This Rose Bleeds (boyxboy)

Chapter ~Thirty~

            “Nathan, oh my god, Nathan. Wake up. Hey, keep looking at me. Oh my God, Marcus look at all the blood. Nathan, I’m so sorry. Look at me.” Was that Kristy? She pushed back my hair and patted my face.

            “Kristy…his body.” I heard someone else warn in a shocked voice. The blanket was pulled down slightly.

            I think she muffled her mouth from crying. I closed my eyes all the way. I’m hurting her. Can’t they go away?

            “NATHAN!”

            I winced and breathed slowly into my pillow. I tried mouthing, “I’m okay.” Suddenly there was a lot of motion.

            “Where’s your cell phone?!”

            “It’s been dead since yesterday!”

            “Gran has mine…JESUS! Marcus, get the police!”

“I’ll get more than the police.”

“I’ll go…um…to the hospital! Yeah. Oh my god Nathan hold on, you’ll be all better in no time. We’ll take you to the hospital–”

            I felt a tear traveled down my cheek as I shook my head, “no…”

            “You have to Nate. It’s okay. We’ll be right back and will stay with you the whole time. Just…oh god don’t move. Just hold on.” Less than a minute later silence took over the room once again. Dust floated peacefully where the sunlight melted into my room. It was the middle of the day again.

            In all my life, this is the most pain I’ve ever felt.

            I really hope I die. I felt guilty that I might go before I apologized, and thanked everyone, and before explaining to Ryder the truth. He doesn’t even know my last words to him were ‘I love you.’

            I screamed.

            Pain ripped down my back as I was yanked out of bed. Kristy? Marcus? What’s going on?! A blanket was tossed over my whole body and somehow I was out of my house and lying in a car. I breathed heavily to silence.

            I was about to scream for help but for the two seconds I was alone in the car, the emptiness and feeling of being utterly alone in the world cut through my ears like thunder.

            No one could possibly help me.

.:~* RYDER *~:.

I was all ready to begin the ultimate ignoring of him and simply glare if he tried to make contact with me. But he wasn’t in school. Again! That stupid…I don’t know why it made me so irritated.

            I tossed my soccer ball in the air for the twenty-third time. Toss, catch. Toss, catch. That fucker was even skipping his oh-so-precious school.

            Suddenly my door slammed open, ricocheting against the wall. I jumped and the ball fell on my face. I shot up, rubbing my forehead and growled, “What the hell, man?”

            I raised an eyebrow at him. He was sweaty as if he sprinted from the school to here, and was seething. His hair and eyes were wild. “Nathan…” He gulped air. “He’s in trouble.”

            I stiffened and picked up the soccer ball. “So?”

            “No, you don’t get it Ryder. He’s in trouble. He’s–”

            I twitched and turned on him, throwing the ball to him and saying, “I don’t care Marcus. It’s his life. It’s over and you shouldn’t care either.”

            “Ryder–”

            “Why should I care, huh?” His chest rose as he took big breaths. He clenched the soccer ball. “He’s a fake. He’s…pathetic! All he does is…is butt into stuff and mess things up. I hope he gets what he deserves–”

            He dropped the soccer ball and a second later his fist slammed into my cheek and I fell against the wall. I looked at him in shock, ready to shove him back, but he grabbed the front of my shirt and slammed me against the wall again.

            “Get what he deserves?” He yelled. My jaw went slack and still as I stared at my friend. I’ve never seen him so furious.

            “What’s wrong with you?!” I half asked, half yelled.

            “What’s wrong…what’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you, Ryder!?” He screamed and clenched my shirt with white knuckles. “Do you have any, any, fucking idea what he’s going through?! What he’s been doing these past few weeks?! No, no you don’t! You have no fucking CLUE! For the past couple weeks he’s been working his ass off! All day in the café pretending that he’s FINE. As if nothing was wrong with his life. Then when he DOES come to school, he’s freaking dead and can’t do shit against Jonah! AND THEN WHAT? All night he serves at a BAR, a freaking bar. Do you know how much he hates alcohol? You don’t know what almost happened to him! You sure as hell be thankful I was there to help him! And have you forgotten about that monster asshole that hurts him whenever he’s drunk as hell? Well, guess what, he’s not waiting for the end of the month anymore. Did you know that? Huh? No. You don’t! Want to know how I know that? Because he’s lying in his own blood, RIGHT NOW, BARELY able to stay awake!”

            He shoved me back and stepped away.

            “After all of that, there’s you! Do you have any fucking clue how much you hurt him? Nathan has done nothing. He deserves none of this. He deserves to be happy and for a short time, you gave him that. You promised you would never leave his side. And fuck, even I believed you. On top of EVERYTHING he has to handle on his own, YOU were the one that hurt him the most. You were probably the biggest disappointment, and that’s why he’s giving up. That’s why he’s not even trying to get back everything he lost.”

            The look of revulsion never left his face. “Where was Nathan at school today?” I could barely comprehend everything Marcus yelled. My mouth opened and closed, unable to speak, as blood drained from my face every second he spoke.  “WHERE WAS HE?” He screamed at me.

“…absent…” I whispered distortedly.

            His face twisted and he spat, “And I bet you have no idea where he is.”