Careless

10- Larry's Dilemma

Larry's mental health was in a slow decline, so much so that even Sal was starting to notice, and it wasn't good. Larry had started to hide from everyone, and he kept going back to the treehouse even more, despite the fact he said that he never wanted to after the incident. Though that is exactly where he was, alone, in the treehouse.

He sat, slumped against the beanbag chair, Sanity's Fall being used as background noise. The thoughts wouldn't stop, and he had to keep his distance from his friends and boyfriend before they noticed that he wasn't okay.

After the incident all those years ago, Larry had been sent to therapy and put on antidepressants, though he hadn't been taking them lately. Not because he just didn't want to, but because he just couldn't will himself to. He felt as though he was bringing everyone down everytime they saw him take them. He couldn't do that to them.

He took another swig of his whiskey, feeling tears dripping down the side of his face. He hated feeling like this, hated feeling so helpless. And despite it all, he refused to tell Sal, even though he just wanted to bury his face into Sal's chest and forget the world. Sal had his own problems that he was still working through, and Larry didn't want to add more stress and problems to his boyfriends already existing problems.

Larry felt his phone buzz in his pocket, but he just took it out and threw it to the side. Whomever it was, they could call if it was important, and Larry wasn't in the best mental state to deal with people, nor could he will himself to put on another facade. He hated being fake. Though he felt as though that's who he was now, fake, someone who couldn't solve their problems if they tried and was just a burden to everyone he reached out to.

He sat in the treehouse for what seemed like forever, just staring at the wall and desperately trying to get his thoughts to stop, but when he finally snapped back into reality, he realized that his phone was ringing.

He looked at the contact, seeing that it was Ash. He wiped his eyes and put on his facade, deciding to just answer it and get it over with.

"Hello?" He said, trying to sound as cheerful as possible.

"Finally! Where the hell are you?!" She asked, sounding panicked.

"I'm umm," he contemplated on if he wanted to tell her he was at the treehouse or not, "painting in the woods. I found a really cool place for a scenery painting."

"Damnit Larry, just keep your ringer on for fucks sake."

"Yeah sure, did something happen?"

"Just...call Sal when you get a chance." And with that, she hung up.

Larry was confused, until he saw the several texts and missed calls from Sal. The boy was in a panic, not knowing where Larry ran off to and was worried that there was another incident.

Larry felt bad, throwing his phone to the side and cursing himself. Of course he worried Sal, why couldn't he have just texted the boy back? Why couldn't he have picked up the calls? Why was he too stuck in his own head to realize that his boyfriend still worries about him when he leaves the house without telling anyone where he's going?

He decided to just stay in the treehouse to finish his whiskey before walking home, there was no point in getting scolded by Todd and Neil when he was in this kind of mental state. He didn't want to snap at his friends for worrying about him.

Certainly, this was a dilemma. A terrible, terrible dilemma. What would Larry decide to do? Even he is scared of the answer.