Haunted

Ten Days

Maddox woke up in his bed, an IV hooked to his hand and stitches all up his stomach. The clock on the wall told him it was around 10. He couldn't remember the last time he'd slept so long or so soundly.

Kylie was curled up next to him in the big bed, her head on one of his extra pillows. Her mascara was smeared down her face from crying and Maddox felt guilty all over again. Everything he could remember from the night before started to come back to him.

He knew he'd talked to the paramedics but he didn't remember much after that other than his mom crying as she left his room so he could talk to the psychiatrist who'd given him a sleeping pill. The doctor had been really nice which made Maddox feel bad for needing his help in the middle of the night.

"Hey, are you okay?" Kylie's voice was hoarse.

"No," Maddox sighed.

"What's wrong? What can I do?" Kylie sat up.

"Nothing, I'm just a mess," Maddox shook his head. He couldn't look at her but he heard her gasp and then heard the little sniffles that told him she was crying again. "Don't cry, Kylie, I'm not worth it."

"I love you," Kylie cried. "You're my baby brother, if anyone's worth it you are."

"Stop," Maddox protested.

"I can't stop, this is all my fault," Kylie sniffed. "I saw you, Dax, and I should have told but I couldn't figure out how because everyone's so busy all the time but I knew you were doing it and I was so scared."

"What did you see?" Maddox made himself look at her.

"I saw you do it, that day at your music video. I didn't mean to, I was just looking at your clothes and you came in and," she was gasping to breathe and couldn't finish.

"That was like a month ago," Maddox realized. Suddenly all that time Kylie had spent being so nice to him made sense. "You knew this whole time?"

"Yeah," Kylie nodded. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to know and I didn't want to tell but I wanted you to get better but I was scared what would happen to Mom if she got too upset and you know what it's like trying to talk to Dad about anything."

"Wait, where is Mom?" Maddox realized neither one of his parents was in the room.

"Downstairs," Kylie's lip started shaking again. "She's fine, the babies are fine, they just want her to stay in bed until the twins come because her blood pressure is messed up."

"No," Maddox tried to sit up because he was suddenly afraid he might throw up. The stitches pulled. "Fuck," he gasped.

"Careful!" Kylie protested. "She's okay, it's just in case."

"No, it's my fault," Maddox wanted to cry. "I'm such a fuck up, god," he shook his head and made himself sit up even though it hurt.

"Dax, no," Kylie stood up and threw her arms around him.

"Where's Dad?" Maddox asked.

"He just went down to be with Mom. They've got that fancy lady here to help decide what to tell the media," Kylie let go of Maddox and wiped her eyes. "I just saw her for a second, she came in with Tim to see you and she asked like a thousand questions but she knows everything about us."

"Wait, they're deciding right now?" Maddox's heart started pounding. What would they say? Would they just tell everyone the truth? Why hadn't anyone asked him what he wanted? He'd thought they'd all agreed he should be in control of his own image when he decided to come out but apparently no one else remembered that.