Chapter 1

Dragging on his cigarette, Tala exhaled all of the smoke and turned to his new-found Mother. She was frowning at the cancer stick in his hand and wanted desperately to snatch it off of him and throw it out of the window. Tala rolled his eyes, and took another drag of his cigarette.
“You should give those up,” Tala’s Mother, Elena warned him.
“What, you mean like you gave me up as a child?” Tala replied, smirking.
“That was different, Yuriy.”
“Don’t call me that,” Tala snapped.
Tala had long abandoned the name ‘Yuriy’, much like his Mother had abandoned him. He hated whenever she called him it, and just wanted her to call him ‘Tala’ like every other fucker he knew.
Elena jumped as the doorbell rang, and Tala sniggered. Elena raised her eyebrows at her son, who shoved his cigarette into his mouth and went to answer the door. On opening it, he came face-to-face with the person he’d never expected to see there. Tala raised his eyebrows.
“How the Hell did you find me?”
“I has my ways.”
“Are you drunk?”
“Mebbee.”
Tala raised his eyebrows some more, but let his drunkard friend into his new home all the same. The friend took a look around the little home, and his eyes fell on Elena. Elena stared back at Tala’s friend with some trepidation.
“Mum… This is Kai. Kai, this is my Mother.”
Elena held her hand out to shake Kai’s, but Kai just stared at it before launching himself at Elena, wrapping his arms around her neck in a bone-breaking hug. Elena was positively petrified, but Kai didn’t seem to notice, as he was too busy crying his eyes out.
“I never knew my Mother! Tala’s soooooo lucky to have youuuu!”
Tala stubbed out his cigarette in the saucer that was serving as an ash tray. He went up to Kai and his mother, and prised Kai away from her. Kai was dribbling and a drip of snot was dangling from his nose. Tala raised an eyebrow, realising that something was not right with his friend.
“Kai, I think you need to go to bed and sleep off the alcohol. We’ll have a chat in the morning, OK?” Tala said, giving Kai a little shake.
Tala took him to the very small spare bedroom, where Kai crashed on the bed and fell asleep immediately. Tala frowned at the sleeping body, and walked out of the room closing the door behind him. Tala went back downstairs, and lit up another cigarette.
“If you run out of those things, I will not be buying you anymore,” Elena said, sitting down at the dinky kitchen table, and checking herself for any snot that Kai may have left.
“I don’t need you to. I’ll get some myself,” Tala said, breathing out smoke in the opposite direction to his Mother.
“Your friend…”
“His name’s Kai.”
“Yes, Kai. He quite a, erm, character.”
“He’s not normally like that. I have no idea what’s wrong with him.”
Elena stared at her son as Tala put out his cigarette. He reached for his packet of Marlboro Lights again, but Elena snatched them out of his grasp. Tala narrowed his eyes, but got up and said nothing about his Mum taking his cancer sticks away from him.
“I’m going to bed. Don’t wake Kai up in the morning. I’ll wake him.”
“Ok, Yuriy.”
“It’s Tala!”
“It’ll always be Yuriy to me…”
“Goodnight, Mum.”

~*~

Tala cursed as he attempted to open the door to the spare bedroom. In one hand was a plate of toast, and in the other was a glass of water and two tablets - meaning he had no spare hands to open the door. Tala tried to use his hip, but that failed, and he had spilt water over his foot when trying to use an elbow.
“MUM! I CAN’T OPEN THE DOOR TO KAI’S ROOM!” Tala yelled down the stairs.
Elena didn’t reply or make any sign that she was going to come and help her son, and so Tala continued to groan and curse. He bent down and was about to pull on the handle with his mouth, when the door opened, and he was staring at Kai’s crotch.
“What are you doing down there?” Kai asked.
“Trying to open the door. With my mouth,” Tala replied, standing back up and shoving the plate of toast into Kai’s hands.
“I’m not hungry,” Kai said, shutting the door, and going to sit on the bed.
“Tough. I bet you have a headache, though,” Tala replied, dropping the pills into Kai’s hand, and giving him the water.
Kai’s features darkened, and he nodded. He took the pills and drained the glass of water. Tala raised his eyebrows as Kai gulped the water down loudly, and took a bite of the toast.
“I thought you said you weren’t hungry?”
“I lied.”
Tala rolled his eyes, and sat down beside Kai. He glanced at Kai’s arms as Kai was eating, and noticed a lot of scratches and scars. Tala narrowed his eyes, as he slowly figured out what was actually wrong with Kai. But instead of assuming, Tala questioned Kai about it all.
“So… You drink alcohol?”
“Yeah… Too much of it,” Kai replied, picking at the leftover bits of toast.
“Too much?”
“Hn.”
“Kai, please give me straight answers. I thought you didn’t like drinking too much, so why the sudden change-?”
“Because it makes me forget.”
Tala stared blankly at Kai, who sat twiddling his thumbs. Kai sighed.
“It makes me forget everything, OK. And if I can forget, if only just for a little while, everything seems OK.”
“But it’s not.”
“I know.”
“And the scratches on your arms-”
“I’m self-harming.”
“I thought so. I’m glad we’ve got that all out in the open. I was expecting an argument with you about it all.”
“Hn.”
Tala rolled his eyes, as Kai’s head dropped. He continued to twiddle his thumbs, and didn’t look up when Tala spoke again.
“So, why are you here?”
“Because I need help.”
“And what makes you think that I can help?”
“Because…”
“Because…?”
“Because you’re my best friend.”
Tala’s eyes widened and realised that Kai was a friend in need, who obviously thought his best chance of getting better was to stay with Tala for a while. Tala wrapped an arm around Kai’s shoulder, who didn’t shrug it off. Tala pulled Kai into a hug, who wrapped his own arms around Tala, too.
“Don’t worry, Kai. I’ll make you better.”