I Want To Stop Hurting

Entry 2: You Can Be Our Wreck

Pete's POV.

"Did Patrick text you back yet?" Joe and Andy asked in unison, extremely impatient.

"No! No, he hasn't texted back yet! It's only been ten minutes! He said to wait at least twenty, okay? For the fiftieth goddamn time, guys, Patrick said to wait twenty minutes," I answered, edge and worry apparent in my voice.

Patrick, Joe, Andy and I were closer than brothers, if that was near possible. And even with being only in highschool with the three loving idiots, I knew what Patrick was going through. I'd been there myself. Not like the concept of suicide is anything relatively new to me... But Patrick, of all people ever, shouldn't be forced into so much agony. No one would suspect him to be in so much pain. But when I saw him running home from school today crying, everything was as clear as 1080p HD. Maybe not to everyone else, but I understood immediately.

"Who do you think he called?" Andy asked with immense concern.

I let out a sigh, completely aware. "Someone who can stop him..."

"Stop him from what? What could Patrick be doing that needs to be stopped?"

"Ending up like I wished to be a while back..."

"Y-you're joking, right? Patrick wants to kill himself!? That's impossible! Why in the hell would he want to do that!?" Joe snapped. "He's thinking of death and you trust he's going to text you beforehand!? That whoever he's calling is going to fix him and make it all better!? Why the fuck are we sitting here when he could be dead!?"

"Are you saying that you don't trust our best friend!? The only kid who's never once betrayed us or lied or anything of the sort!? Patrick is more trustworthy than all three of us combined! What makes you think he'd lie to us now!? if he was going to kill himself, I'm sure the last forsaken thing he'd do is go out being a liar! He's going to text back! Shut the fuck up and give him a chance! We only have to wait a few more minutes until we can go over there, so chill out, Joseph! For God sakes, don't be stupid about this! He's calling someone who is an expert at making people rethink those kinds of actions!"

"Do you mean, like, a suicide number..?" Andy questioned hesitantly. I nodded. "Are you sure..? I'm not saying that I don't believe you, but what if it doesn't work..? When he said 'if you don't hear back from me in twenty minutes', what if he meant that from the time he sent it, if he doesn't get back to us, then come over to find him, ya know..."

"I trust it, because I've been there too. Just give him a minute. He'll text back." And as if on queue, my phone went off. A text, from Patrick.

Text from: Patrick

12:32am

You can hobble on over with Thing 1 and Thing 2 if you ever so desire. I'm in my room.

Andy snatched my phone out of my hands, reading the text aloud. Joe sighed in relief. This meant Patrick was okay, well, if you consider 'not dead' as 'okay'. I grabbed my phone back from Andy and put it in my pocket, grabbing my keys from the coffee table and running out the door to my car, Joe and Andy following close behind. Wasting no time, we got in and sped off to Patrick's house. I hoped Patrick stayed okay until we got there...

"Do you think it's as bad as we think it is?" Andy asked in a small voice once we were pulling onto Patrick's street.

"For Patrick, I don't really know. But we can't afford to overwhelm him and freak him out," I responded. "Joe, that means no yelling. That rule applies for all of us. No yelling, no patronizing, no attitudes and no judgment. 'Trick is in a really bad spot right now, we need to be there for him, be comforting and understanding. Deal?" The both of them nodded as we pulled into the driveway.