I don't own this. So go away

Before, Dad would have yelled at him for staying in the shower too long, and wasting all the hot water.

Now, when he registered that his son had been in the shower for almost an hour, and discovered him curled up, crying, underneath the blast of water, he didn't say a word. Just turned off the tap, wrapped him in a towel, and carried him to his room.

And the next day, Dylan refused to talk about it, slamming the door and tipping his breakfast in the bin on the way out.

Dad didn't notice.

Not that time, or the next, or the next.

And when he finally did notice, he didn't know what to do.

(Dyl?...)

(Go away, go away, go away. You don't know shit. You don't understand. Just please Please PLEASE go away)

And because he didn't know what to do, he tried to ignore it, and when that didn't work, he passed the problem onto someone else. He told Dylan's teachers, and they tried to deal with it.

Which meant more hugs, more talking, more god damn people trying to understand, when they clearing didn't

Before, his teacher's would have told him off for swearing in class.

Now, they started at him all doe-eyed and understanding, and asked him politely if he was okay.

He learnt that he was immune.

He learnt that when your Mom died, and you stopped eating, people stared through you like you weren't there

He learnt that you could cry in class, and run outside, and nobody batted an eyelid.

Sometimes a teacher went to stop him, but halted at the very last minute, unsure if they should.

Sometimes they tried to get him to 'talk', but he refused.

And they seemed happy with the counselling session once a week, when he stared at the wall and remained silent.

(secretly he wished they would say something, but they didn't care, so it didn't matter. It didn't. Shut up Shut up Shut up Shut up)

Before, he slept every night, no nightmares, not fear of dark.

Now, he couldn't. All night, he lay awake, knowing that if he fell asleep, he would regret it.

And during the day, all he wanted to do was sleep. Sleep sleep sleep. It was easier than facing the world.

He fell asleep in class, and during dinner, and in the principle's office.

They never told him to concentrate, or not to be rude, or to respect that this was a 'learning area'. They just let him sleep.

Which was another thing they would never have done before.

And when he fell asleep in the principle's office that was when shit really went down. That was when they found out. That was when they checked, because they were 'worried' about him (no, really, I'm fine) and that was when they told Dad.

And that was when he cried, and they took away all of the knives, as though that would stop it being his fault, and that was when everyone stopped talking to him, but instead started talking of him.

Because he had changed.

Because everything had changed.

*A/N

yeah.

hey.

Review?