blood and dreams

everything's wrong

Ray glanced over at Henry nervously. He was sitting on the couch, and appeared to be zoned out. He hadn't been acting the same lately. Ray could have guessed it was because of Veronica, but it felt like it was more than that. Everything had been going wrong for Henry for a while now. The self harm in general, his friends, parents, everything. Sometimes Henry would seem okay for a little while, but it would always end with him having some sort of breakdown and ending his short burst of lightheartedness.     

Ray noticed Henry wasn't even on his phone. He was just sitting there, staring down at the table in front of him, expressionless. Was he okay? Sad? Angry? Calm? Ray couldn't tell. He didn't want to say something that wouldnt fit the situation. But Henry had been acting like this for hours. He had to do something.  

He walked up towards Henry slowly. Henry didn't look up. Ray started to speak. 

"Are you okay?" He asked Henry. Ray should've expected that this would cause a reaction, but he didn't realize. 

Henry looked up and made eye contact with Ray. His eyes got big and watery and he looked like he was just barely keeping it together when he stood up and wrapped his arms around Ray's neck, leaning on him. Ray was supporting almost all of Henry's weight as Henry let his knees give out and stayed up by using Ray as something to hold onto. He hid his face in Ray's shoulder and started to sob. His face had tears streaming down it. He wiped them onto Ray's shoulder.  

Ray just patted the back of Henry's head and said, "C'mon, let's sit down.".  They did sit down, but Henry still leaned against Ray with all his weight and pushed his face against him. Ray could feel Henry's tears on his neck. Henry sniffled between loud sobs, not moving his arms from around Ray's neck. 

"Henry," Ray said sympathetically, " Can you tell me what's wrong?" 

Henry breathed loudly and quickly, letting out a sob with each exhale. He lifted his head from Ray, and it felt really heavy. He felt tempted to drop it back down, but kept it up, and with his eyes closed, said,  

"Everything's wrong", between sobs. A tear dripped off his nose and he opened his eyes slightly. Everything was blurry and all he could make out were the colors of things, but not the shapes. He put his head back down. Ray was warm, and Henry just hugged him. 

Ray wasn't gonna try to make Henry believe his life was going great. He knew there were positives, but obviously everything wasn't fine. Henry wasn't looking for a solution. An answer to all his problems. He wasnt even really looking to feel better about the situation. Ray knew this. He just wanted to get his emotions out to someone. So Ray didn't deny it. He didn't look on the bright side. 

"I know. It's tough, isn't it?" Ray said, holding onto Henry softly. 

Henry's breath hitched, and he shed a few more tears, before nodding into Ray's embrace. 

"It's really hard." He admitted, his voice nasally from crying. His head felt heavy. His eyelids drooped, and he closed his eyes. Henry layed across Ray's chest, being held by his warm arms, and nearly fell asleep. He breathed with his mouth open because he couldn't breath out of his nose. His eyes and cheeks were red and his hair flopped almost over his eyes. A single tear managed to fall down his face before he was out completely.