Tyler walked into the office with a smile and greeted his friends Ashley and Gerard who both peeked their heads out of their cubicles to wave at him despite being on the phone. Tyler passed them both and made his way to his own cubicle and set down his stuff. The sun was just beginning to set as he settled into his chair and awaited his first call.

Tyler had been adamantly against working at a suicide hotline when the idea was first suggested to him by his therapist Patrick. But that short redhead man was convincing and just so nice that Tyler couldn't say no. He'd been baffled at first why he would even be allowed to work here. After all he had tried to kill himself twice before, shouldn't they try to get more mentally stable people to volunteer for this job. But no, almost everyone working at the hotline had survived an attempt at their own lives and talked about how gratifying it was to help people through a shared experience.

There had been weeks of training before he was even allowed to speak to a client on the phone and then it was supervised phone calls for two weeks before he was left on his own to help those in need. And it was an extremely gratifying job, Tyler quickly found that he had a way of talking to people merely because he could relate to how they were feeling because he'd been there before. Being able to help people had helped boost Tyler's self esteem and gave him a sense of purpose that helped combat his depression. This job, coupled with his meds and weekly therapy had him feeling better than he could ever remember feeling before.

The night happened to be a slow one and Tyler only fielded five calls, two of them being rather quick, one of them being dead air, and only two that resulted in a lengthy conversation. Three hours passed and soon his shift was over so he gathered up his things and walked out into the main part of the room. His two best friends from work Gerrard and Ashley were standing by the coffee machine drinking their fill. Ashley crashed into him with a hug, being one for excessive affection. Gerard just nodded his head in acknowledgement his fingers twitching in what Tyler could tell was need for a cigarette.

Ashley was a tall girl with short blue hair, she was manic depressive with rare but intense psychotic episode which just meant that she had the occasional hallucination. She was such a loving girl who talked way too much and had an obsession with cats and memes but would do anything she could to help anyone out. What you couldn't see underneath her baggy black hoodie were the burn marks from where she had set herself on fire. That had been five years ago now, her new medication had her a lot more stable.

Gerard was the silent emo type with long raven colored hair. He spoke very little but when he did one caught a glimpse of his biting humor. Gerard was a recovering drug addict and alcoholic who suffered from severe depression. He lived off of coffee and cigarettes and has been sober for a year and a half. His hands shook slightly all the time and he had a nasty habit of biting his nails until they bled. But compared to the horrific amount of scars that he his underneath his sweater, this form of self harm was a lot healthier than it once had been.

"Hey Ash, how are you today?"

"I'm fucking incredible as always."

"How are you Gee?"

"Good," the sullen emo boy answered. Tyler just smiled at the man's normal response.

"Anything exciting going on with you guys?" Tyler asked.

Ashley piped in right away, "my girlfriend Hayley and I are going away to a cabin in the mountains this weekend for our one year anniversary and I'm beyond excited because I'm going to learn how to ski."

"That's awesome, I love skiing."

Ashley looked down at her phone and then exclaimed excitedly, "oops Hayley is here to pick me up so I gotta blast. Tyler I'll snapchat you my amazing skiing skills."

Tyler laughed, "Alright I look forward to endless videos of you falling on your ass."

"Shut up, I'm gonna be amazing."

"You keep telling yourself that."

She gave him the finger before walking out. Tyler turned to Gerard and looked at his friend with some concern. "Hey mate we can go outside and chat for a bit if you need a cig."

Gerard just nodded and followed as Tyler lead them outside to a bench in front of the building. He watched as his raven haired friend's shaky hands lit the cigarette and he inhaled as though he had been drowning and this was his first gulp of oxygen. "How are you holding up?"

Gerard just shook his head unsure of what exactly to say. His longtime boyfriend Frank had relapsed on heroin and overdosed. Right now he was in rehab and Gerard was unable to see him for six weeks while he underwent intensive therapy. Gerard was a mess because Frank was his main support system and without him he was floundering around. "It was a bad day yesterday," Gerard breathed out quietly as he stared at the ground. "I locked myself in my bedroom all day because I didn't trust myself to not do something bad. I almost didn't come today but I needed to get out and talk to people and not be alone."

"Oh Gerard,"Tyler said his heart breaking for his friend. "Why didn't you call me? You know I said you can call me anytime at all and I'll be there for you."

"I-I know I just don't want to be a bother."

"Dude you're my best mate you are never a bother to me. You know my roommate just moved out last week and I have the spare bedroom right now. How about you come and stay with me for a bit?"

Gerard just nodded and stumped out his already finished cigarette only to light up another one right away. "I'll just go grab some stuff and meet you at your place."

"Great I'll order pizza and we'll watch some Netflix."

Gerard nodded and got up and headed for his car. Tyler stood watching him for a moment before heading back inside to grab his things to leave.