Chapter Text
Roger always checked up on Simon. It started when Simon didn't come into school a couple years ago. Roger had been worried sick for his friend, biting his fingernails down until he was met with the raw, sensitive underneath.
It was so.. wrong of him to be so anxious for the other boy, that it bordered on a confusing mix of overprotectiveness and straight up obsession. He was meant to be the dark, brooding, black-haired boy at the back of the class, the type of mysterious guy that never said a word and never cared for anyone.
And yet.. he couldn't help but care for Simon. The boy was a beautiful, gentle soul with the sweetest heart and an adorable little laugh and the cutest smile Roger had ever seen..
..and the softest hair..
.. and the most stunning china blue eyes..
..
.. and-
Roger was harshly shoved out of his thoughts when he noticed a tall, unmistakably ginger figure looming over him with a shit-eating grin on it's angular, freckled face.
"Ayo, Chambers, man. You look like you're going schitz over there, bro."
"Yo, Merridew."
Jack and Roger have been good friends for a while. Roger remembered when he moved from Scotland to Hampshire when he was 6. How he was thrust into a completely school with completely different people, how vulnerable and alone he felt. Jack was the first person to reach out to make friends. Roger remembered little Jack's shock of curly red hair and little constellations of freckles dotting his nose.
As they grew older, Roger began to close himself off more and more. He was always a quiet kid, but as he aged he preferred to shun people out purposely rather than just not speaking. People his age were a bore, anyway. Completely uninteresting.
He trudged through school life unwillingly. He hung around Jack's friends, but they didn't exactly pique his interest either. In year 6, when the idea that a boy and a girl could.. (Roger even now doesnt know).. started getting whispered around the playground, Roger still wasn't amused. He just didn't see the point.
Everything was just so dull.
But..
It all changed when he went to secondary school. He met someone.
Simon Cambourne.
Roger's opinion on "boring" concepts such as "friendship" flipped onto it's head ever since Jack introduced the two.
Roger could make an exception to his antisocial attitude..
"Chambers. Wake up."
The voice startled Roger out of his thoughts instantly. God, was Jack loud..
"What?"
"Bro, you're acting all geeked out. You're acting like Maurice after he snorted copper sulfate during a science practical."
Oh yeah.. That was a thing that happened. The school had to call an ambulance and Bill saw the teacher in her class crying.
"Shuddup. I'm just thinking, yeah?"
"Pfft. About what, fam? Batty?"
Roger ignored that. He also chose to ignore the barely disguised jelousy dripping from every syllable of Jack's words like molten candle wax.
"Mm."
"Don't "Mm" me, mate. I know you're thinking of Cambourne."
"Sorry, what's the big deal if I was, exactly?"
Jack's face curled into an irritated sneer, before he glanced away from Roger, leaning back and putting his gloved hands into the pockets of his large black coat.
"Chill it, man. Just asking. Can't a guy ask his best mate a question?"
Jack offered a half smile to Roger's monotone expression, the more banter-ish tone returning to his face.
"Was it because I called him "batty"?"
Jack took Roger's disapproving glare and lack of response as a yes. Jack knew how much Roger didn't like him taking the mick out of Simon. He liked that about the dark haired boy; he cared for his friends deep down.. Or not so deep down in the case of Simon Cambourne.
"So.. erm.. You free after school? Me and the mandem are gonna go up Cranbury Road and hang for a bit.. You wanna.. uh.. come?"
Jack hastily shifted the subject. His speech was now a lot more.. hesitant.. Like he was trying to choose his words cautiously. Weird.
"Nah. Can't, mate. Busy."
Roger said, not looking directly at the freckled boy.
Simon hadn't come into school today. It was the first thing Roger noticed as he stepped into his first period class. Dread had filled every corner of his gloomy, pale body. He needed to check on Simon. He knew every time Simon didn't show up to school something had happened. Roger didn't want to think of what.
His heart ached. Thinking of every possible reason, both extreme and mundane.
He knew he wasn't exactly the best influence. But as how hypocritical it sounded, he would rather rip out his guts, bloody and raw, than ever see Simon enslaved by smoke and flushing from booze again.
Oh, even when he cursed God's name many a time before, he would turn back, tears spilling like the rains that flooded the earth, begging The Lord to save his friend from the demons that persuade him to carve at his own beautiful skin..
Roger's cloudy grey eyes met Jack's blue-ish greens. He saw the slight disappointment in Jack's gaze. He hasn't been spending as much time with him recently, but he did know Jack would care this much about it.
".. Sorry about that, mate.. I'm well busy at the moment. I'll be able to tomorrow, you got me?"
Roger offered Jack the half smile back from earlier. Jack smiled back.
"Alright. Bet. Thanks, mush."
Jack grinned. Roger grinned back.