Liability

Chapter 2

By the time Raph and Mikey had gotten back to the lair, Donnie was sitting in the living room, completely awake. He turned as Mikey grunted, nearly losing his grip on Leo. 

"Raph, Leo!"

Donnie stood up and wobbled over to them with the help of his crutches. 

"Mikey, what happened?"

Mikey couldn't meet his eyes. "There were these ninjas, and-"

"Mikey didn't come in time," Raph finished for him.

"Come on, bring Leo to the lab." He shot a glance at Raph. "You don't look much better."

Mikey hung his head as he followed his brothers to Donnie's lab. He gently set
Leo down on a cot and then turned to Donnie. 

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Stay out of the way."

"But I could help you get stuff and-"

"No Mikey! Just go- think about what you did wrong or something!" 

Donnie seemed mad. Actually, Mikey didn't blame him, his broken ankle was Mikey's fault after all.

"Yeah, ok. Sorry." 

Mikey turned abruptly and left the lab for his bedroom. Yeah, he had also stayed back to watch over Donnie because he was being punished for his foolishness in the last battle that resulted in Donnie's injury. And now he had caused Raph and Leo to get hurt. As Mikey shut his door behind him, he couldn't stop the tears that bubbled up and overflowed. It was all his fault. Why did he have to be so stupid? He threw himself onto his bed, his vision blurred with the salty water that was leaking from his soul. He shook his head, furiously wiping his tears. He couldn't be a baby. Not now. He sniffed and closed his eyes, fighting the urge to continue crying his eyes out. He could hear voices coming from what he guessed was the lab, but it caught his attention when he heard his name. Quietly, he opened his door and made his way to the closed door of the lab, pressing his ear against it. His older brothers were talking, he could hear their harsh voices reverberating through the room.

"I just don't know what to do with Mikey anymore! He's messing everything up, I mean, there should be a limit."

"He's worthless shit."

"Hey, don't call him that! He may screw up, but he's our brother."

Was that Leo?

"What does that matter if he gets us killed?" There was a long pause of silence.

Mikey brought his hand up to his mouth stifling his cry as tears threatened to come pouring down his face. He slumped down against the door, trying to suppress his whimpers as he began to cry. 

The words circled his mind, "Worthless, stupid, failure, weak, a mistake, I can't believe you're my brother, little shit..."

He pressed his hand harder against his mouth, trying not to make a sound as more hot tears spilled down his face. He heard movement from inside and panicked. He stood up and rushed to his room, locking the door behind him. 

The tears came rushing right back. He brought both of his hands over his mouth and curled into a tight ball in the corner of his bed. He could hear footsteps outside. Sniffling quietly, he began rocking himself back and forth. Humming to try to ease his unceasing crying. A knock sounded on his door.

"Mikey?" His brother's voice called, it was Raph.

Mikey quickly composed himself, praying that his voice wouldn't betray him. 

"Yes?" He squeaked quietly.

"Come on, Leo is awake, and we're gonna get pizza."

"I'm not hungry, " he responded.

"What?"

"I said I'm not hungry."

"Fine," Raph sighed, stomping off.

Mikey released the breath he'd been holding and let out a humorless laugh, lifting himself from his bed.He reached under the bed and felt around until he managed to pull out a cardboard box. He gently opened it and removed the layers of cloth and empty notebooks, revealing a small orange bottle underneath. The bottle was labeled, Xanax, under April's name and the instructions, two pills a day. He'd stolen it from April a while ago and she hadn't found out. She said they were for her anxiety and asked if they had seen them because they were expensive. Mikey felt bad for lying but he couldn't deny that they helped when he felt miserable.

He opened the bottle and emptied them out on the palm of his hand, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve...
He grabbed a bottle of water from his nightstand and downed the pills.
He put the water bottle back and proceeded to stash the little orange bottle back in its hiding place. Tiredness built up inside of him, making him yawn as he crawled back onto his bed and under the covers. He finally felt relaxed, and his mind was quiet. Yes, yes! He let the warm feeling wash through him as he closed his eyes. Within a couple of minutes, he was passed out, blessed by the placid darkness, drowning out the voice in his head that was screaming and telling him to go die.