Renga Fluff But I Hit You In The Head With The Skateboard Of Angst

9: panic

Reki sat with the nurse's behind the table, completely disoriented and panicked. He was sobbing uncontrollably.

He heard someone ask if they could touch him, he nodded shortly and then felt a hand on his back.

"Does something hurt?" Someone asked.

Reki shook his head.

"Did something happen?" One of the nurse's asked.

Reki shook his head again.

"Can you tell us what's wrong?" The nurse asked.

Reki shook his head again.

"Does it have to do with your mom?" One of the nurse's asked softly, "nothing bad will happen to you here. We're all on your side."

Reki looked over to his room hesitantly, tears still streaming down his cheeks. He didn't do anything in response.

"Do you wanna go somewhere more private to talk with us?" A nurse asked. Reki nodded. They wheeled him down the hall and into an empty room.

"Okay, no one is gonna hear you here. Can you tell us what happened?" The nurse from earlier asked after Reki had calmed down.

And he chose to lie.

"I had a nightmare. I'm- I'm so stressed out about paying the hospital bill." He said. He was stressed, but he wasn't.

"I get really scary nightmares when I'm stressed." He pushed, "my mom was just frustrated with the situation. She was talking to me about it. She didn't do anything to me. Everything is fine I'm just so overwhelmed." He said, his eyes welling up with tears again.

"Hey kiddo, you're gonna be okay. Let us see what we can do about helping pay." The nurse said, "there's lots of solutions. Maybe we can contact a bank near you and-"

Reki shook his head, a tear dripping down his cheek, "it's fine. I've got it. We'll make it through."

"We'll make it through." He said softly, "I really just would like to sleep." He said with a yawn.

One of the nurse's standing in the back spoke up, "she hit you, didn't she."

It wasn't a question. The slap she had given him was beginning to swell and bruise. Reki looked terrified.

"I don't know." He blurted.

"What do you mean?" Another nurse asked.

"I was asleep, when I woke up my mom was asleep. It could be showing up from earlier when I fell out of the car. I hit my face in the shoulder, I didn't even notice anything was there. It doesn't hurt much." He lied. The whole of it was a lie. But the nurse's didn't know that. He didn't know why he wasn't telling them. He didn't know why he was defending his mom. Maybe it's because he knew if he got put in foster care, based on his experience in town, his life would be more of a living hell than it already was.

He was discharged from the hospital 2 days later.

Everything at home just got worse. Much much worse.

His mother had began hitting him more like she did in the hospital. His dad was home more often, drunk and angry. Both ready to lash out at him.

On one particularly hard night, he sat in his bathroom sobbing from the pain. He had torn off his shirt and pinned him against the wall with his hands above his head.

Reki's skinny torso was exposed. He watched in horror as his dad slid the belt from his jeans and heald it in his dominant hand.

It then came slamming into his ribs.