*WARNING*
Throughout the novel, strong and mature themes will appear and be present. If you are going through anything like that, know that you are not alone and there will always be people to help you get through. Enjoy.
"Do you want a joint?" Hunter asked, sticking one out to Danny before lighting his third and laying against the back of his porch swing. Danny kicked the ground, setting the swing in the motion, and shrugged. Handing the lit weed over, Hunter swung his legs like a child. Danny inhaled and fell into a coughing fit while the aforementioned laughed and patted his compadre's back. It wasn't Danny's first time smoking, but he always promised himself to not do it again... Until Hunter got in the way. The boy was always afraid that if his mom found out, she would beat the shit out of him. Literally.
Daniel's mother was nor plain or elegant. She was somewhere in the middle with everything. Hairstyle, clothing style, the way she walked and talked. Her lips were always pulled into a tight line, dark eyes mostly clouded over with anger, and cheeks were drawn back. That's what mostly intimidated people. Especially Danny, though he would never admit it. There was no reason to. He was the only one who needed to know. He was the only one who had to know.
The sun was setting and the colours of navy blue, majestia, and coral all reflected on Hunter's outside coffee table that had a surface of glass. Hunter was messaging someone on Snapchat, hunching over, while Danny was laid back, currently throwing out his dead joint into the grass. The aforementioned only had a couple of puffs before completely abandoning it. He didn't want to completely smell of weed, but he'd already had a layer of it due to Hunter. If his mom smelled it, she'd be pissed. Though she herself would be a hypocrite for yelling at Danny when she does drugs as well. She couldn't keep her hands off them.
Daniel shuddered as the wind traced his skin. He should be inside, curled up at home, watching David Dobrik and hiding from the world. Yet here he was, hanging out with the boy who keeps leaving him for a boy who barely passed high school.
"Isn't it nice out?" The pale boy asked.
"Huh? Oh, yeah. I guess." Hunter didn't look up from his phone.
Danny sighed for he knew that he had yet once again been unheard. Everything he says to Hunter goes unheard and he was used to it. Should be anyway. Back in the fourth grade when Hunter moved to the district, Dany had all sorts of friends, but one by one, he slowly let them go. He only wanted to be friends with the boy who captivated his heart. Now being seventeen, the aforementioned couldn't get his old friends back. They wanted nothing to do with him.
"Oh, Danny?" They'd say. "Stay away from him. He does drugs," or "Yeah, Danny was a sweet kid... Till Hunter got in the way."
Even if he was eager to fill the drained friendships that used to drown him, he could never be successful. He'd always be dehydrated. Yeah, he had his small group of friends, but he didn't really talk to them anymore. He never talked to anyone really. But here he was, practically alone, smoking weed and once again following his heart when he knows it's dangerous. He knows it's addictive. Like drugs. Like Weed. Weed in the most fucked up form. Danny in his most fucked up form.
The aforementioned shook his head to clear the thoughts that entered only to be more devastated by the new ones. Thoughts about how his life used to be in the past.
All he wanted was to have the good days back. When he and Hunter hung out all the time and his family was happy. Now Hunter spends all his time with a boy named Seb, who graduated a year before the aforementioned and was the one supplying Hunter with all the weed. Now Danny's family was mentally separated and silently challenging each other. He missed the old days. When his mom made the effort to smile every day or get up early on Sunday mornings to make the family breakfast. All those favourite memories were just that. Memories. Not reality.
His brothers hated him, his mom never smiled, breakfast was just a quick bow of cereal and his dad, well his dad just wasn't there anymore. The aforementioned was lucky if he got to see his dad during the holidays. If he did, his father would say a quick greeting before patting his sons on their backs and leaving. Danny remembered a lot of the court cases and how he silently wished for his dad to vouch for him and his brothers when they discussed custody. He never did. He didn't make a single move. Daniel's mom won the case and he hated her for it. Though he wasn't sure if she did anything wrong, he hated her for taking away his dad. He hated that she broke a bond that might not have even been there. If Danny knew what truly happened between his parents, he never told. Maybe his mom had an affair, for she seemed to get over it quickly, but maybe it was his dad. It's not like it mattered anyway.
The aforementioned jolted from his thoughts as he felt Hunter flick his ear multiple times. "Stop that," Daniel hissed. Hunter shrugged.
"Your phone is ringing," he said, flicking Danny's ear once more. The boy punched Hunter's tan arm before slipping his hand into the pocket of his pants to retrieve his vibrating phone. As soon as he saw the caller ID, he sighed. It was his mother and he knew that she was angry. He could feel a tightness in his chest form as he thought of the sight in which his mother was angry. She was always angry and sometimes Danny believed it to be his fault.
"Hi mom," he breathed into the phone.
"Where in the fuck are you?" His mom yelled; he could feel her venom in the consonants of every word. Danny flinched but tried to keep his voice steady and strong. Hunter watched silently as if he was intrigued.
"I'm at Hunter's" he replied, hands shaking. "I left a note on the table. You were sleeping and I didn't want to wake you."
"Oh, you didn’t want to wake me," she mocked. " Bullshit! You didn't want to talk to me huh? I am your fucking mother you shit! Can't you ever hold a straight conversation with me? No, you have to act just like your father. Bastard."
Her voice rose and Daniel's chest tightened. It began to heave up and down. His hands started to shake profusely.
Hunter gently slid the phone from his hand and ended the call. Why was the aforementioned shaking? He should have been used to his mom's words and choice of tone. It wasn't because Hunter was there - he had heard other conversations before. So what was the problem?
He was losing his breath and his body seemed to be shutting down. He gasped for air, reaching his arms out as if he was drowning. "Hunter," he choked on the tall boy's name. "Hunter."
Hunter was completely frozen for he didn't know how to help the boy next to him. "What?" He asked frantically. "What do you need? What's going on?"
"W-Water. I can't breathe. I need w-water. P-please." Danny's broken breath pattern made it hard to understand a single word that the younger boy spent time choking out.
Hunter dashed to the kitchen to grab a water bottle but was late coming out.
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