iv: zay (before)
You've only known him a year, yet you still sob like a baby when you hear the news that he was in an incident. The little guy; not so little anymore.
You didn't know until the day after, at school. It's when you show up all cheerful and meet your bestfriend, his girlfriend and her bestfriend. You can clearly see that they're depressed. Maya and Lucas were joined at the hip all day, and Riley didn't show up to two-thirds of her classes. You wonder what it could be, that's making such an impact on them: and then you realise. Farkle wasn't there.
"Where's Farkle?" you asked Riley as you dragged her to Gym class.
She looks up, and tears are welling in her eyes. You instantly regret asking the question. "Didn't you hear?" she replies.
"No one tells me anything…" you trail off.
"Farkle was in an incident two yesterday," she chokes, "he's in the hospital and…" She stops, and you wrap your arms around her. You and Riley had never been overly close, apart from the occasional gathering at Topanga's. She hesitates, then gives in. Her knees weaken and tears wet his sleeve.
"Oh my god…" you mutter, "I'm sorry."
"It's okay," she replies, "Farkle's tough, he'll pull through."
And you hope for her sake that she's right. If anything happens to Farkle, it'll crush her, you know that. You know that when Lucas initially moved to New York without telling you that you felt this horrible sinking feeling in your stomach, and he died, well…
You don't know what you'd do. Perhaps you'd kill the person who was responsible for his death. You'd try, anyway. You could never hurt a soul; that's why you have Lucas in the first place.
"Hope is the best thing right now," you say.
"I don't know how I can hope for anything…"
Oh man…
And you hold her closer. You don't let her go until she pulls away and whispers into your shoulder.
"Thank you, Zay,"