Tom
I got to MRMC (Mercy Regional Medical Center) about twenty minutes later. Jake's room was on the second floor, number 2HM. Inside there was a heart monitor, cardiac monitors, ventilator, nasogastric tubes, and a whole bunch of other stuff (yes, I paid attention in health class).
Jake lay there on the bed while looking out the window. He didn't look the same as like two or three days ago. The color had drained from his face, his eyes were lacking light, and he could’ve passed for a vampire. He looked so depressed, like a suction cup had been placed onto his head and took the life out of him.
"Eh-hm, hi," I said. Jake turned his head to look at me, than back at the window.
"Hi," he mumbled.
"I heard what happened," I said.
"Yeah so did the entire student body," he replied. I grabbed a chair and pulled it next to him so I was facing him, than he turned the other way.
"Funny, you don't usually ignore me," I said.
"Funny, you don't usually want to talk to me," he shot back.
"I want to talk about why you did it," I asked.
"Why'd I do what?" he asked.
"You don't end up in the hospital for being a jackass," I replied.
"Why are you talking to me? If anything you should be celebrating with you girlfriend," he said.
"Jake listen, I can't forget what you've done to me and my friends, but I can forgive you if you tell me why you did it," I said.
"You wouldn't get it, no one would," he replied.
"That's the thing Jake I do get it. I get that you want to bang your head against the wall, your praying to guy upstairs everyday hoping that he'll make you normal. You tear everybody down to your size just to make yourself feel better, all because you're homosexual. Alright Jake? Your gay," I said. Jake shot up and grabbed my shirt.
"I am straight like a pencil, you can't prove otherwise," he hissed.
"Than why did you try to kill yourself?" I asked.
"I didn't! I was drinking, and then I had a headache!" he replied.
"So you downed the whole pill bottle?" I asked. He pushed me away and jumped out of bed.
"I don't know what else to do! For all the crap I put everybody through I deserve to go the way I tried!" he shouted. What?
"That last part didn't make sense," I said.
"Who cares! Why do you give a damn about me? Why now? What about the time I switched the frosting on your cake with mayonnaise? What about the time I backed into the homecoming float you and your dumb cousins worked on and made a huge dent in the fender? What about the time I tried to rape Courtney? What about the time-"
"Jake! Do me a favor!" I said.
"What?"
"Shut up!" he did so and sat back down on the bed.
"I don't know what it's like being gay and wanting to be normal, I can't relate to you on that subject, but there's no need for you to hurt people about it. You just need some help, and we can give you that help," I replied.
"What help? You wanna send me to rehab?"
"No! You're gonna start by telling why you decided to leave us in the first place?" I said. Jake huffed.
"Do I have to?" he asked.
"Do you want me to leave?"
"Yes very much,"
"Then talk, Welton," for a while he was just silent, than Jake took a breath and opened his mouth.
"Remember that day we went camping in the valley? Well Matthew Trendon was bending down to fix his tent and some of the older guys caught me staring at his ass. They tricked me into thinking they wanted to hang out, so after the campfire they brought me into the forest telling me they wanted there was a party. I was stupid enough to believe them. So I went into the forest with them, only there was no party. The group leader...Andrew...he led me to the other two boys, Brad and Eustace. They were drunk and high. Andrew pushed me onto the ground and they pulled down my pants...they told me they knew my secret and they were gonna make me pay. They spray painted my...you know...and wrote the word FAG on my forehead with a sharpie. They left me there in the dirt, and I didn't get up for a full hour. It was then I decided gay is bad and I've been trying to change ever since. I've had sex with many girls, and they've told me that I was pretty good in bed...but I wasn't satisfied,"
"But...but why'd you stop hanging out with us?" I asked.
"How could I face my friends knowing what I was? Knowing what they did to me? I didn't realize I was a fag until that night. You know in sophomore year, I started having feelings for Camio! But you see him with your couz, he's straight as a pencil!" he protested. I scoffed.
"Jake, listen there's nothing wrong with being gay. In 2012, homosexual marriage was legalized in seventeen states," I said.
"When I was growing up my dad would go on and on about me meeting a girl, settling down and having a family. What the hell am I gonna do when I have to hire a surrogate mother to have my kid? ‘Cause I'm sick of sex with women," he replied.
"Well first of all; that sounds kinda sexist, and second there's nothing wrong with it. Ask Ms. Pond she's actually Courtney's mother-oh shit," I am the stupidest man alive.
"I know Ms. Pond's Courtney's mom," he said.
"How do you...Madison?"
"Is the pope catholic?" that answered that question.
"So how long are you staying here?" I asked.
"I get out tomorrow," he replied.
"Awesome, grad's in two weeks, that gives you plenty of time to make amends with everybody you hurt," I said.
"What-no! No one wants to hear an 'I'm sorry' from me! They'd rather stuff me in a canon and shoot me off to Pluto!" he exclaimed.
"Than we start small and work our way up. Deal?" I asked, extending my hand.
"Deal," Jake gladly excepted and shook my hand, than he leaned in and tried to kiss me.
"Woah, woah hey buddy I'm forgiving you but I'm not...no. You're gonna find somebody but it won't be me. I got Courtney," I said.
"Sorry man, it's the IV they're pumping in me it dulls the senses," he said.
"Right,”