Jesus, Where am I?

[SharkyTGirl185]

.....

Christ

((Chester Bissette continued from Don't Mind Us, We Be Chillin'))

Bissette didn't remember much after he left the Amador residence, except passing Mrs. Amador (yeah, good luck to you Marino) and just walking....and walking. and walking.

Next thing he knew, he was laying in the grassy area of the park, next to a large tree. He stared up at the sky, a dark shade of red as the sun was dipping below the horizon. He should probably get up, get an Uber, or a bus, or call his folks before someone with authority comes here to get him out.

.....but he was completely sore. his hands burned. And the weed was still in his system.

So overall: He ain't leaving anytime soon.

[Applesintime]

((Michael Goldstein continued from The Heterosexual Love Between an Urbanist Boy and a Car Girl))

"Hey, uh, you good?"

A maybe familiar face peered down at Chester, concern evident on his face. Michael didn't normally come through this part of downtown, but he'd decided to run through here rather than the suburbs for a change. Little nighttime run before he went to sleep, and his feet just... kinda took him here. He saw a guy lying on the ground, sort of familiar - Red Rock? Did he take a class with this guy or something - and as any good samaritan, he went to go check if he was alright. He could smell the weed off him, so uh... maybe he just got blazed and fell asleep in the park. Who knows.

"Need me to get you up or something?"

[SharkyTGirl185]

Bissette blinked, looking up at the kid above him.

Goldstein? Is that his name?

Ugh, great. Someone’s gonna blab to the whole school.

He sighed slightly, holding a hand up, which showed off the blemishes forming on his palms from his tea time with the friends “Yeah, you got some Neosporan. Maybe some cold water and anti-inflammatory?”

He had a clear sarcasm in his voice as he stared up at Micheal, lowering his hands as he felt a rush of blood to his head, hearing a pounding in his head.

[Applesintime]

The more he looked at the guy, the more faintly familiar he became. Definitely from Red Rock, but he couldn’t put a name to the face. It’d come to him at some point, but for now Michael just wanted to make sure he was alright.

“Uhh, no Neosporin or anti-inflammatory. There’s a vending machine,” Michael glanced over at it, “and it’s broken. Of course.” This area was kind of run down. Honestly, the best thing they could do for this park was probably just bulldoze it and try and build something there.

Jeez, what the hell happened to this guy? Hurt his hands, stinks of weed…

[SharkyTGirl185]

Bissette sighed as he slowly sat up, looking around the dilapidated park "Yeah this place is an absolute shithole...and one of the only places I can get some peace left."

He glanced up at Micheal, hesitant to say something since he, frankly, wasn't in the mood before huffing "Goldstein, right? Think we share history. Chester."

[Applesintime]

Chester! That was it. Michael knew he'd seen his face before in Red Rock, and history class sounded right. A quick scramble of the brain didn't really return anything other than that he'd heard 'Chester Bissette' called during rolecall a couple of times, so guess this was first impressions, huh? What an impression it was.

"Yeah. Only thing here is, uh, a bunch of destroyed equipment. My dad used to come here when he was a kid. Apparently a lot better back then, but people stopped coming and then that guy got killed and it all went to shit." Carefully checking the ground before he got jabbed by a needle or something, Michael sat down next to Chester. The run could wait a little.

"So, uh, bad day?"

Chester smelled like weed and had hurt his hands. Seemed like a logical assumption.

[SharkyTGirl185]

Bissette briefly looked annoyed at Michael sitting next to him.

Usually would be the time for him to say something sarcastic. To insult him some way or just to tell him to leave him alone. Instead:

“Yeah…yeah.” He sighed, shaking his head as he wiped his face with his hands “Yeah, it’s been a…real shitty start of year for me I guess.”

He took a deep breath “Just try and get out around people for a while…just to forget things for a while.”

[Applesintime]

"I always heard that this time of year - right after Christmas - is pretty bad for some people. You've still got two months of winter to look forward to and all the festivities are over. Just cold and... well, I guess not cold for us. I guess that like, all the talk about being sad because of the cold and dark is like, for the East Coast people, but you get my point." When he was younger he never really got that idea. If there was snow, you bet your ass he would have been so excited. Why would people complain about that? Now he kinda got it, though.

"Wanna talk about it?" Worth a shot.

[SharkyTGirl185]

There it was again.

Trying to engage in a conversation.

Usually Bissette would tell him to fuck off………

……why was I crying?

“I….” Chester turned away, attempting to feebly wipe away the tears that were coming down his face, shamefully staring at the ground below him and releasing a chocked sob, only getting out a quiet “Leave me alone…”

[Applesintime]

OK, uh,

maybe this was a liiiiiiitle bit above his paygrade. Not that he was getting paid for this, shame, but Michael just kinda had the vibe that this guy had things going on that were maybe a little too complex for them to properly break down and analyse in the beat up playground. Uh. Uhh. Uhhhhhh.

Yeah, probably wasn't because of the winter, huh?

"Hey, uh, take your time." Hesitating for a second, Michael reached out his hand and then awkwardly patted Chester on the back. Kinda felt like poking a bear with a stick, but it felt right? Hopefully the bear didn't snap its jaws at him, but eh, whatever happened happened.

[SharkyTGirl185]

“I-I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Bissette shuddered as he attempted to stop his crying fit.

God damn it! The fucking weed!

“Ah god…why do you need to comfort me? I can afford therapy. I can afford everything I want in my life and I’m still a sack of utter shit.” He sobbed, placing a hand on his head “An ugly, gross, lazy sack of shit.”

[Applesintime]

OK. OK, uh. Alright. Alright. Uhhh. Uhhhhhhhhhh. What the fuck does he do here. For all of his knowledge, Michael wasn't exactly great at the whole comforting people who were clearly having a bad time thing. Especially since, uh, he also got the vibe that whatever Chester was upset about wasn't something that he could easily resolve or something that just cropped up because he was high.

OK. Uhh, let's give it the old college try. Might as well.

"Hey, hey, don't say that kinda shit about yourself when you know it's not true. Doesn't matter what kinda money you have or what kinda life you lead, everyone has bad days and might need a shoulder to lean on. That doesn't make you a bad person, or weak, or whatever." Pat, pat. He was... doing a good job? Maybe?

Shit, a little part of him wished he'd just kept running. Too late in the day to be doing therapy.

[SharkyTGirl185]

Bissette wiped away his tears with his sleeve, sniffling “Stupid fucking body and stupid fucking…”

He paused and looked down at the ground, taking a deep sigh “I’m…I’m sorry you don’t need to be around comforting me…it’s just been difficult. I’m an asshole to a lot of people, even my own parents..”

[Applesintime]

"Hey, shit happens. I used to be an asshole to my dad - well, we were both assholes to each other. Long story, but we've got a better relationship now. Guess it's just part of being a guy our age, we tend to clash with our parents. I dunno." 'Better relationship' was sort of an overstatement, but it was also true. Michael actually talked to his dad nowadays even if he didn't really like doing so, that was progress!

"Shit happens." Michael repeated again. "You have good days and then days where everything just sucks. Gotta take the good with the bad." Something his grandfather had instilled into him. Life was great sometimes, but sometimes it just wanted to kick you down and keep you there until it so deigned to lift its foot again. Until that happened, you couldn't do anything but grin and bear it.

The foot always lifted, though.

Just took time.

[SharkyTGirl185]

Bissette took a deep breath, looking up at Micheal and staring at him before looking up at the sky “…thanks.”

That’s all he ever to say.

He took a deep sigh and stood up slowly “I think I’m gonna head home…..uh….thank you, man.”