Jon opened his bedroom door and was about to leave, but Derek's mother (now his mother) stopped him.
"Where do you think you're going?" she asked.
Jon looked at the woman (as best he could, since a long lock of his hair obscured half his vision). She was a burly woman, clearly overweight, and dressed in what looked like hand-me-downs.
"I need to go see someone."
"Who? You don't have any friends." It felt like she was interrogating him.
"Can I just go?"
"No," she said firmly.
"But why?"
Suddenly, she seemed to get really angry. "I'm your mother. I don't need a reason. Now get back in your room and stay there!" She pushed Jon back in and slammed the door.
Once inside, he heard her lock the door ... from the outside. But, fortunately, when he was in the hall, he saw that it was a key lock. He crouched down and saw that the key was still in the lock. That meant that if found a rod or something like that, he could push the key out of the lock and onto the floor, then he could just slide it under the door using a piece of paper. He'd seen it in a movie once.
He stood up and looked around for something that he could use. He went to the dresser and opened the first drawer. Nothing. The second drawer. Nothing. The third drawer. Nothing, but there was a note that he found, in his own handwriting. He took it out and looked at it. Then he froze, realizing that it was suicide note. In the fourth drawer, he found razors. Some of them had blood on them. Probably his blood.
For the first time, he looked down at his arms. He could now clearly see the places where he had cut himself. There was nothing on his wrists, but there were several on his forearms.
"My god. What kind of screwed up life is this?"
