Avery's Desire Pt. 15

"Think I'll go speak with the doctor in charge." Grayson said finally, looking for any excuse he could to leave the room. "I'll find out what his treatment options are. I'll also settle up the bill. I assume that he doesn't have insurance?"

"No." Rick shook his head. "He doesn't."

Grayson sighed as he nodded slowly. "I'll take care of it."

"There you see?" Vivian smiled brightly as her husband left the room. She touched the side of Avery's face and Avery flinched. "Nothing to worry about darling. Your father will take care of everything. I don't understand why the two of you could never get along. You're just always so argumentative, but didn't I tell you, we'll always take care of you. You've nothing to worry about now."

She touched his hand but Avery quickly pulled it away.

His mother frowned. "Don't be that way." She scolded. "You know we're trying here, but you have to meet us half way. You could at least acknowledge me. Would that be too much to ask?"

"He can't speak yet." Rick told her. "We don't know if he physically can't or if he's still in shock from what happened. They've been working with him though but it's been rough."

Vivian straightened herself up, adjusted her purse strap, then crossed her arms over her chest. "Well I'm sorry that you've suffered." She looked directly at Avery and spoke sternly, almost harshly. "There are a lot of people have suffered, some worse than you. If you go around thinking that life is perfect then you're just opening yourself up for heartache. It's best to just forget what happened and move on."

"How can he just move on?" Rick stood up and stared at her, getting angry. "He was beaten, he was raped. He nearly died! How does someone move on from that?"

Vivian sighed. "Young man, you have to understand one thing about my son. He puts himself in these situations. We took him to a therapist when he was fifteen and she told us that he mostly does it for attention. He just can't stand that he's not the center of attention, that someone might actually have a life outside of him, so he put's himself in these dangerous situations just to get the focused turned back on him. It's a self-destructive pattern that needs to be stopped."

"You're saying that what happened to him was his fault?"

"I'm saying that he chose this lifestyle and he needs to realize there are repercussions for his choices and his actions."

"Oh that's a load of crap!" Kat stood up and glared at the woman hard. "Avery didn't ask for this to happen to him! What you're implying is ridiculous!"

"I'm just stating the obvious." Vivian defended herself. "If Avery chooses to go around to homosexual clubs, flaunting his body around, then someone is going to respond."

"He wasn't flaunting anything around." Rick growled angrily. "Someone came into our home and beat him unconscious then forced himself on him! Avery didn't even know what was happening until it was too late! How the hell can you say that was his fault?"

"I don't want to discuss this any further." Vivian touched her head and feigned a headache. "This is just upsetting me and my blood pressure can't take it."

"Maybe you should leave then." Kat raised an eyebrow. "We wouldn't want you upsetting yourself and having a stroke now would we?"

"Young lady, I don't appreciate your tone." Vivian stood straight and tall, lifting her head slightly as she looked down at Kat as though attempting to over shadow her. "As a matter of fact..."

"G...go..." The voice was low, an almost inaudible whisper but the word was said with such passion that it's meaning was unmistakable. Shocked, everyone in the room, including Avery's mother, turned to stare at him as though unsure of what they'd just heard. For the first time since he'd woken up, Avery had managed to utter a word, one word, and that was to order his mother to leave.

"Avery!" She gasped, looking hurt as well as a little angry. "We came all this way for you! The least you could do is show a little respect to your parents."

Avery sighed and lowered his gaze to the floor. "Just go." He whispered again.

"I see. So this is how it's going to be then?" She stuck up her nose at him. "Even now you can't let go of the past can you? Obviously nothing has changed. You spoiled, self-important, little brat."

"I think Avery has made himself clear." Rick took a step towards Vivian, ready to escort her out of the room if she didn't leave on her own. "It was a mistake to have called you. I apologize."

"Maybe it was a mistake for us to have come at all." Vivian sneered.

Rick shrugged. "Maybe it was."

"If that's how you all feel, fine. I don't need this aggravation." She looked again to Avery, brushing her hair out of eyes and trying to seem regal and sophisticated among those she obviously saw as beneath her, and offered one last piece of advice. "I do hope you recover well Avery. Perhaps in the future you will learn from your mistakes and not repeat them." With that, the woman turned on her expensive heels and stormed out of the room leaving the others in silence and disbelief.

Rick moved to Avery's side and went to put an arm around him.

"Please don't." Avery whispered softly.

Rick nodded and withdrew his arm. "I am so sorry Ave, if I had known..."

Avery put his hand up to stop Rick. "It's okay." He whispered again. But it wasn't okay, not really. There was a small part of him that had hoped the arrival of his parents meant that they had forgiven him. He had actually hoped that they could mend their broken relationship but as his mother had said, nothing has changed.

It was obvious to Avery that the only people he had in his life now were his surrogate family, his friends, his lover. They were the ones who mattered. They were the ones who would always be there for him and they were the ones that he loved the most. Any connection that he had to his old life, and the people in it was long since severed.

But one thing his mother said did make sense to him. It was time to put the past behind him and move on. Maybe he couldn't move past what Mikey had done to him, not yet anyway, that would come in time, but there was a part of his life that he needed to close. If his parents couldn't accept who he was now, then they would never accept him and he had to come to terms with that. He had to see his father one last time before both his parents left town. He had to see him and confront him. It was the only way that he would ever get any closure and the only way that he could truly move on.