Chapter 14
I listened to Jake and Lyci arguing; they got on my nerves so much. Maybe they were better off not being friends because they barely talked, now all they do is argue and the stuff they argued over was stupid crap.
"Superman would beat an Avatar's ass," Jake said
"Nu-uh! Did you watch Avatar? Superman wouldn't even be able to breathe," Lyci shot back.
"Yea he would because he's superman, and he can fly; Avatar's can't fly!"
"They can jump and they do fly! They fly on birds."
"Fuck! Can y'all shut up and fight over something that's worth arguing about," I said. It was tiring just listening to them.
"Alyssa you're just mad because Avatar and Superman can beat all three of the powder-puff girls," Lyci said. Jake laughed.
"Shut up," I said again.
"So, are we going to Blake's senior year party, the whole school is invited?" Lyci asked.
"Lyci are you sure you should be partying?"
"Of course, why shouldn't she? It's like our last high school party," Jake said. Ugh now that they were friends they would sort of always gang up on me. I had to say I didn’t like it, but at least they were cordial with each other. They had become more than cordial.
"Yea, why shouldn't I Lyssa?" Lyci said glaring at me.
"I don't know. Forget it," I said and with that the bell rang signaling the end of lunch.
"How does this look>" I asked Lyci holding up a strapless dress against my body. It was thirty minutes until the party started; Lyci and I were still trying to figure out what we were going to wear and trust me it wasn't easy.
"Um no, don't wear that, how about this one?" she said holding up a miniskirt and strapless shirt.
“I love it. I think that's what I'm going to wear," I quickly put on the outfit. It was cute. I put on some wedge heels and looked at the finished project in the mirror. I looked great. This would definitely be the outfit that I would be wearing.
"Okay now you?" I said grabbing some clothes to find for Lyci. She ended up wearing jean shorts with heels and a strapless loose black top. We both stood in the mirror and I took a picture. Gosh, senior year was really almost over. I grabbed my keys and we were out the door.
We arrived at the party at nine o’ clock; it was already packed and the music was blaring causing my ear drums to vibrate/ I grabbed Lyci by the hand and walked inside. As we were walking some guy asked her to dance and she said yes; I think she knew the guy, otherwise she would have declined. Just like Lyci, always leaving me, so I went to go look for Jake. I searched the crowd scanning all the people looking for Jakes’ handsome face.
I felt like I had been looking forever and I still couldn't find him; I had even asked a couple of people. Then I spotted Will, hopefully he knew where he was. I walked up towards him.
"Will?" I called out. He turned around.
"Hey babe, what’s up," Damn he was already wasted.
"Have you seen Jake?" I asked.
"Nah why?" He asked stepping closer to me and putting his hands on my waist. I could smell the alcohol on his breath. I removed his hands.
"I was just looking for him, but never mind," I turned away from him and headed upstairs. I walked in on a couple having sex by mistake, but they were too into it to notice, so I walked back downstairs. At least lock the doors.
Where the hell was he? He did say he was coming. I walked outside and saw Lyci kissing the guy she was dancing with. I walked up to her and grabbed her hand.
"Lyci, what are you doing?" She was pregnant for god's sake. What the hell was wrong with her?
"Nothing, chill! This is the guy from the University of Alabama that I was talking about."
"Hey, I'm Brandon," he said extending his hand.
"Alyssa," I said shaking his hand.
"Have you seen Jake?" I asked looking towards Lyci.
"Nah, I haven't. Not that I've been looking for him." She said.
"Okay, I’m a talk to you later, I'm going to go look for him." I walked back into the house and searched the crowd.
"I heard you've been looking for me," Jake said circling his hand around my waist from behind.
"Yea, for about two hours now. Where have you been?" I said turning around to look at him.
"Jake... what happen to your face?" I said running my hand over his face. He had a cut above his left eyebrow, his eyes were red and his cheek looked bruised.
"Nothing, don't worry about it," he said leaning down and kissing me. I pulled away.
"It doesn't look like nothing," I said touching his face.
"Well, it is nothing. So like I said before, don't worry about it." Why wasn't he telling me what happened? He tried to kiss me but I turned my head away.
"Why are you so damn stubborn Lyssa?" He said already getting aggravated.
"Why won't you tell me what happened?" I replied.
"Because I don't want you to worry about it." He replied.
"Whatever," I said turning away from him.
"Come on don't be like that." He grabbed my waist and pressed his body against mine then he kissed my neck. My body shivered which made him laugh. I turned around and put my hands around his neck; my lips pressed against his trying to forget about everything. He pulled back and whispered in my ear.
"That's my girl." I leaned upward to kiss him again, but got distracted from people yelling.
"Man, get the fuck away from her," A dude shouted.
"Why? Obviously you're not doing enough for her that's why she's with me." I walked outside to where the voices were coming from with Jake following behind me.
"Marco, please stop! Don't do this." That was Lyci. I started walking faster with Jake behind me.
"Man, fuck you" Marco said stepping into the dude's face. It was Brandon, the dude from Alabama.
"Man, you need to step the fuck back homie," Brandon said. Lyci had to know that something like this would happened. She should have kept her distance from the both of them.
"Fuck. You." Marco pushed Brandon, but Brandon reacted fast and punched Marco in his jaw. Lyci ran towards them and pulled on Marco trying to get them to stop. Wrong move!
"Stop it!" she shouted. They both push her away hard and she fell. Lyci got up on her knees and screamed as she clutched her stomach. I watched as the crimson liquid seeped through her shorts. It was blood. I ran towards her in panic.
"Lyci are you okay! Oh my gosh! Lyci I got to get you to a hospital!" I told her.
"Lyssa, it hurts so bad," She cried.
"Lyci! Baby, I'm sorry! I didn't mean too," Marco and Brandon kind of both said.
"Get away from me," she screamed. I tried to help Lyci up, but Jake came and scooped her up bridal style and walked away.
"Come on," he said speeding up his pace as I ran after them. He placed Lyci in the back seat of the car.
"Sit back there with her and hold her head in your lap." I did as Jake instructed while he got in the front seat and sped off. I was so scared, my best friend was bleeding profusely and Jake was doing about 90 in a 45 mile per hour zone. We got to the hospital in about eight minutes which was less than half the time it normally would've taken. Jake opened the door, pulled her out and ran inside to get a nurse. I got out the car and followed him into the hospital.
"Hey, we need you to help us, she's bleeding and it won't stop," He said as his voice trembled. I watched as the nurse called a doctor and grabbed a stretcher. It all seemed like it was happening in slow motion, like they couldn't move any faster to help her. Jake laid Lyci on the stretcher and they began to haul her off with Jake following. I ran and caught back up with them. It seemed so unreal. I felt like I was watching a movie and I became frozen; a lot like somebody kept hitting the pause button but I was the only one being paused. As we got more back we were stopped and told that we couldn't go any further.
"What! She's my best friend, who else is supposed to be there for her!" I yelled.
"Alyssa, calm down," Jake said.
"Jake, somebody has to be there with her," I retorted.
"The doctors are trying to do their job, so they're going to help her." Jake pulled me into a hug, and I broke down into tears. I needed him way more than I thought I did and I realized it now. He led me to some chairs and we sat down.
"She's going to be alright Lyssa, they're going to take care of her," Jake told me.
I sat there next to Jake with his arms wrapped around me. My eyes were sore and they felt puffy. I was pretty sure that I looked horrible but right now I didn't care, because all I wanted was for my best friend to be okay. I looked around the room having nothing better to do. There were balloons held in people's hands. 'It's a Boy', 'Congratulations'. They were celebrating new life and were hoping for another addition into the family. And me, I was just hoping my friend would be alright. I looked at the signs posted around the room.
MATERNITY WARD
NURSES STATION
NEWBORNS
CLINIC
Jake was playing with my hair, I really didn't know why he did that. I guess it was just a habit for him but I didn't mind; I liked it. It made things feel complete somehow and it made me feel calm. I relaxed myself into him trying to let my worries slip away.
"Alyssa!" I heard somebody shout my name. I looked in the direction of where the voice came from... Oh shit it was my dad, I was too out of it to recognize the voice. What was he doing here? How did he even know I as here? There had to be some snitch here that told him. I watched him as he looked around and then a look came across his face. I saw my mom standing next to him.
"I'm going to kill him!" he yelled. Oh shit! I was in the maternity ward, so they thought I was pregnant. I got up to try to keep my dad from getting to Jake.
"Dad! No, it's not what you're thinking." I said running towards him before he could get to Jake.
"What? That this boy went and got my daughter pregnant." He said angrily.
"Daddy no stop it, stop, I'm not knocked up! I wouldn't do anything like that, and you have to trust me!" I said.
"So why are you here huh!" my day yelled.
"Ummm......"
"Like I thought, he's a dead man." He said.
"Lyci's sick," I shouted.
"What?" my mom said.
"Lyci's sick," I repeated.
"What do you mean by sick," My mom asked.
"I don't know, she started bleeding and it wouldn't stop," I was now crying.
"She's pregnant...?" My mom asked. I nodded.
"That is why she was staying with us?" My mom questioned.
"Yea." I replied defeated.
"Alyssa, why didn't you tell me?"
"You wouldn't have accepted her. Look at how daddy's acting now, once you told him she would have been out with no place to go." I responded.
"That's not true."
"Yea it is," I yelled.
"Come on Alyssa lets go and we can talk about this at home," My dad said.
"No, I'm staying here," I said walking towards Jake.
"The hell you are, now let's go," My dad shouted.
"What about Lyci?"
"You can come see her tomorrow"
"I don't want to see her tomorrow, I want to see her now," I cried.
"Alyssa, don't make me get ugly with you." I was about to reply when Jake grabbed my hand.
"Just go with them Lyssa, let's not cause any problems," Jake said.
"But Jake--"
"It's okay. I'll talk to you later, okay."
"Okay," I said. "No regrets?" I asked him. He looked at me and smiled then placed a kiss on my lips.
"No regrets," he said. My dad grabbed my wrist and yanked me away. They drove me to what was left of the party to get my car and then we went home. That's when the drama started.
"So, you're still seeing that boy after we clearly told you that you couldn't see him." My dad yelled. I said nothing. The anger was building up inside of me, I was like a tea kettle, my insides were getting warm and I was going to explode.
"Fine, don't talk! You're grounded! No cell phone, no TV, no computer, and no car; you stay at home other than school, and nobody comes over."
"Whatever," I said and walked to my room. I said ignoring him. I was over all of the bullshit.
"And you won't be seeing that boy again." I laughed.
"And how exactly are you going to stop me," I asked before closing my door and locking it. I flopped on my bed and cried myself to sleep.
The next morning I didn't wake up until noon, I was so tired. It was like everything just came crashing down on me at once, which made me feel overwhelmed and I felt like my life was falling to pieces. I reached on my nightstand for my phone. It wasn't there, they had taken it. No phone, computer, outsiders, TV, and NO JAKE, but trust me, they weren't going to keep me from seeing him; not over my dead ass body. I was pissed and frustrated. Why were my parents acting like this? They wouldn't do this with any other guy, but they did it with Jake and why, because he was white! I got up from my bed and went in my bathroom to take a shower. Once I was out I threw on some sweat pants and a zebra-striped tank top, then I slipped on some flip-flops and headed down stairs. I went to go get my keys but they weren't there. Oh yea, I forgot, no car either! Hmm, where would they hide them? I looked in drawers, under books, behind books. I looked in closets, in pockets, but they were nowhere to be seen. I guess I would be walking or taking the bus. I headed for the door.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"To go see Lyci, she is sick and in the hospital you know."
"Don't get smart with me young lady, here I'll drive you."
"No thanks." I replied
"Either I drive you or you don't go at all," my dad retorted. I sucked my teeth and then headed outside to his car. The drive was quiet. He said nothing to me, and I definitely had nothing to say to him. We pulled up to the hospital and my dad parked and got out the car with me.
"Where are you going?" I asked him. It wasn’t like he actually gave a fuck about Lyci.
"I'm making sure you're actually go in the hospital."
"She's my best friend! I wouldn't ditch her."
"I don't know what you will do these days." My dad replied. He was getting on my last nerve. He walked me up to her room and once I walked inside he left and told me he would be back in two hours. I went in and saw her awake, but she was laying down with her face looking out the window.
"Lyci," I called out her name. She turned to face me. Her eyes were red, and her face looked really pale. She looked horrible.
"I lost it" was all she said before the tears slid down her cheek silently. I walked over and laid on the bed with her and then wrapped my arms around her.
"I'm so sorry Lyci, I shouldn't have let you go to that party. I had a bad feeling about it," I blurted out. “But everything’s going to be okay.” I assured her.
"No, don't say that Lyssa, it's not your fault," she said. We laid there and I didn't interrupt the silence. She had a lot on her mind and I didn't want anything else to bother her. After about thirty minutes she drifted off to sleep. I slowly and quietly tried to leave the bed so I could ask a nurse for a phone. I called Jake and after the fourth ring he picked up.
"Hello," He answered.
"Jake, hey." It was a relief just to hear his voice.
"Alyssa?" he questioned.
"Yea it's me," I replied.
"Where are you calling from?" he asked.
"I'm at the hospital. My parents took away my phone and everything else that was of use to me. Can you come up here?"
"Yea of course," He replied.
"Okay, she's in room 314."
"Alright. I'll leave in a few."
"Okay see you soon."
"And you know it," he said before hanging up. I smiled.
I walked back to Lyci's room after thanking the nurse for letting me use the phone. She was up and sitting in the bed.
"Hey, you're up," I said.
"Yea," was all she said.
"So, umm Jake's on his way."
"Really?" she asked. I nodded.
"I remember everything yesterday, what he did, you were so frozen and you didn't know how to react, so he reacted for you," she said, letting a chuckle slip out of her.
"Yea I was in a state of shock," I said embarrassed. A few moments later there was a knock on the door. Jake walked in with a bouquet of purple and yellow flowers and they had a balloon sticking out that said 'Get Well Soon'.
"Awl Jake, you didn't have to bring me flowers," Lyci said. "I feel so special."
"Don't," he said laughing. "Once you get better all this good treatment goes and we go back to arguing and trust me Superman will beat Avatar." We all laughed.
"Still. Thank you, and thanks for everything you did for me yesterday, I was just telling Alyssa how she was too frozen to do anything." Jake laughed.
"Yea I keep telling her that she needs to toughen up," Jake said.
"I'm right here you know.
"I'm just saying." Jake gave Lyci her flowers then walked over to me.
"I've missed you," he said placing a kiss on my lips.
"Me too," I replied before kissing him back.
"Eehhheemmmm," Lyci fake coughed. I broke away from Jake and laughed.
"So did they say when you can get out of this depressing place?" I asked Lyci.
"Yea, tomorrow and my mom wants me back home so you can have me out of your way."
"Figures," I said.
"Tell me about it," she replied. After about another hour with Lyci I told her I was getting ready to go. So me and Jake left the room. My dad would be here in about twenty to thirty minutes and I kind of wanted to talk to him alone. I grabbed his hand as we rode the elevator to get to the rooftop.
"So, I'm grounded," I said looking at Jake. "No phone, TV, Friends, No car. I can't go anywhere but school, but I doubt that will last because they're never at home," I said.
"Don't worry. We have like 3 weeks until graduation and then summer. Next thing you know it's just you and I in Florida," he said circling his hands around my waist.
"I hope so," I said.
"I know so," he replied.
"My dad was pissed that I was still seeing you, he drove me down here and walked me up to the room. He should be here in about fourteen minutes," I said.
"Well let's make these fourteen minutes last forever then," he said leaning his face down towards mine and then our lips connected making me feel as if there was no other place in the world that I wanted to be more than right here, right now, inside Jake's arms. His hands snaked under my shirt and rubbed my bare back. I was suffocating from lack of air, but I still didn't pull back; I never wanted it to end. Jake ended up being the one to break the kiss. We both gasped for air. I buried my face into his chest.
"No Regrets," I heard him gasp.
"No regrets," I mumbled into his chest.
"I love you Alyssa Christelle Lewis."
"I love you too Jake Taylor Williams," I looked up into his eyes smiling.
"I better go. I don't know when my dad will get here."
"Yea, no problem, see you at school okay."
"Okay." I pecked him on the lips and then heading back to the elevator alone. I reached the lobby and I went outside to sit on the bench and wait for my dad. I watched as cars passed by while I was waiting for him. I wondered where they were going, where they were coming from. Were they leaving something behind or were they going to some place new. I wished that I was in one of those cars leaving behind this life where people had veils over their eyes. They couldn't see past the color. They couldn't see the love that two people possessed. All they saw were the differences that were among them and this was sad; we lived in a sad world.
I just wanted to go somewhere far from this place at this moment. Just Jake and I together alone. It seemed like the ultimate dream at the moment.
My dad arrived about five minutes later tearing me away from my thoughts. I got in the car without saying a word. On the way home I didn't say one word and was glad to get out of the tense air that resided inside the car. I went inside and headed to my room. When my mom asked me how was Lyci I didn't say a word. I went upstairs and locked my door. She should have been asking me how I was doing because my heart was aching from missing the guy they wouldn't allow me to see. I cried, for how long? I don't know. For what reason? Everything, all of my emotions just came pouring out even if it was something that happened yesterday, a month ago or a year ago. I was ready for Monday to go to school. Never in my life had I wanted to go to school this bad and it was all because of him.