I wrote a more detailed ending, so I thought I'd share it with you. . .
It's World AIDS Day today. To be honest, when I woke up this morning I neither knew or cared about that.
At my school, first lesson every second Thursday, we have a PSHE session. Today, we had a guest speaker come in and talk to us about HIV and AIDS.
It started off awkward, boring and slightly funny because he couldn't read that well and was really nervous.
An hour later, we all came out changed. I think a man telling you about his diagnosis of AIDS, even though he'd only ever been with one person, in a monogomous relationship for twenty years; how his husband died six years ago in his arms and we could see he still wore his wedding ring; the wavering power of his voice, like he was just about to burst out crying; his strength: cracking jokes and smiling; the hardcore facts of it all. . . hits you pretty hard. My best friend burst out crying and my other one even had tears in her eyes (and I don't think I've ever seen her cry).
He looked like the most normal guy in the world. But it can affect anyone.
It just made me want to do something. I mean, we couldn't even go up to him and say how touched we all felt. We couldn't donate. But all he wanted was one thing: to stop it. Know the facts, guys. You weren't in that room so you might not grasp the reality of it. I can't explain it.
And now you're already feeling depressed:
Epilogue.
He died 52 minutes later: the train crashed.
Matt got married to a woman, had three children and made his parents proud. He died aged 52. No one knew how he died. Suicide was never ruled out. Nobody ever spoke of that time when, 'you know, that time when he used to be gay'.
Matt lay on his king-size bed, with the sheets fresh and recently washed. The duvet smelt of cleanliness and his wife's favourite washing powder.
She was out for the day with the kids, looking round the campus of a university somewhere up North for their second child. Matt had to pull out of the trip at the last minute: he had to work.
That happened a lot. Work phoned up constantly wanting Matt to do over-time. His wife understood: they needed the money to send Emma to uni; the first of the family.
She didn't know that Matt had been fired two years ago, after his affair with the boss was revealed. Blackmail, stealing and minor fraud had kept him going, putting money into his account.
He also sold the odd bit of dope on the side, to fund his lavish lifestyle. Instead of going to work every day, he'd instead take up the services of handsome young men. Well, he needed something to do, didn't he?
Matt lied flat, staring at the ceiling. It was white and swirly. Beautiful.
He took a slow drag of his rolled spliff and his eyes rolled back in a hazy way. The white spirals engulfed him.
He didn't bother writing a note. He had nothing to say.
The TV blasted in the background, droning on about the latest news article.
Taking a last, long drag from his spliff, Matt closed his eyes and picked up his gun, holding it to the side of his face. His fingers gently pushed over the trigger.
He was 52 when he died. Suicide, of course.
Das Ende.
> Practise safe sex
> Don't share needles
> Please don't ever feel so low that suicide is the only option, because people WILL understand.
You're a miracle.
For billions of years
Since the outset of time
Every single one of your ancestors survived
Every single person on your mum and dad's side
Successfully looked after and passed onto you life
What are the chances of that like
It comes to me once in a while
And everywhere I tell folk
It gets the best smile
- Mike Skinner (On the Edge of a Cliff)
The chances of all the circumstances being in place that would lead to two particular people meeting and then them falling in love are supremely minute. And then, if they come together to have children, the chances of one particular sperm fertilising with one particular egg and then one particular life emerging is even more unlikely. And this improbability multiples generation after generation - from your great-grandparents and your grandparents until, finally, by chance, your mother meets and falls in love with a man. And then, from their decision to come together and have children - against those impossible odds - it's YOU that's born. You're life is a miracle.
- Derren Brown (Hero at 30,000 Feet)
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52. (BoyxBoy)
Teen FictionAiden's life is a lonely mess of suffering and torment. He's bullied daily, and abused by his mother. He's fed up with it, and on the 52nd day of the year, he's going to give up. It's all planned. So why did that have to be the day The New Boy turne...
