A/N: Written for the Mega Prompts Challenge, word prompt #014 - callous
Sacrifices for a Smile
It's his own life. He's allowed to be selfish about it, right? If he doesn't want to pretend to smile anymore, smile until they become real smiles he doesn't deserve? Because he doesn't deserve them, and he can't keep on pretending he does, either.
Watching them all bury their dreams in their time capsule, he knows his only dream is to be free from it all.
He knows they'll cry. He knows they'll regret, and they'll want to know why. But he can't tell them. They might talk him out of it and then what? He'll go on smiling until he believes those smiles and he doesn't deserve to, not at all.
Because that was the same thought in his head, when he sacrificed his mother's life for that first smile.