My Attempted Suicide (boyxboy)

I Can't Go Home

The mind of the subject will
desperately struggle to create
memories where none exist...

-Barriers to Trans-Dimensional Travel,
R. Lutece 1889

Opium's POV

Six days later...

I went and visited Kyle every day from the time I got of off school until late in the evening when I had to be home so my siblings wouldn't worry. After the movie night everything went pretty good between the two of us. We talked or sometimes just sat there in silence listening to music or watching a show but at least he'd gotten more and more comfortable around me. Kyle made small jokes and he smiled more often. He seemed to be so cheered up and happy by the fact that I came visiting everyday that he always greeted me with a blinding smile. Most of the times I told him about my day and he told me how boring his was and then we just did some random things that you could do in the range of the rather small hospital room.

The only thing that might cause a problem in the future was that we still hadn't continued to talk about his suicide attempt. He avoided the topic like a professional and that was okay at the beginning but I couldn't help but think that through suppressing what happened he could harm himself even more or shut down from the world.

That was basically the thing I was most worried about. Until now. Kyle was going to be released today which all in all is a good thing but we still hadn't come into contact with his parents and Kyle was about as good at avoiding this topic as he was at avoiding talking about the reason why he was in the hospital in the first place. The hospital had tried calling them and when they couldn't reach Kyle's parents they had called the police to help them and yesterday a police officer named Gutierrez finally called back. He told the nurse that apparently Kyle's parents weren't his biological parents but had adopted him some time ago and that they were on a bible mission in some African country for the next two months; leaving Kyle to take care by himself. Now that was a true problem. And one of us had to tell Kyle what's going on and we had no definite idea how he'd react.

In the end me and Xavier decided to tell him together so by the time I got to the hospital Xavier was waiting for me at the nurse station of Kyle's floor. I had brought some home made pancakes for Kyle and we went into his room, gave him the food and then settled down and had some everyday small talk; about his physical condition, my school day and what new gossip Xavier had heard from other nurses.

Just as Kyle was about to finish his pancakes after keeping on saying how good they were Xavier finally brought the theme in question up by hesitantly asking: "Have you heard anything from your parents?"

The smile slipped off Kyle's face fast than I thought possible and I could hear the fork -with which he was eating the pancakes- hit the tablet with small reoccurring sounds indicating that his hands were shaking.

He still forced out a short "No, why?" before obstinately looking down at his last half of the food and slowly continuing with eating it.

"You see the thing is we talked to an officer because -as you know- you'll be able to get released today and he informed us that your parents are on some kind of religious mission in Africa", I continued with what Xavier had begun with.

That caught Kyle's attention. You could see his head peak up a bit and that he took a deep breath but I wasn't quite sure whether he was shocked or relived. I mean they were his parents after all; even though they had only adopted him.

"I can't go home?"

"No. You can't. I'm sorry Kyle."

Strangely enough he stated chuckling until he stated to break out into full out laughter.