All Your Fractures

Ten.

 A long-haired little boy pointed at a cloud in the clear cerulean sky. "Ma look, a rabbit!"

It looked like anything but. She smiled, craning her neck to see. "You're right."

"It's chasing the scary wolf!"

The smile on her face was priceless. It lit up the summer and outshone the sun. Her laugh sounded like a cascading brook. "Is it?"

Where had that heaven gone? When had it been replaced by a twisted visage of irrational fear?

3:50 AM

Jesse's eyes flew open. His face was wet with tears and he quickly cleaned them hoping it wouldn't be too obvious.

The first thing he noticed was the bandages all over his body. He felt a lot cleaner than he'd been the past two days. Everything that had happened in those days was flashing behind his eyes on repeat and he wished he had been unconscious through all of it, but the caffeine that Jessika had funneled down his throat made that damn near impossible.

He shut his eyes tight hoping to go back into the dark void he woke up from and never come back. He glanced to his side where the clasp-knife was supposed to be on his side table.

He realized it wasn't there, and that came with the awareness that this wasn't his room. Or Jessika's.

He quickly clambered off the strange bed and fell with a thud on the carpeted floor, his legs entangled in the sheets. "Ow..."

As he was getting up, he stilled when three red handprints on the cream-coloured carpet caught his eyes. The stains tugged at a long buried memory of his.

"I told you not to play with the bissap!"  The woman burst through the front door.

Three mischievous laughters belonging three mischievous kids sounded in the spacious house. They escaped her by clambering up the stairs into a room and locking the door behind them.

"We're in so much trouble," Jesse panted, closing his eyes and leaning on the door.

Israel cackled, blue eyes glistening at the moist red pigment coating both his hands. "Isn't it fun?"

"'Fun' is Pokémon and buttered popcorn."  A third voice groaned and, needless to say, Jesse agreed with him 100 percent.

"Jewel gets it."

Israel pouted, "No fair, you're always choosing him over me."

"Because you're crazy, and you never watch anime with me."

Israel leaped toward him with his arms up and Jewel laughed, going to hold him from attacking Jesse. "Wait, wait, wait. I have an idea,"

"Huh?" Both said in unison.

The cheerfully grinning boy pulled them both down to kneel on the cream carpet. "Let's leave our legends behind, so when we come back from school, we'll remember the trouble we got in together!"

"That's so cheesy, I'll go first!" Israel hurried to plant his small hand unto the carpet, then he drew an 'I' below the print.

"I think the spanking will remind us enough,"

The boy grabbed his hand, putting it on the carpet for him. "But Jesse, pain won't be forever. We will though."

Jewel.

How could I ever forget?

His hands covered his mouth as fat tears rolled down his cheeks and plopped unto the carpet. A familiar feeling that contracted his throat and squeezed his chest returned. Heavy sobs came with the flow of tears, his chest quaked as he went from kneeling to lying on his side, coiling up like he did all those nights after Jewel left.

After he. . . .

The doorknob clicked, followed by soft footsteps. "Jesse?"

"Is-Israel?" He whispered, yanked into reality. He tried to get up, immediately rubbing away his tears.
You can't see me like this.

Before the traces of his sorrow were all gone, Israel slid to him on his knees and a pair of arms engulfed him in the tightest hug that only seemed to get tighter. Warmer. It was squeezing him, forcing him to out all his woes. Wrapped up in bandages and Israel's scent, everything flooded into his head again with the lucidity of a slap in the face. No longer could he hold back the water from dripping down his chin.

"Shh, shh it's okay, everything's okay. . ."

You just get better at lying.

His nails grasped the silk shirt Israel wore so tightly his knuckles paled. Israel's hands rubbed his back comfortingly, making the tears flow harder. He wailed between sobs. "It's not Is. . . y-you're crying too,"

True too, a wet trail of moisture was left on his face and the flowing drops soaked the bandage on Jesse's shoulder.

He sniffed, "Everything's okay, Jesse. . . I say it because you need to hear it."