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He was sitting on top of the picnic table with his head between his knees and eyes squeezed shut. He hadn’t been thinking when he left the party beyond getting away . He’d thrown himself into the car and drove until there weren’t any more kids or lights or anything and then started walking. There was one flickery light in the lot and he shouldn’t have been out there in the first place but he was there and it was quiet so he crawled up on the table and let it all go. No one was looking for him anyway.
You don’t love me? He took a shaky breath. Of course she doesn’t love you.
Gravel crunched under foot as someone walked toward their car. The noise stopped and then it headed toward him. Steve couldn’t bring himself to look up and see who it was, he only wanted them to go away . It was Halloween, couldn’t he be miserable alone?
“You must be freezing.” The voice was sort of familiar, he’d heard it in the school hallways at least twice… he tried to breathe through the embarrassment of being caught, crying, on some shitty park bench. “Here, take my jacket.”
The jacket in question was heavy, leather, he thought. It was really warm, it smelled of smoke and cologne and was big enough to wrap himself in like a blanket. A hand landed on his back as well, rubbing in little circles as he shuddered and tried to get himself under control. A stranger, rubbing his back and giving him their jacket and - It’s bullshit! You are bullshit.
Of course it was bullshit. A good girl like Nancy, one with perfect grades and a spine of steel, of course she didn’t love him. He was just… King Steve. Party boy, rich kid, jock. He laughed but it was a wet sound. Nancy Wheeler didn’t love him, she just stuck around because… because what? Because they had trauma?
“It’s alright, man. Whatever happened, it’ll be better in the morning.” The hand on his back cupped his shoulder and then slipped higher to rub away the tension in his neck. “Shit’s always better in the daylight, y’know? Give you time to think, hit it from a new angle…” There was a flick of a lighter and the heavy smell of smoke curled through the air. Steve thought he could breathe a little easier just then.
“You should go home, sleep it off.” The advice wasn’t unkind but the air was cold. He scrubbed at his face and nodded, throat too tight to find the words. He could slide the jacket off his shoulders so that the stranger took it back but instead of leaving the other boy rubbed his back again, giving him a light pat. It’s the most comforting thing he’d felt in a long time.
“Get out of here, man. It’s not the kind of place someone like you needs to be.”
Footsteps retreated and Steve sighed.
He went home.