Straight Boys

I'm Going Straight to Hell

". . . and here's an ice pack for the pain. Make sure you keep your head back to stop the bleeding."

"Thanks, Miss. I'll help him, now."

"Alright. Make sure your boyfriend keeps his head back. It's nothing serious, so don't worry about the charge or anything. He's in your hands then, take care kids!"

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched and only halfheartedly listened to the exchange between Taylor and some nurse that had been passing by when I had started to bleed. I barely noticed Taylor gently grasping my chin to tilt my head back further and setting her small hand over my own hand that was holding the large cotton pad up to my nose. I was too occupied by the three people standing over me to pay any mind, mainly the older man.

"You two know each other?" Annie was the first to ask, but Owen didn't answer her. He kept quiet, his eyes wide, brows furrowed, shoulders tensed up like he was staring at some freakish monster in a nightmare.

How ironic.

"Mr. Bright?" Next was Corbett. He still looked like he had been through a war, but his curiosity was overpowering him. He wanted to know why and how his therapist knew his arch-nemesis.

I just wanted to know how Owen Bright even became some type of authoritative figure in the psych-world, and in the exact town my dad moved us to, to be as far away from our past as possible no less.

How had I not run into him all this time?

Or did he just move here?

I carefully kept watch of the man as he cleared his throat and turned to look at his two patients. Is he even old enough to be considered qualified as a therapist or a doctor of some sorts?

Is he going to school to become a therapist?

"Uh- well Uh- sor-sort of? A little? We met in... Michigan." I felt my eyes roll to the back of my head before I could stop them. I could feel my ears burning red - from the anger of seeing him or from the fear of our memories, I didnt know which - as I brushed Taylor off and came to a stand, my eyes never leaving Owen's frame.

"Yeah... Mr. Bright and I go way back," The words were coming out of my mouth before I could do anything to shut myself up.

He swiveled his head around to give me a kind of warning look, a look I had seen a lot way back when. I always used to follow that look, but as I took in the new Owen, I wasn't so sure I wanted to follow his orders anymore. He was the reason I never really followed orders anymore in the first place.

With one of my hands still pressing against my nose, I used my other hand to push my hair out of my eyes so that I could get a better look at the guy that ruined my life. I felt myself glaring at him, and I couldn't stop, and everyone was starting to notice.

"Zach? Are you alright? You seem. . .," I clenched my jaw at Taylor's worried voice.

"How do you know Mr. Bright?" I glanced at Mandy, her innocently wrapped question just making me angrier, before I looked back at Owen. I studied his every move, his every twitch and glance; from the way he sort of straightened his back, looked between Mandy, Corbett, and back to Mandy, then at me, and shoved his hands in his back pockets, to the small whispers he was saying to Annie about something.

And before Owen even looked like he was about to answer Mandy's little question, Annie was grabbing Corbett, Andrew's clipboard still in her hands ready to be filled out, and pulled him back to their chairs. What did he say to her?

"Who is this guy, Zachary?" Taylor's voice popped up again, and I quickly looked at her to try and ease her weariness without giving too much away; but when I turned towards her, the look she was giving me told me everything she was feeling.