I'm Just Fine

The week went by fine. Molly and Tara loved spending time with their brother and Flynn's friends adored having them to entertain (including Marty even if he refused to admit it). Flynn missed spending time with them and found he wanted the week to go by slower. Unfortunately the time for them to leave approached and things once again went to hell. The girls were packed to go home and everyone was over to hangout. Trina was talking to Tyr about their upcoming games, Marty was watching in amusement as Tara annihilated Nymph and Malia at Candy Land, and Flynn was drawing with Molly. Everything was going smoothly until there was a knock at the door. Flynn excused himself from the coffee table and welcomed his mom into the apartment. The two sisters shouted in glee, happy to see their mom after a week. Tara almost kicked all the pieces of the game in her excitement.
"Hello my beautiful girls, how was your stay with Flynn and Nymph?" She smiled as the girls ran into her arms.
"Awesome! Amazing." The girls yelled happily.
"I'm glad." She kissed each of them before standing and kissing her son. "Thank you dear for looking after them. I hope they weren't a problem."
"None at all and no problem, we loved having them." He kissed her back and walked her further in.
"Hello Trina, Marty, Tyr, Malia, and Nymph." Mrs. Tempest nodded to each of them, hugging anyone who came to her.
"Hi Mrs. Tempest!" They all greeted back. Mrs. Tempest excused herself to the bathroom before the four hour drive to their house. While she was going, Flynn got his sisters ready and had them say goodbye to his friends. Even Tyr was peppered with kisses and backbreaking hugs.
Flynn was in the middle of zipping up Tara's jacket when his mother stepped out of the bathroom. In a tight voice she asked, "Flynn, what is this?" She held up an orange bottle with a white child's lock cap.
He slowly straightened and carefully replied, "My medicine?" He was confused by her voice, he 'took' his medicine like the good boy he was.
With her no nonsense voice, she replied, "I am aware. Why is it full?"
"I just got a new refill." His high school friends shifted uncomfortably, well aware of what was actually going on. His sisters looked between their mom and brother aware of the tension between them, while Tyr looked lost. Trinity and Rico exchanged worried glances aware of how bad this could escalate to. Scorch trotted over to Flynn and started rubbing up against his leg. He ignored the poor cat knowing that if he showed anything, things could get heated.
Mrs. Tempest rose an elegant eyebrow before her eyes scanning the label, "So it's November 2013? I must have my month and year wrong." Fuck. Her eyes once again landed on her son. Her foot started tapping in simmering anger.
"Mo-"
"Flynn Alastair Tempest, how long?"
"What are-"
"Don't lie to me! How long have you been off your Levoprome?" Flynn tensed knowing full well that things were clicking in Tyr's mind. They had just finished their paragraph on Treatments (including medicines) for Schizophrenia. He felt his friend's eyes on him. "I know your doctor has not taken you off it because he keeps me updated. How long?"
Nymph slowly stood and crept over to his sisters. "Hey, let's go put your things in the car huh?"
She started ushering the girls out the door when Mrs. Tempest shouted, "Is this why you didn't come home during winter break? Were you going through withdrawals? Why Flynn? Why would you stop taking your medicine?!"
"Because I hated that shit!" He finally shouted. "I couldn't do anything while on them!" All his friends flinched back. Flynn wasn't one to lose his composure, he was usually the one calming everyone down.
His mother threw her hands in the air, pill bottle still in one hand. "Stop being dramatic Flynn, you've been normal for years."
He snorted, "When the hell have I ever been 'normal'?"
"Don't use that language with me." She glared at him. "Besides your freshman year at Bernard's, you have been like your old self. Just without your hallucinations." Flynn didn't reply as he crossed his arms and looked off to the side noting how Rico looked nervously around. If this kept up this were going to turn even worse.
"I ask again when was the last time you took your pills Flynn?" Mrs. Tempest clutched the pills in her hands.
"Doesn't matter." He replied still not looking at her.
"Mrs. Temp-" Malia tried to interrupt but Flynn's mother wasn't listening.
"It does. You are going against your doctor and do you really want to go back to having imagin-hallucinations? Don't you want to be normal?"
His friends bit their lips as Flynn whipped a glare in his mother's direction, "What's so great about being 'normal' anyways? I haven't been what society calls 'normal' since I can remember." Flynn barked a sarcastic laugh. "I think I'm perfectly normal."
"You have schizophrenia Flynn, you need to take care of it. It's okay, we can tell your doctor and-"
"I'm well aware of what I have mum, I live with it everyday. I'm even doing a project on it. Kind of hard not to forget." Trinity called to him but he didn't pay attention. Scorch started clawing at his pants.
"Then you know you need to take your medicine to keep it in control!"
"You don't get it!" He threw his arms up in exasperation. Then he took a step forward and asked, "Do your really want to know how long I've been of those," he said those with venom. "pills? Hmmm? Years. I haven't taken them since the end of freshman year of high school." His mother gasped. "I don't need that to exist. If I had delusions or had a more severe form of Schizophrenia then maybe I would accept them, but I'm not. I'm just fine! I've had my entire childhood to cope with my hallucinations. I know what is normal for me. I'm not like everyone else and I'm okay with that. My friends," He pointed at them, "Are okay with it. I have three hallucinations and they don't inhibit me in any way. In fact they tend to actually prevent me from withdrawing into myself like most Schizophrenics. I don't understand why people are so spazzy when it comes to who I am." His voice changed from anger to desperation. "I don't hurt anyone. I have friends. I do well in school. Hell you, dad, and the doc think I'm perfectly fine. What has changed mum? Please tell me, what has changed between when you thought I was taking anti-psychotics and now?" The room was silent as his high school friends looked nervously at each other, Tyr was shocked, and his mother looked like she was about to cry. His ears were pounding and he could feel stress and anxiety reaching critical levels. The quiet was broken by Trinity shouting at him. He jerked his head in her direction before realizing that the room was filled with faceless people. Tyr got a sense of deja vu from when they were younger. "Shit." He muttered before striding to his room and shutting the door.
"Flynn." Malia called and ran up to his door. She knocked gently, whispered through the door, and squeezed in.
When his mother went to go check up on him, Trina stopped her. "Don't, it's best to leave him alone. He won't do well with a lot of people going after him."
"What's happening?" Mrs. Tempest asked concerned.
"Anxiety attack." Before Mrs. Tempest could say anything, Trina continued, "It doesn't happen often, I've only seen it once. He'll be fine, Malia is learned in the ways of anxiety attacks."
"How long?" His mother muttered, exhausted from the fight.
"Huh?"
"How long have you known?"
The friends looked at each other. Trina hesitantly replied, "Since a little after we met him."
"Do you follow his wonderful example?"
"No." His friends shook their head. "We are actually fu-screwed up. And so you know, we all take the counseling sessions seriously. Flynn's the one to make sure we all go."
"And yet he won't take his medicine?" She looked down at her son's full bottle.
Trina shrugged, "Out of all of us, he's the 'normal' one. Except for his little quirk to react to Trinity, Rico, or Scorch, he's just fine. He's like any other kid our age. If we didn't think he could function in society without the meds we'd highly recommend him taking them. But I don't think he particularly needs them."
Mrs. Tempest put a hand to her head, "I'm going to go. Tell him I said good-bye, I will see everyone later. Bye." She gave a tired wave and walked out the door.
It was a few seconds before Marty whistled, "Well, that was interesting. Never thought Skitz was that careless. Leaving his full bottle around, you'd think he was a rookie. Hey!" He shouted when Trina smacked him upside the head.
"I take it the argument didn't go well." Nymph walked in and shut the door.
"That's an understatement." Marty snorted.
Nymph glared before looking at the closed door. "Why don't we meet up tomorrow for dinner, I doubt Flynn's up to making one."
"You sure, we can stay and help you cheer up Flynn. Sad Flynn looks like a kicked puppy." Trina said the latter to Tyr.
"It's fine, do something special for him tomorrow. Is Malia in with him?"
"Yeah, he started having an anxiety attack." Trina said the last two words a little slower.
"Well shit. Okay, I'll see ya'll later. Tyr do you mind staying a moment?" Tyr nodded and stayed where he was as Nymph said good-bye to her friends. When the two left she turned and sat with Tyr. "How are you?"
"Shocked. But it makes sense." Tyr scrubbed his hands over his face.
"Makes sense?"
His green eyes slid to look at her through his fingers, "He had imaginary friends throughout our friendship, most lose them when their like 7. He was strange and the way he talked about them made them sound real. And he knows way too much about our topic to not have done a previous project on it before or experience it. Half the time he doesn't even look at a book or article, he just writes." Nymph chuckled. "I never thought he'd have it though."
"People never do. It always happens to someone else. We just happen to be that someone else."
Tyr nodded, "Why did he stop taking the meds? It seemed like it went deeper than him thinking he could live like everyone else without them."
Nymph started playing with her sweater. "Ask Flynn about it. It's his story to tell not mine. I didn't know him during freshman year so I would only be telling you second hand information." She tapped her finger and whispered, "You'll still be his friend, right? Even though he's a little... different than everyone else."
"Of course." He looked appalled. "He's still the same Flynn that I've known. I'm kinda glad I know why he suddenly left now." Nymph could see the sadness in Tyr's eyes from the time the two were apart.
"Well now you can ask all the questions you've kept buried." She smiled. "But I think it's time for you to go. Flynn won't be out of his room for a while or the rest of the night. It'll depend on how bad his anxiety attack was."
"Another thing: Anxiety attack. Trina made it sound like it was code for something else."
"That is a question for Flynn. Be patient, Flynn will tell you it may just take a little while." She walked him to the door. "Tyr?" The young man turned. "Thank you for being Flynn's friend. It's meant a lot to him and us."
"No problem. Night, Nymph." He pulled her into a hug and left.
"Night!" She called and then she turned. She knocked on Flynn's door, "Coming in." She pushed the door open to find Flynn and Malia sitting on the floor; Flynn's head resting on his knees. "Hey love, heard you've had a rough day." Flynn grunted but said nothing more. "You can go Mal, I've got him." Malia nodded, whispered a good-bye, kissed his head, and left. Nymph helped him up and stripped him down to his boxers. Finally she laid him down and cuddled with him. "How you doing, Flynn?"
He finally looked at her with glazed hazel eyes, "Better. It was bad, worse than the last time but not the time I was drunk. There are a few still lingering."
"Trinity and Scorch will fight them off." Nymph grinned causing her friend to laugh.
"Yeah..." He bit his lip and asked, "How was everyone else?"
"Your mom needs time to process it, but she'll come around. She loves you." She ran her fingers through his curly hair. "Mal, Marty, and Trina are worried but know you'll be alright. I think you'll need to call Molly and Tara, they seemed upset that you and your mom were fighting."
"I will... tomorrow though." Nymph nodded. Flynn hesitantly asked, "And T-Tyr?"
Nymph grinned wickedly. "You can't get rid of him that fast. Though it may have set you back a little on your journey of wooing him."
"Nymph!" Flynn turned beat red.
"I Knew It!" She laughed as she pulled him to her chest and started rocking excitedly. "I knew you liked him. I could see it whenever you are with him." He groaned knowing she would do her best to make them a couple.