19 Years Younger (Mature Content) [Complete]

Chapter 2 - Jason

Don't die! Don't die!

The words chanted in my head as I sped down the road. My hands gripped the hand bars of my bike until my knuckles had turned white. I ignored my phone as it vibrated in my jacket pocket. Without even looking at it, I knew it would be Aurora. She was always the one calling when I was the one with trouble. I couldn't think of her right now.

Bradley can't die! He just can't!

I wanted more than anything to break the speed limit and fly down the road at 100mph but there where three problems with that. One being that my crappy bike didn't go that fast, two being that I had only just got my license and didn't want it taken away, which brought me to three that was the most important. If I got caught I'd be pulled over, inevitably fail the attitude test and end up spending Bradley's potentially last night in a cell. The one thing I couldn't wrap my head around was why the hell he would try to kill himself now? He was so much better, so why now? One thing was for sure though. I was so scared for him right now that if he survives I might end up killing him myself.

****

"I'm here to see Bradley James. Could you tell me which room he is in?" I asked a older woman at the nurses station. My tone of voice and look was frantic and I felt an overwhelming urge to puke.

"Are you a family member?" She asked.

"Yes and no," I babbled, "I'm his boyfriend..."

"I'm afraid that only family can..."

"You don't understand..."

"You will have to go home..."

"I'M NOT LEAVING HIM!" I shouting, slamming my palm on the desk.

"Jason?"

I turned around to see Shannon, Bradley's mother, behind me. Her cardigan was almost wrapped twice around her and she had her hair tied in a loose ponytail which made her already thin face look even thinner. Her large grey eyes were on the verge of tears. Her cheeks suggested she had only just stopped doing so.

"Shannon!" I hugged her, "I got here as fast as I could."

"I'm sorry to pull you away from your family but I didn't know who else to call..."

"Shannon don't ever apologise!" I told her firmly. I held her at arms length and stooped a little to be eye to eye, "I'd be more annoyed if you didn't."

She smiled weakly and I pulled her back into a hug. Shannon had always felt guilty because Bradley had been the one to take care of her and not the other way around. She too had suffered with depression and self-harming episodes. Bradley found her once almost dead in the living room after school and saved her life. Since then she has been better and the antidepressants have kept her from that path.

"I suppose you should come in and see him, seeing as that's why you are here," she sniffed.

I smiled weakly, "I'd like to."

She nodded and walked slowly towards a door at the end of the corridor. Even from down the corridor I could hear the heart rate monitor and life support. My jaw tensed as we got closer to the door. We both stopped outside, not wanting to go in. I blinked away the tears that threatened to break me down. Shannon slipped her tremoring hand into mine. I pushed open the door.

"Oh God!" I breathed.

Bradley lay perfectly central in the middle of the bed with a tube shoved down his throat. The bleeping from the heart rate monitor was all that was audible as Shannon and I made no sound.

"He is in a medically induced coma," Shannon murmured after a moment, "He's stable but..."

"He is strong Shannon," I reminded her, "so bloody narrow-minded and strong. God I never thought I'd be happy about that."

She laughed miserably, "Yeah."

"Why don't you go home and get some sleep?" I suggested, "I'll stay with him."

"No no I couldn't..."

"When was the last time you slept?" I asked her.

"I don't know. Two days ago maybe... But I can't leave him," she pleaded, "What if he wakes up?"

"He won't for a while," We both spun around to see Aurora behind up in the door way. She smiled sympathetically at us, "I spoke to the doctor on the way here. It will take a while but he should be ok. Now let me take you home Mrs James."

"But I can't go home. The investigators are still..."

"I'm under strict orders by my mother to take you back to ours anyway as its closer to the hospital," Aurora said, "now please Mrs James, there is nothing you can do here so the best you can do for Bradley is get some rest and let the doctors do their thing."

She nodded slowly and shuffled out with my sister. I mouthed a thank you to Rory and she smiled back. I sat down carefully in the chair next to Bradley's bed. I placed my crash helmet slowly on the ground. Wary not to disturb the monitor wires, I reached out and carefully took his hand in mine. I slowly planted a kiss on the back of his hand.

"So Zac finally asked Ella the question," I whispered to him, "Turns out she is pregnant... And so is my mum again... So we are going to be brothers again and uncles. Lance is somehow continuing to get kid in Rory's class to piss her off. I know how you love hearing ..." I sniffed and swallowed the tears that were threatening again, "My dad said that you can come live with us whenever you want. Our house is big enough so maybe you and your mum could move in," I snorted, "Of course we will share my room which is luckily the other end of the house..." The tears that I had been fighting won and streamed down my cheeks. I angrily wiped them away, "I promised myself I wouldn't cry in front of you because I know you wouldn't want that...." I kissed the back of his hand again, "God why did you have to do this? I don't care anymore just.... Just please be ok..... Please come back.... Please Brad.... Be ok!"