Careless

18- Getting Out Of The Pit

"Are you sure you're ready for this, Sal?" Neil asked as Sal brought the last of the cardboard boxes up from the basement. Its been a few months since Larry's death and Sal claimed he was finally in a good mental state to clean up all of Larry's things.

"Yeah, I'll be fine, besides I have you guys to help me out," Sal responded, setting the boxes down on his bed with the rest of them along with a roll of tape. "So who volunteered to clean out the kitchen, the bathroom, and helping me in here?"

"I'm doing the bathroom," Ash said, Sal handing her a cardboard box in response.

"I will be cleaning the kitchen," Todd spoke, taking the cardboard box from Neil.

"And that leaves me with you," Neil said, giving Sal a sympathetic smile as the other two left to do their tasks.

Sal took a deep breath and turned towards the desk, Larry's art desk. He felt his throat tighten and blinked a few tears away. Was he as ready for this as he thought? Just looking at it all was still so painful.

"Sal? You okay?" Neil asked, placing his hand on the other boys shoulder.

No, he couldn't tell Neil that he can't do it. He can't stop now. Larry wouldn't want that.

"Yeah, I'm alright. Let's get this done and then go out and get something to eat like you promised last week," Sal responded, smiling at the boy.

Neil decided to leave Sal to the desk, deciding that he would pick up Larry's paintings and posters from the other side of the room.

Slowly but surely, fighting through the pain in his heart, Sal packed away everything from the desk. Larry's sketchbooks, pens, pencils, markers, colored pencils, clearing the drawers of every small sketch he ever made just because he was board. And the desk was almost clean until he came across one specific drawing. The one Larry made of the two of them once they became an official couple. Could he really pack this one away? No. I think I'll keep this one. He thought.

~☆~

"Did you guys just finish up?" Ash asks when she noticed Sal bringing out the last of the boxes from the room.

"Yeah, and as promised, I'll treat us all to some dinner. What do you want, Sal?" Neil asked, looking at the boy when he came back out of the basement.

"Me? What about the rest of you?" Sal asked, not wanting to make the decision without hearing his friends opinions.

"We don't mind, right guys? Go ahead, Sal," Ash said, giving a sympathetic smile towards the boy.

Sal smiled a bit at his friend's, happy that they cared for him and were trying their best to help him through this tough time. Even though he did feel bad, they were suffering too. They lost a good friend and Sal felt like he was just abusing their sympathy. Besides, he wasn't the only one who had it extremely rough, Lisa had lost her son.

Still, the looks on their faces showed that they genuinely cared, and that was reassuring enough.

"Does pizza sound good?" Sal asked.

"Sure, everyone take about five to ten minutes to get ready and meet me out in the car," Neil said, pulling his keys from his pocket and walking out the door.

Sal turned and walked into his room. Its still felt weird to call it his room, it was always his and Larry's room. Though now, every corner of the space was cleansed of most of Larry's belongings, aside from a few things Sal couldn't bare to part with. A few of Larry's shirts and jackets were still hung neatly in the closet, some pictures that Larry had made for him sat underneath Sal's mask, and Larry's bass sat in its case in the corner of the room with Sal's favorite photo of Larry hanging up next to it.

He sighed a little and got into some better clothes to go out in, though for some reason he couldn't find his jacket. All of his long sleeves were dirty, so he couldn't wear those. Finally, after fixing his hair and putting his mask on, he turned to the closet and took out Larry's red jacket, carefully sliding it over his arms and inhaling the faint scent of whiskey.

"Guess you're coming with me, Lar," Sal said to nobody in particular, though he secretly hoped that Larry's spirit followed him wherever he went.

He made his way out to the car, getting in the back seat with Ash, and her eyes immediately went to the jacket, though she dare not say a word. Sal was in a calm state, no tears as far as she could see through the eye holes of the mask.

Neil drove and they finally let Todd gain control of the AUX cord, the curly haired male immediately deciding to play a song by Lindsey Stirling. Even though he grew used to the music Larry and Sal liked to listen to, he figured that playing Sanity Falls right now would be too much for all of them. And besides, he loved the sweet sound of violin.

When they arrived, Neil payed for their pizza buffet and they each sat at the table once they filled their plates.

"How's Lisa doing?" Todd asked Sal, figuring that now would be a good time to at least ask that question. None of them have seen her in a few weeks, but Sal does check in with her every now and again.

"She's not great, but getting better. Dad's been there for her," Sal replied, taking a bite of his pizza.

"That's good, she needs the support," Neil said.

They all sat in silence for a little bit until Ash remembered what she wanted to talk to her band mates about. "Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention that we've been getting a lot of comments on our last music video asking if we are working on more music, we haven't done anything in a while."

"I think we need to tell them," Todd mentioned.

"Sal, it's your call," Ash said.

Sal sighed and leaned back in his chair, "let me talk to Lisa about it, Larry was her son, it's only fair."

Nobody mentioned anything after that, deciding to drop the subject and talk about something else, mainly on the topic of all the DM's Ash has been getting from lovestruck fans.