Blood and Magic

Chapter 18 - Depression 100, Me 0 (Ryker)

For My Help - Hayden Calnin

I was putting my paintbrushes away when I got a text.

I'm out front we should talk. - Ethan

I hadn't seen him since last week when everything happened. We'd checked in to make sure we were both ok, but we never deemed it important enough to go see each other, I was okay with that.

I put a sheet over my painting and slung my bag over my back.

Ethan was waiting for me his skateboard in his hand.

"Hey," He greeted.

"Hey," I returned.

"You doing good?"

I nodded.

"So what's up?" I asked.

"I didn't know if you heard, but the guy who put on the show last week is dead, the guy fighter is in the hospital, coma. No one has heard anything about the girl,"

"Yeah I heard, my mom is his nurse," I commented. I shifted my weight between my feet.

"I also wanted to tell you that I don't think we should hang out anymore," Ethan stuttered out quickly and looked down and took a small step back.

My face screwed up and I also took a step back out of confusion.

While Ethan was my closest friend, that didn't mean he knew me all that personally. He was a good friend to take my mind of things, to go do stupid teenager stuff with. But we never talked about the skeletons in our closest, he had other friends for that.

"Oh, ok," I whispered and hiked my slipping backpack back up onto my shoulder. I didn't need to ask why what would it change? He didn't want to hang out anymore, message received.

"I- I not sure why really, I just-" He gave me a confused look and tried to straighten out his jumbled words. " I just know that I can't hang out with you anymore, it's not safe," His eyes almost seemed to glaze over and then he just turned around and started to walk away. I would probably never see him again.

When I got home, the house was quiet. Mom's shift didn't end until late tonight. A post-it note on the fridge told me that there was a single-serve microwave dinner in the fridge for me, but I wasn't hungry.

I felt like I was starting to slip again. I should have expected it, I'd been normal for too long now, I was due for a crash.

Thunder rolled above, and a flash of lighting followed. A storm was rolling in, I frowned, seemed even the weather was starting to hit the bottom of their sunshine supply. Not that I'd ever felt happiness that could be described as sunshine, but a at least a normal contentment with life.

But as I watched the dark clouds roll in I could feel my body start to slump, my body almost seemed too heavy to carry even though I was basically a stick.

I padded over to the window and rested my head against it. Rain started to pour down and I wished I could be a drop of rain too. To just fall and fall and fall to feel the rush of life and then just splat onto the ground below.

The shrill of the home phone cut through my dark wishes, I gave a sad glance to the window then went over to grab the phone, to see what the rude intruder wanted.

I pressed the green answer button and held it up to my ear, waiting for whoever was on the other line to speak.

"Hello? Ryker?" Peyton's voice cut through, I gave a silent regret giving her my home number.

"Yeah?" I murmured.

"Hey it's Peyton, you know that already..." she whispered to herself. "I um was wondering if we could uh meet up? There's a storm coming in and my parents are dealing with my little brother and umm, I just don't want to be alone," She stuttered out, I could almost hear the plea in her voice.