"So, Evan. What is it you wanted to talk with me about?", I asked Evan as I passed him a cup of coffee and sat accross from him at my kitchen table. It was a beautiful May day and the wounds I had gotten on my leg were still bandaged tightly like Evan's. Evan had called me earlier and said he wanted to meet with me because of something important. From his tone it sounded pretty serious, especially since he never uses a serious tone that often.
"Well, I was over at Jeff's place the other day, y'know checking how Alex was doing since Sparky died", Evan started to explain and I asked,
"And how is he?", I asked as I twirled a piece of my scarf around my finger.
"Oh, just fine when you ignore his new sock puppet", Evan said.
"Sock puppet?", I repeated with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, named Sparky", Evan said point blank.
"...He is'nt".
"He is", Evan said bluntly. "He's getting worse, Claire. First he's listening to recordings of his parents, and now he believes a fucking sock is his dog. I don't know which is fucking creepier".
"I don't believe it", I shuck my head. "What about Jeff? He certainly can't be-"
"Oh, he knows. He just won't listen to me and take him to a doctor. Says he has to protect Alex". Evan snorted. "Doing-"
"More harm then good", I finished for Evan bitterly. "He actually think this is better then getting help?"
"That's why I'm here", Evan told me as he leaned over the table a bit. "You would have a bit more expierence in this then the rest of us sort of, no offense".
"None taken. I mean, it is kinda true", I said half heartedly.
"Yeah, and your the voice of reason".
"Actually, it's more your the loon who does'nt listen to reason", I said with a small smile. Evan chuckled faintly.
"Well, let me rephrase that. I mean, since you were in a similar situation with your mom and your sis, maybe Jeff will listen to you more".
"You think he would?", I asked, a bit hesitant since I could only imagine what Jeff might respond.
"We have to do something".
"Good point", I mumbled. "So, you wanna go over after we finish our coffees, or do you want me to invite Jeff over?"
"Well, Alex is in school now so I guess now is a good time to go".
We drank our drinks as quickly as we could without burning our mouths and made our way to Jeff's house. I took a small breath and rang the doorbell.
"Well, showtime I guess", I muttered as I heard the front door open to reveal Jeff inside.
"Claire, Evan, hey what's up?", Jeff asked. "Want to come in?"
We went to the kitchen and I went over in my mind what exactly I should start off with untill Jeff said,
"So, everything okay?"
"Um...", I was a bit hesitant to start, but the light kick on my leg from Evan made me start talking. "Actually, Jeff er... Evan's told me about Alex".
"Oh?"
"Yeah, and uh... I, have to side with him on this", I told Jeff. "I mean, I understand where your coming from, Jeff. I do. But for crying out loud man, it was bad enough he thinks your parents are still alive but thinking a sock is Sparky? He clearly needs help".
"No! He needs me", Jeff argued. "If I take him to a doctor, he might be locked away and I can't let that happen".
"Jeff, don't you remember what happened to my mom?", I told him in a soft tone. "She thought Eve and dad were still alive, and now she's in a mental home".
"That's why I have to protect Alex, I don't want him to end up like your mom!"
The room was then silent for a second, and I stared at Jeff for a few minutes untill I let my emotions get the better of me and I slapped him right accross the face.
"Don't you EVER, say that again!" I glared darkly at Jeff as I stood up from my chair. "I'll admit I laughed at some of the stuff she says now and then, but I will not let you use my mother as an inspiration as to what you don't want to have Alex become!"
"That was a low blow dude", Evan told Jeff. Jeff cringed as he rubbed his face and mumbled,
"I'm sorry. Your right, that was low". I calmed down a bit and sat back down.
"Okay. I'm sorry I slapped you".
"Is your hand made of iron or something? Hurt like a bitch", Jeff told me.
"Is that meant to be a compliment or insult?", I asked.
"Both?"
"Well, joking aside", Evan began. "Claire is still right you know, and you should listen. You might work in a hospital, but Claire does have more of an idea about this then you do".
"I know", Jeff sighed. "But I just can't".
"Jeff, when my sister was mentally ill, I tried to hide her more serious symptoms from mom and dad", I said fimly. "And what happened to her? She hung herself, and I have to live with the fact that my family is broken because of that, and I don't want you to go through the same thing. I don't want you to make the same mistake I did".
"I...I appreciate this guys, I really do", Jeff said with a small sigh. "But this is different. Besides, he only thinks that sock is Sparky. It's not as bad as it could have been. And we can't blame him for feeling like this. He does'nt have any friends besides you two and Vince, and Sparky was his only friend outside of that".
Evan muttered under his breath. He was about to say something else but Jeff looked at the time and quickly stood up.
"Sorry guys, but there's something I have to do at the hospital and I have to be there by at least one if I'm going to pick Alex up at school later".
"So, what should we do?", Evan asked while we stood at his car as Jeff drove away from his home. "I mean, we gotta do something".
"There's nothing we can do", I told him.
"C'mon, there's gotta be something!", Evan demanded. "Would'nt this be child abuse or something?"
"I would'nt be an expert in law but I don't think that this would fall under it exactly".
"Well, don't you have an uncle who's a lawyer?"
"Uncle Mathew only worked under businesses, and he died when I was fifteen", I muttered.
"...Geez, Claire. No offense to you or Jeff but what is it with you two and family members dying or going crazy?"
"...We got the shit stick?"
"Sounds about right", Evan mumbled.
"Look, I want to help Alex too, I really do. But even legally I don't think we could do anything. Jeff has sole guardianship of him and Alex will be eighteen soon. We don't have any say over what he should do".
"Fuck!", Evan slamed a hand on his car in frustration. I made a calming motion with my hand as I told him,
"Look, calm down. Jeff's right in a way. In retrospect, believing a sock puppet to be a dog is pretty mild compared to pratically obeying tape recordings".
"I guess...that's kinda true", Evan admitted reluctantly. "This does'nt make it alright though".
"I never said it was".
"...Things just seemed to be getting more, and more fucked up", Evan muttered. "This, people dying. Hell that pyscho, Habit hacked onto Steph's blog and is posting creepy shit".
"I know, I saw", I nodded glumly as I thought over the documentry clip Habit posted of the inspiration for the movie, 'Pyscho'. "How's Steph taking it?"
"She's pretty annoyed to put it lightly", Evan anwsered. "She's changed the password, but I don't think it'll work".
"Yeah, I mean...If it's happened once, what's to stop a second time?"
"If it keeps going, Steph might have to abandon it", Evan said with a scowl.
"Well, let's not worry about that for another while then", I sighed. "We're in the now. Let's enjoy it while we can".
"I guess". We were quiet for a bit before Evan spoke up. "Soo, you want me to drive you back home?"
"Yeah, sure", I mumbled before we got in.
Several days later, me, Eva, Jeff, Alex, Daniel and Jessie were at Vinnie's place for a movie night. My boyfriend was going to come too but his manager called last minute for him to help with restocking.
We were in Vince's basement and I was sitting next to Jessie and Evan as the pair messed about. Vince was holding the camera and talking to the audience.
"Fah", Evan teased Jessie, acting like a little monster and pushing her into me.
"Hey, watch it", I laughed as I grabbed a cushion and hit Evan with it lightly.
"Alright guys, so we decided to get things back to normal here with a good old fashioned movie night. We've got the projector and I think we're looking up some movies. Al! What have we got cooking? What movies?", Vince asked Alex who was looking through the movies.
"Uh...Dawn of The Dead or Shaun of The Dead".
"Guys?"
"Dawn", the rest of us bar Jessie answered back.
"Please God, Dawn", Evan added in with a grin as Jessie said,
"I've never seen either one, so..."
"Dawn. It sounds like an overwhelming Dawn", Vince announced.
"Well, Boondocks it is!", Alex said.
"Alright, well, he decided Boondock Saints".
None of us had any problems with that choice so there were no complaints and we were all just chatting when Vince asked,
"What... What's that?" I looked over at Vince, wondering what he was asking about untill I saw Alex had a white sock on his hand with black buttons glued on. So this was, 'Sparky'.
"Sparky", Alex answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"What do you mean, 'Sparky'? Sparky, like, an imaginary friend?", Vince pressed on. I looked at Evan and mouthed,
'Did'nt you tell him?'
'No', Evan mouted back, with a little voice.
"Uhm... Jeff?", Vince asked Jeff who was standing up from the couch and motioning to Alex to talk to him upstairs.
"What the fuck was that?", Vince asked Evan seriously.
"Dude, I've told him. I've fucking told Jeff a thousand fucking times take his brother to a goddamn doctor or to a fucking hospital or something, but he just keeps saying, 'I protect him, I gotta protect him. They'll take him away I gotta protect him. They just take, they'll put him, they'll lock him up' or some shit, but, fuck...", Evan explained, doing an impersonation of Jeff. A bad impersonation.
"Well, if he keeps letting him do this he's gonna get put away", Vince said.
"Yeah, or, I dunno, fucking go crazy and like burn their house down or kill himself or some shit. It's fucked up".
"Well, Claire maybe you could-"
"I've already tried", I told him after a small sigh. "He won't listen to me. He's afraid Alex will end up like my mom or sis and I've tried telling him that not taking him to a doctor will make it worse, but he won't, frickin', listen".
"Yeah, and Claire was like, the ace card I had to convince Jeff. If she out of all of us can't reason with him, then I have no fucking idea what we're going to do", Evan told Vince.
"I thought we were supposed to be normal?", Jessie asked.
I thought so too Jess. I thought so too.