Chapter Text
The rain had been drumming against the window of the upstairs room for hours, a steady, oppressive rhythm that matched the quiet dread sitting heavy in Wemmbu’s chest.
On his desk, his laptop screen glowed in the dark, casting a pale light over a clutter of crumpled notebooks and half-empty energy drink cans. Three tabs were pinned open: a university portal with a glowing red Past Due banner, an email from his advisor marked Urgent, and a group chat that had been blowing up for the last two hours.
[Main characters]
Parrot x2 : Landlord needs the final signatures for the house lease by Friday or we lose the deposit.
Poke : Already signed!
FireFragments : same here
Parrot x2 : @Wemmbu bro u good? You're the only one left.
FireFragments : hes probably sleeping or grinding
FireFragments : give him a sec
Wemmbu stared at the glowing text on his phone, his thumb hovering frozen over the keyboard. He typed out "Yeah, just finishing up some stuff, doing it now" then immediately deleted it.
He typed "Sorry, lost track of time", and deleted that too.
He couldn't bring himself to send the lie. But he definitely couldn't tell them the truth.
He couldn't tell them that his mid-term grades had slipped too far last month to keep his scholarship. He couldn't tell them that while Flame, Spoke, and Parrot, the core group he’d done everything with since freshman year, were locking in the four-bedroom house off-campus, his own status had come back as a total failure.
He hadn't even had the heart to tell Egg, his best friend who always picked up on his mood before anyone else did, or Jaden, who had been checking in on him all week. And worst of all, he knew Minute,who had basically taken Wemmbu under his wing and looked out for him like a father figure since he first got to campus, was going to be profoundly disappointed if he found out Wemmbu had let everything slip away in secret.
Wemmbu had even seen Mapicc, Spoke's best friend, earlier in the library hallway, and Mapicc had given him a knowing look like he could already tell something was off.
While everyone else was mapping out next year, talking about who got which room and planning their lives out, Wemmbu was completely stuck, watching the future they’d built together slowly drift out of his reach.
The worst part wasn't even the academic failure itself. It was the distance that had started growing over the past few months. While Parrot was obsessing over classes, Flame was grinding through double shifts, and Spoke was running around making plans, Wemmbu had started pulling back. He stopped showing up to their late-night calls. He made up excuses about being too busy or tired, all so he wouldn't have to face the inevitable moment where someone asked him about his future and he had nothing to offer.
He had convinced himself it was easier this way. If he slowly faded out now, it wouldn't hurt as much when the semester ended and they moved on without him.
A sharp, sudden knock echoed from the front door downstairs.
Wemmbu flinched, sitting up straight. He held his breath, hoping whoever it was would think the place was empty.
The front door creaked open below.
"Wemm?"
Flame’s voice called up the stairs first, followed by the sound of wet coats being tossed onto the rack. "We brought the physical lease papers just in case your laptop was acting up again."
Heavy, familiar footsteps scuffed against the floorboards. Wemmbu’s stomach dropped.
Before he could close the browser tabs, his bedroom door pushed open. Flame walked in first, wiping rain off his forehead, with Parrot right behind him holding a tray of coffee, and Spoke leaning against the doorframe shaking out a damp umbrella.
"Egg said you weren't answering your texts either," Spoke started, tossing his keys onto the dresser. "We figured we'd all just come over and sign this thing together—"
Flame stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes dropping to the glowing screen on the desk. Parrot stopped right behind him, the easy smile fading from his face as he locked onto the bold red lettering of the past-due and rejection notices.
The room went dead silent, save for the rain rattling against the glass.
"Wemm..." Flame said, his voice dropping low, losing all its usual warmth. He set a paper folder down on the edge of the desk. "What is that?"
Wemmbu looked down at his own hands resting on his knees, stripped of every excuse he’d spent weeks rehearsing. "It's nothing," he muttered, his voice sounding thin and hollow. "Just... stuff."
"It doesnt look like nothing" Parrot said softly, stepping around Flame to look at the screen properly. "You've been dodging us, and Egg and Jaden for a month. You're missing classes, and now you're sitting in the dark looking like this.''
"I'm just tired, alright!?" Wemmbu snapped loudly, a sharp edge of defensive frustration leaking into his voice. He rubbed his face with both hands. "Can you guys just... leave it alone? I'm handling it."
"Well, You're clearly not handling it!" Spoke spoke up from the door, stepping fully into the room. "Bro, the landlord is literally waiting on you. Minute asked me yesterday if you were doing alright because he said you looked completely dead on campus—"
"It's not about Minute!" Wemmbu shouted, sitting up fast.
The outburst echoed off the walls, shocking all three of them into silence. Wemmbu’s chest heaved, his pulse hammering in his ears. He stared at Flame, Parrot, and Spoke, seeing the sudden confusion and hurt flashing across their faces.
Wemmbu dropped his head back into his hands, his knuckles turning white as he gripped his hair. The lie was gone. The wall he had built between himself and the three people closest to him had shattered in a single second.
"It's not Minute,"
Wemmbu repeated, his voice cracking into a quiet, broken whisper. "I'm not signing the lease, guys. I didn't make the cut. My grades are tanked, my scholarship is gone, and I can't afford the rent anyway."
He swallowed hard, the bitter taste of complete failure heavy in his throat.
"I'm not moving into the house with you guys next year. I... I can't."
Flame, Parrot, and Spoke stood completely still in the dim room as the reality of his words sank in.
(im writing this in school and trying so hard to stop smiling.)
Parrot was the first to break the silence. He set the tray of coffees down on the corner of the desk with a sharp thud, his brow furrowing as he stared at Wemmbu.
"You're joking, right?" Parrot asked, though there was zero humor in his voice.
"Wemm, the deadline for aid appeals was two weeks ago. Why didn't you say anything before it got this bad?"
"Because what was I supposed to say, Parrot?" Wemmbu snapped back, his hands dropping from his hair to grip the edge of his mattress. He didn't look up, eyes fixed firmly on the floorboards. "Hey guys, turns out I’m completely blowing it while you three have your entire lives figured out? You think I wanted to sit here and explain that?"
Spoke leaned his shoulder against the doorframe, crossing his arms tight over his chest. "So your grand plan was just to ignore us until the lease deadline passed and hope we wouldn't notice you weren't moving in?"
"I was going to tell you!" Wemmbu insisted, his voice cracking on the last word.
"I just... I needed to figure out if there was another way first."
"There isn't another way if you do it alone, man," Flame said quietly. He walked over to the desk, pulled the paper lease agreement out of the folder, and laid it flat next to the glowing laptop. "You've been pulling away from everyone. Egg told me three days ago he thought you were pissed at him because you haven't answered a single text in a week. Jaden's been asking if you need help with finals. And Minute..." Flame paused, shaking his head. "Minute literally called me this morning asking if you were eating properly because you looked completely out of it when you ran into him on campus."
Wemmbu flinched at the mention of Minute. The thought of letting his friends down was brutal enough, but knowing that Minute— who had basically mentored him and kept him grounded since day one, was worrying about him behind his back made a knot tighten in his stomach.
"I didn't want to drag anyone else down," Wemmbu muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. "Egg's got enough on his plate with his own finals. Jaden's busy. And Minute... I can't just go to him and admit I messed up this badly."
"You aren't dragging anyone down," Parrot said, his tone softening slightly as he stepped closer to the bed. "Look, the scholarship is one thing, but we can talk to the university housing board on Monday. Minute knows half the staff in the administrative office, if anyone can help you figure out an extension or a work-study program to cover rent, it’s him."
"I don't want charity," Wemmbu said bitterly.
"It's not called charity, you sandwich. it's called having friends," Spoke interjected, walking further into the room and swatting the back of Wemmbu's head lightly. "You think if Flame or Parrot tanked their classes we'd just leave them behind in some garbage apartment off-campus while the rest of us moved into a house? We're a team, Wemm. You don't just opt out because things got rough."
Flame picked up one of the paper coffee cups Parrot had brought and shoved it into Wemmbu's hands. "Drink the coffee. Then you're opening your phone, reply to Egg so he stops thinking you hate him, and we're going to figure out what we can fix before Friday."
Wemmbu looked at the warm paper cup in his hands, then up at the three of them. Parrot was already pulling up his own laptop to look at academic appeal forms, Spoke was texting Mapicc to tell him to back off about the house lease, and Flame was sitting down on the floor, resting his back against the bed frame like he had no intention of leaving anytime soon. While Parrot just stood there, staring at everyone.
The heavy, suffocating dread in Wemmbu’s chest didn't instantly disappear. but for the first time in weeks, the room didn't feel so completely dark.
"Minute's gonna kill me when he finds out," Wemmbu murmured, taking a small sip of the coffee.
Parrot chuckled softly, glancing up from looking at flame. "Oh, absolutely. He’s going to lecture you for two hours straight. But he's also gonna make sure you don't drop out. Now open your laptop."