Young Life

How Did You Do It?

I slowly wake up but am too tired to open my eyes. I can feel someone running their fingers through my hair. It feels so nice that I instinctively lean into the touch. I open my eyes and see Mat sitting beside me on the floor, a very evident blush dusting his cheeks. I smirk at him and his blush gets even darker as he smiles back. I look around and see everyone scattered around the living room. Tyler, Ethan, Thomas, and Felix were having a conversation in the corner of the room while Mark and Jack were sitting on the floor, Mark leaning against the back of the armchair looking down with Jack holding his hand.

Mark looks up and his eyes widen in relief. I'm happy he still cares about me, even after all these years.

"What happened?" I ask. Mark looks at Mat and smirks.

"You had one hell of a panic attack. As soon as you collapsed, Mat immediately ran over there and calmed you down in about five minutes." I look to Mat again and he smiles sheepishly. I motion for him to lean down. When his head is only a couple inches away from my face. I lean up and give his cheek a kiss.

"Thank you. Really. You're the only one who has been able to calm me down that fast." His eyes widen.

"Really?"

"Yeah." We all look over to Mark as he answers for me. "He was diagnosed with anxiety a year before we started dating. He would have panic attacks that would last until he passed out, which was after fifteen minutes." He stops talking and he narrows his eyes and tilts his head. "Now that I think about it, whenever you had one around your parents and me, your parents never did anything to help you. It was always me." I shrug.

"Another way they abused me. Let me suffer on my own. Whenever you helped, it wasn't a lot, but I did calm down a little. It just wasn't in time." I then look to Mat. "Wait, how did you calm me down so fast?"

"When I was younger, maybe 7 or 8, my sister, who is younger than me by a year, was diagnosed with anxiety as well. My parents both had jobs that didn't allow them to be home till late. So, they had me take lessons in how to handle that situation. She had so many growing up that I learned to calm her down in less than five minutes." My eyes widen.

"Holy shit." Everyone sits in silence for a minute.

"Nate," Thomas starts, "what did your mom stay to you?" I sigh.

"Well..."