EDITED VERSION!

Linus felt better as he seen his house approaching as he was finishing his run. He slowed and walked about a block to complete his cool down. He felt a lot better. He had run all his frustrations out. He loved running. He opened the front door with a contented sigh, only to have it scared straight back into his lungs.

"Linus, oh my god! You took forever," Lucy droned, "and you have practice tomorrow, and you're going to exhausted!" He let the air once again leave his lungs as the stress and frustration started to return. Running was the only time he EVERgot any peace! He squatted down to taking his prized shoes off. Practice tomorrow was going to reconditioning for all the blockheads who didn't run over the summer and the newbs.

"It's the first practice of the year, and I'm a freshman," Linus ground out, his jaw was locking up, he sighed, then said, in an overly loud voice, "it's going to be easy, and I actually need the extra run time too!" God, Lucy needs to deal with her problems better, everyone else's problems she can solve, but hers she never could. He retreated into his room gathered up some super soft pajamas and then went to take a shower. He angrily took his clothes off and splashed some water his face and looked in the mirror, you could see his jaw locking and unlocking, it looked like it was twitching. He sighed, why was he so angry in the first place? Today at school was fine, then he remembered. He was being ignored! People talked to him, sure, new people, but no one he claimed as friends spoke to him after first period. Even Sally ignored him! Sure he never liked her romantically, but he was still her friend. He slammed the shower curtain open and turned the water on, screw it. He needed to calm the fuck down.

After his shower, he had chilled out. He walked out to see Rerun sitting on the couch scrolling through Netflix on the Xbox.

"Hey, Rerun," he paused noticing the house was quiet, " Where's Lucy?" Rerun sighed.

"She went to go see Schroeder about something that had upset her."

"Oh. Okay," Linus muttered. Lucy could have told him. Well, actually she couldn't of he had stormed off. Whatever. He plopped next to Rerun on the couch effectively bouncing him up about a foot. He chuckled. Linus was right about a foot taller than Rerun and around 50 pounds heavier. After Linus had outgrown his "embarrassing" habits, Rerun and he got along a lot better. It made Linus incredibly happy that Rerun no longer refused to socialize with him.

"What are you going to watch?" Linus said as he decided coffee sounded heavenly and started to head towards the kitchen.

"I don't really know probably some anime."

"Sounds great," Linus said as he finished with his Keurig. After he had returned to the living room, Rerun and him marathoned on random shows.

About two hours later, Lucy returned home. Her face was red as if she had been crying. "Hey, guys. How did you two fare without me?" She asked sounding about two inches tall. Linus stood up and started walking towards her, something was really wrong. She wasn't an emotional person. Anger was the exception if he was telling the truth.

"Lucy, what's the matter?" Linus asked, quietly.

"Can we talk in private, please?" Lucy whispered, glancing at Rerun, who was till focused on the TV. Linus nodded.

"Hey, Rerun, we'll be back in a minute, okay?" Linus said Rerun made a hand wave motion as a response. They retreated to Lucy's room. She sighed.

"Schroeder told me something today. Me and him will never work out. It's official, I'm no longer going to pursue him," she just let the words and tears flow. Linus wrapped Lucy in a hug, he was a little over a year younger than her, but he already dwarfed her in size. He felt a wet spot forming in his T-shirt as she cried her little heart out. He comforted her the best he could, rubbing her back and telling her it was going to okay. He had no idea what Schroeder could have said or done to get Lucy to act like this. This better not be a repeat of past issues. She was known for undying dedication to him and her grit, he must have done something terrible.

"Lucy. What did Schroeder do to you?" Linus said as he grabbed Lucy's chin forcing her to look at him. Making sure to examined her closely. She smiled through her tears.

"He didn't do anything," Lucy shook her head and sighed, "He's gay Linus, he just came out of the closet to me!" Linus' jaw hit the floor, What? Information does not compute. Gay? Linus' stomach churned. Lucy just received the ultimate rejection, her pain must be indescribable. Linus then wrapped Lucy into another hug, this time, he held her even tighter. That jackass.

"It'll be okay. I promise," Linus paused as a flash of anger filled him, "and if not I can kick his ass." Lucy laughed, actually started laughing. Linus, at first, thought it was hysterics, but she had the most genuine smile on.

"No need Linus, I'm free. He and I talked about everything, and it all makes sense now, I'm going to move on," Lucy said and paused looking awkward for a second. It passed as she continued, "Ya know, it's my fault he was so confused, Linus, he was scared of a romance of any sort. He sorta always knew he didn't like girls, but he just chalked it up to that it was just me or Frieda or every other girl in the universe, or that something was wrong with him. Until he ran into this guy and his heart reacted for the first. He even said he felt like he didn't have one for the longest time. It makes me so sad to realize what I had done to him." She said, all her wounds exposed. Linus opened his mouth, but Lucy raised a finger. "I think I will be happier with our friendship the way it Is now, compared to my one-sided romance." Linus was agitated, he honestly didn't know what to do. Lucy sounded so grown up, and she was taking this amazingly well. Schroeder's internal struggle must have sucked, to go through life like that, thinking the way that he felt made him a terrible person. Linus knew that Lucy has never been as happy as she is this moment. Linus still felt a trickle of anger in the back of his mind. It took him fifteen years to tell the girl who cared about him so much he was gay. It made Schroeder a little bit of a dick.

"I still want to beat him up, though," Linus said with a big grin on his face. Lucy playfully punched him in the arm. This was going to a great step forward for everyone's overall happiness. Hopefully.