Bloody

Sean was calmly packing the day before he and Mark were set to leave for America. I knocked on the door. "Come in," he replied.

I walked in, and Jack was folding a hoodie to put in the suitcase on his bed. "Got everything?" I asked. "Clothes, toiletries, passport?"

"Yes, ma," he said, grinning. I laughed, and he started to zip up the suitcase. Then he paused.

"I wanted to say thank you," he said. I blinked. "For getting me out of that place."

"Strange," I said in reply, "because I came to thank you."

He frowned. "But I didn't do anything."

"You'd be surprised."

He sat on the bed and waited for me to continue.

"Thanks," I said again. "For coming. For staying. For helping her."

"Emily?" He said. "What did I do?"

"She needed someone here." I sat on the bed next to him. "Someone to be her friend. And you wouldn't believe how happy I am that it was someone like you."

"Like me?"

"Loud. Friendly. Ready to accept what you see and to… I guess to accept me." I smiled ruefully. "For a week before you arrived, I was terrified you'd walk in, see me, and walk right back out again. Instead, you stayed for a game of cards. And you gave me a friend of my own."

"What do you mean?"

"Anti. He's my friend. Not Emily's. Mine. Friends are hard to come by around here, and the fact that I have my own friend now…" I shook my head. "You have no idea how much it means to me.

"It's far too lonely to be with only one other person, no matter who it is. And it's even worse when that one other person is scared to death of you. You don't know what that's like. The first year with Emily was delightful. She was partly in shock from Kathy's death, but she was still in college. She had friends. She moved on, at least a little. She even trusted me enough to let me learn to knife fight. But then she graduated. Her friends vanished, and she started getting a bit paranoid about me. After a couple years of her trusting me less and less, I decided she needed to meet someone. Anyone. So I got her a roommate.

"And now look. Emily has a roommate who accepts her and me as we are. She's gotten other friends too. Mark, and Felix has gotten in contact. They're getting along famously. You've introduced her to your hobby, and she loves it. She's smiling, even laughing. I hadn't seen a genuine smile on her face in three years. She trusts me, to a certain degree. I've even just about gotten her to call her parents for once. And I have a friend."

I smiled at him. "You've changed our lives. And I know for a fact that's it's been for the better."