the less I know the better

#1

It had been a year since the hell that was the last night of Hackett's Quarry summer camp, the time in between a blanked out blur of stress, grief and recovery. The first couple of months of their fantastic brand new traumatised lives were spent in custody of the police and pleading their innocence in and out of courtrooms.

Despite the media desperately trying to prove their guilt, theorising what really went down that night, they got out of every crime they had been charged with after Ryan's favourite podcast used the evidence they had all collectively sent in to prove their innocence. "The cosmic space gods" Jacob had half-heartedly joked the last time Ryan had seen him.

His phone buzzed once beside him, then a second time and a third. He picked it up, scanning the text on the screen. It was three text notifications from Dylan, all of them with an unholy amount of typos; how did someone even mess up their spelling that bad?

Dylan and Ryan had been dating for 8 months now. When Ryan had finally gotten permitted to visit him in the hospital, Dylan (who had been extremely high on every painkiller known to man) had immediately lit up when he had entered the sterile hospital room.

"Can I help you with anything?" He had asked at the time (which he realised now was an awful question to ask when your the reason the person was in hospital).
Dylan didn't think about his answer for longer then a second before saying, "You can help pick the time?"

"Pick the time? For... what exactly?"

"A date. I think I've earned at least one," he said before following it up with, "Oh, and your number too, by the way."

He put his phone back down.

He was sitting on the bathroom floor, knees pressed up against his chest, squeezed tightly by his arms wrapped around them in a desperate attempt to curl up in a small ball and forget.
He planted his head in his hands and took a deep breath. He couldn't mope and cry forever no matter how much he wanted to, he had a life to live, a family he needed to help care for.

But even though he had people who understood him, a boyfriend who went through the same trauma, and his family who were more then supportive and understanding, sitting alone on the floor just before midnight made him feel very alone.

It was this night last year everything happened, 'a needed hurdle in your journey to recovery' as his therapist had said, but he wasn't feeling like there was much recovery going on, just a lot of  emotions and breakdowns on all levels.

He removed his hands from his face and pushed himself off the floor, but as he began to move towards the door, his world became a sickening blur of colours and weird wobbling shapes. His ears wouldn't stop ringing and the light of the bathroom had suddenly become extremely intense.

He stumbled forward, his head spinning at the sudden movement. His fingers had just brushed the door handle before everything came to a crashing stop, or more realistically, he came to a crashing stop as he met the ground with a muffled thud.

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18:52 | AUGUST 22 | RYAN

Ryan was having what was probably the most peaceful sleep he has had all year long, the dulled throbbing pain in his head barely noticeable with how relaxed he was.