Andy's P.O.V.

Christofer has drifted since the accident, but not in the way people usually do. He is not on autopilot. he did not shut down. Christofer's version of drifting is the exact opposite because Christofer, he's hyperactive and hyper-aware. He is out of control and not even I want to have to stop him. The day after the accident, he woke up with a ridiculous amount of energy, and the motivation to spend it. He went to school like it was a normal day, but he could not sit still for five minutes. He has been dragging me out everyday after school for bowling, or mini-golfing, or like yesterday, laser tag. Granted, I enjoyed when he tackled me behind a wall just to kiss me, but I have a couple of nasty bruises too. Christofer has clearly been looking for a distraction, and his friends are all glad to see him happy, but I could only take it for so long. I made it to Friday before everything started to get to me.

I am sitting in my first period class, alone with my thoughts until Juliet plops down in the seat next to me (as usual). I stay in my thought trance, undisturbed by her arrival. Juliet has always refused to be ignored and that is evident because she slides over until the side of her body was nearly pushing me off of my chair.

"Hey Mr. Pensive. How's it going? Whats got you thinking so hard?" Juliet moved back over to her chair, but still looked over at me expectantly. On the outside, it looks like she is just playing around to annoy me, but after all of these years, I can read her eyes like a book. She's asking for my own good, because she cares, and because I sometimes forget that she can only read some of my thoughts, so at times like these, I have to talk.

"I'm just thinking about Christofer." I make sure to put finality in my tone, but when Juliet wants something, nothing can stop her.

"Yeah, I've noticed that too. What about him? Oh, is he still struggling over Tay? By the way, where is Alex? I haven't heard anything about him yet. He isn't....he's okay right?"

"Alex broke his leg, but the reason he is not here is because he is pretty much glued to her bedside. He won't leave for anything. I've been keeping tabs on Tay's condition through him." I know what her next question will be, but that does nothing to mentally prepare me to answer it. I really don't want to think about it; it hits too close to home.

"How is she doing?" I hesitate, and I am sure Juliet understands what I can't say out loud because Alex could hardly say it himself.

"She's still in a coma. Christofer still won't go to see her. I don't know what to do with him." I honestly have no clue about how to convince someone to go visit their sister who is in critical condition, but I am sure I need to do it.

"Do you remember when my grandmother got really sick a few years ago and my family went to Texas to visit her? When she died, I regretted not going to visit her one last time. If Taylor gets worse, or god forbid, she dies, he is going to be haunted about this." She brings up a very valid point, but still no solution.

"I don't know what to do to help him though." All I have done thus far is indulge him and keep his mind off of her; not the best plan of action.

"Andrew, you are great with words when it's really important, I should know. Talk to him after school. Calm him down and tell him to visit her." She says that like it's simple, but I get the feeling that something this important is going to be difficult with Christofer.

"Now, speaking of Christofer, it has been weeks of you two intensely pining, why haven't you two gotten together yet? You usually would have at least asked him out by now." Lucky for me, the teacher walks in right on cue and assigns us random groups for today's assignment, leaving Jules no choice but to leave me with some random red head. I don't want to talk about how fragile Christofer really is. His scars are a story only he can tell, so it certainly isn't my place to tell anyone.

When the bell rings, I don't even notice how quickly my day is passing until the day is already over and I'm standing at my locker, waiting for Christofer. I am almost dreading the confrontation of the issue, but there is the only way he is going to deal with this.

I've been waiting for five minutes too long, and my stomach is beginning to tighten with worry. Where is he. I walk down the hallway and head towards his last class. I only get halfway there before I turn down a hallway and find the last thing I expected. There are a few members of the lacrosse team standing in a little cluster on one side of the hallway. On the other side, Christofer is wrestling against Eli in what looks like an actual fight.

I quickly step into action on this all too familiar situation, pulling the two apart. Christofer had straddled Eli and was viciously swinging his fist into the other boy's gut. Wow! This is bad. When I successfully pull them apart, Christofer is struggling against me to get back into the fight, but I am not having it. Christofer does not stop pulling against me, so I have no choice but to push him back a few steps down the hallway until his back is pressed roughly against a locker.

"Fucking calm down baby." I nearly growl into his ear so he gets the idea that I want him to stay there, but my voice still softens at the end of the sentence. I back up to look him in the eye and see that he understands before I walk back over to where Eli is on the ground, forcing me to crouch down to talk to him.

"What did I tell you about touching him?" I know there is fury in my eyes because he is shrinking back. I place a heavy hand over his stomach where I know he must already be bruising, and he winces, hard.

"He started it. He hit me first." I don't let my shock reach my face or freeze me. I take it in stride.

"I don't give an effervescent fuck about who threw the first punch. You are to stay away from him no matter what. You walk away next time, or I'll make sure you can't walk at all." Each of my sentences is punctuated by him wincing as I put more pressure on his stomach.

I stand back up fully before I tell them to leave, and I watch them quickly scurry down the hall and out of sight, I turn back around to find Christofer standing where I left him while his eyes trained on me and full of emotions, each worse than one of the others. I can't help but to walk over and wrap him in a tight hug and gently kiss the point where his neck meets his shoulder. I twine our fingers together and wordlessly drag him back to my car to drive him home. When we get there, I still haven't spoken. I stop to appraise his face and zero in on a forming bruise on his cheek, gently reaching up to brush my fingers against his cheek . I go to get ice and he goes up to his room. His mother is in the kitchen looking tired.

"Hello Mrs. Ingle." I can't help but to call her that despite how many times she's told me to call her by her first name.

"Hello sweetie, how are things going?" She sounds just as worn out as she looks, but her eyes are watching me pull an ice pack from the freezer, questioning me with her eyes.

"Is he okay?"

"Christofer is fine, he got into a fight today." We share a look across the room that says we feel the same about this.

"You are really great for him. You done so much to protect him just in the month he has known you. I worry about him a lot less knowing that you are around to take care of him." She looks so happy that I am here, but her words make me really comfortable and I can't help but say the next thing that comes to mind.

"I love him." It comes out without my consent and it is much quieter than everything else I've said, but I know Mrs. Ingle heard me.

"Yes hun, I can see that; you really care about him." She steps closer and pulls me into a hug. "I know he will realize it too soon." She throws me a reassuring smile before I leave with the ice.

The short walk to Christofer's room feels long, but it isn't any longer than usual. I open the door and close it behind me once I'm inside. I hand him the ice pack immediately and he just stares at me. I look away towards the window. His room is a lot darker than I have ever seen it in the day time because there is only one small light on in the corner of the room. The rain is gently falling, and it is fitting weather for both of our moods.

"What the fuck were you thinking today?" I don't really know how I feel right now, but despite anger being a contributing factor in my mood, I keep my voice calm. The rain is picking up a bit, and I notice that the window is open so I close it. I cut out the rest of the world, and the noise, and the confusion, and maybe even a little bit of pain, so it's just the two of us.

"What possessed you to start a fight with Eli? you know how stupid that was, you could have been seriously injured." He is staring down at the ice pack in his hand but not using it; it's bugging me.

I wouldn't have minded. Did you maybe consider that I was looking for trouble?" His tone is something I have never heard from him before, and I don't like it.

"You are out of control; you've been acting reckless. What is wrong with you? Stop trying to self destruct. Own up to your situation." These words set him in motion and I have no choice but to watch his anger boil over.

"Do you think this is easy? Do you think it' so simple for one of the most important people in my life to be sitting in a cold bed with machines breathing for her right now? I will do whatever the fuck I want to do right now, and if you don't like it, there's the door." There is a fire in his eyes and it feels bad to know that I lit it, but at the same time, I'm glad.

"You need to calm down. I do not think anything about this is easy or simple. This is probably the most difficult situation you have ever faced in your life, but you can't run away from it. You need to go see her or you'll regret it." I know he heard me on the inside, but I can see that he is not thinking rationally on the outside.

"You can't tell me what I need to do. You have no idea how I feel right now. Your life is so simple. No one gets in your way. You can be happy everyday. You aren't constantly being nagged in the back of your head about not being good enough to be around other people. You don't know how hard this is." Christofer isn't yelling yet, but I feel it coming on. He is still sitting in the same place in the middle of his bed with the ice pack in his hand.

"Christofer, I am only telling you these things because I care about you. I want you to be happy." My voice has not raised in the slightest, but Christofer's does.

"I never asked for this! i didn't ask for you to care! I didn't ask for you in my life. No one told you to get so invested in a major fuck up like myself. You did this all to yourself. You're wasting your time on me, I am a worthless, hopeless cause, and you can't help me. Stop trying." His eyes are darkening every time he speaks and I see him quickly shutting down before my eyes.

"I will not give up on you Christofer. How I feel about you at this point is so much more than just caring. I love you." Woops, I wasn't supposed to tell him that.

"No, you don't love me. You can't. I don't need you to care. I don't need you here or ever, and I certainly don't need this. I'm not going to sit here and be your charity case. I won't sit by and be sad, pathetic Christofer for you to put back together any longer."

"You're not charity Chrissy." I can't help the pleading tone I use. It's breaking my heart to see him on fire like this. He is burning from the inside out and he won't let me help him.

"Fuck this. Fuck you. I don't want you in my life. I don't want you here. Just leave." Christofer is on the verge of tears now, but I know he is at the end of his rope, but I think I'm at the end of mine too.

"Use the fucking ice pack!" I yell before I storm out of his room and the house. I walk all the way to my car before I stop for a moment. The rain is coming down so harshly that I am soaked within seconds, but I can't bring myself to care. There is water pouring down my face and I can't tell it it's rain or if I'm crying, but again, I can't bring myself to care. I can't help but stare at Christofer's window he is standing.

I can't stand it anymore, so i get in my car and drive. I make it halfway home before I realize that I wasn't crying before, but as I get home and back to my room, silent tears slip out against my will. He didn't mean anything he said today and I knew that. That isn't what has pulled tears out of me for the first time in four years. I'm worried, maybe even a little scared because I'm not sure anymore. I'm not sure if I can help him. There is only so much I can do, but nothing in the world can stop me from trying my damnedest to save him, not just for him, but for me too.

Notes

Another one! it's like Christmas :D