Bart's Friend Diggs

Chapter 6

I felt pretty bummed out for the rest of the week. Me and Milhouse were walking back to my house after school on Wednesday. It was the day I was going to drop into the psychiatric to visit Diggs, but a part of me didn't want to go.

I was just scared. Of what? Maybe the fear that he would be crazy. Maybe the fear that he'd be unpredictable.

I swallowed hard at just the thoughts and Milhouse butted into my thinking mind as he asked, concerned.

"Bart? Are you okay?" I looked over at him as he posed me this question, "You've been a bit quiet all week."

I sighed heavily, nodding my head in agreement.

"No... I'm not okay." I said back quietly, my eyes shiny from near tears, "I'm meant to be visiting Diggs today...but, but I'm afraid."

"I totally understand," Milhouse replied with a quick nodding of his head, "He might try and murder you or something."

"MILHOUSE?!" I shouted back shocked at his assumption, "Just because he had schizophrenia doesn't mean he's some crazed lunatic!"

"B-but-!" Milhouse continued, trying to defend himself, "In the movies they always are!"

I closed my eyes tightly, shaking my head, "When have movies ever been right about real life?"

"That's true..." Milhouse replied, nodding his head weakly and continued, "Then why do they create characters like that, Bart? Why DO they create the characters!"

"I'll tell you with one simple word," I told my ignorant friend and Milhouse lowered his thick eyebrows annoyed.

"Money."

Milhouse just rolled his eyes and replied, "I guess that is a big factor."

I nodded back and we approached my house. As I went to open the front door, Milhouse asked.

"Wanna play some video games?"

"Is the coffee black?" I replied sarcastically, getting pumped up, "Of course I wanna play some video games!"

"Cool!" Milhouse cheered.

We entered the living room and I turned on PlayStation, clicking into a first-person shooter game and choosing the option of two players.

The console was connected to the web and people from around the globe were joining in on the first match.

Millhouse and I grabbed our remotes and started jamming our fingers into buttons. We were on the same virtual team, but we weren't really strategizing properly.

"Milhouse, COVER ME!" I roared at him, and he pulled back his joystick running up behind my avatar on the screen. In a few seconds, someone let off a hand grenade and blew us both up.

Big red words rammed onto the TV screen, saying YOU LOSE

I grit my teeth hard and pressed the button GO for the next round. We played until it got dark and I could hear a knocking on the door's frame as my mum entered and asked me quietly.

"Bart, don't you have homework?"

My eyes widened at that sudden realization.

"Oh! Crap! I DO!"

I look up at the clock on the wall seeing it was nine pm.

"I've gotta get home!" Milhouse said in urgency and mum picked up her keys, directing her eyes to him and saying.

"Come on, I'll drive you."

"Thanks Mrs Simpson."

"Come along now." She said as she reached the front door and turned the handle, leading Milhouse and herself out.

I took a deep breath in with anxiety, before rushing up to my room with my heavy school bag and getting straight to work.

It took two hours and I was exhausted after it. It didn't help that I probably answered nearly every question wrong. I wasn't dumb, I just wasn't very academic. THAT DOESN'T MEAN I WAS DUMB!

I fell back on my seat after it was all done and closed my eyes, taking a deep breath out. As I rested my tired brain I saw flashes of a scene in my sleepy mind.

Of Diggs's sad forgotten face, his eyes looking back at me and him asking sadly, "Why did you not visit me?"

I jumped awake at the thought and saw I was in a quiet room. I headed downstairs and sat at the table, before spying my dinner mum had made hours ago. I got up quickly and walked over to it, placing it in the microwave and heating it for two minutes.

As I waited, I leant against the kitchen counter and could hear a girl's voice say to me, disappointed.

"You never visited Diggs today."

I blinked my eyes opened, as I had had them shut in a small nap while I waited for the microwave bell to go. The person I saw before me was Lisa.

"How did you know?" I asked her, placing my hands on my hips and she sighed, rolling her eyes exasperated.

"Because Diggs is my friend too. And friends BE there for each other."

"Don't try to give me a moral lesson, Lis, okay?" I spat back and the microwave dinged. I opened its door and took hold of the sides of the plate where the heat wasn't so intense. I pulled it out and quickly put it on the round kitchen table. I pulled out a knife and fork and dug into the mash and steak meal.

"I'm not trying to guilt you, Bart." Lisa told me with a sad shake of her head, "But if you weren't going to show, you could've at least told him."

"I WAS going to show." I said back in a half-lie, "I just got distracted with videogames..." She kept her angry gaze still on me and I asked nervously back, "How is Diggs now, anyway?"

"He's a lot better." She told me with an honest relieved smile, "He's full of energy and quite chatty. We were talking about the bird migrations and nature running her course."

"Oh... fascinating..." I mumbled not really interested.

"It was fascinating. He's so well-read." Lisa said in an almost smitten voice, "And he understands how it feels..."

"Hmm?" I murmured as I swallowed down my mash, "How what feels..?"

Lisa remained quiet for a while, looking at me distantly and uttering, "You wouldn't understand."

"Probably not," I said back, not really listening. Lisa scrunched up her lips making a discerning, hmm, and getting back to her feet as she walked away.

"Probably not..." She repeated and I glanced up at her as she left the room.

See, at least then at that moment, I knew Diggs hadn't been abandoned completely that day. Lisa had been there for him.

He wouldn't be upset at me. He had HAD a visitor, and someone was better than no one. That someone didn't HAVE to be me. Not today, I wasn't ready yet to go visit him.

In truth, I would find a million excuses. In truth... I was scared.

I remembered what Milhouse had said to me, "He might try and murder you or something."

I knew Diggs was not at all like that. It was ignorance on my part. I knew he was okay. Okay in a different way.

Different wasn't always bad. But it still didn't take away the guilt I began to feel at that moment.

"Tomorrow." I said to myself, throwing my dirty dishes into the sink, "I'll visit him tomorrow..."

"...or the next day." I added on as I went to brush my teeth.

"Or this weekend." I said as I lay on my bed and pulled the quilts over me to fall asleep, "Or the next weekend."

Or never... my brain chimed in my head and I clenched my eyes tightly, trying to ignore it.

"One day..." I mumbled nearly asleep, "One day..."