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LTJM: Thanks for the review! And don't worry, this one won't be so angsty and even has a little fluff! So enjoy!

Ch 5: Therapy

Ned's POV

A few minutes before Loomer woke up.

I was seriously freaking out. One minute Loomer was leaning on me, snoring peacefully and then he just stopped. For a moment I thought he woke up, but when I looked over he was still asleep. I figured he just stopped snoring and went back to watching TV, but something was off. I could no longer feel his breathe on my neck where his head was resting.

I pushed him off of me and laid him down. His chest wasn't rising or falling. I put my ear to his mouth, just in case his breathing was just really light, but there was nothing coming out.

"Oh God. What am I gonna do!" I was panicking. I didn't know mouth to mouth! I'm an 8th grader for Pete's Sake! I could feel tear pricking at my eyes, this couldn't be happening!

"Oh, Loomer you gotta wake up!" I gripped his shoulders and gave him a small shake, he was still injured and if-WHEN he woke up, I didn't want him to be in too much pain.

"Jesus, wake up!" Another shake. Still nothing. 'Oh God!'

"WAKE UP!" His eyes flickered and then opened up slowly. 'Oh thank God!'

"What the-? Ned?" He surveyed my face for a moment in confusion, "What's wrong?" I almost wanted to laugh. He had no idea he had been dead for the last couple minutes.

"You stopped breathing..." My voice hitched and I couldn't say anything else without fear of breaking down crying. His eyes widened considerably and his mouth dropped. It would've been comical if the situation were different.

"What?" His voice was small and full of fear, like he didn't want to believe something truly horrifying.

"You...you were....dead for the last three minutes. At least, thats what I think happens when you stop breathing!" I couldn't help but be a little ticked off. I don't know why, but I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs in anger and agony. He could've-He Was DEAD! His brows furrowed in thought and I wanted to shake him in frustration.

I wasn't in love with Loomer, more along the lines of 'has deep affection toward', but in that moment, I wanted to scream at him for dieing. I should be glad he woke up, but I was just so mad and hurt and scared.

"Its just like in the dream." I heard him whisper. He dreamed that he DIED! This was just more than my patience could handle.

"What the hell are you talking about!? Dream?! What dream?!" He went back to thinking and I had to get up. I couldn't be next to him right now for fear that I would do something that I would really regret. So I paced.

"I've been having these weird as hell dreams ever since I crashed on your doorstep last night. In the first one, my dad tried to kill me, but I woke up. The second one I was bleeding and it felt like my head was going to explode, but I woke up. This last one, I was sinking and bleeding, and I could only watch it happen. I was in so far that I couldn't breathe...and then I...woke up." I stopped pacing and he looked up at me in confusion and fear. "I don't know whats going on." All of the anger and maliciousness melted away as I looked at him. Loomer was seldom scared of anything, really, honest to goodness, scared. It didn't help that I was scared either.

"Me either." I sat down and he sat up. He looked like he was going to say something but shook his head. "What is it?"

"I'm...I'm just...." he trailed off but I knew what he wanted to say.

"Scared?" he nodded, "Me too." He hesitantly wrapped his arm around my shoulders and rested his head on my shoulder, sighing in relief when I didn't show any signs of pushing him off. I smiled and grabbed his left hand with mine.

"I am so messed up." he muttered into my neck and I snorted.

"Maybe you need a shrink? My moms pretty good." he snorted and shook his head a little bit.

"Yeah, she already tried to give me therapy. No offense, but I think I can handle my own problems."

"None taken, but if your dreams are trying to kill you and actually succeeding, maybe thats a sign that you should talk to somebody that can help you."

"Yeah, I suppose your right. I'm just not used to expressing my feelings, let alone talking about them. Guys don't do that sort of thing."

"I do."

"Your point?" I rolled my eyes and he snorted, "But, I'll try it out. It wouldn't hurt anything and I'm not going back to sleep anytime soon."

"Good idea."

"So, should I tell you or...what?"

"I think you should tell my mom, she might be able to help you. I'd like it if you told me, but telling it twice will probably be hard, and I can wait until mom gets home. You can tell us both at once." He nodded and I turned on the TV to distract us until my mom got home.

When my mom came home we had changed positions. We were laying along the couch, Loomer on the bottom, my head on his shoulder, avoiding his bruised rib cage. We were watching some cheesy horror film that had Loomer laughing so hard he was hacking and coughing.

"I guess your feeling better Billy."

"Yes ma'am, thanks to you and your husband."

"What about me? I helped." I said jokingly indignant.

"Oh yes, thank you for not feeding me and letting me starve to death." The last word made us both go silent, the room filling with tension. My mom furrowed her brow in confusion. "Sorry." He lightly petted my head in apology.

"Its fine." I whispered.

"Somethings up. What is it?" My mom asked crossing her arms across her chest. I sighed as Loomer carefully sat up, me following suit.

"Um, Mrs. Bigby-"

"Laura."

"Right, Laura, theres something that I need to talk to you about."

"Do you want Ned's mother, or the therapist?"

"Um, whomever will help the most, but I would appreciate it if we kept it confidential." She smiled and sat down on the table in front of the couch.

"That I can do." She picked up the notebook and pencil that I had left on the table last night while doing my homework and waited patiently for Loomer to start. He looked to me nervously and I nodded my head and smiled encouragingly. He smiled back and cleared his throat.

"I lied last night when you asked what happened to me. Well, partially. My dad did kick me out but he did all of this, too." He swept his arm in front of himself, talking about his bruised and beaten torso and face. "Hes not too fond of...."

"Homosexuals?" My mom supplied.

"Yeah, that." He paused and I squeezed his hand. He squeezed back and started again, "Last night I had this really strange dream.

Here is where I recount the dream, so if you don't want to read it again, please scroll down to the 'end dream sequence'!

"Fag! Fag! Fag!" the blurry faces around me chanted over and over. I felt myself spinning around and around. The faces blurring more and more until only words and sounds could penetrate my senses. The sounds of jeering and the word fag echoed throughout my mind over and over. My eyes saw black and the noises stopped abruptly.

A small light appeared, chasing away the darkness inch by inch until I could see four shadowy figures standing before me. I looked around but it looked like I was standing on an invisible platform in the middle of pitch black. The four figures before me seemed to float more than stand and I had yet to see their faces. Two were about the same height and standing closer together than the other two. The middle one was taller and bulkier and the last was shorter than all three and smaller in stature. There was no noise, not even breathing. I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out.

"Your worse than dirt, fag. Your going to Hell. You'll never be happy. Pray for death, fag, pray." came a familiar low gravelly voice.

'Dad, your wrong, your going to Hell!' I wanted to say, but I felt like I wasn't in control of my body. It felt cold and numb, unmoving. The only thing that seemed to work was my eyes and ears, for I could hear and see my father. His figure was illuminated in light and he began to laugh.

"Your wrong. Die." I didn't remember seeing him carrying a knife, but he had one in his hand as he lifted his arm and threw it. It flew in slow motion toward my face but I couldn't move out of the way, I was frozen to the spot.

'No!'

End Dream Sequence

Thats when I woke up. You were there." My mom nodded and wrote something down. I wasn't sure I wanted to listen to the rest of his dreams, but I knew I needed to.

"So this dream-"

"That was only the first one. There were two more." My mom nodded and waited for him to continue. "The second one occurred after you left me to sleep.

Another dream~scroll down if you don't want to read it!

I opened my eyes to see three shadowed figures. My father was gone but his laughter still rang through the air. Low and sinister. His body was gone but it felt like he was all around me. It felt like I was being watched but I couldn't turn my head to look around. I was still standing on the blackness but the 'air' around me felt heavier, more suffocating.

"Poor little gay boy. Mommy and daddy don't love you anymore. You don't have any friends now. Your reputation is gone, don't ever show your face around here again, or we just might bash it in." The two silhouettes were illuminated and I saw my two friends Jerry and Buzz taunting me. Their laughter mixed in with my fathers making a loud raucous noise that was beginning to make my head hurt.

The chanting began again, getting louder every passing moment. I heard the jeering and laughter multiply until it felt like I was in a small room packed with hundreds of people just laughing at me. Taunting me. Chanting 'Fag' over and over. The sounds bounced around in my skull until I thought my head would explode.

I felt claustrophobia overcome me and my throat constricted restricting each breath. I was drowning in the noise and I still couldn't move my body, just stare hopelessly as my 'friends' laughed and taunted me. They pointed and doubled over in laughter just like all those times I wedgied or tripped a kid.

'No stop it!' The chanting, taunting, and my father's sinister laugh warped around me, becoming louder and faster every second. I felt like my head was going to split open and something warm trickled down my neck on each side, pooling at my collarbone. Blood. MY. Blood.

End Dream Sequence

Ned was there when I woke up." He pointed to me and my mother looked at me.

"What was he doing while he slept? Was he tossing and turning or showing any other signs of unrest?" I thought back to earlier today.

"No, he looked pretty peaceful, except he was gripping the blanket so hard his fingernails were tearing into his palms. He woke up shouting 'No'."

"He also shouted that when he woke up from the first one." She wrote something else down and smiled at Loomer. "You said there was another one?"

"Um, y-yeah. Ned and I, we...um.." I jumped in when he trailed off.

"We just had a fight and them made up, we were watching TV when he fell asleep."

"Yeah. So I fell asleep.

Another dream sequence, you know what to do!

I sighed in annoyance when I recognized my surroundings. Another dream. Crap.

Only one silhouette stood in front of me and it was completely quiet, thankfully. I waited patiently for whatever this silhouette was going to say, silently pleading for something positive, but that would've been to good to be true.

"Its too much pressure. You'll break and let the only person who still cares for you down. He'll be crushed. He'll hate you forever. You have no one. Your a failure in everything that you do. Your a curse that brings misery to everything you touch." The figure stayed in the dark but I didn't need to see to know who it was.

'Ned, don't say that. We're in this together, right?' I wished so hard I could speak. If there was anyone I needed on my side, it was Ned.

"You'll sink under the pressure soon enough. You won't be able to handle it. Your a failure, always have been, always will be. Failure." I was sinking. I felt an unnatural weight on my shoulders, like the gravity had been turned up enough so that I couldn't lift my arms, or even a finger. My head fell to my chest under the unknown weight. My feet were slowly sinking into the blackness, one tiny bit after another.

I could only watch as the seconds ticked by like hours and each second my body sank more. I couldn't look up and I couldn't struggle. I was frozen in place. Complete silence encompassed me. At least with the noises from before, I knew I was alive, but it was so quiet and still now. I realized that the pressure on my body wasn't just from above, it was all around me. It was crushing my torso, so I couldn't breath, I couldn't even blink. I felt the same warmth slide down my neck from both of my ears and down my chin from my nose. I could see the droplets of blood fall from me in slow motion and disappear into the darkness with the rest of me.

I was now hip deep in darkness. My hands were completely submerged and it felt like gel. The blood pouring from my ears and nose continued to flow and I wondered if I would bleed to death before suffocating in the gel. The drops fell methodically, creating a dripping noise that was slowly driving me insane.

I wondered if Ned was still standing there, watching me slowly sink to my death. Thats all I could do now. Think. And Think. Nothing responded to my commands to move. I could only watch as the darkness crept up my torso slowly and think.

The darkness had swallowed my body up to my neck. I stopped thinking a while back and just watched.

Closer.

Up to my chin.

Over my mouth.

Filling up my nostrils.

My eyelids slide shut.

Almost there-

"Wake up!" came a small echo.

'What?' I wanted to open my eyes, but the gel was sealing them shut.

"Jesus, wake up!" the echo came again, louder this time.

'I can't.' I willed my eyes to open up with every last bit of strength, but they wouldn't.

"WAKE UP!" the words were loud and pleading. They didn't echo and it sounded like they were shouted right in my ear. My eyes slowly opened.

End Dream Sequence

And thats when I woke up." He looked over at me and tilted his head toward my mom. I sighed and my mother looked at me questioningly.

"Well, he fell asleep and I rested his head on my shoulder because the way he was sleeping would probably give him a sore neck. After a while he stopped snoring and I just thought he had woken up or something. He was still asleep though, so I thought maybe he was starting to wake up, but he wasn't....I couldn't feel his breathe on my shoulder anymore. So I freaked out for a bit and then laid him down to see if his chest was moving and..it....wasn't. I couldn't even feel breath coming out of his nose or mouth. He...he was...dead. I panicked and started yelling at him to wake up and he did. Eventually."

My mother wrote something else down after I was done and started to skim the notes again. After a few tense minutes she looked up and smiled.

"I don't know why you stopped breathing for sure, but I have an idea." Loomer and I glanced at each other and leaned toward my mom.

"So...?" Loomer prompted when she stayed silent.

"I think the stress and anxiety of the situation, added to your physical wounds, has caused your mind to try to go into a temperary coma. Mostly because your body isn't healing very well and you obviously have pent up frustrations with the situation. Your stressed, confused, hurt, and feeling anxious about what will happen next. I believe your dad beating and kicking you out was a catalyst." I blinked. A coma?

"But he wasn't breathing?" My mom smiled a little.

"Its common with coma patients to have very slight breathing, almost like they are going into hibernation. They seem dead, but they aren't."

"Oh, so he wasn't dead?" I asked hopefully.

"Most likely not, especially if he woke up moments later. If you had waited any longer, he probably would have gone into full comatose and who knows when he would've woken up?"

"So, I'll be alright?" Loomer asked in relief.

"Well, yeah, but you'll need to sort everything out, because emotionally, your a wreck. Well, physically, as well, but that'll heal with the proper rest." he nodded and let out a sigh of relief, as did I. "It would be in your best interest to talk to somebody who can help you sort out yourself out."

"Like a shrink?" he smirked. My mom smiled in reply.

"If that is what you want, then sure." Loomer chuckled and nodded.

"Sure."

"Then we'll start tomorrow!" she got up and went to the kitchen, leaving us alone.

"I hope everything gets sorted out."

"Yeah. Do you...can you, ya know, be there when we, um.....oh forget it." I chuckled at how nervous he was being.

"If you want me to be there when my mother psycho-analyzes you, I will be." he laughed lightly.

"That would be awesome."

"Then its no problem....baby." I stuck my tongue out teasingly and he narrowed his eyes.

"Girl." I narrowed my eyes this time and he stuck his tongue out.

"Now, now, children. Play nice." We both rolled our eyes as my mom poked her head out of the kitchen. "Now what do you two want to eat?"

"Anything is good." Loomer said politely.

"Since when did you get polite?" He just rolled his eyes. "How about lasagna? We haven't had it in awhile!" Mom laughed from the kitchen.

"Lasagna it is. Would you like some salad and garlic bread to go with it?"

"Sure, sounds good." Loomer said, again acting polite. I snorted and rolled my eyes. "What?"

"Nothing."

Thats it guys! This one is less angsty and has some fluff and humor, as well! Yay! Anyway, reviews are greeeaaaat!