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he felt like he was going to die.
he was going to die, wasn’t he?
he couldn’t breathe.
he couldn’t focus on anything around him.
it turned into a blurry mess all around him, unable to keep his eyes focused on one given thing and all sound was drowned out by a piercing deafness.
the only thing he could hear was a voice in his mind.
henry’s voice.
telling him horrible lies, making him feel sick.
he wanted to throw up.
but, he couldn’t muster the strength to bother.
he didn’t even notice the door opening, he was too lost in his thoughts to understand someone was coming over towards him.
he was going to die, he just knew it. he could hear henry’s voice in the back of his head telling him he should. that he’s a disgrace, a worthless, useless, waste. and he believed it in the moment.
he deserved to die, at least he thought so.
he’s being shaken, the sounds and sights around him coming back. he can feel again, he feels hands on his shoulders. he sees a figure in front of him. someone he knew.
the figure noticed his eyes becoming focused once again, frantically trying to take in what was happening.
“dave, are you okay? what happened?”
the figure was jack.
dave remained silent, not trusting his voice to not break. all he did was sit there and continue crying wordlessly.
jack hugged dave tightly, running his hands along the taller’s back to calm him.
weakly, dave hugged back. the two stayed in this embrace for a good few minutes as dave calmed down enough to feel comfortable speaking.
“..thank you.” he sniffled slightly, pulling away from the hug to wipe his face of the tears that coated it.
“of course, are you okay? what happened?”
“…” dave picked at his fingernails idly. “do…do you hate me?”
jack was visibly surprised by this question. “what? of course i don’t, you know that, right?”
dave hummed in agreement and nodded slightly.
“why would you think i hate you?”
“because..”
“i was told everyone hates me.”
jack knew exactly who was the one that put that ideology into his mind.
“did henry tell you that?”
only a nod in response.
“well,” jack set a hand on dave’s shoulder again, “he was wrong. because i don’t hate you. you couldn’t do a single thing in the world to make me hate you.”
dave clung to jack again.
“thank you.”
“of course, if you ever think anything bad about yourself, just know it’s not true. because i love you.”