"Take Me To Church" - Hosier

Chapter Fourteen

Sal leaned against the window of Larry's car. "I'm tired." He said, yawning.

"That's what you get for being on the phone with chruch boy all night." Larry mocked.

Sal scoffed. "It wasn't all night."

Larry laughed. "Oh okay until 3 in the morning."

"Was it really that long?" Sal asked.

Larry nodded in annoyance. "It kept me up."

Sal laughed. "You don't get to complain when you keep me up every other fucking night, playing video games."

"Damn. Feisty today." Larry joked.

Sal sighed again. The events of last night played in his head.

Sal rolled over on his bed. He couldn't sleep and was insanely bored. He debated on different things to do before he called Travis. It rang once. Then twice. And then he answered. "Hi Sal." Travis' voice was tired.

"Sorry did I wake you?" Sal asked.

"Yea but it's okay." Travis said. "What's up?"

Suddenly Sal felt slightly embarrassed. "Nothing. I'm just bored." 

Travis laughed. "That's topical for you." Sal smiled to himself. "Anything you wanna talk about?"

"I don't know." Sal said. "How's your dad?"

Travis sighed. "He got home yesterday."  His voice changed. "He uh. He hasn't done anything yet, expect yell. He's been yelling a lot."

Sal  leaned against his bed bored. "How do you feel about that?"

"Not good." Travis said. "I hate yelling, exspisically when it's him yelling." He sighed. "But I'm used to it. I don't really care that much."

Sal frowned. "I'm sorry Trav. You turn 18 soon right?"

"Yea." Travis said. "In a few months."

"You can come live with me." Sal suggested. "When you turn 18 I mean."

Travis laughed. "Yea? I might take you up on that."

And that's all they talked about. They talked about the future. They talked about what dinners they would cook and what kind of pets they would have. It was simple yet both of them spent hours talking about it.

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Sal rested his head on the lunch table. it may have been noisy but he was tired. Three days in row with no sleep does that to you.

It was a bad idea for him to stay up three days in row he knew that. He just simply didn't want to see what he saw when he slept. He was so used to having night terrors, however they were different now.

The image of his mom wouldn't stop replying in the dreams. It was more real than normal. He much preferred the screaming and the blood then the sight of his dead mother.

That's why he called Travis. He didn't want to close his eyes. He didn't want to dream. He couldn't.

"What's up with Sal?" Ash asked.

Larry laughed. "He stayed up all night talking to Travis."

Ash narrowed her eyes. "He's good with no sleep though." She pointed out. "Sal. Whens the last time you slept?"

Sal lifted his head. "Uh." He couldn't lie to her. He hated lying to his friends. "Three days." He said quietly.

She reached her hand out. "Sal, why?" She dragged out her name.

"Nightmares." He said even quieter. Larry's eyes flashed with worry. "It's okay! It's just ya know that time of year so it's a little harder."

Larry quickly connected the dots in his head. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

Sal shook his head. "Honestly I kind of just wanna take a nap."

"Okay." Larry said unsure. "Sleep good."

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"Hey! Travis!" Travis whipped around to be met with they eye of Ashley Campbell. She ran up to him, catching her hands on her knees. "You and Sal are like friends right?"

"Uh yeah? Why?" Travis asked, straighting up slightly.

She stood up straight and adjusted her bad strap. "It's kind of a hard time of year for him." Ash explained. "He won't really talk to me or Larry about it so we were wondering if you'd talk to him. Just like check on, I guess."

Oh? "Uh I mean sure of course. Just can I ask what's wrong?" Travis asked.

"It's around the same time his mom died." Ash clarified. Travis' face softened.

He bit down on his lip. "Yea I can do that."

Ash smiled. "thank you!" She turned to walk off but was stopped by Travis. "Something wrong?"

"Uh no." He said. Travis bit harder down on his lip. "Just um. Sorry. For all the shit I put you through. That wasn't fair to you." Ash stood their mouth agape. "So uh yea."

She smiled. "it's okay. Sal trust you. and I trust his judgement. Thank you, for apologizing I mean."

Travis nodded. "Uh tell Todd I said sorry too." Ash nodded, smiled, and then walked away. I feel bad. Travis thought. Yesterday, Sal called all he did was talk about himself.

It wasn't fair to Sal. He was gonna make it up to Sal in any way possible.