Love On Display

Richie sat quietly, his head in his hands, staring unbrokenly at the wall in front of him, willing himself to be there for Jon. Heped ped and cried out softly when Joan placed a hand on his arm and curled his fingers around some change.

"What's this for," Richie asked with a frown.

"To phone John and Carol"

"Oh." Richie shook his head. "Um… I'm not so sure that's a good idea, mom."

"What do you mean 'not a good idea'?" Adam furrowed his brow. "They're Jon's parents, they deserve to know he's in hospital."

"Not when it's their fault he's here, they don't!" Richie argued.

"'Their fault'?" Adam echoed. "What do you mean?"

Richie sighed and turned to face Adam. "They threw him out. They caught him making out with another guy and his dad just flipped, tossed him out on the streets." He went on to tell them how Jon ended up working, and losing his job, at the club, explaining how he and the rest of the band had been looking for Jon for days. At Joan's gasp, he turned slightly and wrapped his arms around her shoulder, holding her tightly. "You OK, mom?"

She nodded. "He's just a child," she whispered, leaning against Richie.

"I can't believe they'd do this to their own son," Adam almost exploded, rising from his seat, hands balled into fists at his sides. "I should go over there and give them a piece of my mind."

"Dad, no!" Richie stood up and blocked Adam's path. "It's not worth it. They're angry, Jon's upset with them and confused. Don't go making matters worse, please?"

Adam looked over at Joan, then back at Richie, before scowling and nodding. He sat back down again, glaring straight ahead, arms folded over his chest.

"I still think you should go and 'phone Jon's parents, Richie," Joan decided.

"What? Why? No, I mean, I know why, but… " Richie trailed off and shook his head. "They'd not going to listen, mom, they don't want to know. When… When Jon first went missing, David went round and had the door slammed in his face. "

"Make them listen."
ut… ut… But how?"

"I don't know how," Joan shrugged. "But you will make them listen. I know that if the situation was reversed and something happened to you and no-one told me…" Joan trailed off. "Make them listen, Richie."

Richie nodded. "Yes, mom." He took the coins Joan was offering and walked down the corridor to the pay phone. He took a deep breath as he fed the money to the phone and listened to the ringing, waiting for someone to answer. Just as he was about to hang up, Carol Bongiovi answered. "Hi Mrs Bongiovi," Richie fought to keep his voice from breaking. "It's Richie here and I know you don't want to hear what I've got to say but I think you need to know that Jon's in hospital," the words came out as quickly as they could before she had chance to hang up. He took a deep breath and was about to tell her which hospital he was phoning from and what had happened to Jon when he realised he was listening to a dial tone. He hung the receiver up and went back to sit down with his parents.

"How did it go?" Adam asked, sounding much calmer.

Richie sighed. "I managed to tell Jon's mom that he was in hospital, but she hung up before I could tell her where he is and what had happened. "

"At least you tried," Adam replied, looking at Joan.

Joan took a deep breath. "You're in love with him, aren't you?" Richie's eyes widened and he blushed, staring down at the floor as he nodded. "Does he know?"

Richie shook his head, still looking down at the carpet. "No," he answered, voice cracking. "No, he doesn't. I didn't even know he was gay until… uhmm… "

"Until you went to that club for your bday,day," Joan finished, smiling softly as Richie's blush deepened.

"Yeah," Richie replied hoarsely, willing the ground to open up and swallow him whole.

"Is that why you borrowed that money last week?" Adam asked slowly. "To go back to the club?"

Richie squeezed his eyes shut, cheeks flaming with embarrassment as he nodded. "I had to speak to him," he explained. "I… I’ll pay you back as soon as I can, I promise."

Joan placed a calming hand on Richie's back. "Don't worry about it, Richie. It's not import…" She trailed off, looking up as the doctor walked out of the treatment room and towards them

Richie leapt to his feet. "How is he?"