Seven Minutes From Heaven [bxb]

Chapter 28 - What's that word?

After one last deep breath and silent self-pep talk, I swung the door open. Just as I pictured, Josh was caught by surprise and keeled backwards into my room. I lunged for my life. Josh grabbed my ankle which sent me stumbling towards the staircase, but I managed to grab the railing and steady myself before I inevitably tumbled down.

"Jude!" Josh yelled.

He ran after me, but I sprinted out the door and only stopped to turn around when I reached the end of the driveway. He wouldn't pull anything stupid where our neighbours could see. "I'm sorry, seriously, I'm really sorry," he said, holding his hands up in surrender. "Come back so we can talk, and I'll explain everything. I'm just stressed, okay? I won't do anything else. I know I'm at fault, but you'll get it when I explain it to you."

Stressed? He assaulted me for the second time because he was stressed? Anger bubbled to the surface, and I could finally feel myself explode in red hot rage.

"Then you should've explained it when you got home!" I screamed, pointing my finger at him. "You didn't have to lay a finger on me. Only one smart thing has come outta your disgusting, stinking, filthy mouth and that's fuck your God!" I couldn't explain how good it made me feel to say that. Now that I was in this deep, I couldn't even think about holding back. "Why would God let you do something like that? Why would he let someone who's supposed to be anointed try to rape his own brother?"

Josh's eyes widened. "Jude, shut up! That's not what I was trying to do," he said, eyes darting around at the houses in case somebody was around. "What if someone hears you?"

All of the houses were pretty close together in our cosy little suburb, so it'd be weirder if they didn't. A curtain behind one of the windows shifted slightly, so my guess was someone had already poked their nose out. Well, good.

"So let them!" I scoffed, hoping they could see and hear everything. "Let them hear me, Josh. If you think I won't tell the cops about it then you're dead wrong. Screw you, screw your anointing, and screw whatever thing you've got going on with my mum that she doesn't even love me anymore."

I watched him shrink back helplessly while I turned and bolted into the street. Hungry, thirsty, barely wearing anything when it was cold outside; this isn't what I bargained for first thing on a Wednesday morning. I should've been getting ready for school and seeing Liam play soccer! Sit my test then hear Liam tell me how proud he was, and that he knew I'd get a good score! Yet here I was, sprinting fifty-thousand miles to the hospital to find out if my mum was really dying.

The run warmed me up quickly. I barely knew where I was and had no way of telling the time. Eventually I had to stop and keel over, gasping for air. I was sweating buckets and still unsure of how much further I had to run.

A familiar wagon could be spotted just up the road, and I recognised it straight away to be Pastor Cordell's. I couldn't believe my luck. Was this God working a miracle to remind me that He was still present? Just in case, I uttered a silent thanks and broke into another sprint. I waved my arms and yelled out his name, though my voice was croaking from the dehydration.

All the yelling made me cough, but it paid off because as I passed several houses along the street, I eventually caught his eye. He turned on his blinkers and pulled over, allowing me to catch up to him. By the time I reached his car, I was stuck in a coughing fit. Pastor Cordell immediately offered me a drink of water from his bottle. I gulped down every last drop.

"Pastor," I said, panting heavily. "Pastor Cordell, d'you think you could take me to the hospital to see mum?"

"She's back there again?" he asked in surprise. He shifted gears and started driving again. "That's no problem, I can do that. But what's her condition like? And how are you feeling?"