Tim sat on his bed. "They… they probably took him by now." He sneezed and rubbed his arm over his nose to remove the snot. A thread of snot was now hanging from his nose all the way down to above his hand. "At least his parents will get some closure now… I hope."
He threw himself into his pillow. Phone in his hand, he thought about calling a friend to help him process his emotions. He did not have many numbers saved aside from his family. "Anna? No, I could not be honest with what happened. She wouldn't understand… Lina?" His thumb hovered above her name in his phone. Maybe she would pick up and he could find her, that might distract him from what happened.
"I should try." He clicked her name on the screen and it started to ring. He pushed the loud speaker button and waited… and waited… and waited. He sighed as the call ended with her not picking up the phone.
"Where are you?" He muttered and kept searching for someone to call. Then he got an idea. He should call Lukas! He would understand him, would he not? Oh… he did not have his number… but wait! He could look into the group chat of his class, and if he was not a part of it, he could ask Anna.
He opened the group chat and searched for the members tab. And there it was, Lukas' number. He pressed it and an empty chat opened. The keyboard on his phone was open and he did not know what to write.
After a moment's hesitation he started typing. "Could. You. Come. Over?" He spoke each word as he wrote it, "Need. Someone. To. Talk. Too." Then he pressed send and stuffed his phone beneath his pillow out of embarrassment. He was scared Lukas would find him weird or dislike him. The thought that he might call the police on him did not even occur to him.
Then his phone vibrated. Lukas had replied. "Shit!" He screamed silently and unlocked his phone again. All Lukas had sent for an answer was a black thumbs up emoji.
It only took about 10 minutes before the doorbell rang. Tim's brother hurried down and opened the door so fast it almost flew off of the hinges. "Hi" He said loudly and out of breath, "Come in! Tim is in his room."
Lukas stepped through the front door. He looked around, fascinated. It was his first time inside Tim's home, normally he would just stand across the road and stare at it during the nighttime. Or try to open a window from the outside without luck. But being invited in? He felt like a vampire about to suck Tim's blood, not yet knowing that it was partially true.
"Thank you." He said politely and followed Tim's brother up the stairs. He stopped in front of the door and knocked as Tim's brother walked back down the stairs.
"Tim? It's me, you wanted to talk to me?" Lukas said, as if waiting for a reply or Tim to open the door, but instead he just barged inside his room and closed the door behind him. "You look horrible…" He muttered and sat down beside him onto his bed.
Tim was laying in the fetus position under his blanket with a stuffed animal tucked into his arms. "Thanks for coming." He said silently. Tim turned to Lukas who was looking at him with pity in his eyes. Tim's eyes on the other hand were filled with heartfelt sadness and tears.
Lukas patted the spot next to himself on the bed and Tim sat up, letting his feet fall down the edge of the bed and onto the floor. "Can I… can I confess something?" He asked, "And could you promise not to tell anyone?"
For a moment Tim thought he saw a smile cross Lukas' red moist lips. "I am all ears." Lukas said and Tim began to describe the events of the last few days. But he did leave out the reason why he knew that Jake's body was down in the tunnel.
Lukas stared at him, blown away by Tim's honesty: "Wow! I did not expect this much honesty. Or this serious of a situation."
"I just… I am so fucking overwhelmed with so many different emotions and I don't know how to handle all this alone." He took a deep breath before continuing, "Thank you for listening, it helps a lot." A smile crossed his lips as he looked into Lukas' eyes.
Lukas thought for a moment. "If you want me too, I can take your focus away from… all this." He looked at Tim without any kind of emotions being displayed on his face, his mask having fallen off. His eyes flickered between Tim's eyes and his lips.
Tim noticed and answered, unsure of his assumption of the next action Lukas would make: "Sure…"
Lukas turned around, pushing Tim down onto the bed and sitting over his stomach. He looked into Tim's eyes and Tim nodded. With the nod of approval he pressed his lips against Tim's lips, his eyes closed.