It's Complicated

Breaking Point

JACE’S POV

 After what Rose said those horrible things about Sky, I just can’t tolerate to see her so I hurriedly left. Gods, I never thought someone would be like that to another person. I better talk to her before she does that meltdown again. Sigh, first Sky and now Rose? We’ve been good friends for crying out loud! We turned the Biology lab into a frog sanctuary in sixth grade, we bullied the bully in seventh grade, we destroyed the jungle gym in eighth grade (how, I have no fucking idea), we flooded the whole second floor school last year and now we’re ruining each other apart? Ugh, girls and their petty fights. To be honest, I think that me and Jake are the only level headed ones here sometimes (yeah, John has a big goofy side).

Speaking of Jake, I think he’s looking a little depressed, and I still have this gut feeling he’ll do something really stupid. Gods, what did we do to get this? But I have to prioritize, I have to get Sky on Rose’s good side then tackle Jake and his upcoming depression before he that something stupid. Wait, my extra-curricular exams are coming up and so is my annual check-up. Oh Gods, help me.

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 JAKE’S POV

 It’s been two months since Sky last talked to us, since Rose showed her ugly side and two months since I have started seeing things. I think my hallucinations are coming back. But that’s impossible, all of the LSD (that I accidentally took) has successfully left my body now, and that was 5 years ago. I have to tell my parents but the problem is when I tell them, they’ll send me back to the hospital and I’ll have to stay there for months or even worse, Camp Chimney where ALL the “special kids” in the country are rounded up and either given an intense therapy within a three year time period or shunned up in a room for the rest of their lives. I went there once to visit my pen pal Samuel Young ‘cause he developed an extra-severe case of Schizophrenia and the oldest “camper” they had was a sixty-eight year old guy who has green hair with pink highlights and wears a dog chain that he insisted then was a necklace. Gods, I can’t get the picture of my mind until now.

I also noticed that my journal keeps disappearing at times, I just blame it to the hallucinations but I have a gut thingy that someone’s behind this, I just can’t place my finger on whom. I really need to talk to someone now, its two fucking months! I feel that they are ignoring me, Sky is obvious and so is Rose but Jace and John? It’s just hard to believe that they have a lot to do during this time, I believe them but it’s just… Agh! So one night I just snapped, I grabbed all of the medicine that I can get my hands on (thank you fate that my dad is a doctor) mashed and mixed it into one big slush, drank it and finished it with one of my mom’s stock of fire whiskey. I grabbed my hidden stock of blades and started maiming my wrist senseless until all I could make out of it that they were once part of me was a tiny patch of skin so pale against the spreading blossom of blood. I finally feel the effect of the mish-mash of medicine that I concocted, it feels so good and the pain so welcoming, I laughed maniacally at one point until the memories started flooding in, the painful ones. The time I killed my own cat with my own hands. The time I nearly got hit by a truck in San Fierro. The time I saw Samuel attached to all those electrodes on his head and watched helplessly as he got killed. The time I wrestled my doctor to a bloody pulp in one of my sessions. It just keep coming in waves, each more vivid and intense than the last one, I screamed but no amount of my voice can stop it. I can’t take it anymore. I used my ID cord, made a knot so when I hang it locks into place, (with the last of my strength) attached it to the hook where my mosquito net should be hanging, stood on a stool and looped my neck in the cord. “One, last push.” I said and pushed the stool that’s supporting me. I blacked out the instant the door bursted open, revealing my mom and dad.

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 JACE’S POV

 It’s been a while since I have seen Jake, it’s fine the first few days because of my schedule and with Anna and Sky’s talks but one week not seeing him? Not good, so I paid a visit to our Homeroom teacher and he just me a grim and sad smile. My insides tumble down, I’m too late.

I rushed to his house as soon as the bell rang. I took our shortcut that should be used only when we’re late or for emergencies (why? You want rabies? Be my guest then…) and I guess this is an emergency. I knocked on their door without checking if my hair is even presentable, and if you’re asking why I failed to notice  that he isn’t entering school, I’m not blaming others but my schedule forces me to go to school one hour earlier. I took note of their house while waiting and I’m already sensing something horrible, his room’s curtains are drawn shut and his plant Craig (don’t ask me why he name his Yellow Bells) looks unattended. After staring at the plant, the door opened and out comes Mrs. Michaels, looking surprised when she saw me. “Oh Jace. What are you doing  here?” she asked.

“I came to visit Jake, is he around? Apparently, Chess Club trainings and we-time don’t mix together.” I replied, she smiled at that and let me enter. As I sat down, Mrs. Michaels said one of the most unexpected things in my life. “Jace, promise me you won’t say to anyone where Jake is?”

I’m speechless at that comment but I managed to nod. “Ok. Jake is in the hospital. He tried to hang himself but we stopped him. Do you really want to see him?” She said and I nodded again. “Ok, get… Fixed? And be back in five minutes.” And she went upstairs. I dashed to our house, changed, grabbed my notebook and sharpener, patting my pockets for my trusty pencil, told my folks where I’m going (they’re used to me going to weird places) and got back to Jake’s house to see Mrs. Michaels locking the door. 

As I walked along with Mrs. Michaels with the endless row of white doors and windows of level sixteen. I can’t help but imagine what Jake would look like but my answers are quickly answered as we entered the ICU viewing room and I nearly fainted at the sight in front of me. Jake’s lying in a bed, a catheter in his mouth, a bag of blood connected to his left forearm and further up is where his IV lines are hooked up, I can’t help but look down and I wish I haven’t because his wrists are just… just… just like pieces of shredded meat. I heard his dad say to his mom “The drug concoction he made is still in him and still in effect, worsened with the alcohol we found in his system. He cut both his veins so he still needs blood but at least we’re able to repair it. If we haven’t heard the laughter and screams he would have… have…n-never made it.” And they both cried silently, I looked away to face the glass that separates me and him and I saw a shocked blonde boy with a pale, tear-streaked face and puffy red eyes. At the moment that I’m gonna wipe my tears, Mr. Michaels approached me and said “Get your three other friends here. They need to know too.”