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When I woke up five minutes ago by Hayden, the last thing I expected to hear was that Lina's house was on fire. The second those words were processed by my brain, I bolted out of my bed quicker than humanly possible.
Every member in this house runs outside towards the farmhouse like our lives depended on it, except it wasn't our life that depends on our speed, it was Linas. At one point during the chaos, I managed to pull on a pair of trainers before running outside, and the sight I saw made me pause in my steps.
Flames engulf the kitchen, the orange and yellow sparks flicker through windows, and the thick smoke that makes it nearly impossible to see fills the air.
I look around the land frantically, hoping the Lina has made it out and she's safe, but there's no sign of her. I run around to the garage, and everyone follows me. I look up at the Linas window, and I sigh in relief when I see it open.
"Lina!" Toni screams, cupping her hands over her mouth to make her voice louder, not that she needs to by any means. "Oh my god, Lina!" she yells again.
"Look!" Hayden shouts as he points to something on the roof, and the second I saw it, I knew exactly what she did. Beanie, the little horse that hates me, walks towards the edge of the garage and lets out a high pitched bark.
"She saved the dogs." I mumble to myself. "Stupid, borderline brain dead idiot." I say, examining the window on the side of the garage.
Before anyone can talk me out of it, I put my foot on the window ledge and push up, grabbing onto the hanging edge of the roof, pull myself up and push myself onto the ledge, and then shuffle backwards before turning and running to the window. Lina's window ledge rests against my chest, and I look inside the window looking for her, but I don't see her.
"Adrian!" Hayden, Toni and mum yell simultaneously. I don't listen as I push myself onto the window ledge again and pull myself through the window. And that's when I see her. She's on the floor, her dark brown hair covering her face, her body not moving a muscle.
"Evelina?" I shout, the shakiness in my voice unmistakable. I reach down and push her dark locks away from her face. Her eyes are closed, and her skin, usually olive toned, is porcelain white, and soot covers her forehead and cheeks. "God, why did you save the damn dogs first?" I grumble, bending down and wrapping my arm under her legs and the other under her back as I pick her up and somehow manoeuvre us both out the window.
"Evelina, keep your eyes open." The second those words leave my lips, her head falls backward and she's seemingly lifeless in my arms. The panic in me flares inside me, like the actual flames below us. I walk to the edge of the garage, and Hayden reaches up as I lower Lina into his arms, before jumping down myself.
"Oh god. Is she okay?" Toni cries as she clings on to mum beside her. "Is she breathing?"
Hayden lays Lina down on the grass just as an ambulance sounds in the distance, coming up the long road to the land along with a firetruck. I have no idea who or when they called them, but I've never been more thankful.
After I hear those sirens, my world freezes. As I stare down at a lifeless Lina, my mind drifts to the sirens that have haunted me for two years. The sirens I knew wouldn't be there in time, so save him, but just in time to rescue me.
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t⃨w⃨o⃨ y⃨e⃨a⃨r⃨s⃨ a⃨g⃨o⃨
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"Adrian." Toni yells to me, walking into my room without knocking. "Dad wants to take us out for our birthday, but I'm going round to Taylors, which means you can't bail."
"No Toni, the boys on the team want to go out and I have to go." I sigh, standing up and walking over to my desk.
"Well, one of us has to go." She groans, stomping her feet like a child.
"Toni, we're nearly fifteen, although I'm starting to question if you were born years after me, considering you're on the verge of throwing a tantrum like a six years old kid who can't get the Barbie she wants." I snark and Toni flicks my forehead. "You just proved my point."
Toni sighs again and holds her hand out in a fist. "Fine rock paper scissors, who has to go?"
"You're aware everything you're saying is proving my point even more, right?" I ask, and she just holds her fist closer to me, and I sigh. "Okay fine, best of three?" Toni nods her head, and I hold my fist out to her. "Okay. One...two...three." On three, I hold my fist as a rock, while Toni flattens her palm and then wraps her hand around my fist.
"Ha!" she yells and holds her fist out again, and I do the same. "One...two...three." I hold out two fingers as scissors, and Toni holds her hand in a fist. "Ha, my rock crushes your scissors, it also crushes your plans tonight."
"Shit." I mumble as she laughs and walks out of my room with a smug wave of her hand while I pick up my phone and message my friends saying I can't go out tonight because I have other plans.
I run down the stairs just as Toni leaves the house with another smug wave, and I hold my middle finger out to her just as dad comes out of the kitchen and catches me, cursing at my own sister and chuckles.
"What has she done now?" Dad asks, and I lower my hand and turn to him.
"Nothing."
"Liar." Dad laughs, grabs his keys off the table by the door, and looks to me. "You ready?"
I nod my head and we both walk out and to the Mclaren my dad owns. I'm so thankful Toni went out, because if she were here, we'd have to take the range rover. Since my dad got the car when I was eleven, I've only been inside it twice. Both times the car was parked. So when dad held out the keys, I completely forgot that I was supposed to be with my friends tonight.
"Where are we going?" I ask dad, lifting up the door to the car and sinking into the low seat.
"The car park outside the building we own." Dad states simply, closing the doors and starting the car.
"The car park?" I repeat in a question."Why?"
Dad turns to me with a bright smile as he pulls out of the driveway. "Figured it's time you learn to drive."
The second those words came out of his mouth, my jaw dropped. "Really?"
"Yep." Dad replied, and I turn to the road with a huge smile on my face. We reach the traffic lights, and while they're on red, dad slightly turns his head to me with a smile. "I love your sister, but I'm glad she went out tonight. Now I get to take my son out, me and you haven't done anything together in years."
"Yeah, I know. That's my fault. I've been so focused on football, I just forgot that I have a life outside of it." I tell him, feeling guilty at not spending time with him for so long. "I'm sorry dad."
"It's okay, I understand as kids get older they separate from their parents. Your sister started separating from me years ago. I just thought I had a little more time with you. I guess sometimes I forget you're not a kid anymore and you're nearly fifteen, god two more years, and you'll be an adult, you won't be my Piccolo anymore, you'll be a man. I'm just trying to keep you young as long as I can, but I realise now I can't do that...so you're going to learn how to drive this car, and when you turn eighteen, its yours." dad tells me and I look up at the traffic light just as it turns green and gesture to him, telling him its changed.
Dad sees and carries on driving, he smiles at me again, and that's the last thing I see before a car comes barrelling towards us on my dad's side, crashing into the car. My body is thrown to the side, and the glass beside me shatters along with the windshield.
Ringing, that's the only thing I can hear. Like a bell with a prolonged sound. Like my body is engulfed in water, and everything is moving in slow motion, and the button to speed it up is frozen.
The car spins, skids, and comes to an abrupt stop, thirty feet away from where the car hit us. It felt like being on a rollercoaster.
As it spins, your heart drops to your stomach, and the higher it goes, the faster your heart beats but when it comes to a stop, you find yourself trying to regulate your racing heart and doing everything in your power to keep your breathing under control.
The my whole body aches while there is a sharp pain in my shoulder. My body shakes profusely, like I've spent the last three weeks in the Antarctic. I take a deep breath, trying to control the noise pounding through my head, and unmistakable shaking in my hands.
I slightly turn my head to the pain and see a large piece of glass has sliced my bicep open and has landed on my lap. My arm bleeds profusely from the cut that's so deep I can see my flesh. I feel something drop down my head and try to bring my other arm to touch it, but the second I try, pain like I've never felt seers through me. I look up to my dad and my heart stops.
"Dad!" I scream, trying my best to lift my hand and shake him, but the pain worsens as I struggle to lift my arm. "Dad!" I look down at his stomach, and a large piece of glass is embedded in his abdomen. as he bleeds profusely.
A woman comes running to the car on my dad's side and looks at me. "Are you okay? I've called an ambulance, they should be here any minute."
I look to the car that's spun in front of ours in the crash, and see the driver climb out of his car seemingly unscathed. The driver looks to me, an expression on his face, a face that I'll never forget and can pick out of a crowd. He looks at me before running into the woods and abandoning the mess and carnage he just created.
Dad grunting pulls me out of the anger I feel and turns back to the man that raised me. He sits up and his eyes widen when he sees the large piece of glass pinning him to his chair.
"Adrian?" my dad asks, his voice gravely and strained, like he's trying to act as if the pain he's feeling isn't real.
The woman looks at me and points to her car parked a few feet away. "I'll give you two a minute," she says as she walks to her car and rests her back against it.
"Yeah dad, I'm here." I tell him, and he turns his head. His face pale, blood dripping down his face, drop after drop like a fountain.
"Are you okay?" he asks.
"Uh yeah, but that bastard walked off like a fucking coward." Hiss and dads let out a laugh that dissolves into a fit of coughs, and blood begins to sputter out of his mouth. "Dad?" I question in a panic, and he leans his head back against his seat.
"I'm fine. I'm fine Piccolo, don't worry about me." he says, his voice almost unrecognisable. His eyes close as his hands wrap around the piece of glass in his stomach, and my eyes widen.
"No!" I yell, "Dad, don't remove it, wait for the ambulance, they're on their way."
"Piccolo, they're not going to make it time." He whispers. "They'll get you, you're going to be fine, but me, son, I'm already gone."
"Dad, you don't know that so respectfully, shut the fuck up."
"Adriano, I'm a doctor, this glass is piercing through me like a kebab." He cuts himself off and laughs at his own joke, before coughing and bringing up blood again. "That means I'm bleeding internally, I'm screwed."
I look to him, the tears pooling in my eyes. "I wouldn't say you're screwed, more like skewered." I joke, and he lets out another laugh, and I smile too, despite the tears falling down my face.
"I'm guessing you don't want this car now?" dad jokes, and I laugh too.
"Meh, I reckon I could fix it." I reply, and my dad lifts a hand and places it on top of mine. I feel the mood shift from light and filled with humour too serious and dark with the one gesture.
"One of these days, you're going to fall in love, whether it's with a man, a woman, I don't care, but whoever it is, you pay attention to the small things and you take notes, who knows when you're going to need that information. So write the small things about them down. The same thing works with people you don't like. You write down the things that seem irrelevant, and who knows when you'll use them, maybe for revenge? Or to protect yourself. Like I said, write it down." dad tells me and i let out a dry laugh.
"Your telling me about revenge and what to do with people I hate?"
"The world is a cruel place Piccolo, you've got to pay attention to things. Do you know how many people didn't trust me when we first moved here, because I'm Italian? If I didn't pay attention to the people who tried to destroy me because I was born and raised somewhere else, I never would have gained any respect or be where I am now. I'm a doctor with his own hospital, a beautiful wife who loves me as much as the day we said 'I do' and two children who make me proud every day." dad says, his voice growing weaker by the second. "Besides, I said to do it when you fall in love too, it works both ways. There's a thin line between love and hate piccolo."
"Dad." I whisper, looking down at my legs, trying to ignore the tears falling down my face.
"You find someone as funny and sarcastic as your mother, it will make the hard days in your relationship much more bearable. Even the days when you feel you're at rock bottom, one joke or sarcastic comment from the person you love suddenly makes the crap day worth it. Even if the joke was at your expense, you know they did it to make you smile. Your mother always did that with me, in fact if she were here right now, she'd probably be saying I look like I belong in a Chinese takeaway shop." we both laugh and I nod my head. "She made it all worth it. You and your sister made shit worth it. I love you all so much." He whispers, just as the sound of sirens reach my ears.
"Dad. They're here, see!" I shout, turn my head back to my dad, and I watch as he smiles warmly at me, and then everything stops. His face relaxes and his breathing stops, along with my own heart. "Dad?" I cry, but he doesn't respond. "Dad please!" I scream, and the woman outside watches the whole thing, and tears fall down her face as the ambulance pulls up to the car, but I don't pay attention. Instead, I just scream for my dad in hopes he'll come back.
The paramedics come round the side with the firefighters, and they lean through the broken glass, placing a hand on my shoulder to try and get me to stop hysterically crying and begging for my father.
"Let's give him 15mg of diazepam." I hear the paramedic yell over my hysteric cries. Then I feel a sharp pinch in my arm, and the rest of the next few hours pass in a blur, but through the fog, I can remember them checking my dad's pulse and then them shaking their heads. That will stick with me for the rest of my life.
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I snap myself out of the memory and watch in a daze as the paramedics reach Lina and place, and they begin to put a tube down her throat. I vaguely hear them say something about preserving her airway, but my body doesn't feel like mine. It feels like it's happening, but I'm watching it from someone else's perspective. They load Lina into the ambulance, a tube down her throat, and a young man squeezing a bag attached to it.
"Does someone want to ride with her to the hospital?" the female paramedic asks, and then everyone turns to me and I can imagine the blank shock on my face.
"Adrian?" Toni asks. Why would I go with her? She hates me and I can't stand her, but if that was true, why did I climb a burning building to pull her out? The only response they get out of me is a small shake of my head.
"Toni, you go. I'll go and get Amara and bring her to the hospital." My mum says, Toni nods her head and wipes a tear from her cheek, before climbing on to the ambulance where she sits next to Lina, grabbing her hands in hers and holding them in front of her face. The back doors to the ambulance close, and mum turns to Hayden.
"Stay with him," she whispers, and Hayden nods his head. Mum then jogs to her car, while Hayden approaches me and places a hand on my shoulder.
"You okay?" Hayden asks, but I don't reply. It's like my brain wants to talk, but can't connect the words to my mouth.
I turn away as the firefighters all exit the house, confirming the fire is out. They must have gone in and extinguished the fire while I was dazed out.
The firefighters walk over to us and start talking about when they can enter the house again, but I tune out and my gaze catches on four flat faces poking over the edge of the garage. I walk away from Hayden and the firefighters and push myself up onto the ledge again, crawl onto the roof, and the dogs cower back slightly while the people on the ground run over.
"Sir. It's not safe to climb up there." One of the male firefighters yell but I don't pay attention as I reach for the largest dog who waddles towards me. It's good to know that not all the dogs hate me, just Lina's favourite.
I pick the dog, whose name I think is Bowler or Boater, and lower him down to the people below me, who take him and place him on the ground, while holding his collar so he doesn't run away, while I lower the other two that don't hate me to them too.
I then turn to Beanie, his is the only name I remember, and that's only because it's written in my phone. Beanie cowers away from me with a growl.
"Hayden, take the other three to the barn and get me some ham out of the fridge and bring it to me." I tell Hayden. The firefighters help him take the other three to the barn, leaving just me and Beanie out here while we wait for them to return. I sit down on the edge and dangle my legs over it, and turn my head to look at the dog.
"Do you hate me because I called you a flat nosed rat?" I ask him, knowing full well, he won't respond because he's a fucking dog. "I didn't mean it. Or is it because you can tell I'm not the biggest fan of Evelina?" At the sound of her name, Beanies head tips to the side, and his ears perk up.
"I have my reasons," I tell the dog. "A friend of mine had a lot to say about her. Not good things, and she ruined his life. I don't have many friends, but the ones I do have I'd do anything for. Even hating someone I don't know."
Beanie inches towards me slightly. "I know what you're thinking. It's the same question I'm asking myself. If I hate her, why did I climb up here to save her? It's because part of me hates her, I do, but there's something else, something I don't know, and it's unsettling." Beanie comes even closer, but I don't want to push my luck by grabbing him, so I keep taking.
"She reminds me of my dad. She makes jokes that are so dumb you have to fight every instinct in your body to suppress a laugh. My dad would make jokes at the most inappropriate times, just like she does. He even made jokes as he was dying in front of me." I look up at the dark sky and sigh.
"He even called me Adriano. He was the only one I'd answer that name to, then Evelina started saying it, and it just cracked that scar. I've been trying for two years to heal, open. It made part of me hate her even more, but the other part is happy to think of him before the accident, rather than only thinking about his last moments."
Beanie walks over to me completely and begins to lick my hand as if he can sense the pain I'm feeling right now. I let out a dry laugh and begin to stroke his head and scratch behind his ears, and he reaches up and begins to lick my face, and I can't help but smile slightly. I continue to scratch behind his ears until Hayden and the firefighters come running back, and I give Beanie to them before climbing down.
Once my feet touch solid ground, I take the dog from Hayden and he snuggles into my side. "Well, that was a quick thaw." I mumble, letting the dog lick my cheek again. I begin walking to the house without another word, and can hear Hayden apologise for my behaviour.
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The next day, I get into my car and head straight into town, ready for the stores to open. My first stop is the pet store, given that most things in the house were burnt to a crisp, meaning the dog bowls, leashes and toys were all destroyed and i know Lina would kill everyone if she found out nobody was walking them. The store opens at ten, and I check the time.
9:59am
I look over at the sign on the door and watch as someone turns it over to open. I jump out of the car and walk through the door, and the bell above my head chimes. Grabbing a basket from the entrance, I turn and walk to the section of the store filled with things for dogs and puppies.
I emerge from the store an hour later, carrying four bags. Okay, I may have gone overboard, but in my defence the toys looked more interesting than the ones I had when I was a kid and i couldn't help but by one...or twenty two.
I place the bags in the back of the car, before locking it and walking to the pharmacy next-door. The bell chimes again, and I begin grabbing things from the shelves in a frantic rush, because I spent more time in the pet store than I intended to. Once I've got everything I need, I head straight for the hospital.
I grab the bag of things I got from the pharmacy and walk through the large doors into the hospital. The second I step in, the smell of cleaning supplies overtakes my senses, and I shudder, remembering my stay in the hospital after the crash. A three week stay where I didn't even have time to grieve my dad, because it was surgery after surgery and drugs after drugs, with no time to even process that my dad was gone, that came the weeks after I was discharged.
I shake my head, snapping out of my thoughts, and walk to the front desk. I ask what room Lina is in, and she directs me to the ICU. When I get there, I see Amara clutching her daughters pale hand, tears falling down her face after she repeatedly kisses the tops of Lina's palms.
My eyes fall on Lina, and my heart pauses in my chest. She's still got a tube down her throat, but this time she's connected to a machine. A machine that's breathing for her.
Amara sees me, and she quickly wipes her tears from her cheeks and fakes a smile while approaching me.
"Adrian!" she whispers, and before I can say anything, she wraps her arms around my shoulders and hugs me as tightly as possible. "Thank you. Thank you so much. Your mama told me you went in and got her out. Thank you so much." She cries, and I awkwardly pat her back. Let's just say my love language definitely isn't touch. She pulls back and sits back in the chair by her daughters bed, and her eyes land on the bag in my hand.
"I-um. I just came to drop these off. Just hand sanatisers, some face masks and some antibacterial wipes. I know she'll freak out if she doesn't have something so." I hold out the bag and she takes it from me with a smile, a genuine smile."There's also some skittles in there too." I add, pointing to the bag. "I'm going to go now that I've given you them."
"You don't want to stay for awhile?" she asks me. Truthfully, I couldn't think of anything worse. If I sit here with her looking like that, not moving a muscle, the scar that had been slightly cracked open by her existence won't just open, it will explode, and I don't think I have the strength to sew it back together again.
"Uh no. I've got to get back and walk your dogs." I tell her, which isn't a total lie.
"Okay. Thanks again Adrian." She repeats, and I go to ask her not to tell Lina that it's from me before she cuts me off. "I'll tell her your mother brought them." I smile before turning on my heel and bolting out of the hospital, before I change my mind and pitch a tent at her bedside.
When I get home, all four dogs greet me at the door, barking when they see the toys, treats and food I've bought them. I walk into the kitchen, placing the four bags on the counter and beginning to pull everything out, just as Toni, Hayden and mum walk into the room.
"I just got a call off Amara. They're taking her off the vent later on, and when she's out, they're going to stay here for a few weeks till they can live back in their house." Mum tells me, and I let out a small sigh of relief. "She also said you went round there earlier, brought Lina some things."
My hand freezes in the bag as I look up at all three of them, all of them with their eyebrows raised. "Uh yeah, just some stuff to stop her freaking out. I don't want her scrubbing her hands off again." I add, taking out the leashes I bought and attaching them to the dogs. I'm about to walk out the door when I hear Hayden ask something.
"Do you think they know they're in love?" he asks.
"Not yet, in the meantime, grab the wine. This is top class entertainment with no commercials." My mother replies, and I roll my eyes and walk out the door.
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AN:
So this was the first flashback to Adrian's past and I nearly cried writing this. Honestly my heart broke for him. It also the first full chapter in his POV. I don't know why I find it harder to write his pov but I do.
Anyways don't forget to vote⭐️
Lots of love V ❤️
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