Chapter Text
Lars was merely two when he almost met death for the first time.
Obviously, he doesn’t remember such an early memory, but according to Mom, he almost fell from the first floor as soon as she took her eyes off him.
When he was really young, Lars wasn’t afraid of anything. Therefore, he got hurt pretty often, usually tripping as he ran too fast, or trying to jump from high places because he felt invincible.
Little Lars was confident.
But when school started, Lars would never be the same.
He was eight years old.
His class went to this small aquatic park, not too far from Beach City. None of their parents were present, which only contributed to what he did.
Lars was bullied from a young age. Kids thought he was weird, a momma’s boy, and a crybaby. He remembers them betting he would never jump off the highest diving board of the pool.
Of course, the desperate boy who just wanted friends accepted the challenge.
Lars even went a little dizzy at the height.
He hesitated, took a step back.
There was a commotion.
All the kids came to watch. Not just his school peers.
Lars was going to panic, being seen by everyone.
No. He wasn’t a crybaby. He wasn’t scared.
He…
He was cool.
Cool kids were fearless, popular, beloved.
So… Lars did it.
The moment he jumped, he regretted it.
He wanted to yell for his mom.
But she wasn’t there to stop him.
Lars remembers the pain he felt when the water caught him. But he doesn’t remember how he got out of there. All he knows, he woke up at the nursery, apparently okay. He didn’t break any bones, somehow. The nurse was shocked even, and said he was very lucky, and not in the good way.
He was unconscious for a while, so his parents showed up right on time.
They weren’t the kind of parents that got angry. They would be stern and scold him, but they never yelled at him.
That day was an exception.
Mom was usually softer and sweeter, but her worry only increased her voice, and she didn’t reprimand Dad from actively shouting at him.
Lars tried to explain to them that the other kids made him do it, that they made a bet, but it didn’t matter. If anything, Dad got even angrier that Lars accepted it in the first place. Mom on the other hand softened when Lars started crying.
“I-I just w-wanted to be cool,” he mumbled, afraid to get more yells.
She finally hugged him, hushing him as he cried in her clothes. Dad went outside, probably to calm down. Lars had never seen him so furious. It was kind of scary.
Mom pulled away to face him, and she cupped his face gently.
“You’re already so cool, Laramie,” she told him, and at that point he didn’t even bother correcting the name. “You don’t need to prove anything to anyone.”
Lars was not very convinced at the time.
Especially once he found out that his near-death experience was turned into a joke between his classmates. Lars could very well have drowned, and they found it hilarious.
(And it wasn’t a one-off thing. It lasted years.)
But he was the one who had accepted the bet in the first place.
So he knew he was to blame.
As usual.
And Mom was wrong.
So very wrong.