Chapter 18

[Chapter 18]


When the fuzz is gone from my vision I recognise a face to the boy being pulled from the room, the boy who caused all of this disaster. Tex.


It’s my fault this happened, I didn’t tell the others that he threatened me and I didn’t warn them about the bad feeling in my gut.


Stupid.


The next  one to be taken from the room is Drew, strapped to a gurney. They rush him from the room as fast as possible and in the matter of seconds the sirens of an ambulance are blaring. Someone gathers me in their arms and I snuggle into their chest, refusing to let the tears fall.


I’m placed in the back of an ambulance on a makeshift bed. Outside neighbours stand from their doorways, watching with curious eyes. They take in everything that’s happening and everyone that’s been injured. Vultures. Why can’t they just mind their own business?


Owen sits beside me and that’s the moment I notice the blood oozing from between his fingers that push tightly against his arm. I sit up quickly with the words in my throat, “Are y-” but suddenly the world tilts to the side and he pushes me back against the bed.


“I’m alright, the bullet went straight through my shoulder.” Owen says as if it’s no big of a deal.


I close my eyes and listen to the sirens, talking and the paramedics tending to Owen. Once they’re finished patching up his wound they turn to me, asking me all sorts of questions like where the pain hurts and on a scale of 1 to 10 as to how bad it is.


Only when they’re gone do the police finally come to ask more questions. I remember one face as Mr Phillips. He helped me when my father was out to get me. He notices me and smiles slightly as he weaves his way towards us from the others.


“You have a way of getting yourself into all sorts of trouble.” He says.


I shrug, “What can I say? It’s a curse.”


He shakes his head with a small smile but it’s quickly gone and he’s serious once more. “Can you tell me anything about what happened here? Why this young man in our car would want to do something like this?”


I roll my lips into my mouth, “He threatened me about running in a race.” Is all I can think to say.


Mr Phillips raises an eyebrow before creasing them in thought, “He threatened you? About a race?”


I nod, “That’s right.”


“Was there anything important about this race?”


“No sir, not that I can think of.”


“And were you at this race Mr Alister?” He says, turning to Owen.


Owen quickly nods his head and I see the sweat forming on his forehead. “Yes but I never knew Reign had been threatened.”


“You’re the boys guardian yes?”


He nods and nervously picks at a loose thread on his jeans.


“Okay, thank you for your time.” He goes to leave but turns back to us, “I’ve organised a ride across the road for your group to go see your friend; he didn’t look too good.”


We say our thankyous and he leaves without another word.


~@~


The hospital is bad enough in the day and even worse at night. Every room you pass is dark and looks as though someone is staring back at you from some hidden corner. The smell doesn’t help either; the stench of cleaning products and medical chemicals tinges my nose and makes me want to choke. Isn’t it too much to ask for a little clean air?


Right now we’re sitting in the waiting area outside the emergency room where Drew’s being kept. It’s been 2 hours since I’d talked to Mr Phillips, two hours since we’d left, two hours we’d been sitting here.


His parents were sitting opposite us, dark circles were under their eyes and I bet I looked no better. Anika, Drew’s younger sister, was curled up on two chairs beside her parents. Unlike everyone around her she didn’t have a good idea of what was happening.


Not once in that two hours has anyone bothered to inform us about Drew’s health or if he’s okay or not. No one could muster the will to speak, only listen to the medical team talking on the other side of the door. Although we couldn’t hear exact words it felt good to know that they weren’t yelling or calling anything a code red.


~


It was exactly 1:36 in the morning when a doctor emerged from the room, he held his head low and looked at us with regret. Before he even reaches us I hear Floyds tears erupt. He’d been on a roller-coaster ever since we got here. One minute he’d be fine and the next he’d be crying his heart out.


Hearing him now, seeing that pain that he felt hurt. I could feel it too. The pain of your brother dying, to me he was more than a friend. Both him and Floyd were, they were my family. As the doctor explained that the operation didn’t succeed Drew’s parents embraced each other while they cried.


Dead.


It was a word the doctor used so effortlessly, as if he used it every day. Heck, he probably did. But I shut down when he said it. The word seemed to make everything seem that little bit more real. Drew was dead.


My body shook and I don’t register the weight of Owens arm over my shoulder. I don’t register Kate’s words of sorrow. I don’t register anything. The floor beneath my feet doesn’t seem to matter anymore. I may as well be dead.


You should be the one dead. Something whispers in the back of my head.


It was true. I should be the one in that bed, covered in a black sheet. It should be me with the bullet in my chest. If only the world didn’t thrive on my pain and torture. Haven’t I been through enough already?


I don’t believe in a God but right now I could picture the big man up there laughing at me, laughing at another day I have to live my pathetic life.


It’s only when Floyd goes running from the room that everything seems to flick into me like a rubber band. Nico gets up to follow him but I reach my hand out and stop him.


“I’ll talk to him.” He seems to understand without any more explaining and quietly I stand up and leave the room the way Floyd went.


I find him outside sitting on the hospitals back steps. Behind the hospital is an old parking lot that no one uses anymore, trees have begun to take back the land and roots are reaching through the cracks in the cement.


Silently I take a seat next to him and listen to the cars on the road and the wildlife around us. Two completely different sounds that seem to mix together and make something soothing.


I know there isn’t any words I can say to make him feel better so instead I place a hand on his back as he bends over and weeps into his palms.


“We were meant to have forever.” His muffled voice cries.


 “What do you mean?”


He looks me in the eye for a second before turning away. “We were going to tell you but we didn’t know when the right time was.” Floyd says, “We were together. For about a year. We were going to tell you but then your accident happened and we didn’t see it as the most important thing.”


We lapse into the silence and Floyd takes the time to look up at the stars. For a moment I don’t think he’s going to say anymore but then he adds, “It’s Kate’s fault this happened.”


I’m taken aback by his words and I look at him with so much shock. “How can it be her fault this happened?”


“If she had have protected herself Drew wouldn’t have had to jump out in front of her to stop her from getting shot.”


“He died as a hero and that’s what he always wanted to do.” I say, “You can’t blame this on Kate, it wasn’t her fault it happened the way it did.”


He sighs, “I know…it’s just that, I loved him.”


Tears threaten to spill and once again he’s back on the roller-coaster ride, he doubles over trying to catch his breath. “It hurts Reign, it hurts so much.”


“I know it hurts.” I say. “I know.”


Still, I refuse to cry.


~@~


You wouldn’t expect it to be the day for a funeral.


You’d expect it to be like in the movies with the dark sky, rain and absolutely no happiness what so ever. In fact today was the complete opposite. The sun’s shining brightly, there’s no chance of rain and there are children out laughing and playing across the road on the park opposite the church.


For anyone that wasn’t attending a funeral you wouldn’t even imagine one going on.


Everyone stands up to speak about Drew and how much he was and what he amounted for. When it came to be my turn to stand on the alter and speak about Drew, something in me snapped. Something at my core was finally pulled away, if I stood up there and spoke his name as a past tense it would make it real what had happened.


He would want me to do it. He would want me to stand up there and tell everyone who he was and he wouldn’t want them to forget it.


I stand on shaky legs and slowly make my way towards the front. I face everyone and breathe deeply. 100 pairs of eyes stare back at me, waiting to see what I’ll say. There’s so much that I could say about him.


I could say that he died as a hero but that wouldn’t make anyone remember him. I need to say something that will make everyone remember that he was real, that he had a personality and wasn’t just a figure of their imaginations.


“Drew was my friend but he was also more than a friend, he was my brother.” When I say this I look towards his family and their tearstained faces, “Floyd and him were the only family I had ever had, they didn’t care what I’d done wrong or if I hurt them in any way. They-he- accepted me for what I was.


“I admit we did get into trouble a lot of the time but that’s who he was, he was a troublemaker and for a fact I know that he always will be.” I laugh at a memory, “I remember one time when we were in the nurse’s office with a stomach bug and Drew decided it was a fun time to set off the fire extinguisher. Well, the nurse came back and you can say for short that she wasn’t very happy.”


Tears leak their way into my eyes and make my vision blurry. Not have I once cried since the shooting, it didn’t seem fit to cry over it until I was saying goodbye.


I sneak a look at Owen to see him staring at me with shock and sadness. He must know that I remember by now, that I remember the reason I got in the car. The reason I was even in that crash in the first place.


“I guess I’m standing up here today to say that I’ll miss you Drew, we all will.” Finally the tears break the surface of my eyes and when the priest takes my place at the front I walk down the row towards the door.


I don’t stop there and push the doors open. I listen to the footsteps that follow me steadily and take a seat at the pond outside the church. I watch the fish as they swim together and hide amongst the weeds when I dip my finger in.


Looking at my reflection in the water I wonder how anyone can recognize me. My usual blue eyes look more black than anything and my dirty blonde hair is thick and matted. Dark brown bruises underline my eyes from lack of sleep and my cheeks look hollow from the lack of food.


“Why didn’t you tell me I looked so bad?” I whisper to Owen as he sits beside me. I close my eyes so he won’t see the underlying tears. 


“You don’t look too bad, it’s nothing to be ashamed of.”


I laugh humourlessly, “Don’t look too bad? I look like a zombie that was hit by a bus.”


“It’s understandable, your best friend died.”


“He didn’t die, he was killed.”


He’s silent before he finally says what was on his mind, “You remember?”


I nod, “When I hit my head on the floor the night of the shooting it made me remember.”


“Why didn’t you tell me?”


Without meeting his eye I shrug, “There were more important things going on than getting my memory back.”


“Did you at least tell the doctors?”


“They’d only want to keep me in the hospital for longer than I needed to be there.”


Owen doesn’t say anything else, and he doesn’t need to. I know that he understands what I’m talking about.


The doors to the church open and Floyd sticks his head out. “They need you to help carry him.” He says quickly before sneaking back in.


Without a word I stand and follow him in.


~@~


Weeks upon weeks pass by quickly. We got news from the police that Tex went to court and was found guilty for numerous assaults, rape, and murder.


I know that Floyd doesn’t show it but he still blames Kate for what happened to Drew. It’s in the way he looks at her when she’s not facing him. When the sorrow leaves he’ll understands that he was wrong for blaming her.


That night a letter came from a court saying that it’s my mum’s chance to get custody over me once again. It was to be held the weekend coming and that if Owen did not attend my mother would automatically gain the rights. I could tell by the look in his eyes and the attitude change that he wasn’t going to let that happen and he was going to do everything in his will to keep me in his house.


I didn’t want to leave as much as he didn’t want me to. My mum hasn’t ever cared for me and she wasn’t going to care for me even if she did gain custody. I bet with everything in me that she’s just doing this because she wants to prove to everyone that even if something was taken away from her she could still gain control over the situation.


Owen wasn’t going to let that happen any time soon.


When the weekend finally came it was like any ordinary day, minus the stress. As we walked into the court room I couldn’t stop the sweat from trickling down my palms and neck. Right now this was like a toss between life and death.


We sat down in our designated seats and waited for the proceeding to begin. 10 minutes slowly turned into 20 and then 20 turned into an hour and still my mother hadn’t shown up. Each minute that passed I couldn’t hide the smile that spread along my lips and beside me Owen was having the same trouble. It was only a matter of time before they passed it down to Owen.


Someone finally came into the room and handed the judge a letter. As she read it her lips pulled tightly together. When she had finished reading it she banged the hammer on the table, declared Owen had gained custody and called the next matter at hand. As we were exiting the room Owen placed a hand on the centre of my back and led me out.


When we were back outside we sat together on a bench just outside the door. “What was that letter about?” I asked when I was sure no one was listening.


Before Owen could say anything his lawyer, Mr Whiterun, sat next to us with a paper in his hands. Silently he handed it to me. Him and Owen began talking about things while I unfold the paper.


 Written neatly in my mother’s handwriting is the words;


‘Reign,


I know that I haven’t been much of a mother in the past and that I don’t talk to you very often now but when they offered me the chance to get you back I knew I couldn’t say no. Except, this isn’t my decision to make.


It’s time that I start thinking about you for once and by giving Owen custody over you is the only way I see you’ll forgive me.


As for me, I’m in Rio. There’s a man here that I’ve met who has great plans for the future, for you and I. His name is Kupe and he wants to meet you someday and I hope that you’ll meet him too. I’ve attached a small gift to this as a support to Owen for looking after you and helping you grown into a man. Something that your father and I could never do.


I heard about what happened to Drew but just remember, it’s not the end of the world. Be safe and be careful little boy.


Love, mum.’


I fold the paper back up and look in the envelope. Slowly I pull out the gift she was talking about.


Money.


With eyes wide as I read the amount written on the thin piece of paper. $800,000.


I knew my parents were rich but I never knew how rich they really were. Quietly I look up at Owen as he continues to talk to Mr Whiterun and this time I really can’t stop the smile from spreading across my face.


Not once did I blame anything that happened to me on my mother. Sure she could have helped me when my ‘father’ kicked me down but I never assumed that she thought she should pay me back for it. I’m just glad she’s happy and doing okay. Maybe things will start looking up from now on.


Owen catches my look and smiles back at me, a moment that I will treasure forever.


‘Thanks mum,’ I want to say, ‘Owen in the best gift I could ever have.’




Comment