All Rubber Duckies Go To Heaven

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Jayden pulled me off of where I sat on his desk and onto his lap. His arms felt foreign on me but I know he didn’t feel the same. Jayden was used to things slipping back into our twisted form of normalcy. So was I, for that matter, but this time something kept eating at me.

“Droemer, Caste,” Mr. Carson’s voice boomed across the room. I flinched. “Cool it with the PDA.”

I apologized and went to stand but Jayden pulled me back onto his lap.

“C’mon Mr. Carson! It’s not like she’s gonna get prego or something. We’re fully clothed.”

“Jayden,” I hissed, attempting once more to stand but his fingers pressed on my hipbones rigidly.

“What was that Droemer?” Mr. Carson’s voice was doused in annoyance. He stood and put his palms on his desk. “Cause all I heard was ‘Hey Mr. C, you ready for me to kick it in Detention today?’. Besides, Ms. Caste doesn’t seem at ease in that position. I ‘m feeling a bit rash today so I suggest you do as the code of conduct instructs.”

Jayden wasted a few fiery moments glaring at Mr. Carson before I pried myself away from him and scurried back to my seat. The rest of my fellow students were dead quiet and I could feel my face heat up.

Jayden broke the unsettling serenity with a deep, irritated form of his voice. “Screw this!” he broke from his chair and went for the door, stopping at my desk to whisper his plea for me to skip out with him.

I shook my head. He let out a frustrated growl and hit the desk before storming out. I was tense and hit my elbow on the safety bar when I flinched.

Mr. Carson was still standing, his jaw slack due to shock. The majority of the class was gaping at me. I let my forehead hit the desk easily with a heavy sigh.

After a few seconds Mr. Carson cleared his throat and excused himself from the classroom. I was already one step ahead of his required desertion, with my iPod in my hands and earphones it.

My fingers drummed on the desk casually as I let my quaking body transfer into its own form of expression. I would’ve missed the commotion going on outside if someone hadn’t hooked my earphone cords and ripped them out of my ears on their excited rush out into the hall.

It took a moment for me to decipher what they were chanting, the lone word too much of a coincidence to be one.

“Fight! Fight! Fight!”

I bolted from my seat and shot through the crowd. When I breached the thick barrier of bodies I felt sick.

I didn’t know whose blood was splattered on the white tile. It was so foreign, the dark maroon, not a minor scarlet. From the look of it, the blood shared three hosts: Jayden, Mr. Carson, and Aerin.

Jayden’s knuckles were raw and his brow was split while blood trickled from his mouth and nose.

Mr. Carson’s lip was split bad enough to have blood flowing to his shirt.

Aerin was lying on the ground, semi-conscious. His nose was obviously broken and his eye was swelling and turning a sick dead purple color. His shirt was soaked with blood.

My mind wasn’t working right, wasn’t working defensively. I don’t know what had it clouded, what made me so stupid. I didn’t even think twice.

My knees hit the floor next to Aerin. My hands were on his chest and my eyes were brimming with tears. I tried to say something but he shook his head.

I could hear Jayden shouting at me, cussing and calling me horrible names but I didn’t care. I could see Jayden break from Mr. Carson’s hold. He stormed over toward me and Aerin. I still wasn’t moving. I had to have been in shock or something.

“You promised you wouldn’t hurt him! You said-you said if I…” My indignant voice faded into dismayed sobs. I collapsed on Aerin. My body had seemed to shut down completely by the time Jayden pulled me off the floor by my upper arm and shook me.

He was cussing at me, asking what was wrong with me and calling me a whore and a slut. I just spaced out and started thinking about other stuff.

His hand didn’t hurt as it slapped my cheek but I could feel my jaw ache and a slight sting. There were definitely bruises forming where his hands were. His fist hit me once, twice, three times in the gut. He threw me to the floor when Mr. Carson grabbed him and threw an elbow into the teacher’s stomach before reaching over and grabbing my hair and pulling me to my feet.

I was still spacing out, creating an alternative to the current situation: an alternative to each blow, each bruise, and each word.

Aerin smiled at me. My fingers were well twined with his and I held on like I was never going to let go. I never wanted to.

He leaned over and kissed the tip of my nose. “Worth it,” he praised. “You were so worth it. Everything Jan.”

His words brought a smile to my face. He didn’t even have to say them; the smile was already there. It was there since the first moment I saw him, and grew every day.

Because when you find your world, when you find all you ever wanted, it shows. A frown was never the proper residence for the happiness that accompanied Aerin’s arrival in my life.

“Listen to me! Jan! Please!”

I blinked a few times, realizing I wasn’t in the same position. I wasn’t even at the school anymore.

I jumped. The room was pure white, as was my gown. Beside me a monitor was beeping every second or so, mimicking the thick pulsing in my temples.

“What the hell happened?” I whispered, still in a bit of shock.

The person spoke again. “You passed out. Things got really rough at school and you got caught up in the middle. How are you feeling?”

It took me a second to realize it was Trayce at my bedside. I put off answering him to look around and take in the room, noticing he wasn’t the only one. Josh was leaning against the door frame and Esther sat in the windowsill. Cal and Nessa were sleeping in chairs off by the room’s closer, with Vanessa laying her head on his shoulder.

Was I even allowed to have this many guests?

Was I even allowed to feel loved this much?

“Uh… I’m a little confused. Dizzy I guess. And sore.” I winced as I moved to sit up.

“Well, that’s to be expected. A few of your bottom ribs are fractured. And you have bruises all over.” His eyes flickered to my arms with sympathy leaking from his irises.

“Oh.”

I didn’t know what else to say.

Trayce smiled weakly and moved to stand. “The nurse said if you have any questions about your condition we can just call one in her. They’re all pretty familiar with your case. The greater part of the state is….”

Somehow I knew no one knew the whole story.

“What happened to Aerin and Jayden?” My fingers dug into the sheet as anxiety invaded the cavity of my chest, tightening it. My pulse elevated, the change evident in the quickened beeping behind me.

Trayce looked back to Josh, the only adult in the room, and pleaded with his eyes for Josh to explain. He pushed off the wall and came to sit at the foot of my bed. “Jayden is in Police custody. Aerin… is down in ICU. Your teacher said he saved your life; you would probably be dead without him.”

When he said ‘ICU’ I stopped breathing. “What happened?”

Josh smiled sympathetically and it made me sick. “Jayden had a knife. He was about to attack you with it but Aerin got in the way. He’s been unconscious. He’s lost a lot of blood.”

And with that my heart stopped. “Is he going to be okay?”

His face shaded over. “I don’t know. He’s really in God’s hands right now.”