Cheer Up

 It was a cool evening in May as the sun begins to set on the bright green trees starting to turn them into deeper shades. The smell of saltwater drifts through the air like a ghost, unseen but still visible. Markus took several deep breaths of that New Hampshire air " It's really nice out." he said as he gave a sigh. It was a beautiful day, but Sammie wasn't out there to enjoy it with him.

For the past couple of weeks Sammie was keeping himself captive in his room only coming out once and a while for food or something to drink. He had been trying to cope with depression writing in his journal, which was once filled with words of nostalgia. Now the words mutated into stories of melancholy and self-hatred. His mind tearing away at him with its long serrated claws, each tear feeling like salt being poured into an open wound. It was these emotions that made the month of May feel like the January.

Markus knocked several times on the old white door, "Hey Sam you in there?" He opened the door to the abyss the smell of cedar-wood hung heavy. Natural light blocked out by a blanket covering the window. Sammie sat at his desk scratching words viciously down into the notebook with a mechanical pencil. "Hey, you all right?"

Immediately he was given a glare, a glare that just said, "Do I look alright?" Sammie's face was pale, bags hung heavily, and eyes bloodshot like a stoner. Markus walked over and put his hand on Sammie's shoulder.

"Why don't you come outside? It's really nice out." He said nothing but resumed to scratch words on the paper of the notebook. "You know there won't be anything left of that notebook if you write any harder."

"What do you want?" Sammie scoffed

"What I want is for you to come outside. You staying in a dark room isn't going to help you it's just going to make it worse maybe if you just get out for a little bit you'll feel better."

"You don't get it, it's more than just cabin fever Mark!"

"Then tell me! I can't help you if you don't tell me!" He knelt down and put both of his hand on Sammie's shoulders pleading to tell him what's wrong.

"Why is it that I can watch my closet friends overdose on painkillers. And not care but, when it comes to someone I barely ever talk to it just eats away at me like acid. And I feel like I was the cause of the problem." Sammie finally gave in as his eyes began to water. Thinking about it only worsened how he felt.

"It wasn't your fault things like that just happen that's how the world works and we can't change that even if we wanted to."

"But I treated her poorly. I've yelled at her. And I ignored her. When she desperately needed someone. There for her. Sometimes. I feel like I should deserve. The death penalty for. How I treated her." Sammie sniffled the words out.

"Don't talk like that Sam you and I both know you don't deserve to die plus, if you were gone what would I be without you?"

"Happier."

" No, you know how much you've been an improvement on my life. You give my a reason to keep myself motivated every day." Markus began to tear up as well. He genuinely meant what he said and he really did care for Sammie even if he was a hassle, but who isn't?

Sammie whipped Markus's tears with the sleeve of his sweater and gave a slight smirk "Woodland guys don't cry."

"Well this one does." he said softly, smiling and pulling Sammie into an embrace causing them both to collapse onto the floor.

When next day rolls around, Markus heads down the hall to check up on Sammie. It was ten in the morning and he was still in his room, which worried Markus. "Maybe his depression relapsed?" Expecting the worst when he opened the door to see Sammie still peacefully asleep in bed. He sighed with relief but, it was short lived when Markus noticed the bottle of Lunesta sleeping pills on his night stand.

"What's that?"