Chapter Text
Sal hated seeing Larry cry like that.
He could feel Larry's body trembling under his arms, trying to hold back the sobs and trying to be strong. Larry's father was officially gone and never returning, curse or no curse. "Larry-" Sal almost let out a wheeze as he felt Larry pull Sal into an extremely tight hug. Sobs started to gush out of him, clinging to the smaller boy as if he were a teddy bear, crying into his bright blue hair. "Larry, I-I'm so sorry.." Sal said softly, trying to comfort his friend to the best of his abilities.
He felt extremely guilty. If it weren't for him, Larry would have never figured this out. He would have kept going, hoping that his dad was coming back home. Not only that, there was a much worse crime being commited- Sal was enjoying this. Being held like that, having Larry cry on him, he had no way to describe how it made him feel. He knew one thing, and one thing only-
He was undeniably, absolutely enamored with his best friend.
He'd realized it a few weeks before, while he and Larry were hanging out. He had always tended to stare at Larry, but he'd never noticed he did it so often until he caught himself doing it. That's when, over the course of the week, he started noticing more and more, until he came to the realization. He loathed himself for it, but each time he hung out with Larry, he found himself going further and further off of the edge, until he had completely fallen off, and signed his own death warrant.
Sal refused to accept it. He wasn't going to let himself be the creepy guy who fantasizes over his best friend. He wasn't even sure he was gay. He did have that crush on Ash for a while.. Maybe he was bisexual, he told himself when he pondered the whole situation late one night. He still didn't want to believe it. Larry was his best friend. He was putting it all at stake with his little crush, which was something he absolutely did not want to do.
"Are you gonna be okay?" Sal asked softly, noticing that Larry's crying had died down to an occasional sniffle. "Yeah. No. I dunno.." Sal could hear Larry say weakly. "Do you want to head home?" After feeling Larry nod, Sal let out a sigh, keeping his hand on Larry's back as he gently led him out of the fifth floor and back down to the basement.
Sal may have feelings for Larry, but that's not important to him right now. All that's important to him now is helping Larry through this.