Fix You ~Completed~

Act Fifty-Two

Kyla's mom and dad refused to come down to retrieve their son after the postmortem. The results had said that he died simply of an overdose and little was done about the investigation afterwards. Nobody tried to say I purposely ended my roommate's life. (For some reason, when the detectives had asked about my relationship with Kyla, I hadn't been able to admit what we were. I told them he was just my roommate.) It was determined Kyla just screwed up. That was all.

"Just have him cremated and send him to us," Mrs. Bayard instructed over the phone when I called two days following his death. Neither of my deceased love's parents seemed bothered by the amount of time I waited before calling. The hospital had already informed them, but I felt the need to speak to them anyways. Even if they both hated me, it was a formality.

"Um, Kyla asked if he could have his ashes scattered in the parking lot of his favorite bar," I explained. The conversation had come up more than once; Kyla loved joking about death almost as much as he loved joking about how pathetic I was. Whenever I'd get on him about drunk driving or smoking, he'd start going off about how we're all born to die and how, when he dies, I better scatter his ashes out in front of the Paragon Bar. It was his favorite place to be on the weekends with his other friends, the ones I wasn't allowed to interact with. I'd never even been inside the place, but he loved it there.

In the background, Mr. Bayard snorted, "That's my boy!"

His wife groaned. "Whatever. If he was dumb enough to OD, he can be scattered wherever the hell he wants. We aren't paying for the cremation, I hope you know," she laid out for me, her voice as gruff and careless as it had always been.

In case anyone is wondering, the last name Bayard means reckless. The irony in that was not lost on me.

I was sitting in Ale and Ed's living room, Eddie beside me on the couch with his hand on my knee. Gale was a few feet away, pretending to examine a recipe for chocolate chip cookies when, in reality, he was just listening in.

"It's fine. I can pay for it," I let the detached woman know, chewing on the dead skin that lined my bottom lip. Some lip-balm would really help. Since Kyla's abandonment, my awful habit of biting my lips had returned with a vengeance. At least I wasn't cutting. "Are you sure you don't wanna come down for the scattering, though?"

"Our son fucking hated us, Clem, and you know that," Kyla's mom hissed. To her husband, she puffed, "Kyla was right. The kid really is an idiot."

I broke: "An idiot that he fucking dated for three years! Your son was gay! Jesus Christ, you two are so dense you never even realized the fact that he was dating me! We made out so many times in your basement, right under your noses, and he fucked-"

"Clem!" Eddie practically squeaked, yanking the phone from me. He held the device up to his ear, eyes the size of proper tea saucers. "I-I'm so sorry. Clem isn't handling Kyla's death well."

"Give me my phone back, Eddie! I want to tell them everything! I want them to know that their son was an abusive asshole who-"

He held up two fingers, halting me.

I sounded insane. I felt insane.

Quickly, I retreated. I got off the couch and rushed into the kitchen, offering to help Gale so that my mind would just stop.

Kyla wasn't gay, he didn't love me, he didn't want a future with me but he settled for it because he loved my need. He enjoyed the fact that I worshiped him and would do anything for him. With me, he could get away with anything. Hell, if he killed someone, I would have probably helped him hide the body and he knew that.

"Um, I'm Clem's friend, Eddie. I really am sorry for your loss. Clem... Well, yeah. They'd been dating since junior year... No, Clem wasn't lying about that. I saw them together... The whole situation was very complicated... You know what, your son was an abusive asshole. Clem has the marks to prove it. Do you want to know what your piece of garbage son did to him?" Eddie called, following me down the same rabbit hole. Gale looked ready to jump Eddie and wrestle the phone away, but he remained calm while Eddie hissed about the awful things Kyla had inflicted upon me. I had to listen to my closest friend explain what my boyfriend had put me through and it hurt. It hurt even worse to hear it come from Eddie.