Hold on for the Ride

Part Six

"Ryan. Oh my gosh, Ryan."

He looked into my eyes, his still red from all of the pills he took and the drugs the hospital had him on. He blinked and the tears formed immediately. He began shaking his head, obviously disappointed with himself.

"Rosie..."

"Ryan, it's okay, you're okay. Don't worry, you're okay." I said, whiningly.

"Rose, I told you I wouldn't leave you. I broke my promise and I should have never done that. I'm so sorry and-" I couldn't let him finish.

"No Ryan, please don't apologize. I should have checked up on you. I'm so sorry you had to go through this, I'm just so glad you're okay."

"Me too."

I let his parents talk to him for a while. Ryan didn't make eye contact with his dad the whole time. His dad tried to act like a real, concerned father, thinking I didn't know what was going on. Little did he know, I knew everything. They walked out, saying they would give us some private time to talk.

As soon as they left, Ryan rushed into another story, "Rosie it was really bad last night. My parents started to fight over what we were going to do after church. My mom said she wanted to go to a nice lunch with her parents but my dad wanted to go home and watch Sunday afternoon football. They were literally screaming and I couldn't take it any longer. I tried listening to music and I even tried to write, but nothing was working. I felt lost, I felt like I didn't matter. At least that's what my dad told me. I went to the medicine cabinet, and guess what! They didn't even hear me because they were freaking screaming so loudly. So I just went into my room, climbed into my bed and took one pill. At first I convinced myself that I just wanted an Advil for the headache that my parents were giving me. But then I took two more, and I continued on for the next minute or two. Slowly my sight blurred into dark images. I slightly remember my mom come into my room, scream, and then I fell into unconsciousness. I woke up again in the ambulance and then I slipped back out. The rest you know better than I do."

I looked at his poor injured soul; how sad he was. How unimportant he felt. Why would someone ever do this to their child?

"Ryan we need to talk about these things. You've gotta let someone in, and if you don't want it to be me I'll find someone that is better than me that you can talk to."

"Rose, you do understand. You're the only one I've ever told anything to. You're the only one I trust, the only one I..." he looked to the side to say this, "the only one I love. I needed to tell you that. The only reason I held so many things back from you was because I was afraid of hurting you. I didn't want you to worry yourself about me, you don't deserve that. Now listen, I wanna get better. I don't know if I can handle my dad anymore though..."

"Ryan, that's all I needed to hear. I am so happy you chose to talk about all of this. Whenever things get bad, just give me a call or text me. You can come over or we could go out or something, even if it's just to get away from your dad and all the chaos."

"Rosie, I can't thank you enough. I just wish I would have talked to you before all of this happened."

We talked on about all of these serious things for the next hour and then the nurse came in, saying he was doing so well and would be able to be released the next day. I didn't want to leave him there with his parents who probably weren't even mature enough to stop fighting even while Ryan was in this state. I drove home, explained to my parents what happened, and then headed back out, with their permission, in a comfy hoodie and yoga pants.