Don't say I'm better off dead

"Stop! Stop!" Cried Gerard, trying his best to run towards the boy who stood at the edge of the bridge. He grabbed the boys jacket and tried to pull him back over.
"No!" Mikey cried, "stay with us!"
Tears started to run down Gerard's face as he grabbed his shaking body.
"Nobody cares...." Whispered the boy over and over again, "nobody cares....."
"We care!" Sobbed Gerard through the tears.

He knew how it felt. The boy looked roughly about his age and he knew what he was going through, the water was pulling him down, enticing him into its depths. The water would be swirling before the boys eyes, a perfect shape for the him to fall into would appear. He knew that without them the boy would lose the fight and the weak strings holding him to life would snap allowing him to fall to his murky death. Allow his corpse to float off down the river or sink to the bottom. Like in Gerard's dream. But this was different, this wasn't a dream. This was real life.

Mikey and Gerard used all the strength that they had left in their weak bones to haul the boy back over the other side of the railings. The boy rested his head against them still whispering: "nobody cares. Nobody cares" over and over again.

Gerard and Mikey slumped down next to him, their chests heaving. They each wrapped an arm around the unknown boy. He had lots and lots of curly dark brown hair that covered his expressionless face. But he had deep brown eyes from which tears were leaking from. They rolled down his face as his hands began to shake. Mikey held them to stop them from shaking and looked to his left to see the boys clothes dumped about 10 metres down the path. A giant rucksack with a guitar case laid next to it. Was this eventually going to happen to him?

They sat with the boy in the tattered ripped jeans and the curly hair for a while, until the sun and all it's light had completely disappeared. They watched as the streetlights flickered on lighting up the hollowness in the boys face. Mikey limped down the path and returned with the boys stuff who now only occasionally repeated those same two words.

He eventually stopped completely, snapping out of his trance and looking up towards Mikey and Gerard.
"Thank you...." He whispered through his weak voice. "I thought that nobody cared..."
"But we care" replied Gerard softly, "we will always care..."
"Thank you......um" The boy replied, "I must know your names so that I can thank you."
"Um, my names Gerard" he said pointing to himself, "and this is my brother Mikey..."
Mikey smiled and waved.
"Thank you Gerard," he said pointing at him. He moved his finger to the younger boy, "and thank you Mikey."
"And what is your name?" Mikey asked, pointing at the boy.
They boy smiled before replying with:
"Sorry, um, hi. My name's Ray."
"Hi Ray. And what are you doing here at night by yourself?" Mikey asked.
"I could asked you the same question...." Ray replied with, smiling. Despite their situations they all chuckled.

"Um, we ran from home...." Replied Gerard after a short silence.
"Why?"
"Well, our dad kinda.... Um, well." He pointed to the purple and blue splodges on his and Mikey's arms and face and then to the raw cuts.
"Oh!" Replied ray, apologetically. "I'm sorry..."
"It's fine. We've had a pretty rough day, haven't we Mikey?" Gerard whispered.
Mikey took a deep breath, "yeah. We um... J-just f-found out that G-Gerard's friend, um.... E-ended it and we, um, we couldn't w-watch you do the same....." Tears started to flow down his face again.
"I'm so sorry. What was his name?" Ray asked.
"His name was Frank and I miss him so much already! Why would he just?!!" Gerard moaned.
"He sounds like a nice person...." Ray trailed off.
"He was. He was so nice and caring and kind and funny and he made me smile and laugh and cry and then he had to go and end it all!"
"Hey, hey. It'll be okay Gerard. It'll be okay. When is his funeral? You will have to go and say your last goodbyes."
"I don't know! I doubt his parents would even care enough to give him a funeral!"
Ray hugged him and Mikey close until the brothers were both asleep resting on his shoulders. He looked over the edge of the bridge again.
"No!" He whispered, "they care." And with that he too fell asleep.

Notes

Hi guys. How you all doing?
Thank you all for reading. Not many chapters to go now! :) Xx