Wandering Alone

Chapter 13

"Z-Zane?  Hold still, I'll get the doctor!"  I exclaimed, starting to panic.  Could he survive without the oxygen mask?

"No, don't go!"  He held up a hand, freezing me in mid stride. "I'll just push the nurse button, the'll come to us."  He pushed the button, clinching his jaw.  "Now tell me what happened."  I turned to look at him, somewhat shocked by how pale is face still was.  The skin around his right eye was turning a dark purple, with splotches of blue. "Please, Demi,"  He said, it was barely audible, "tell me what happened, I need to know." 

I looked down at my feet, noticing for the first time how disgusting I was.  I was in my pajamas, which were pretty much covered in dried blood.  Zane's blood.  I took a deep breath to steady my spinning head, "My step father almost killed you."  I whispered.

"What?  I can't hear you." Zane wrinkled his eyebrows in confusion.  I sighed and walked to his bed side, gripping the railing so tightmy knuckles turned white,

"What is the last thing you remember?"  I asked, taking a deep breath.  I really didn't want to repeat this story, but I guess he kinda needed to know.  He had saved me.

"Leaving my house to go to your house to give you your shampoo.  You left it in my bathroom."  I raised an eyebrow at him.  Well that answered the question of what he was doing in my house.

"You saved me."  I stated, raising a hand to my mouth.  He had saved me from rape, by my step father no less.  I couldn't have gone through that. Not again.  I looked back at him and, noticing his confused expression, continued, "This is going to be a really long story, so I hope you're ready for it."  He nodded, but I didn't get to continue.  A doctor and nurses came running in, panicked expressions on their faces.

It took a few minutes to assure them nothing was wrong, and we just wanted to make sure ever thing was alright.  They checked Zane out - thoroughly I might add - and proclaimed him to be healing just fine.  He was doing as well as could be expected.  Surprisingly, Emma didn't wake up through all the noise but continued snoring.  I rolled my eyes at her as I pulled my chair up to Zane's bed.  Curling my feet under my butt, I sat down and rested my elbows on the bed railing.  He smiled at me, but I could still see the confusion in his eyes.

"Alright, I'm going to start at the beginning.."  I said, my voice shaky.  Slowly, I took a deep breath.  I was coming clean, he was going to know everything.  "My parents divorced when I was little, about five years old.  I was the reason they split up.  I know it wasn't really my fault, but I shouldn't have asked my dad about the strange woman in front of my mother.  I caught my dad cheating, in his room, while I was in the house.  I was so confused at that age, I had no idea what it meant for two adults  - one of whom I did not know - to be in bed naked with each other."

"That set off the bombs, but I didn't turn and run.  My parents started fighting, and then my mother would be gone for long periods of time.  Eventually, she just packed up and left, taking me with her. About three weeks went by, and I finally got up the nerve to ask my mom where my dad was.  That was the first time I was physically assaulted by an adult.  My mom blew up at me. I guess she was mad that my dad had cheated, and she slapped me across the face... "

I was crying by then, but I couldn't stop talking.  It was like the words were flowing from my mouth, once they started they couldn't be stopped.

"I was so shocked that she had hit be, I began to spend the whole day in my room.  That's when I started not talking to people.  By the time I was nine the divorce was final, all custody rights were taken care of, and both my parents were remarried.  I was living with my mother at the time, and she sent me off to a summer camp that lasted the whole summer so she could spend some alone time with her new husband.  I would've been mad, but that's where I meat Katie.  She's still my best friend."