Mike didn't respond, he just looked down at his lap and stayed quiet.

"Huh Mike?" I said, still angry, "How do you know what my life's like? How do you know that people care about me? How do you know I have a great life? How do you know I don't want to die? You don't! You don't know that Mike!" With every question I got a little louder, until I was yelling again. He left me alone, he doesn't get to walk back into my life and pretend like nothing happened!

"I'm sorry Tony," he mumbled, "You're right, I don't know what your life is like. But I know you have people that care about you, I can see it. Jaime cares about you, and so does Vic... And so do I... Please believe me."

"Why should I?" I question, "Mike, you left me without a warning or an explanation! If you cared about me you would've at least told me why! But no, you left it up to my imagination!"

He lifted his head up and looked at me, there were tears in his eyes, threatening to spill over, "I didn't want to leave you Tone, but I had to. And I couldn't bare to tell you why, because I didn't want it to be real. You were my everything Tony, that's why I set you free."

"What?" I snapped, "Explain yourself Fuentes!"

He grimaced when I called him by his last name. A tear rolled down his face, my first instinct was to wipe it away for him. But I fought it, I have to hold my ground.

"Well," he said, sniffing, "You were so important to me, I needed you to function during those weeks after I was released. And you were there whenever I needed you, which was a lot. I used you as a crutch, you were becoming more of a caregiver than a boyfriend, which wasn't fair to you."

He paused to wipe away the few tears that had spilled, "So, I tried to rely on you less, but you didn't let me. You were always there and no matter what I said, you wouldn't leave and enjoy yourself. So, I did the only thing I could think of, I forced you to. I hated you for it too, I never wanted you out of my life. I just didn't want to hold you back..."

I didn't say anything. It took me awhile to absorb what he had told me. I couldn't stop from shedding a few tears of my own.

"Mike," I said when his words finally sunk in, "I liked taking care of you. To me it was something a good boyfriend would do, I tried to heal you, one kiss at a time. I wish you would've said something to me instead of taking it into your own hands..."

He sighed, "Would you have listened?"

"Yeah," I replied, "I was willing to do anything for you. That's why I stayed away, if I could've I would've done so much more to make you stay. But, I didn't want to make things worse for you, I wanted you to get better, even if you did it without me."

He pushed his hair out of his face and chuckled sadly, "Look at us Tone," he said, "We're what? 20? And we're filled with so many would'ves and could'ves. It's sad really, we both fell victim to the horrible mistress that is mental illness."

I nodded and sighed, letting out my own sad, demented chuckle, "We're pathetic," I agreed.

"But we don't have to be," he said, looking towards me, "We could put that past behind us. We could be friends. If you want to."

I looked at him, he was smiling at me through the sadness I knew he was feeling. Could I be friends with this boy? That had never been an option before, even before we got together, I knew that we were meant for more. But, as I looked over at him, he looked so hopeful, he looked like he needed a best friend. And I've always done what was best for him.

I smiled and patted his back, "Friends."

Notes

Well. This happened. ._.

It took the energy of 1,000 burritos to write this this way (I really did eat burritos though) I really wanted fluff. But fuck fluff, I suck at fluff and I wanted to hurt your feels. >:}