MFT 2/ Final Class

Logan's guilty pleasures

1 day earlier

Kendall's POV:

Pain. Nothing but pain. There were hematomas all over my body, but fortunately for me, surgery was not necessary. Logan and the emergency doctor had a good guess, but it was ultimately not the right diagnosis. A few tests at the hospital later revealed what had really happened. "Mrs. Knight I can give the all-clear. Your son can be discharged without surgery. The bruised ribs also cause the pain when breathing in and out", the doctor explained yesterday afternoon. Mum and I were visibly relieved about this positive news and I could already leave the hospital this morning. Carefully I sat down in Mum's car and hissed with pain when we finally drove off. Mum was careful not to drive fast and to choose roads that had not been badly damaged over the years. Once home, Mum helped me back out of the car and supported me all the way to the living room. "Kendall, what happened?" asked Katie as she came running down the stairs. "A fight but nothing bad happened," was my short answer. Confused, my little sister looked at me and then turned her gaze to Mum. "Means two bruised ribs, a broken nose, a broken left arm and a lot of bruises". Mum added and Katie nodded. "Sounds very painful," Katie commented, giving me a pitiful look. "You'll be fine Katie," I assured her, feeling my stabbing pain as I talked. "It would be best for Kendall right now if he went upstairs and got comfortable in his bed. You need to heal your injury, after all," Mum urged, and I propped myself upstairs to my room with the help of Mum and the stair railing. Once there, I composed a message and then sent it to Logan.

Day 12/23

Logan's POV:

"Man, do I have a bad headache," I groaned, throwing my head back on the sofa cushion. "Must be because you drank too much alcohol," I heard Presley say, shaking his head. "You should be drinking water in bulk instead of spirits," a voice I knew mentioned, setting a glass of water down on the coffee table. "I'm hearing voices that shouldn't be there," I spoke in my hungover state. "So I imagined a different greeting from you than seeing you under these circumstances," I now recognized Jake's voice. "Jake?", I asked confused, trying to look around which was not without pain. "Yes young man?" he replied, standing next to me. "What are you doing here?". "Christmas is coming and you should swallow this," he explained, holding a white pill in front of my nose. "What's this?", I asked skeptically. "Something for your headache". Uncertainly, I looked back and forth between the pill in Jake's hand and his eyes until I quickly swallowed the pill with water. "Are you able to explain to us why you drank alcohol?" asked Jake, looking at me with a tense expression. I sighed loudly, wanting to just forget about the whole situation again. "There's no reason," I replied, holding my hands over my eyes. "Does that mean there's likewise no reason why you threw your phone on the floor like a psycho yesterday?" asked Pres. Before I could answer, I heard her move away from me and head towards the bedroom. "Presley!", I shouted and I immediately felt a strong twinge in my head. At that moment, I realized that Kendall's message was still on the display because I hadn't marked it as read. "Give me my phone right now," I demanded, looking at her with an angry look. "What are you afraid of Logan? Is there something on the phone that could explain your behavior?" she asked, pressing one of the buttons on my smartphone and now I could read the message on the lock screen. I'm screwed now, I thought to myself, and slumped back on the couch.

"Why did you leave? I miss you. Mum said you had something urgent to do and that's what made you leave the hospital?", Pres read out and I looked at her in surprise. I didn't know this second message yet. "You went to the hospital?!" exclaimed Pres excitedly and Jake tried to calm her down. "Take it easy Presley. I'll sort it out," Jake mentioned and got up from his chair and came over to me. "We'll sort this out Logan," he demanded in a serious tone of voice and helped me get up from the couch. In the next few minutes we were in the bedroom and Jake locked the door behind us. Annoyed and done in from the effects of the alcohol, I sat down on my bed and tried to block out the dizziness as best I could. Jake joined me at my side and there was silence for a few seconds. "Do I have to ask you numerous questions now or do you manage to tell me on your own what happened?" he asked calmly, directing his gaze to my closet which was placed barely half a meter in front of us. "There was no incident," I mentioned, just wanting my peace. With Jake's next statement, I was surprised and didn't expect it. "All right," he agreed and nodded. Confused, I looked at him, not thinking the conversation could be over so quickly. "I realize you're not feeling well right now. Except for the residual alcohol level in your blood. Someone like you, who deals with a wide variety of problems of students as well as has a clue in psychology, should know that you should also discuss your own problems. Your psyche as well as your state of mind suffers more from eating everything inside yourself than from talking about it. But you should already know that," he explained, and Jake was clearly right. During my early days in psychology, I told him a lot about the behaviors of people under the influence of various diseases, as well as patterns where people try to suppress their current problem. He had paid close attention to everything I had told him.

"It's my fault Kendall ended up in the hospital," I blurted out as I couldn't take the pressure anymore. "What happened?" asked Jake calmly. "With a colleague and two classes, we had a field trip yesterday. Everything went without a hitch until two students came running up to me and told me that a student from 4KD was just getting beat up. With that news, I ran after the two, dragged the student who just beat up Kendall off of him, and then was able to see some of his injuries. Including blunt abdominal trauma severity unknown," I told him and had to sob again at the last sentence. Jake wrapped me in his arms and calmed me down that way after a few minutes. "Ok. Now why is it your fault Logan?". "Kendall is a bullying victim in his class. I should have watched out for him better since I knew long ago how far students could go," I mentioned and sniffled. "It's not your fault Logan. You couldn't have known that on this very field trip that this kind of altercation would happen. You can't watch Kendall every second, even as his teacher." With tears in my eyes, I looked at him and said nothing in response. "Kendall's message sounded more like he misses you. He's not mad at you for this incident," Jake tried to make me understand. "He's not but his mom is," I mentioned and directed my gaze to the carpet on the floor. Jake looked at me questioningly until I explained. "After that incident, I called 911 and accompanied Kendall to the hospital. There I called his mom, who was on duty, and told her in a nutshell what had happened. She was totally upset, threw some accusations at me that I hadn't been looking after Kendall and so on. Then she demanded that I leave the hospital immediately but I wanted to stay with Kendall. After two demands and two painful clamps, I left the hospital. You know the rest from Presley," I finished telling the story. "You drank alcohol to forget that incident for that night at least?" he asked and I nodded in response. "I see. I'll take care of it my boy," Jake said and I looked at him in wonder. "You don't think we'll still be invited to dinner tomorrow because of this incident, do you?", I asked, looking at him. "I think so and I'll work it out with Kendall's mom and everything will be fine," he replied confidently. "Curious to see if you can work it out," I said. "Of course I can. You'll see. After all, I was the one who managed to seduce your mother," he mentioned and I rolled my eyes. "Stop it. I don't want a head rush of it!", I begged, getting up from my bed and heading out of my bedroom until Jake grabbed me and wrapped me in his arms. Jake is the best stepdad anyone could have.