary do that do himself? Why did he bring petey to the nurses office? How did he get an unconscious petey inside the school without getting caught?
"The less you know the better."
Can gary read minds???
"...okay."
Petey thought of that night all the time. It was one of the only times gary had ever done anything for petey, even if it was small and gary only really did it to raid the medicine cupboard and take a few clean bedsheets, which he begrudgingly gave petey some. It was also one of the only times gary was a little vulnerable, if you could even describe it as that. Petey came to the conclusion that gary was having an episode or something, and was playing it cool to act edgy infront of petey. he didnt know if it was because of his meds or whatnot...it was one of many things petey didnt understand.
From then onwards, petey had heard gary tell everyone that he got the scar during a fight with a townie, and then petey could KINDA see why gary would give himself that cut...to look cool, or 'badass', as gary referred to it. Petey never said anything about garys false stories because...why would he? Was petey really that trustworthy and naïve to have respect towards gary - his day one tormentor?
It bordered the line between friendship and stockholm syndrome, but petey really didnt want to believe that what they shared wasnt real...gary was his friend. Yeah, gary was a sociopath that had no problem putting him in compromising situations, but..he was still his friend.
Anytime petey found himself questioning their bond, he thought about the night gary gave himself that scar. It was like the little secret neither of them would share to anyone, and that was enough of a comfort for petey.
...and it does look pretty badass.