[Chapter 6]

[Reign’s P.O.V]

I wake up to someone shaking me. I groan and roll onto my stomach, letting the pillow suffocate my words as they leave my lips.

“Don’t make me throw water over you.” The voice threatens and instantly I’m wide awake.

My eyes fling open and I scramble to the end of the bed with my back against a wall. Groggily I look around the room I’m in. “Where am I?” My voice comes out croaky and rough like I haven’t talked in days.

“You’re at my house.” Mr Alister says as my eyes meet his.

I force my body to relax. “What am I doing here?”

“I’ll explain it over breakfast, come on.” He says, offering me a hand.

For a moment I stare at it, unsure whether I should take it or not but in the end I reach out hold onto it.

~@~

“So you just took me to the hospital and then here?” I ask after he finishes explaining the night to me. Nothing of which I can remember.

He nods, taking a sip of coffee. I crinkle my nose at the smell, I’ve never been able to handle it. “Yeah that’s the gist of it.”

“So nothing else happened?”

This time he shakes his head, “Nothing.”

“Okay, it’s just that when I get drunk I tend to do stupid stuff.” I explain, scared that I did do something he’s not telling me.

“Like?”

I roll my eyes and drum my fingers on the table, “Many different things, too many to list.”

He offered me food but quite honestly I don’t feel up for eating. Not when I have a busted knee, coach is never going to let me run until it’s fixed in a week or two. I can’t imagine what Tex will do when he finds out that I’m unable to run, he’d have a party. He finally has a chance to beat me at my own game, however something tells me that he too won’t be running for a while.

~@~

“Don’t forget about the detention.” Mr Alister reminds me when we reach the school.

I roll my eyes and jump out of the car when it rolls to a stop. “I won’t.”

Drew and Floyd meet me in the school doors, “Dude, you’re alive.” Drew yells causing eyes to turn towards us.

With a glare they all turn back to what they were doing, “Of course I am, why would you think that I wasn’t?”

“Because you never picked up your cell last night, or the home phone.” Floyd says, giving me a look. The look that says I better have a good explanation.

“I was at the hospital,” It’s not entirely the truth but it’s part of it.

“What?! Why?!” Drew screams, looking me over.

“It’s my knee,” I sigh, sadly. “It got cut pretty deep last night and I had to get stitches, I didn’t have my phone on me.” That’s true, I left it at home.

“Then why’d you come to school with Mr Alister?” Floyd asks with a raised eyebrow.

Lie, “He heard what happened from another teacher that was at the hospital when I was, and he figured that it was best if I didn’t drive to school in case something happened.”

“Mmm, okay.” He doesn’t believe me but lets it slide.

“What about your track?” Drew asks, his eyes wide.

I shrug, honestly, I haven’t really thought about it that much and I really don’t want to. I don’t want to stop running even if it is for a few weeks. “I have to set it aside for a few weeks. That’s all.”

“Good thing Tex isn’t here then.” Floyd pipes up, “He’d be bloating his pride everywhere if he won even once.”

I laugh slightly, “Yeah, what happened to him?”

“After you beat the living shit out of him he was sent to the nurse and when Mr Frann, the principle, heard what had happened he pretty much exploded over it, it was the talk through the whole school. He’d gone over to Tex’s house and nearly punched the boy.” He laughs, thinking about it. I can’t stop the laugh from slipping through my lips. “Turns out that Mr Franns brother is gay.”

Gay, such a small word yet it can destroy so many things around it, hundreds of relationships, millions of memories, each of which you can’t get back.

I look up just in time to see Byron walk in the front doors. I smile and wave at him but he simply puts his eyes to the floor, head down and scurries off down the corridor. I watch him with a tight expression across my face the further he goes. I’ve stuffed everything up.

Someone claps me on the shoulder and I turn towards them. “Whatever you did, he’ll forgive you.” Floyd says and a second later the bell rings.

~@~

School passes about as slow as traffic. By the time the last bell rolls around I’m ready to slam my head into the door multiple times, I still have who knows how long before I get to go home. During lunch today I went to see Coach who wished that I’d just get better, in fact he didn’t care all that much that we weren’t competing in any competitions for a few weeks.

Drew and Floyd over me waves of goodbye as I make my way into Mr Alister’s room, my bag hanging off my right shoulder. I reach the room and drop the bag by a table with a loud ‘thump’. I take a seat in a chair and rest my head back, waiting patiently for his arrival.

The door squeaks open and shuts a moment later but I don’t look up to meet his lingering gaze, no matter how much I want to. His chair puffs air out of the cushion as he takes a seat down. I can picture him leaning forwards, elbows and arms rested on the desk with his fingers locked in front of him.

“What’s wrong?” His voice floods the room, like a rain after years of nothing but fires.

“Everything.” I find myself saying, “I messed everything up and I don’t know what to do.”

“I can help if you’d like.” He says, I open my eyes the slightest to find his eyes fixed on me. I close them again.

“There’s nothing you can do to help.”

“I can try to.”

I sigh, “It’s not as easy as that.” I wish it was.

There’s a moment of silence before he stands and walks around his table. Gently he pulls out a chair beside me and takes a seat. “Nothing ever is easy but do you know what?” I shake my head, “It gets better.”

I close my eyes tighter, seeing nothing but darkness, something I’ve become accustom to. “Why don’t I tell you a story.” He says and I don’t say anything, knowing that he’s going to tell me either way.

“There was this boy, by the name of Drove.” He begins, “Drove grew up in a large family of 6 boys and 1 girl, him being the youngest. His family was poor as it is and the children didn’t make it any easier. His parents had trouble keeping up with payments and constantly had warnings. Then one day one of them couldn’t take it anymore and left. Then the mum was left raising a family of children by herself without a word from her husband, she hadn’t even been told he was leaving. Sometimes while the children were all asleep Drove would sneak out of bed and wander around the house.

“He could even hear his mother crying into her pillow. Drove slowly grew up year after year and watched the world change from a distance. Girlfriend after girlfriend he realised that none of them did anything for him and came to the terms that he was gay. He knew his mother would hate him, being a church goer and believing in such things as sins. But, he told her anyway and just as he predicted, she was outraged. She wanted more than anything to get him out of the house.

“It took weeks for Droves mum to finally realise that this boy standing in front of her then was really her son in the flesh. She welcomed him back with open arms. Unlike her, some of his brothers weren’t as convinced. They called him mean words, pushed him and hurt him. They constantly told him that he was worthless so much that he began to agree with it himself. He had it in his head that he was nothing more than a mere boy on this planet full of many more.

“Sad and alone he went to the city, climbed the tallest tower and stood at the ledge, looking down at the tiny creatures below him that we’re all too busy with something else to even glance up at that structure as see the young man sitting there, balancing with death. It was then that he realised he didn’t want to jump, he wanted to be one of the people who would look up and see when someone was in trouble, tell them that it all gets better, and it did. Even for Dover.

“He was offered a job, made a home of his own, woke up… and continued living, over and over again, helping anyone that he could along the way.”

I breathe heavily, unsure of what to say. “Who’s Dover?” I ask finally.

He smiles brightly but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “Me.”

I close my eyes once more before opening them and leaning forwards in my chair, head in my hands. “I’m not sure whether to tell them.” I say, “If I tell them they’ll only hurt me more.”

“You’re parents?” He asks and I nod, “What do you want to tell them?”

“That I’m gay.” I confess, heat filling my cheeks. “They’ll hate me afterwards. More than they already do.”

He shakes his head. “You can’t hate someone unless you’ve loved them first.” He says, and for a moment I’m thinking about it.

Seeing that it makes slight sense I lift my head up and face the front of the class, eyes glassing over. “And I’ve hurt Byron more by trying to keep him out of everything. He wouldn’t even look at me today.”

Surprising me, he places his hand on top of mine that rests on the cool wood of the table. “He’ll realise what you’re trying to do sooner or later and come to his senses.”

I shake my head, seeing that there’s no use in lying, “Honestly I don’t want him to get over it, It’s easier for the both of us if we don’t talk.”

“What do you mean?” Mr Alister asks, his face confused.

“I mean, he’ll figure out that I’m not who he thought I was,” I pause, looking down at his hand resting on mine. Without a thought I entwine our fingers together. “And I won’t be tempted to use him to forget who I really like.”

I look up at him to find his face confused still, but differently this time. Creases form on his forehead as he thinks something over but on the heat of the moment I find myself moving forwards, nothing on my mind but what it might be like to press out lips together. He stiffs but I can’t find it in myself to stop.

He swallows and as our lips are just about to meet he removes his hand off mine and replaces it on my chest, he doesn’t push me back but holds me where I am so I can’t move closer. My body trembles at the rejection but I forcefully stop it. How could I have been so stupid?! I mentally hit myself. I should have never came here, I don’t know why I even did, I never come to detentions, ever.

“I think you should leave.” He whispers, warm breath rolling over my face. The scent of vanilla and strawberry invading my senses.

A ball replaces my tongue, stopping anything from escaping my lips, including my air. My eyes burn up and before he can see the tears coming to the surface I take my bag, push his hand away, and leave. With no intention of coming back, looking back or thinking back.

I make it outside before I remember that Mr Alister was my ride home and I have no phone on me to call someone to pick me up. I tighten my bag on my shoulder and run, as fast as I can. My stitches throb my knee but I don’t care, all I want to do is run. It’s why I run in the first place, to forget everything.

Somewhere in my run it begins to rain down droplets the size of table tennis balls. Wet dirty blonde hair covers my vision and I run a hand through to push it back. Moments later it falls back down into place but instead of moving it I leave it.

My knee groans and wills me to stop but my mind forces my every step, telling me to keep going until I can’t remember anything, my heart urges me forwards, wanting me to feel nothing. I don’t stop.

I’m on an unfamiliar road when my knee gives out; I fall to the ground on my knees. The gravel and rocks scratch my knees as tears of frustration fall down my face, soon changing to ones of pain. Both physical and mental.

Using my hands I pull myself onto shaky legs and wobble towards a bridge. The moment I step under the shade of the cement the rain no longer hits my body like fists. Once again my knee collapses and I fall to the floor. My face hits the ground straight after my knee, skin tearing open. I stay lying on my stomach, the damp earth pillowing my head but nothing to protect my body from the sheer weather.

Black dots dance across my vision awkwardly, my dad’s face between them as he throws me in the cupboard, my mum’s plain poker face as she watches without a word, Byron’s disappointed voice ringing through my ears and Owens hand on my chest, holding me away.

I let my eyes slid shut as if they were made for just that. Mr Alister lied, it doesn’t get better. “Nothing gets better.” I whisper and let the cold breeze carry it away.

~@~

I'm so sorry it's short, I really just wanted to end it like this to annoy some people :P one being my brother *Cough Cough* As for the next chapter don't worry, I promise it'll be longer ;)