Listen to: Save You- Simple Plan
"I'm home!" The door slammed behind me. "Oops." I still didn't hear any response. Maybe he was asleep. Ever since Mello and I had quit living at the base, and moved into the apartment, we had been catching up on needed sleep. The past week had been tough. We worked long hours with barely any rest.
I quietly turned the knob of his bedroom door and glanced around. Nope. I looked into the adjoining bathroom. I almost walked away before noticing something. Taking a closer look, my eyes widened at what I saw. Your eye is supposed to be drawn to the color red. That was the first thing I noticed- the bright red blood. Streaks of it colored the sides of the white bathtub. Someone was lying inside, facing away from me, their head leaning against the tub. They were naked and covered in blood. However, it wasn't just any person. It was Mello. I screamed once I realized that.
You'll never know the way it tears me up inside to see you
What the hell had happened? Was he even alive? I reached into the tub and attempted to pick him up. I realized too late that the blood would stain my clothes. I didn't care, I just needed to help Mello. It wasn't an easy task, but I managed to carry him to out to his room and lay him on the bed. A trail of blood followed me into the room, across the floor.
"Mello," I whispered to him. "Please, please, please wake up. I couldn't forgive myself if you died. You're my only friend. You understand me better than anyone else. We have been through so much together. I don't know what I would do without you. And... I love you."
Suddenly, as if the last thing I said startled him, I saw his eyelids open to reveal cold blue eyes staring at me.
Now that I was over the shock of finding him, I had a chance to see for myself what had happened. I glanced down and saw more than just sliced skin- I could see the pain, the reason he would do this. Across his stomach were hundreds, it seemed like, of little horizontal lines. On his left hip the cuts were much deeper. The blood from those still leaked out and pooled in the incision. The top half of his legs were covered in the same marks. Also, as he attempted to move, I saw that the inside of one arm was red with strange marks that were different than the others. These weren't bleeding, but it was as if a sharp object had been pressed into the skin, just not enough to cut it. The left arm was filled with the same little incisions all over his body.
He was silent for a few moments, his wrists clenched tightly. "Fuck!" he yelled, wincing as he sat up. "Really Matt? Why did drag me out? I was fine there!"
"You weren't okay." That much was obvious.
Mello glared at me, bit his lip in frustration and said, "I didn't care. I didn't want to be okay."
Was he honestly mad at me for saving his life? Did he want to bleed to death right there in the bathtub and let me be the one to find him? Did he really think that I wouldn't care if that happened? "Mello." was all I could say.
"What do you want?" he retorted.
"I want you to be okay."
"Not gonna freaking happen." he said in a nonchalant manner, tossing the matter aside.
I glanced down at the bloody marks all over his body once more, and he must have then realized he was naked. A look of embarrassment crossed his face and he rolled over to face the other way.
I walked into the bathroom and grabbed a fluffy towel from the closet. It was white, ironically. It will wash out, I told myself.
When I walked back into the room, Mello had curled into a ball on the bed and was sniffling. I laid the towel over him and sat down on the bed next to him.
"Go away!" he ordered me, moving to a normal position and spreading the towel over him. He was still angry.
My only response was to give him a hug. I hoped he could feel the caring and compassion in it.
"Mello... I'm not leaving you alone tonight."
