This wasn't my bathroom ceiling. The repetitive beeping wasn't the sound of the dripping blood. My hands were each tied to a side on a bed and my hand was full of wires and needles. My nose had a wire inside it. I was in a hospital, and I was not yet dead. I didn't know whether or not to be grateful.
"Jamie? Jamie!" I heard Dad say. His face was clearer now. He looked like hell.
"Dad?" I replied to make sure he could hear me.
"Oh my God," Dad said as he hugged my head. I could feel his tears land on my hair as he kissed my head.
"What the hell was going on, Jamie? You scared us all, my God," he said. His eyes grew twice their size as he searched my face for a logical explanation, and like he couldn't believe I was looking back at him.
"Where's Mom?" I asked him. My throat was dry and I wondered how long I was out for.
Dad shook his head in confusion. "She left to pick up Jake from his friend's house. They've been a mess. You were out of it for almost three days now."
"How did they find me?" I asked him. The bathroom door was locked.
Dad took a deep breath. "They got a call from the police saying someone called them and told them there was a su-" he stuttered at the word. "An attempt going to happen at home. Your mother couldn't get a response from you and she couldn't open the bathroom door, and that's when she knew the call was true."
I swallowed on a dry throat. I hadn't realized how much I must've put my family through. It killed me to even think about it.
"I'll get the doctor to check on you now while I call your mom to give her the news," he said as he patted my shoulder. "The person who called the police on you is outside. Want to meet her?" he asked me. I nodded. I was confused; who knew that I was going to actually do it when the only person I had confessed to about it was LadyWillow, and that's when she didn't even care.
"I love you, son. You know that, right?" he told me. I nodded.
"I love you too, Dad," I finally said.
I took a deep breath as I waited for the anonymous person to walk through the door.
"Naomi?" I almost yelled out. She smiled and blushed as she walked towards my bed.
"Hi," she could only say.
"Um, hi," I replied. "My..my dad said you called the cops on me or something?" I said. A confused tone was evident in my voice.
She smiled. "Four-ster? It's like you were begging to be discovered," she laughed.
My jaw dropped. "You're LadyWillow?"
She nodded vehemently.
"No way. And you were with me in school the whole time?" I said in disbelief. She nodded again.
"I'm really glad I'd be able to see your reaction when you knew," she said with a giggle, but her humor soon subsided. "I didn't know what to do when you messaged me, Jamie. I wanted to help you but I didn't know how so I called the police and told them that you were going to, well, do it. I was on my phone at the soccerfield waiting for the game to start and I was panicking the whole time. I couldn't let anyone know. Then an agent called me and told me they needed me to come down to the hospital because I was right.
"They showed me the note you had written, the one that said that it was all Dylan's fault, and I showed them what you had written me right before you logged off. The made copies of it and told me to leave my account with them so they could check on you even more, that's all I know so far," she said.
I sat up straight. "What about Dylan? What happened?" I asked her.
The doctor walked in on us with a nurse and ordered Naomi to leave the room. Naomi said she was going to wait for me outside in the corridor as the doctor examined me. He checked my pulse, my breathing, my blood circulation, my blood percentage and whatever the hell it was that needed to be checked. I wanted him to get it over with, I wanted to know what happened to Dylan.
"I'd recommend an additioinal two days stay with psychological supervision," the doctor said to my dad who had been standing by the door. Dad nodded and thanked the doctor.
"Your mom is on her way with your brother," Dad told me.
"Thanks, Dad," I said.
He left the room and Naomi walked back in. He smiled at her as he let her get in the room before leaving. I guessed that was how you treated a girl who saved your son's life.
"Two more days?" she asked me as she grabbed a seat by me.
"Yeah," I said. "So, Dylan?"
Naomi laughed. "You really don't want to miss a thing, do you?" I smiled and shrugged.
"I don't really know the details but from what I heard, the police came in right after the game. Our school won, by the way, and they took Dylan in handcuffs. I heard they were still interrogating him and they searched his house. They found tons of sick stuff in his attic," she said with a shudder. "He didn't confess to hitting Tucker, though. Although the police found the video of the accident, but they ruled you out."
I let out a breath.
"His whole family is in hysterics, though," Naomi said. "His mom kept begging the police not to arrest him while his father denied all the allegations against him. His sister was actually not surprised by it and she told the cops the same thing had happened to some kid back in DC and that she had long suspected her brother of sadism as she put it. She's too young to know about this stuff," Naomi said as she took her head in disapproval.
"That DC kid was named Terry, wasn't it?" I said. She nodded.
"How's Sarah?" I asked her.
Naomi shrugged. "She thinks you're lying and that her Dylan was being falsely accused. She's a total airhead."
My heart sunk in my stomach but I knew she wasn't worth it.
"You should've seen the school today. Dylan couldn't even attend. People trashed his locker, his house, and his car. They were angry at how they let him basically live. Your old bud Trevor almost started a war against him but thankfully some sense was kicked into him. The teachers mourned too, you're a freaking legend, Jamie. Everyone wants to avenge you."
I didn't know whether to smile or frown at what she was telling me. Part of me felt bad for Dylan, like I shouldn't have spilled the beans about him. Although he completely deserved it.
"I even heard he used to deal drugs during lunch and Principal Lafferty caught him. He didn't do anything to Dylan because his dad was one of the school funders," she said.
"So that's why he used to show up late to classes?" I asked her. She nodded.
A knock on the door made Naomi whisper "Later," and walk out. Mr. Marslow suddenly towered over me and gave me a smile.
"Hello, James. I'm glad you're doing well," he said.
I smiled. This was so awkward.
"I'm sorry about what happened between you and, well I'm sure you don't want a reminder," he said with a chuckle.
"Thank you, sir," I could only say. What was he doing here?
He took a seat by me and I gulped. How long was he going to sit here?
"I kind of sensed something going on between the two of you, Jamie," he said. He used my nickname.
"Is that why you told me not to let anyone to pressure me against something I didn't want to do?" I asked him, remembering what he had told me as I left the nurse's room last Monday. I couldn't believe it had been a week,
"I honestly thought it was peer pressure," he said. "I mean I knew the essay wasn't Dylan's. It deserved an A but I gave him a B just to spite him. That's why the comments I had didn't make much sense, did they?" he said. I shook my head.
He patted my shoulder as he stood up. "You don't worry about schoolwork, Jamie. The schoolboard is very compassionate with your case, especially after you'd been falsely accused of abusing your own self. No one deserves to be enslaved in such a way." Enslaved?
"Enslaved?" I asked him.
He looked at me like he was surprised I asked such a question. "Well yes, Jamie. You weren't just bullied, don't be so soft on yourself. You were unrighteously enslaved and you deserved none of it," he said.
I squirmed underneath the sheets. I didn't know it was this bad.
"Jamie!" Mom said as she stormed into the room. She hugged me tight and long like she was going to lose me soon.
"Why didn't you tell me, Jamie? Why didn't you tell me what he was doing to you? I thought...I thought I was going to lose you," Mom said as she grabbed my face. Tears rolled down her cheeks so effortlessly. I hated myself right now, but It felt so liberating knowing everyone now knew about Dylan. I had nothing to hide.
"Because he was going to hurt me even more if I did," I told her. Mom wiped her tears away and tried to stay strong.
"Listen to me," she said as she ran her hand over my hair. "You are going to tell the police everything, you hear me? Everything. Not a detail gets left out, got it?" she said. I nodded.
"I will not let that bastard get away with anything, I swear I won't," she said as she cried again.
"No one's going to, Mom," I assured her. She nodded.
"Your brother wants to see you. You should've seen him, Jamie. He couldn't sleep or eat the past three days, I was so worried about him," Mom said.
I nodded for her to bring him in. How did I ever think I was gonna do the world a favor if I left it?
Jake walked in slowly and wouldn't let his eyes meet mine.
"Hey," I said. I tried to grab his hands but my own hands were tied and I couldn't move them more than a couple of inches away.
"Hi," he replied.
"We won," I tried to joke.
Jake looked at me. He looked at the wires going up and down my hand and my body. His hand grabbed mine and held it tight.
"Jake, buddy, you okay?" I asked him. Jake suddenly broke into a sob. He burried his face in my neck as he tightened me in a hug.
"It's all my fault," I heard him say. No, no, Jake, you had nothing to do with any of this.
"What is?" I asked him.
"I told you to do it," he said as he straightened his posture. "I told you to do it."
"No one chose to do it but me," I told him.
He wiped his eyes. "I want to kill Dylan, I swear to God I would kill him if I ever saw him again. I knew something was off about him, I just felt it," he said.
"He was a sick kid," I told him.
"I can't believe our families went camping together," Jake said.
"Yeah, strange, huh?" I told him. Jake nodded.
"I'm gonna write an article about you for the school paper this week," Jake said.
I smiled. "I didn't know you were in the school paper."
"I'm not, they just asked me to," he said. I chuckled.
"I'm gonna write about you and that dickhead. Is it okay?" Jake asked and I nodded. I ignored his "language" as my father would put it.
"Which part are you gonna write about?" I asked him.
"Everything. That just because two people might seem like best friends doesn't mean they really are that. I want people to know Dylan."
"Sounds good," I told him. I was proud of my brother.
"Trevor and the others visited you yesterday. I think they want to be your friends again. I want you to be friends again," he said.
"Me too," I agreed.
He paused before speaking. "Meredith called me yesterday."
I sat up straight. "She wasn't supposed to but she did. She cried because she said she was losing her family. She was so ashamed of Dylan that people began to pick on her too," he said.
"And..and I told her that she was actually part of our family and I wouldn't let anyone pick on my sister. Do you think Mom would allow her to stay at our place for a while? She's really alone, Jamie," Jake said.
I smiled at him. He was growing up so fast. "Yeah. She can definitely stay. I don't want to stay in my room anymore," I said. Jake grinned.
"The police are outside waiting to talk to you," Jake said as he responded to the knock on the door.
"I'll talk to you later then. You tell Mom about Meredith, okay?" I told Jake. Jake nodded.
"By the way, I think Mom and Dad are back together," he said. I smiled.
The police walked in and took off their hats before positioning themselves next to me. They introduced themselves before one of them said: "We're going to need you to tell us everything from start to finish about Dylan Reed."
"Everything?" I said.
"Everything," he agreed.
The best part about it?
I was finally free.