Not So Dangerous Days

7

I watched Gerard flop onto the couch and grimace in pain. After breakfast, we had found an art shop and walked around there for a while. I had noticed that Gerard looked to be in a lot more pain than he had originally let on, so I forced him to come home and rest. I began to dig around in the kitchen, looking for something to eat. I instead found a box marked 'Meds' in Gerard's handwriting. I pulled it out of the cabinet and sat on the floor digging through it. I picked it up and brought it out to Gerard.

"Gerard, what is this?" He turned towards me and stared at the box.

"It's nothing. Where did you find that?"

"In one of the kitchen cabinets. And don't you dare do that thing where you shut down so you don't have to talk about your problems."

"I told you, it's nothing."

"There's all sorts of medication in here. Antidepressants, 'addiction recovery', anorexia medication? I didn't even know they had meds for anorexia." Gerard stood up and walked over to me, taking the box.

"I told you, it's nothing. I don't even need them anymore."

"Then why do you have them?"

"We just moved back in the other day. I forgot they were there."

"How do you forget about a box full of pills? Why did you even have half of these in the first place? What were you addicted too?" That's when I came to a realization.

"Alcohol. You were addicted to alcohol, weren't you? That's why you would never drink beer or anything."

"Yeah, and? The only thing that matters was that I was able to quit, which I did. You can relax."

"What about the antidepressants? Or the anorexia pills?"

"So I have anorexia, big deal-"

"That isn't something you should just blow off. It's anorexia, Gerard."

"I'm fine. I do not need the pills. I made it just fine without them."

"But you needed them at one point." Gerard sighed and dug around in the box, pulling out a half-empty bottle. He held it up to my face, revealing the label 'antidepressants'.

"You see this? You do the job these pills are supposed to do, but ten times better."

"But Gerard, they were given to you for- Wait, what?"

"I'm saying that you, Frank, make me happier than any pill or drug on this planet."

"You mean that?"

"Of course. Now, if it'll make you feel better, I'll get rid of the pills tomorrow. Relax." I nodded and Gerard handed me the box, walking back to his room. I went back later to check on him and found him passed out on his bed. I sat on the couch and laid out all the bottles. There were so many different kinds, some for nightmares, others for insomnia, but more for depression and whatever 'addiction recovery' meant. I refilled the box and laid back on the couch, staring up at the ceiling. Now that I knew about all this, some things about Gerard started to make sense. Like how we would always argue over how much he would eat during meals, or how he was always awake before everyone else. I drifted off to sleep, not sure what I could do to help him.