Over the next day things had gotten worse at home, but school had become a getaway. He enjoyed Langa's presence. He enjoyed teaching him how to skate, he was a quick learner.
When Reki was with Langa he felt whole. He felt complete. He felt happy.
When Reki was with Langa his smiles were genuine. When Reki was with Langa he felt the same butterflies he felt with the brown haired boy.
As of lately, everything seemed to remind him of the brown haired boy. But he didn't mind, he was passed it. Sometimes on the bad days, it was bad, but usually he reminisced on the good memories instead of letting the bad ones overwhelm him.
Some days the thought of his death hit him like a shockwave and he felt numb. All his feelings were still there, but they were covered in what can only be explained as a thin, goopy layer of emotional whiteout. All his colorful feelings had been muted into boring grey tones.
But being with Langa helped.
Being with Langa made him happy on the bad days.
Things were going good for Langa. His mom seemed to be satisfied that he was happy, and school had become a way for him to see Reki. He could be himself around Reki. He had opened up to Reki.
When Langa was with Reki he could be himself. He could laugh out loud. He could smile genuinely.
When Langa was with Reki life felt real. His feelings felt real. Life was colorful with Reki there. Butterflies sparked in his stomach when the red haired boy was around.
He was weary that he may have found himself a small crush, but he didn't mind. He thought Reki was perfect. He didn't mind staying friends as long as he could keep skating with him. As long as they could keep studying together. As long as they could keep being group project partners.
There were days when Reki would walk into school in a concerning state, and today was one of those days.
He walked in with a partially healed black eye, a still swollen nose, a busted lip, and a limp. Langa was clueless to what was happening, especially later during their lunch break, when Reki collapsed into his arms.
He woke up about a minute later, Langa and a teacher or two hovering over him. He hadn't eaten or drank anything since the schoolday before, when Langa gave him cheezits. He hadn't slept in 48 hours.
He tried to sit up but was hit with a wave of dizziness. The teachers helped him up into a chair and brought him a bottle of water as well as a snack.
"You gotta make sure you stay hydrated kid." The teacher said. Reki nodded. Langa couldn't help but notice how upset he had been today, he didn't understand. He had been so happy last night.
So what happened?
The two teachers talked to eachother with the occasional concerned look at Reki. Reki sat there taking small sips of water.
One of the teachers walked back over, "why don't you go to the nurse's office and can home?" Reki looked up and shook his head, "no no I'm okay. I can stay here. My parents are at work and I wouldn't want to bother them."
Reki was thinking hard. He didn't want to go home. He could call Oka, but he skipped work yesterday so he wouldn't have to talk to him about the situation.
Langa piped in, "Reki I think it's a good idea for you to go home. You don't look too good. Go home and eat something. You gotta take care of yourself man."
Reki looked at him, tears welling up in his eyes. Langa looked back at him and his heart skipped a beat. He felt like he had done something wrong.
Unknowingly, he had.
The teacher got up and took Reki to the nurse's office, where he supposedly called his mom to pick him up and went home.
As Reki walked down the hallways he felt increasingly ill. He couldn't call his parents. He knew his mom wouldn't pick up, and then they would make him call his dad.
So instead he called Oka. He would rather face a hard conversation than his parents.
"Who is this-?" Oka answered the phone
"Hi Dad." Reki said awkwardly.
"Reki? What? What's going on? Why did you call me dad-"
"I'm not feeling well. Can you pick me up from school please."
"The shop is literally open right now and I'm the only one on staff, I can't just leave."
"I know you're busy at work. I'm sorry. I passed out and I just. I need to come home."
Oka could hear the longing in his voice, he could tell something was wrong. So he did it, he closed the shop and went to pick Reki up.
"Okay. I'm on my way. Hang in there kiddo."
"Thanks. See you soon." Reki hung up the school phone with a shaky hand.
His teacher patted his back and he flinched.
Reki sat down in a chair in the nurses office, still taking little sips of water.
Eventually Oka pulled up to the school and Reki climbed in his car. "Reki? What is going on?"
Reki nervously looked at his hands, fidgeting nervously.
"Are you okay?" Oka asked quietly. Reki shook his head, tears starting to stream down his face, "No. I'm not Oka I can't do this anymore."
Oka rubbed his back, "okay. It's okay not to be okay what is going on." Reki shook his head, "my parents are fighting so much and I can't sleep and I never want to go home. My mom barely ever makes dinner or even gets groceries and my sister's aren't getting enough to eat because I can't cook very well and I can't pay for a meal everyday. My dad- he's so mean. He's so mean Oka." Reki was sobbing.
"I want everything to go back to the way it was years ago. I wanna go home but home doesn't exist anymore."
Oka just nodded, "hey. We are gonna figure everything out okay? I just need you to answer my questions." Reki nodded in response.
"Do your parents hurt you? Is that why you have a black eye and a... A broken..? An injured nose. Is that why you are all beat up, all this can't be from skating." Oka asked.
Reki just nodded, "You can't tell anyone. I don't want my sister's to get separated from me if they take us away." Oka looked at him for a minute, "does he hurt your sisters too?"
Reki shook his head, "nah they all hide when mom and dad fight. I'm just stupid and he always notices my existence." He sounded frustrated as all hell. Oka could understand why he was feeling that way.
"Also it's just my dad. My mom doesn't hurt us." Reki added.
Oka nodded slowly, "okay.. Do you think they'll get a divorce anytime soon?" Reki shrugged, "I don't know. If they havnt gotten one yet will they ever?" He leaned back in his seat, "I hope so. My dad is actively cheating on my mom too. And she knows!! She deserves better. If I were her he would be out of all our lives by now." He hiccuped.
Oka nodded, "are you hungry?"
Reki shrugged, "I guess. I'm hungry but nothing sounds appetizing anymore. I don't eat that often." Oka looked at him seriously, "Reki when was the last time you had a real meal?"
Reki shrugged, "when you brought us to McDonalds." Oka looked slightly panicked, "you threw up after that? Have you eaten anything since?"
"Yeah like a bag of Cheezits my friend gave me and the bottle of water I'm holding right now." Reki answered.
Oka got into the backseat, pulled out his lunchbox, and handed it to Reki, "eat my lunch. I can run home and get more later."
Reki glanced at him and back at the lunchbox as Oka shoved the key in the ignition and began to drive away. "Are you sure?" Reki asked. Oka nodded, "please eat it, Reki."
Reki nodded and opened the lunchbox and began eating. It was a homemade meal. It tasted good.
They pulled up to the skate shop, "wanna hang out here with me for now?" He asked. Reki nodded in response, swallowing the last of what was in the lunchbox, "sounds like a plan."
Reki went straight to the back and fell asleep on a bench. Oka looked at him worriedly before re-opening the shop and continued working.
Reki slept all the way through the rest of the school day until his phone started playing an alarm and he jumped awake. He fell off the bench.
Oka ran to the back after hearing the crash of skateboard decks that knocked over onto him. "Reki? Are you okay?" Reki nodded, pulling out his phone and shoving the decks off of him. Trying to quickly pick them up.
"I have to pick up my sister from school." Reki said, trying to put all the decks back in place. Oka nodded, "go ahead, I'll finish. Do you still plan on coming for your shift today?" Reki nodded, "I'll be there! See yah in a bit Oka!" Reki hopped on his board and went home to get the car and pick up his sister.
He picked up his sister, turning up a little late as she climbed in the back. "Why are you late?" She asked. Reki sighed sheepishly, "I wasn't feeling good earlier so I left school earlier and I went to my work and fell asleep and overslept until my alarm and- it was a mess."
"What do you mean you weren't feeling good? Are you sick?" She asked. Reki shook his head, "no no I'm not sick I just passed out cause I was hot and dehydrated."
"And because you havnt been eating enough?" She asked. Reki nodded, "yeah. Because we haven't been eating enough. But if mom doesn't make dinner today I'll get you guys something to eat because I can't cook for the life of me."
She nodded a bit. She was quieter than usual. "How was your day at school?" He asked. "It was fine." She was quieter than usual.
"What's wrong?" Reki asked. "nothing! jeez Reki you're so dramatic." She snapped at him.
Reki turned back to look at her while driving. "REKI DRIVE THE CAR STOP LOOKING AT ME!" She yelled. Reki laughed at her reaction and went back to driving home.
When he pulled into their garage he paled significantly when he heard screaming from his parents inside their home. He heard muffled crying from the backseat, Reki turned to his sobbing sister.
"Rough day?" He asked. She nodded, "I want them to stop fighting. It's so loud and scary." He nodded in agreement, "I know. I'm sorry I don't know how to make them stop."
Reki felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and chose to ignore it. He got his sister to her room with the other twins easily enough. His dad sounded unusually angry today.
He needed to leave again for his shift. But his wallet was in his room, across the house, and past his dad. Sound familiar?
As he was walking by his dad grabbed him and slammed him into a wall. He hit his head, hard. He couldn't even tell what words he was screaming in his face. His mom was desperately trying to pry him off, to keep Reki safe.
But when his dad stopped and started hurting his mom instead, he yelled, "YOU FUCKING IDIOT WHY DONT YOU JUST DIVORCE ALREADY. WE ARE ALL SICK AND TIRED OF YOUR SHIT EVERYDAY." He was dizzy, but enraged.
His dad paused, overcome by rage, and began to yell back at him, holding him against the wall by his neck. "YOU ARENT ALLOWED TO CURSE IN MY HOUSE YOU DIPSHIT. I WILL DO WHAT I WANT WHEN I WANT AND-"
Reki punched him in the face, hoping to get a gasp of air. To his dismay his grip only tightened in heightened anger. At this point he was panicking as the black began to crawl into his vision.
He kicked his dad in the balls and was released. He collapsed to the ground, coughing, unable to hold himself up as his dad writhed in pain.
His dad was soon enough back on his feet, Reki was not. He got kicked in the stomach repeatedly until he threw up, partially on his dad's shoes. The man grabbed Reki by the hair and tossed him away from the wall. He landed on his side, trying to get up but he was grabbed again.
His dad threw him against the corner of the table. Reki yelled out in pain as the corner hit the back of his already injured head. His dad was still screaming at him.
Reki could barely move or tell what was going on. All his senses were numbed. He couldn't hear, everything sounded like it was underwater. He could see everything was blurry. There was no smell except for the blood running down his nose and no taste except the irony tang of the thick and gooey blood.
His dad picked him up by the shirt and threw him on their front porch and down the 3 stairs walking up to it. He lay there, bleeding from his head and nose on the sidewalk in front of their house. His phone screen was shattered from taking all of this while in his pocket.
A certain blue haired friend was walking by when he was thrown out the front door.
Langa had texted Reki earlier with no response. He had told Reki that he was taking a walk and would be going by his house if he wanted to come walk with him. But he never got a response, not even a read.
Now it made sense to him why. He rushed over to Reki's side, taking his head in his arms. He could hear yelling from inside the house.
"Ohh holy shit Reki." Langa said as he tried to get the boy's attention. He was awake, but barely holding on. There was thick goopey blood running from his head and matting his already red hair. His headband was stained.
Langa pulled out his phone and dialed 911. The boy was nearly in tears.
Hello 911 what's your emergency?
"My friend- I think he has a concussion. I don't know what happened he's bleeding from his head and he's nearly passed out and his parents are yelling inside."
Okay. Do you know the location of your emergency?
Langa looked around at the street signs and the numbers posted on the mailbox, "Uhm, I think it's 1245 sk8rboi avenue in the neighborhood across from Joe's thick toddies highschool."
(I'm so sorry)
Okay thank you, what's your name?
"Langa. I just moved here." His voice was shaky.
Okay Langa stay on the line with me. We are sending police and paramedics over. Is your friend still breathing?
"Yes he's still breathing but he's not awake."
Okay. Stay calm sweetie people are gonna come help you real soon. Do you know how he got these injuries?
"No- but I think his parents might have done it. They are yelling really loud I can hear them outside." He said, a tear slipped down his cheek.
Okay. They are really close Hun so just try to stay calm. Has he ever had injuries like this before?
"Yes he has."
Okay. And could you tell me your friends name?
He could hear sirens coming really close, maybe even somehwere in the neighborhood.
"His name is Reki Kyan."
Okay thank you sweetie. Stay on the line with me okay? Where are you from?
The operater could tell Langa was freaking out, but they were good at their job. They were keeping him calm.
"I'm from Canada but I moved here-" the Paramedics pulled up and immediatly started getting out, "the people are here." He said.
Okay go ahead and hang up, they are gonna need your full attention.
"Thank you." He hung up the call and watched as paramedics pulled Reki's limp and bleeding body onto a stiff board, they buckled him in and took him to the ambulance, they didn't drive away.
Police went into the house to defuse the situation and get the girls out.
Langa went in the ambulance with Reki.