The Dying Generation

Chapter Seventeen

"Alton..?" My voice shook, surprised to see him here and talking to me after ignoring me for a little while.

"Yeah." He whispered, lowering himself more so the table came up to his chin.

"What are you doing here? Aren't you suppose to be home with Cedric? And ignoring me.." I mumbled the last part, lowering my head for my chin to rest on my knees.

"I'm helping you, Stupid."
He said, even though I could tell he didn't mean the name by heart.

"Why do you suddenly want to help me? Or a better question, why did you ignore me?" I turned to face him.

He stared, not saying a word.

"Alton."

He brought his hands up to me, about to try to pull me out.
"Let's just get-"

"Alton!" I snapped, grabbing onto his thumb, making him stop.
He froze.

"Tell me. Why? I have a right to know." I became serious, staring him down straight in the eyes.

He kept his eyes locked onto me, I could tell he was having a little debate going on in his head.
After a little bit of silence, I thought he wasn't going to say anything and ignore my pleads. But he surprised me.

"I was trying to prove to my Dad that I'm not weak." He grumbled under his breath, sounding almost embarrassed.

"What do you mean?" I pushed for him to go on.

He kept tearing his eyes away from me, refusing to look me in the face.
"He had a talk with me about you and the future, saying to not get too attached. In case something happened.."
He looked down to the ground.

I stared, having a hard time finding the words or what may be the best thing to say.
"A-and your response was to push me away?"

"I was trying to not care about you and show him that I haven't changed!" He became frustrated.
His fingers twitched around me, almost curling around me.
I tried not to let it bother me, no matter how frustrated or mad he got. I took a deep breath, trying to steady my nervous breathing.

He put his forehead down onto the table, so all I could see was his brown hair that blocked out his face.
"I'm so weak, I'm weak, I'm weak.."
He mumbled, having some of his voice cut off by the table. He lightly banged his head against the table. Feeling the thud of his head vibrate through the ground.

I kept my hands to myself, amazed that he was finally opening up to me. His fingers loosened from me, giving me a little more room to breathe.
I looked down, like the floor beneath me had all the answers for what to do in this situation.

My eyes went back up to look at Alton. I reached my shaky hand out, setting it back onto his thumb.
"You're not weak, Alton. Caring about someone doesn't make you weak. It shows you have a heart, it shows you are alive."

He rolled his head to the side, slowly. His brown hair sliding a little out of his face for me to see his brown eyes.
He sat back up, slowly withdrawing his hand.
"Clay, you don't understand."

I grunted, pushing myself back onto my feet and leaving my blanket behind.
"Then help me understand!"

"I'm not suppose to care, I'm not suppose to have a heart-"

"Alton, don't match your friends! They have no future, unless you want to count a future behind bars. There's still hope for you. You care about me, don't you? You care about your Dad?  You can say how much you don't care all you want, there is something you care about. No one, is truly careless."

Alton stood there, with his back to me. He didn't move or really do anything. He just sat there.

"Please, don't try to be like them. You can still act like you don't care sometimes. If that makes you feel better. Just if you come to the realization that you do care about something or someone, don't push them away and don't you dare start thinking of yourself as weak."

There was a small moment of silence, then Alton sighed. He turned back around to face me, waking back over to me. I took a step or two back.

"Fine," He set his left hand down onto the table and leaned over the table. He brought his right hand over and into the box, holding his hand out in front of me.
"Are we good now?"

I looked at his hand them up to his eyes.
A smile forced its way onto my face, I quickly nodded my head and climbed into his hand that he had offered me. Stumbling a little bit since I still did not have my glasses, I was a bit more clumsy.

He pulled me out of my area, looking around the room.
"But I found something I think you should see, this being our only chance to see it. But we need to find your glasses first. Any ideas?" He scanned the room, thinking of an area where they would be.

"I think the examining room? Since that's where they took them away from me."
I suggested.

Alton took my suggestion and went into the other room where I have been tortured before.
He brought me up to his shoulder, letting me climb off his hand so he could look around with the both of his hands.
I sat up on his shoulder, I gripped his jacket with my right hand and his ear with the other to keep me steady. 

He quickly began searching through the drawers and cabinets, trying to find my glasses.  
"Where the hell would they put them?" Alton grumbled under his breath.
"Do you think they could have actually gotten rid of them?" Alton's eyes glanced over to me.

"It's a possibility, but I honestly don't think they would have done that." I scanned the room the best I could, but I would be no help. I can see things at certain distances but anything far away, was nothing but a blur to me.

Alton yanked open another drawer and sighed.
"Finally." He pulled something out that was pretty much engulfed by his hand. Alton shut the drawer and wondered back into the main room where there was a computer sitting up on a desk.
It was honestly a little scary sitting on his shoulder. The height I was at made me a little dizzy, and I felt like I could topple over any second on either side.

He brought his right hand up, grabbing me in a fist and bringing me back down to the desk top. His warm hand pulled away from me as he took a set at the computer.
"Here." He held his huge hand out in front of me, palm up. At the tips of his fingers, my black, rectangular glasses sat. I greedily picked them up, placing them back over my eyes for my vision to finally clear up.

The bright light of the monitor came to life, about blinding me at first, I tried my best for my eyes to quickly adjust to the lighting even though if I looked directly at it, it felt like my eyes were on fire.

Alton clicked around on the computer until he pulled up a very specific type of files. He punched in some information into a search bar, having a few results pop up. He scrolled through them until finally clicking on a certain one.
"This is going to be the only chance we have to look at this.."

"What is it?" I asked him, taking a few steps closer, trying to read the computer screen.

"The exact thing that is going to tell us who you are, your records."