China White

I helped Darry fit the last of his legs through my bedroom window and we sat on the cold wood floor with one of the only clean blankets left in the house.
I knew Darry was trying not to be afraid and that made me think about what Justin had said.
“You know you don’t have to be here.” I urged, knowing if Darry truly didn’t want to be here he wouldn’t be, but I said it anyway just to make it clear he could leave and I would be okay on my own.
“Al, you know I don’t do this all the time it’s okay. I want to, and I know you want me to.” He assured. “I’m not going to leave you alone tonight with these people, especially after.” He stopped and he gagged a little bit and I knew being in the home of a homicidal maniac bothered him a little, or maybe a lot.

“You know we could go to my place right? Heck why the hell didn’t we go to my place? My grandma makes a wicked shit called gazpacho right, and she puts these little pieces of tomato and carrot and stuff and man its good and you should see…”
“Okay Darry I get the point.” I laughed.
“Sorry.”
“That’s okay.”
Darry smiled his crooked little smile and the moonlight that came through the open window reflected in his dark eyes and his shoulder length brown hair shadowed his face, I somehow thought tonight would be okay.
Having Darry here with me helped a lot. It helped me take my mind of the more solemnly graphic details of my life. But although my best friend could lift my spirits he could not remove the horrible thoughts and memories that dwelt in my head. He could not take away the deep pain I felt and he could not remove the physical scars that would always remain.

I could try to make myself as oblivious to the truth as possible, but it was always in the back of my mind. The truth being my life was truly the epitome of hell, I could not escape reality and I could not turn to anybody else except Darry.
The truth was that my father was a crack addict and my brother was a homicidal maniac. My mother was dead and long gone she would have been useless alive anyway selling her body to filthy scum who could barely afford her. My other brother Charlie had moved out when he found out my father was an addict, and I hated him too for leaving me here in this mess.

Darry was my only escape from this. He knew how much he meant to me. We had been friends since the 6th grade, but Darry didn’t go to school anymore he had dropped out when he turned 16 to look after his grandma. So instead of spending lonely nights with his grandma at home, we would both stay out till as late as possible going to see a gig or go to a party. Then we would come back to my house and Darry would sit in the tree in the backyard waiting for my family to leave or go to bed, and we would sit in my room and talk or play monopoly.
This was exactly what we had done tonight.

“I know you never would but I just wanted to make sure you know...’ I began, fiddling with my fingernails looking at the ground. ‘You haven’t told anybody anything about Justin have you?” I asked Darry, he would probably hate me for asking and not trusting his word. “It’s Just. Justin knows that you know.”
“Oh…” Darry mumbled. “No I haven’t told anyone.”
“Thank you.”
Darry gave me another small smile and nodded. I knew my problems made him sick. They made me sick as well; most of the sickness came from the thought of what Justin said he would do if anyone ever found out about his brutal obsession.