All in his Head
Doris
Kelly was exhausted when he arrived home from the hospital. he'd spoken to Matts doctor again, worried about the decision to take him off his current medication, because he knew enough to know that things like that needed to happen gradually. The doctor reassured him though, after all, Matt hadn't been on them for a long period and it was more important to remove them as they could actually be making him worse, which surprised Kelly, but he accepted what she'd said and left Matt in their care.
He was also surprised to find someone waiting at the front door.
"Hello, can I help you?"
The woman turned and Kelly vaguely recognised her. "Hi, it's Kelly, right? I'm looking for Matt?"
"Oh erm…"
"I work at the library," she told him.
"Oh, yeah, I remember… it's Doris, right? Maybe you should come inside?" he suggested as he unlocked the door.
She nodded. "Please just tell me if Matt's ok, he has such a dangerous job…"
"Please, come inside," Kelly insisted, opening the door for her.
Doris followed him into the house, glancing around as he led her into the lounge. "It's a nice place you and Matt have," she commented, smiling at the photos which were displayed above the fireplace.
"Matt bought it, it was a mess, he did an amazing job with it," Kelly said.
"Where is Matt? I tried to get hold of him last week, he was late to return his books," she explained, worry evident in her voice.
"Oh… the books…" he repeated, and thinking about it now, he wasn't convinced Matt had even finished one of them.
"Is he ok? I tried not to worry too much, but I'd expected to see him almost two weeks ago now," she asked.
"He's… it's complicated," he admitted.
"Matt is complicated."
"Yeah, he is… How do you know him? Through the library? Seems like there's more to it."
"I've known him since he was a child. What's happened?" she pressed.
"He's sick, they should have some answers soon," he said, exhausted but he realised he was going to have to explain everything to her.
"Soon? How long has he been sick?"
Kelly broke eye contact. "I think he was sick when saw you last time," he admitted, thinking about Matts request to have sex in public.
"It's been two months since then, you don't know what's wrong with him?" she asked him accusatorily.
"Hey, he's never even mentioned you before, why should I…."
"I'm sorry, I'm just worried about him," she said.
"I'm sorry too, it's been a long day," he responded.
"With Matt?"
Kelly nodded. "Take a seat…" He sat down on the smaller couch and began. "It's a long story, I guess, this morning he was transferred from a psychiatric facility to a neurology ward, he had a seizure a while ago, but were told he was psychotic, and I guess he was, but then more stuff happened, another couple of seizures and now he's having more tests."
"His mom is schizophrenic," Doris said, still taking in everything Kelly had just told her.
"Yeah, and there was a load of crap from his childhood that I didn't know about, which all made them think it wasn't physical… I was adamant it was physical for weeks and then… well, I believed them, I thought it was all in his head, and now… now he's really sick…" Tears began to fall from his eyes. "I'm sorry, and I'm sorry you had to find out like this…"
"He was sick when he saw me last time," she said slowly.
"Yeah, I'm certain of it, he was… out of character," he replied.
"Explains why he dragged you along and introduced us," she said. "I didn't know he was gay."
"He doesn't go around announcing it to everyone."
"He doesn't tell anyone anything." She smiled.
"True… I've never met anyone from his childhood before," Kelly told her.
"You probably won't meet anyone else," she responded with a sad smile.
"When did you meet him?"
"He was 13," she began. "This small skinny kid came into the library, with these large blue eyes, don't think he'd ever been into a public library before, he was looking for a book for his school project, his school library didn't have anything left, think the whole class was doing the same topic. It was on South America, he had to choose something from there and make a poster and give a presentation, I remember asking him what he wanted to choose and he just shrugged, he hardly looked at me, so I asked him if he knew anything about alpacas…" She chuckled at the memory.
Kelly frowned. "Alpacas?"
"He just looked at me as if I was speaking a foreign language," she continued. "And that was it, saw him once a week after that."
"I never knew," he said.
"I think we both know he doesn't share easily."
"Look, why don't I give you my cell number? I can keep you updated," he suggested.
"Would I be able to see him?"
"Erm… he's really not himself… it's hard, it's hard seeing him like this… or maybe I'm just a shit boyfriend," he said, shrugging, feeling disappointed in himself.
"I know you said he was sick at the time but I still don't think he'd have introduced the two of us if he didn't really love you," Doris said. "How long have you two known each other?"
"We worked together for ages before, well, before he asked me out, kinda, we'd been seeing each kinda casually but Matt doesn't do casual, and he blurted it out, asking if we were official, barely caught a word he said. It's almost been two years now," he told her.
"That's sweet," she said, smiling.
"He's the sweetest, he's so kind and generous, generous with his time and he always wants to help people," he continued.
"That's Matt," she responded.
"Yeah," he said, nodding, smiling at the memories that came to him. "He'll be ok, I'll make sure he is."
TBC