Chapter Text
Once upon a time, in Derek Hutchins’s first year of college, his teacher was explaining all the things they needed to do for a group project. It was simple overall, just your regular homework but with a group. It wasn’t much, as the topic was very easy to understand, the workload was a bit much, but manageable. But his classmates thought otherwise.
“And I need this done by the end of the week.” His teacher, Ms. Johnson, started from the front of the class, sitting down on the desk placed in front of the whiteboard. The angered murmuring of the students around was audible, it was unadulterated and didn’t take a god to find out that the majority of them were already overwhelmed.
“Nope, nuh uh.” one of his groupmates said, furious. “All of this!?” another one exclaimed. This time, more shocked than mad. He thoroughly examined all the work needed to be done for the week, and it was not that plentiful, at least for him. He was quietly sifting through the worksheets needed to get done, the rustling of papers here and there. That is until one of his groupmates, Shawn, approached him concerning the project.
He sat down next to him, moving the chair closer to hear Derek better and talk to him clearer. “Hey, need any help with that?” the man across Derek asked, adjusting his hair to get a better view of the worksheet. “No, not at all. I think I can do my portion of the project.” The dry reply escaped him, scanning for the hardest one in order to let his other groupmates ease out on the work.
“Scanning for the hardest one, I see. Let me take the second-hardest one to help you out a bit.” Shawn said, the sound of scraping metal audible as he moved closer to Derek’s desk.
“Alright, let me know if you need help with anything.” Derek replied, the sound paper rustling accompanying his voice.
“Will do!” his groupmate exclaimed.
The two wasted no time and got to work immediately. Each asking a few questions to the other here and there. It was a pretty chill experience, both got their portion done for the entire week and had nothing to worry about for the rest of the deadline.
A week passed by, Derek had collected the papers from his other groupmates. He handed the sheets over to Ms. Johnson and returned to his seat. By the time the bell rang, he was gonna make his way over to the cafeteria as usual, but not before a tap on his shoulder had caught his attention.
It was Shawn. He had expected that he and his groupmates would eventually go their separate ways academically, so this was something new for him.
“Hey! I had a fun time working with you on the project. So… Would you like to grab lunch together some time?” his ex-groupmate had asked.
Derek was intrigued by the offer. He didn’t have any friends yet as he was new to the school and had moved cities just for college. So, he’d rather get to know a person or two.
“Sure, where do you suggest we head to?” Derek asked, completely forgetting the fact that there was a cafeteria inside the school.
“The cafeteria, unless you wanna go over to a restaurant outside campus?” his new acquaintance said in a sarcastic but friendly manner.
“Ah, my bad. Sure, let’s head over there, shall we?” he asked, holding his books to his chest tighter.
“Will do!” his new friend remarked.
And with that, their friendship bloomed into the brightest flower you had ever laid eyes upon. Derek and Shawn would sit beside each other in the cafeteria every day. It was them against academics for the entire year. Eventually Derek had felt safe around his friend enough that he would sometimes be the one to yap Shawn’s ears off instead of the other way ‘round.
It was their perfect little world until at some point in Thanksgiving when Derek had spotted Shawn sitting with another group of people in the cafeteria. It would be normal for Derek to come up to his friend and ask when they’d hang out again so he did just that. His footsteps approached his friend’s table until he tapped him on the back which led Shawn to look behind him.
“Ah, Derek. Didn’t notice you there! How can I help you?” Shawn asked, a slight twinge of inconvenience leaking through his voice that could only be noticed if you looked hard enough at his expressions and movement.
“Oh, I just wanted to know if we were still eating lunch together.” Derek held the books to his chest a bit tighter. “So, you coming?”
Shawn’s friends snickered at the sight of Derek, who even was he? The quiet kid that sits at the back of every class he’s seen in, that’s for sure. Derek gave Shawn a moment to say something to his other friends and eventually gave him a reply.
“Sorry, Derek. I can’t sit with you right now. Maybe next time!” Shawn gave an optimistic reply.
Derek’s expression flattened slightly, not noticeable to Shawn but he felt his own face do so. “Ah, I guess I’ll see you ‘round.”
Shawn clapped his hands together, a bead of nervous sweat dripping down his forehead as he saw Derek off.
The next day, Shawn made sure that he didn’t forget to sit with Derek during lunch. Derek was fearing that his only friend had completely forgotten about him but it was safe to say that he didn’t.
“Told you I’d come.” Shawn said, a smug grin on his face as he unpacked his lunch box.
Derek replied back in friendly sarcasm. “Good. I thought you weren’t coming back for another 34,000,000 years.
“Well, plans change.” The metal lunchbox made occasional clinking noises as the table with uneven legs shifted.
The two talked the entire lunch period while barely finishing their own lunches. Unbeknownst to Derek, this would be the last time he would ever be happy with a friend for a long time.
Shawn’s schedule sitting with Derek at lunch became more and more infrequent. One time, he missed a whole week before realizing Derek existed. His attitude towards him wasn’t any nicer either, he was constantly hotheaded at every mistake Derek made, pointing them out or mildly yelling at him.
One day, Derek had enough burden on his chest to tell Shawn how he had been feeling about Shawn’s attitude towards him. He wasn’t sure how to start the conversation or if he should directly tell him how he felt, but he felt for certain that it needed to be done somewhere private.
There he was, on the rooftop, waiting for a certain someone to show up.
…
It was taking a while, might as well do the algebra homework that was assigned. It didn’t take long for Derek to be immersed in his homework, different equations with logarithms, polynomials, finding the value of x here and there. That is until a voice had called out for his name.
The voice was rather irritated, sounding like it was running late to an important meeting. “Derek. Derek. Anyone there?”
Derek looked up to see no one but Shawn, holding his lunchbox while having the other one on his hips. “Now or never, Derek,” he thought to himself. What would he even say? Every possibility of what would come out of his mouth went through his mind faster than the answers to his homework ever did, and he had the smarts and speed when it came to mathematics.
He was stammering and stuttering, trying to figure out what to say, tuning out the ambiance surrounding him until he heard Shawn’s voice once again, getting more irritated by the second. “Earth to Derek, I don’t have all day.” His voice was more strained this time.
Derek took a deep breath, then an audible gulp before spitting out the question that would unknowingly change the course of their friendship. “I just feel like you’ve been avoiding me recently to be with your friend group. Not that I’m cross with it, it’s just you’ve been acting very sour towards me as well. Is there any reason for that?” his voice slightly trembled.
Shawn gave out a scoff, then let out a small chuckle while his right eye was twitching. “Do you hear yourself, Derek? After all these weeks, only now have you noticed?” he let out a full-blown laugh, it was unheard due to them being the only two people on the rooftop since most students come here after school hours.
From shock, his hands started to mildly shake. Eyes were reflecting light from the tears he was holding back. Where did it all go wrong? Has he wronged him before? Has he said something unspoken? Had he offended him? Derek was oblivious to the unknown answer, thinking about all the moments he shared with his “friend” that now clearly doesn’t wanna be with him.
The man regained his composure, behind a smile from laughing obnoxiously hard then gave his statement. “I’ve been thinking about this for a while, actually. It’s not that you were too much to be around, you’re just boring.” he went on and on, pouring whole gallons of salt to a fatal wound. “You’re too vanilla for me, so I went ahead and found myself the right group, and now that I’ve found them, I don’t need you anymore. Goodbye, Derek. See you in the next life.”
And just like that, his only friend in the whole school left him to rot. Derek took deep breaths, trying to hold back his tears that were filled with the pain afflicted by his now ex-friend. He looked down to his algebra homework, and the next thing he knew, water was dripping down from his face and onto the sheets of calculations and problems.
Derek carefully grabbed a tissue from his pocket and carefully wiped it under his eyes with shaky hands. He grabbed another tissue from his pocket and blew his nose so that his worksheets wouldn’t be damaged furthermore.
Devastated from the events that happened a few minutes ago, he let himself sit there and it wasn’t until he noticed the time that he started to pack up his things and bolt to class. The far back won’t be the same without Shawn, but there’s nothing he can do. He can only move on and reminisce about the times he shared with him.
“And then he spread rumors about me, saying I kept talking too much, which I have been noticing lately.” Derek said while his hand was doing motions in the air. “I mean, it is true. It was just demonized in a sort of way which made me look like I was an advertisement. with no skip button.” he added furthermore.
Avery, who was walking beside him, was completely dumbfounded. On the first day of senior year, he thought his roommate was gonna be one of those strict people, and he genuinely thought that he was done for until he initiated conversation. “Really? Because usually, you’re the one listening to me yap on and on about random stuff.”
Derek paused for a bit as he put two fingers under his chin. Trying to remember all the moments he was talking to Avery and mentally counting when he was the one talking to Avery about his interests. “Is that so? Hmm, oh well.”
They walked down the sidewalk until Avery had noticed a trash can on the side. “Hey, Derek! You could throw away your old glue stick here!” Avery exclaimed.
Derek raised an eyebrow, the glue stick’s been good to him since basically the day he bought it a few months back. “Yeah, sure. But there’s still more glue in this, Avery.” he replied back, examining the glue stick which had barely enough adhesive left to glue two papers together.
The sound of a tongue click was heard from Avery’s mouth, trying to convince Derek to throw it away. “Derek. Sure, it’s your favorite glue stick, but it won’t last a lifetime!”
Derek walked over to the trash can, glue stick in hand and the other in his pocket. “Fine, I’ll throw it away.” he said in a mock-exhausted tone, lightly chuckling. He looked at the glue stick one last time then thought to himself. Not all things last forever, it’s only a matter of time until they slip away from reach. So it’s best to cherish those moments while you still have them with you. “Goodbye, Shawn.” he said in a whisper.
“Derek! The store’s becoming crowded, are you coming or what!” Avery shouted from the other side of the road.
“Oh shoot!” Derek stopped, waited, looked both ways, then crossed the road and regrouped with Avery.
“What took you so long to throw away the glue stick? The trash can was in front of you!” Avery said, oblivious to the thought that crossed Derek.
Derek slightly giggled and put his hands in his pockets. “It was nothing, have you even thought about what flavor to get?”
“I don’t know. I’ll decide when we’re in line.” Avery said as he shrugged in a carefree manner.