Those Worse Off Than You

The world seemed like such a bore. Each day was spent sitting by the window watching the rainy weather pass by, bringing nothing but more rain. The evenings were spent reading, and the mornings I spent in bed. Barely any time was spent where it should have been, with Ace.

My parents had finally given up on him. They thought he would never get through this, and they didn't want me to get caught up in it. They didn't want me to have anything to do with it. They were afraid.

But my parent's attitudes couldn't keep me away from my closest companion. His treatments and conferences with is psycologists, however, could. So I stayed home, out of they way of the many people who treated Ace as some sort of broken plastic, struggling to glue it back together piece by piece.

I knew that it didn't work like that, and Ace for one, wouldn't let it. He would get better at his own pace. And eventually, he would get better. And I really don't think that anyone can help him but himself.

***

I sighed and ran my finger down the glass of the window, following a raindrop until it ended at the windowcill.

"Jayden, why don't you read a book," my mom insisted from the kitchen where she was working on a fresh batch of muffins.

I sighed, "I've already read all the books in the house."

"Why don't you.... Help your mother in the kitchen," my dad implied from his paper.

"Don't feel like cooking."

"Why don't you clean your room."

"I already did... three times," I groaned.

"Well- What are you going to do then?"

"Can I-"

"No."

"Why not? You don't even know what I'm going to say!"

"Jayde, you can't keep going to visit him. He's not... stable. He can do something unexpected at any time. He's a bad influence."

"Mom- he would never hurt me. It's not hard to understand. I know him- I've known him for a long time. He 's stable enough for me to be in the same room as him. He really doesn't even need to be in there- it's just making him worse!"

"He's in there for a good reason, Jayde," my father implied- telling me I was going to far and would end up grounded if I didn't shut my mouth.

"You're wrong. For once in your lives, you're wrong about this one person. You havn't even given him a chance!"

"We've given him plenty of chances," my mom stated.

"Well maybe you're giving him the wrong attention. Maybe it's the fact that everyone's always expecting him to fail that leads to all this, did you ever think of that?"

"Jayde, where are you going," my mom asked as I pulled on my shoes and a few layers of sweaters.

"To the hospital."

"It's pouring out. Get back in here."

"No," I stated and slammed the door, starming through the puddles on the sidewalk.