Backlash
He didn't exactly know what was going on.
It didn't really hit him until the footsteps behind him kept on walking, not stopping to turn around or come to a standstill. The gravity, the reality of the situation wasn't really registering until he was alone in that hallway. Completely, utterly alone.
It hit him like a wrecking ball.
He began to think that maybe he made a mistake, that revealing who he was wasn't worth seeing the pain piercing through his best friend's eyes. At the time, he saw no other solution. He thought he was doing the right thing to save his friend's father. However, now the betrayal in his face was so evident that he couldn't really make sense of it; hurt was a foreign emotion to his friend's happy presence. Now that he was alone, his own heart broke for him, and he could feel his eyes burning with unshed tears.
He had burned another bridge.
He had scarred another good person, one of the only people he wanted to save from the darkness of his life. He knew he couldn't tell Tommy what happened to him; it wasn't intentional, but he wasn't ready to deal with that backlash yet, nor did he need anyone's pity. But he also couldn't lie to him anymore; he deserved the truth at the very least.
He just didn't expect the truth to cut so deeply. Perhaps it would've been better to lie; maybe it would've saved them both some pain.
He stayed in the hall for a few more moments, hoping that the footsteps would come back. But they didn't.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that they may never come back again.