You absolutely need to talk to his parents about it. 5 years ago I attended the funeral of a 13 year old boy who shot himself with his dads shotgun. The mother and I were very good friends, had pregnancies together, the whole nine yards. The absolute pain in their lives 5 years later is unbelievable. The pain in my heart is still deep, and it was not my child. Things like this need to be addressed, because its the one who you think wont do it,, will do it. The mother needs to make some priority adjustments , I am sure she would have no issues with that, considering the alternantive.
Teenagers dont have the thought process that adults do. They cannot rationalize things as we do, so something that seems like not such a huge deal is a huge deal to them.
They already have all those hormones running rampid through their body, and to deal with trauma on top of all that, sometimes they are just not capable of it. Their brains are still growing and they do not process things as we do.
If it was my son ,, I would absolutely want to know about it. If he does do something, and you said nothing, how are you going to feel? There is absolutely nothing worse than attending the funeral of a child, other than it being your own child.

I know. I do know, I guess. I just wish I didn't have to tell them their son is so miserable that he wants to kill himself.

I just hope I don't make the situation worse. Sometimes it drives a person over the edge just to have others know.

On the other hand, his hints were not exactly what you could call subtle. I imagine he wants people to figure it out and help him.

I agree, you have to tell his parents. If you didn't say something, and he actually followed through with it, you would feel responsible for not doing anything.

Another thing to keep in mind is that he privied you to this information, or hinting. If you did nothing, he could look at it as "no one cares" and that could be the bit that throws him over the edge.

I totally agree with everyone,being a mother myself I would want to know.

While this could be just a teenagers cry for attention, it could also be a cry for help. If it turns out to be nothing, just another kid talking about suicide for attention, no harm, but if he is serious, what if you don't talk to his parents?

I agree that you should talk to the parents.

Let me tell you a little story about a cry for attention.

last year one of the guys that worked for me was having issues with his teenage daughter. She showed up on my porch and said " wheres my daddy,, I want to die, I just took a whole bunch of pills" My response,,,, your daddy is working,, if you wanted to die,, you would not be on my porch telling me you just took a whole bunch of pills, but what you did do is just earn yourself a trip to the hospital (she wanted that to begin with). After they gave her activated charcoal to make her vomit and then pumped her stomach, she has not tried that crap again. lol She is seeing a shrink,, that was not the first time she tried that crap, but it was the first time noone gave her an option about what was going to be done. I convinced her dad to sign her into inhouse therapy for 8 weeks,, she was miserable, lol
Moral to that story,, she never did it again, was wise to the fact that everyone was wise to her chilish behaviors for attention.
The difference is in studies and statistics, will show you that more males will actually follow through with suicide than females. Massive amounts of hormones, testosterone, and the fact that they are fyully developed later than girls, means that their brains are not capable of handling crisis and trauma as a girl their own age. They get into a mental state of no return,, in their minds there is no other option and the thought process of being able to rationalize that things will get better is not there. The key is to get them before they hit that desperation and cannot rationalize any other option, but suicide.

This is also another reason I preach about TALK TO YOUR KIDS! My kids know that they can talk to me about anything, no matter what the subject is about! My son talks to me about perrsonal private issues about girls, helps get opinions, talks to me about the problems with his dad. Problems with people at school, sex,, you name it, we talk!
I will go in his room and play video games with him, just to hangout and chat. It helps him to be able to solve problems that his poor little confused, hormone ridden brain, could not rationalize by itself. Talk Talk Talk,, hangout with your kids,, know when it is time to be a friend and time to be momma. It sucks being a teenager in todays world. The hardest thingto do is to keep up their self esteem, but it is by all means one of the most important things you can do for any child. You ask my youngest daughter why she was born last and she will tell you "because Iam awesome" You ask my youngest son why he was born third and he will tell you "because my awesomeness would have made Mathew jealous if I was first" lol
Little things like that,, make the world of difference in self esteem, my youngest son is autistic and developmentally delayed, I work 10 times harder on his self esteem than anyones elses,, but the key to that is I DO IT!
I can go on and on with this, lol obviously, lol

Just to update - I talked to my own mother about this, and she has much more contact with his parents than I do. I also talked to my brother. Apparently I'm the only one he's dropped these hints too. I feel kind of bad about that.

We're going to talk to his father, who he lives with, first and see if there's a way to help him or get help for him. I still don't know what's going to happen, but hopefully this will kick-start something into happening.

Maybe even just getting his family to do things more things together would really help. I hope so.

"Apparently I'm the only one he's dropped these hints too."

From personal experience, its often easier to talk to an almost stranger than to ask for help from your closest friend. Especially when it comes to depression and suicide.

There is a way to talk to his dad, tell his dad what is going on without dad letting him know you came to him. It might be something as simple as getting on an antidepressant. He might be encouraged to join a club of some sort. Get him out and doing things. Even a job he likes to do would be good. He needs support. Divorce is really hard on kids.