The Kid of Mars – Chapter 75 – The walls that we built from bottles and pills
Later that day Catherine dragged herself to bed. She was really tired, with Jared absent she had been accumulating more and more responsibilities at work, some of them weren’t even directly related to her original functions but someone had to keep the boat sailing and she knew that the only people Jared fully trusted was she and Emma. Moreover, the fact that she was almost eight months pregnant wasn’t exactly helping her either.
When she walked into the room Jared was still in a heavy sleep, all curled up and looking like a little boy trying to hide from something. “Honey, if you sleep like this your back will bother you tomorrow.” She tried to make him move, but the pills given to him were really doing their job, so she ended up moving his dead weight the best she could. Catherine laid next to him and wrapped her arms around his body. Usually he would react and protectively hug her back but that didn’t happen that night.
In the morning, when she woke up found Jared with his eyes already opened and staring at the ceiling. “Good morning sleepy head. How are you feeling today?” She tenderly caressed his head, placing his long hair away from his eyes. “Weird” He answered, his voice a little emotionless. “You’ll be better soon. You must be hungry…” That moment Shannon knocked on the door and Catherine told him to come in. He had spent the night there in case something was needed. “Hey bro. How high are you?” Shannon joked but after crossing eyes with Catherine realized that wasn’t the right mood. “I’m going to prepare something for us to eat.” She stood up and Jared tried to the same but almost felt to the floor. “I’m ok, just dizzy.” He tried to justify. “Do you want me to bring you breakfast here?” Catherine suggested, worried about him. “No. I’m not sick” He dryly answered. “Let me help you then.” Shannon wasn’t taking no for an answer.
After breakfast they were expecting him to start getting ready to go to the hospital but surprisingly he went straight back to bed, without a word. Catherine and Shannon looked at each other and followed him. “Are you still feeling dizzy?” Catherine was trying to understand what was wrong. “I don’t know. That shit they gave to me yesterday messed with me… I just need to rest for a bit.” At least they got a couple of sentences. “I’m going to the hospital Jay. Do you wanna come with me to check on Ricky? You can return with mom.” Shannon suggested, not really sure about what to expect. “I… I can’t do it today…” He was trying hard to find and excuse but they could see the sadness covering his features once again. “It’s ok honey. You don’t have to go. Just take the day to rest, it’ll be good for you.” Catherine cupped his face and kissed his head. “Yeah, you don’t have to worry. We’ll look after Ricky.” Shannon assured. “Thanks. Could you leave me alone for a while?” He didn’t asked that in an unpleasant or angry way. He just seemed tired. “Sure. Just call me if you need anything.” Catherine reminded before she and Shannon left.
“He’s not ok.” She concluded, the moment they were far enough from Jared’s room. “That’s not my brother. My brother doesn’t say he needs to rest and doesn’t go to bed after having breakfast.” It was time for Shannon to freak out. “But he really needs to rest. Maybe if he sleeps enough, he’ll be back to his normal self and the pills the doctors prescribed will help him…” Catherine tried to be rational. “I hope you’re right. But he didn’t even call my mom to know how Ricky’s doing.” She couldn’t deny that all his behavior was weird but justified. “You told me yourself the doctor said he’s depressed. A depression doesn’t go away from a day to another, we need to be patient with him.” Shannon ended up sitting down and took a deep breath. “You’re right. Honestly I don’t even know how he held up during all this time. I’d have gone crazy months ago.”
A couple of hours later Constance arrived home and hugged Catherine tightly. “Shannon told me about Jared. How’s he now?” She asked, obviously concerned about the wellbeing of his son. “He hasn’t left the room yet. Every time I go in there he just pretends to be asleep.” She confessed. “I’ll see if he talks to me.” Constance decided. She was clearly very tired too, but that mother instinct spoke louder. “How is Ricky?” Catherine finally asked, already mentally prepared do bad news. “He’s stable. Still asleep and connected to machines but not worse.” Not everything could be terrible after all. Constance finally went to check on his son and Catherine tried to work for a little but curiosity took the best of her so she decided to check what was going on. Before arriving she could already listen to the sobs and she didn’t had to enter the room to see Jared crying on his mother’s arms while she tried to calm him down. They stayed like that until late in the evening.
On the next morning Jared wasn’t by her side when she woke up. Catherine’s immediately thought that it was a good sign to have him out of bed. She search for him and found him in the studio working. That was nothing unusual but then she saw a cup full of something that was neither water nor almond milk. “Good morning.” Jared forced a smile when realized Catherine was watching him. “Jared, honey…” Catherine started when saw the bottle of whiskey. “You don’t drink in the morning or in any other hour and definitely not while taking medication.” She took that away from him. “I know, don’t judge me please. I thought that it would help me calming down.” He tried to justify himself. “I’m actually trying to work on something.” He smiled at her, looking for some approval. “I’m happy that you’re trying to work but maybe you should take it easy… Do you want to visit Ricky today?” His behavior was still odd. “Not yet. I’d rather stay here and work on some music. He isn’t conscious so it’s not like he’ll miss me.”
Catherine decided not to force him. However he refused to visit his son not only on the following day, but on the following week. Not only that but he refused to take his medication and to see any doctor or therapists and he had been drinking. Not that he was walking around drunk but it was becoming usual to find him with a bottle of some liquor next to him. “Dude, what the hell are you doing?” Shannon asked when caught him and while taking the glass out of his hand. “You’re the last person that can tell me not to drink, Shannon.” Jared got all defensive. “This is not about me. You’re better than this Jared and you know how this can end. If you were on your right state of mind you wouldn’t be doing this and you wouldn’t spend one week without visiting your son.” Shannon was grabbing him by his shoulders and almost shaking him. “You wanted me to come home and rest and that’s what I’ve been doing. Just let me live my life ok? Last time I checked you had your own shit to worry about.” He got free from Shannon’s grab and turned his back on him. “If it still concerns you, Ricky is getting better. Maybe they will wake him up soon.” Jared was already moving out of the room but stopped and took a deep breath. “Then what? He’ll get worse again?” He kept walking away.
Later that day Catherine headed to the studio trying to find Jared. It was already late in the evening and it had been hours since the last time she had saw him. Shannon had spoken to her about their incident earlier and she had decided that it was time to tell him a couple of truths. However she couldn’t find him at the studio neither anywhere else in the house. She tried to call him but he wouldn’t pick up his cellphone. She tried again, left some messages, always without an answer. She was already panicking a little when decided to call Shannon. He was at the hospital with Constance and she thought that maybe Jared had gone there to finally see his son. But he wasn’t there either. Realizing how nervous she sounded, Shannon asked her to sit down and wait for him, promising that they would find Jared. Catherine did as she was told but didn’t stop trying to call him.
In a blink of an eye Shannon was back home and trying to comfort her the best he could. “I already called some of his friends, searched on social media, googled him…” Catherine was crying while trying to explain. “I should have checked on him earlier Shannon. I knew he was not ok.” She was panicking and blaming herself. “It’s not your fault. I was the last one who saw him and I wasn’t exactly kind.” Shannon was also felling guilty, thinking how Jared had always been there to support him. “I’m going to drive around and maybe call some guys… We’ll find him.” He was trying to make a plan when they heard some noise outside. “Stay here.” Shannon ordered and went there to check what was going on. He saw a cab, a pissed driver, and someone clumsily trying to open the gate. It took a moment for him to realize that it was Jared. Shannon ran next to his brother without knowing if he should hug him in relief or hit him hard. He opened the gate himself and Jared immediately felt into his arms. “That guy is completely drunk. He yelled and cried all the way here. Is this even the right address?” The driver complained. “Yes it is.” Shannon answered while picking a ridiculous amount of money from his wallet. “I guess that’s enough. Thank you for service, please forget about this incident.” The pissed looked on the driver’s face was replaced by a grin when saw all that cash.
“Where is Catherine? I need to see her and explain…” Jared cried while his brother was trying to take him inside. He was terribly drunk. “She’s inside. Explain what man?” Shannon was trying to understand what he meant. Jared was about to answer but threw up on his own doorstep. “It’s ok. Just let it go.” Shannon told him as Catherine appeared at the door to see what was going on. “Oh my God Jared. I was so worried…” Jared threw himself into her arms the moment he saw her, missing his own puddle of puke for a tiny bit. “I’m so sorry. I really am… I didn’t meant to.” Catherine hugged him tightly without really understanding what he was talking about. “It’s ok honey. You’re home now.” But Jared kept crying and shanking his head. “No, you have to know. I was drunk and she sat on my lap and tried to kiss me but then I stopped. I swear that I stopped and ran away and got into a cab…” He said all of that in a single breath, without stopping crying. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” He knelt in front of her begging for her forgiveness. His beautiful blue eyes were red and he seemed lunatic. “It’s ok Jared. We’ll talk about it in the morning.” She tried to tranquilize him as Shannon was helping him back on his feet. She didn’t even know if what he had just said actually happened and if so if she should be mad. At the moment she could feel nothing but pity towards him. “No it’s not ok. You don’t deserve me. You should ran away and take our daughter with you. I’m a terrible father and I will never be a good husband.” Catherine didn’t know what to say anymore. The entire situation was just sad. Meanwhile Shannon was doing his best to carry his little brother to the room. “Come on Jay. Stop making a fool of yourself. You need a shower and to sleep.” However Jared was still offering some resistance. “Catherine, please. Forgive me and promise me you’ll stay here.” He begged once again. Catherine walked to his side and tenderly kissed his forehead, ignoring the mixed smell of vomit and alcohol. “I’m not going anywhere with this huge belly of mine. But we all need to rest. Go with Shannon and I’ll meet you in a bit.” Those words calmed Jared down enough for him to allow Shannon to drag him. “I love you and I want to marry you.” He said when no one else was expecting more words. Catherine didn’t know how to answer to that and stayed quiet, assuming it was also the alcohol speaking. Shannon just shook his head and forced Jared into his room.
