I Can't Be Without You

It was Thursday afternoon and everyone, Marque, Jazz, Keith, Matt and Josh, was sitting around at my house. I was sitting infront of the living room window, waiting for Airin and my mom to come home. I noticed that Marque was rather nervous. He kept making excuses to get up and leave, such as 'I need to go to the bathroom'. He was just as jittery as I was, and I couldn't blame him. I couldn't sit still either. At one point, Matt sat on me to keep me from moving around the house. He said it was making everyone too nervous.

"When are they going to get here?" I said, my face pressed up against the living room window.

"They will get here when they get here Jaws." Josh said.

"I want here to be now!" I exclaimed, fogging up the window.

"Jaws, that doesn't make sense." Matt stated. I turned and looked at him.

"You don't make sense!" I retorted back.

"That was such a grade 2 comeback." Jazz said.

"You're a grade 2 comeback!" I said, causing everyone to laugh. I looked back out the window and saw a blue car in the drive way. "HE'S HOME!" I yelled, jumping off the window seat. The front door opened and I could hear my mom saying things to Airin.

"Your bed room is all cleaned up so you can go to bed whenever you want." Mom said, taking Airins bag into his room.

"I've been sleeping for nearly 2 weeks mom. I've stored up enough energy to keep me up for days!" Airin said happily. I was the first to rush over to him. I stopped, slightly skidding infront of him. He looked at me, then around me to see everyone else.

"Is it okay to hug you?" I asked, not wanting to put too much pressure on his arms.

"Yeah, but not too tight." Airin said. I gently wrapped my arms around his body and he placed his arms around me.

"Don't ever do this again." I said into his chest.

"I'll try not to." Airin said, kind of laughing.

"Seriously, don't. This was the scariest thing I have ever been through." I let everyone else have their turns hugging Airin. Marque was the last one to get to Airin. Marque just stood there awkwardly, not saying anything. Airin, almost instinctively wrapped his arms around Marque.

"Airin, I'm..." Marque started to say, but Airin held Marque at arms-length.

"Hey, what did I say about blaming yourself?" Airin said.

"But..." Airin wouldn't even let Marque finish his sentence. Airin bent down and kissed Marque. I heard Jazz go 'aw', and I smiled. When Airin pulled away from Marque, Marque was bright red.

"No blaming!" I couldn't help but laugh. Everyone looked at me weird. That could have just been the breaking point in my sanity, but the way Marque reacted to Airin was funny.
Things were slowly getting better, and I liked it that way.

The following morning, Airin and I were eating breakfast. Keith had left earlier in the morning so Airin and I got up early to say goodbye to him. Airin was eating fruitloops, well, he wasn't eating them. He was moving them around the bowl, staring miserably at them. Every so often, I would look up and smile at him. I finally had to say something when the silence was too much.

"Airin?" He made little mumbling sounds with the fruit loops in his mouth. "Are you going to school today?" There was another long pause before Airin sighed.

"I really should..." He looked down at the milk dreds in the bowl, looking like he was seriously contemplating suicide again.

"You know, Colbie really misses you. He's been asking about you every day." I said. Colbie Lucas was Airins best friend since we moved to Salmo.They even stayed best friends when Airin went to a different school and went to rehab. Colbie had a younger sister, Jenna, in my grade. Both her and her brothers were hilarious people.

"Yeah? Well I think people deserved to know what happened...." Airin said. He smiled and we both go up from the table to get our school things. Airin wanted to try to drive, since he hadn't in a while.
We drove to the school. Airin turned off the car, but didn't get out. He sighed again and looked down at the steering wheel. I placed my hand on his shoulder and smiled.

"Everything will be alright Airin." I said reasurringly. Airin nodded and we both got out of the car. I took Airins backpack for him, because his arms were too sore from driving now. We walked into the school and put Airins things in his locker first.

"Do you want your sweater?" I asked, pulling out his sweater from his backpack as he took off his jacket. He looked at the sweater contemplatively.

"No." He said, shoving his jacket into the locker. He rolled up the sleeves on his long-sleeved shirt, revealing the scars on his arms. "I don't want to hide myself anymore." He said, smiling. I smiled back at him, hugging him tightly. After I put my things in my locker, people started coming up to Airin and asked him how he was and if he was okay. Airin told them that he was fine and explained his story to them, just not all the details were there.

I was extremely proud of my brother. He was finally starting to show some sign of maturity. I liked this Airin better than the one who was so self-concious about everything. Airin was changing infront of everyone, and it was a good thing to see.