Until Death - Hidden Lies
Chapt 2:
The whole ride home my new friend, Tex as it were for the moment, sat in the seat next to me staring out the window as if looking for something but not expecting. I didn't expect anything more though since I did save him from almost killing himself, but it still made me sad looking at him.
I wanted to ask him what sparked his decision to finally end it, to take his life, but I didn't know if it was a good time or not. He never once looked back at me though, whether he was mad or upset at me was going to be a bridge to cross, which I sincerely hoped wasn't the case.
Stopping at a red light, I saw him move his mouth than close again as if figuring out something to say. To be honest the silence was awkward for me, and no doubt for him as well. At any rate I had to break it, I had to say something.
"Why?" I asked stupidly knowing it was probably best to ask later, but I could not think of anything else to ask. I felt this compulsion to know why this cat, lonely and abandoned, was going to kill himself.
"I'm tired." He replied flatly. As vague of an answer as it was I assumed he was tired of living, or some other minor variation of such. Neither his body language nor his mood changed as he spoke, as if already prepared for the question and he just responded automatically without thinking. I decided that the answer was best left alone for now and thought up of a quick way to change the topic.
"Do you want to turn on the radio? I've got some various music on the CD changer, if you are willing to put up with bad electronics and some static every now and then." I knew it probably wasn't the smoothest transition in the world, but I needed to do something other than let him mope in my passenger seat.
"Static?" he said as I perked his curiosity by asking a question he had not planned a response to .
"Yea, every time I put on the breaks the radio clicks and pops for a while before working right again. Something about electrical current or whatnot. It's only mildly annoying I assure you." I said doing a goofball grin on purpose to see if he would smile.
He did not though, and worse is he didn't answer my question. Perhaps it was my fault for trying too hard and too soon. I just refocused my effort on driving as the light changed to green. It was only another mile to my house and my mom would be home. How I was going to explain to her what had happened in the last hour was something I knew I could not plan and that I would have to wing it when we got there.
"So, how are we going to explain this to your parents." He asked out of nowhere as if reading my mind, or most likely my facial expressions through the reflection on his window.
"I figure it would be best to tell them the truth from the get go, not hide anything. You should know how these things work, they always find out eventually."
"I agree. It would be best. Not a good thing to lie to a friend's parents."
"I'm a friend now?" I asked like a dumbass, and I felt bad right after it escaped my mouth.
"Well, you did save me. I guess I owe you some sort of gratitude." Again said as plain as the color gray, although the comment had some hint of sincerity to it from the change of tone in his voice.
I sighed aloud as I had no idea what to say. It seemed that he understood what was intended but I had no way of knowing for sure as he did not give any sort of body language. The truth was it meant a lot to me, for someone to call me a friend. It meant even more that it was coming from someone who I just saved from jumping off a ten-story building. I honestly would have thought he would hate me and huffing at everything I said as if not thankful. Maybe however, was the fact that he was truly dead inside, and needed a friend more than he did an enemy.
We rolled up into my yard as there was of course nowhere to park in the driveway, and for more reason than one. Parking in the yard allowed me to access all the door of my vehicle, making of course my unstable passenger's life as easy as possible. It also made room for my parents to move their cars with more ease, since the driveway was already not big enough to handle two cars even though it was a two car driveway with garage.
I parked my car and put on the parking brake in good practice even though it was not needed and hit the unlock button for the doors only to be reminded that my passenger door did not work. Common courtesy out the window, which also only half worked, I got out and walked around to his side and unlocked the door with my key and opened the door for him. He got out with a simply nod of his head which I knew was meant as a "Thank You", and stood next to me as I grabbed my gym clothes out of the back seat.
"Is this a friend?" Oh how wonderful! You didn't tell me you were bringing someone over!" My mom exclaimed in that 'I'm your mother and you brought someone over finally because you always come home by yourself for the last 4 years. Oh I'm so happy for you but at the same time pissed because you didn't tell me!' tone.
"Yea, his name, well nickname is Tex". I said over my shoulder as I worked my way out of the door.
"Tex? Huh weird nickname but good enough for me. So how did you two meet?" We both knew the question was going to come up and there was no way around it, but this wasn't the time to discuss it.
"Mom, it's really kind of emotional and... well important. When dad gets home we will talk about it but for now just accept that we met on a building."
"On?" she questioned cocking her head to the left. Than as if registering all the other parts before that she nodded acceptingly and waved us inside"
"Tex I hope you like fish. I could not imagine why not though if you didn't." It was a slight speciesism joke but Tex managed to give her a little grin more out of common courtesy than at the joke itself. I knew it was fake, however and that he was simply doing it so as to not be rude. "It will be a few more minutes until Marcus gets home from work. Feel free to go watch TV as I set the table boys." She finished as she waved us off, which translated to 'I don't want you in the kitchen'.
Following me to the living room to the right of the door we took a seat on the couch and turned on the TV. It was nothing fancy really, just a 32 inch LCD flat screen made by a trusted brand, but that was it. We really didn't have anything fancy in our house or yard. Our cars were your standard passenger vehicles, push-mower, a few flowery plants to spruce up the yard with some nice lights which were all complimented with your standard made of cinderblocks and stucco house. The furniture was really nothing to comment on either, just standard crap that was cheap from that Scandinavian store whose name eludes me.
"Anything you want to watch?" I asked caring about is interest.
"Anything but the news, I'm probably on it still" His reply this time had a hint of sadness behind it, which was understandable. He didn't want to watch from a 3rd person perspective of what almost happened.
With that I simply flipped to the Sci-Fi channel and for a few minutes we watched "Last of Omega" before my father walked through the door. He was as surprised as my mother that I had someone over but he held his words as he walked into the kitchen. I could hear them talking but could not make out what they were saying. The times I had wished for dog like hearing were continuing upwards, bringing a slight smile across my muzzle.
"Dinner boys!" my mom more or less yelled from the kitchen.
The kitchen was the one poor design flaw of the house. It was more or less a large room that was built along the side of the house and expanded to the back opening directly into the garage. The house didn't really have a dedicated dining room so the kitchen was built around the idea of a buffet. The counters were spacious and wrapped all the way around as to hold various amounts of food items and drinks. The bad thing about this was it didn't really leave a whole lot of storage cabinets so a lot of cookware was placed on the counters themselves as decorations.
As we walked in my parents were already seated, both of them waiting patiently for something other than the food that was prepared. We took our seats next to each other and waited as my dad whispered something back to my mother and she nodded in return.
"I saw the news before I left work." My dad started in a calm voice. "I'm not going to pretend I know why or understand what would bring one to make that choice. I don't know anything that has happened in your life and I'm not going to force it out of you. If at some point in time you wish to talk about it Karee and I will both be here. I will also understand if you aren't the most... responsive fur at the moment and we will do what we can within reason to help you feel better."
With that he turned his attention towards me. "I'm proud of you, and you have done the right thing by saving someone's life". Than looking back and forth between us both "You are welcome to stay here, but there are rules that we will request that you follow. However we will put those off until tomorrow when you have had more time to clear your head. Now that the formal crap is out of the way, let's eat. It is almost 11."
Tex didn't eat much during dinner, a little fish here but mostly mashed potatoes. He seemed genuinely interested in the food, but must have felt bad or too stressed to eat. I didn't bother asking because like my dad said, he needed to clear his head.
As my parents left to retire for the night in the other side of the house, I took Tex to my room and showed him the rest of the house. He seemed to take note of everything very well and didn't have any questions to ask at the end, so we went back to my room and sat down on my futon.
"Anything you want to do or watch?" I said holding my TV remote in one paw and the DVD remote in the other.
"I think I will just go to sleep. You can stay up and do what you need, it won't bother me."
"Huh, well you can either sleep here on the Futon or if you are more comfortable the couch in the living room is pretty nice." I said quickly running out of conversation starters. To be this drained of 'How to start a conversation' material was at one point I assumed was impossible.
"Is it ok if... I sleep here. I mean..." He stammered out of his mouth. Maybe some sort of traumatization or behavior barrier, but either way there was emotion behind the words. Not good emotion, sadness and fear, but something was better than nothing even if it is worse.
"Sure" I said with a kind grin across my muzzle, not the creepy sort of one but the 'I care what's best for you' one. He opened his maw as if to say something else but shut it and nodded.
"Want me to fold it out for you" I asked as he lay down on the mattress.
"No, I uh... Like something against my back. Just a thing, like a pillow between your legs." Again there was emotion, sadness, but less of it. However this statement was followed by some tail movement so I knew there was more behind it. However I just let it be and shut off the light getting into my own bed. It was rather an awkward experience since it normally slept nude.