TW: homophobia, transphobia, blood, all that good stuff™, but it ends in semi-fluff i p r o m i s e

Jared's P.O.V

It's been near a month since Evan and I started dating. Connor has been way better friends with us and has been able to trust us with personal information much more. I only recently realized that the girl I met on the bus is the same Brooke who's Evan's sister. But I wanted to take my relationship with Evan a bit farther. So that leads me to now, laying horizontally on the couch with my legs on his lap as we watched The Umbrella Academy. (for the third time) I took a shaky breath before finally getting his attention.

"Hey Ev?" I called. He looked over to me. "Yeah?" I looked down at my hands as I fiddled with the bracelet Jeremy gave me for my 13th birthday. I never wore it around my parents, because it was made of small pride flags. "Uh- I was wondering if you wanted to... take this relationship a bit... farther?" I said, finally meeting his gaze. He looked confused. "W-what do you mean?" He asked. "I..." I sighed. He seemed to get the memo, though. "Jared, there's something I haven't told you." His face went red and he looked down at his feet. "I-I'm asexual. I'm sorry if you feel any different about me, or if you want to break up with me..." he trailed off, tears prickling in his eyes.

I sat up quickly. "Why would i break up with you because of that?" I asked, pulling him into a hug. He hugged me back, kissing my forehead. "I don't know. I'm sorry I couldn't give you more than just this." I shook my head frantically. "Don't apologize for that. I'm just happy you told me." I smiled at him and kissed him, which he happy returned. We heard a knock at the door, and I pulled apart to go answer it. I walked through the short and slim hallway and opened the door to reveal none other than Connor Murphy. "Welcome to the Mind Palace-" "no."

"Hey Evan! I'm home!" He shouted jokingly. Recently, his family has been very neglectful and rude to him, so he's been hanging out at the Hansen's almost every day. Evan didn't mind having Connor around, and Heidi loves all of Evan's friends. However, I still have to deal with my dead name being used by my parents. Almost the whole school knows that I'm trans, which makes me extremely nervous that my parents might find out. But at least most of them aren't transphobic.

They also all know about me dating Evan, which surprisingly is what causes the most teasing and Heather shoving me into lockers. However, recently a girl named Veronica has been catching her in the act whenever she bullies someone, which I'm greatly thankful for. But Veronica hasn't helped me many times, because Connor's always there to back me up. Apparently Jeremy is dating Michael now, and the only reason I know that is because I've heard... strange noises coming from his room whenever my parents aren't home. I remember one time I brought up the fact that what he was doing was illegal and he just flipped me off and walked out the door.

"So, what'cha watching?" Connor asked, flopping down on the couch. "The U-" "Ooooh the Umbrella Academy." He cut me off. I huffed and slid in between Connor and Evan on the couch, snuggling into Evan's chest. The blonde spoke up. "Hey Connor, uhm, I'm ace..." he said randomly. Without blinking an eye or turning his attention away from the TV, he responded with "I can tell." I snorted and laughed, so did Connor. We turned our attention back to the television.

~timeskip brought to you by the richard goranski protection squad™ (join us, coward)~

⚠️WARNING: this is where all the triggers start⚠️

After a few more episodes, I got a text on my phone. It was from Jeremy

milkboi👌🏻: Jared you need to come home right now

microsoftnerd: why? what happened?

milkboi👌🏻: they found out

I choked back a gasp. "Guys, I need to go. Like, right now." They both looked at me, concerned. Before either could respond, I picked up my backpack and ran out the door, shutting it semi-loudly behind me. The rain poured down on my brown hair and getting in my glasses, partially blocking my vision. But I kept running. And I didn't stop until I reached the front porch, adrenaline keeping me from walking normally. I fumbled with my bag to find my keys. "Come on. Go! Go!" Finally, I got my keys out and quickly unlocked the door, stepping into the room where all I heard was yelling.

"-And boys can't like other boys! It's completely going against the rule of god!" I heard my father shout. I peered around the corner to see my brother and my parents in the kitchen. They didn't seem to notice me. I shut my eyes tightly as I heard a loud crash, then a scream, which obviously came from my mother. I opened one eye and wanted to vomit.

First thing I saw was blood. Then, I saw Jeremy laying on the floor, his left arm with glass shards all stuck in it and a broken jar on the floor right beside him, barely any left but the base. But it wasn't the blood that was gross- his arm was completely dislocated, probably from falling to the ground. I ran in and stepped in front of my brother before anything else could happen to him. "Oh, look, our little girl is here to save the day." My father said, emphasizing the word 'girl'. But before I could speak up, I noticed something.

My mother wasn't angry. She was more disappointed. Like how a normal homophobe would act when their child comes out, not saying that it's good, but average for a person with her mindset. However, she wasn't crying because her younger son was gay and her older son was trans, no. She was crying because the man that she loved is the reason that her son is going to go to the hospital. "Get. Out." I sneered at my father. I could've swore I saw a hint of remorse in his eyes, but that quickly changed. "Excuse me? You can not talk to me like that, young lady-"

"GET OUT. NOW." I screamed, pulling my phone out of my pocket. "Mom, try to pull out all the glass shards in Jeremy's arm." She nodded. I called 911. I saw my father back away, before running out the back door. That wasn't the most of my concerns, though. My brother was losing blood at an alarming rate with all the glass in him.

Before I knew it, I was in the back of an ambulance with my brother in a stretcher. My mother refused to come. But, what she said before I went with Jeremy stuck with me.

"Jared, I'm sorry you had to see that."

She called me Jared. She called me Jared. She called me Jared. I grabbed my brother's hand and squeezed it tightly, letting tears fall.

Maybe, just maybe, this will turn out just fine in the end.

1169 words (please don't put lenny faces you creeps)

woo the angst that no one asked for yayyyy

i have a reason. im bleeding profusely out of my-

PEACE OUT SINNERS!