*This chapter contains self harm*
Uriah's P.O.V.
I just got off of the school bus at the bus stop at the end of my street. Thank God, I'm almost home. I just got my third F on a math test this year and it's only the beginning of October. It's been a terrible day and it's about to get a whole lot worse. There were a couple grade nines on the bus that like to pick on us grade eights, and since I'm the only grade eight on my bus, I'm their prime target. I started running towards my house which is in the middle of the street, but closer to the opposite end my bus stop is on.
I started looking at the house numbers, counting down to mine. 864...860...856...852...I could hear the ninth graders gaining on me. Come on. I felt an egg land on my head and felt it run down my back. Just a few more houses, I can do this. 850...848, finally, 846. I opened the gate to our front yard and quickly closed it. I heard their shoes scuff against the pavement and they stopped running.
"We'll get you next time, Hawthorne!" One of them yelled while kicking the wooden gate.
I opened the door to my house with my key and took my shoes off. I shut the back door and put my bag down. I went into the bathroom and closed the door. I turned on the shower and took off my clothes.
Once the temperature was to my liking, I got in and washed the egg out of my hair. I grabbed my razor and made three cuts next to my other ones. One for me failing my test, one for me not being good enough, and one for me being the dumbest person on the planet. I cried in the shower for a few minutes and then got out. I cleaned up my arm and wrapped a towel around my waist.
I grabbed some clean clothes from the laundry basket that was in the living room and went back into the bathroom. Before my mom leaves for work, she folds all of the clothes that she cleaned the night before, and my job when I come home is to put them all away. I changed into the long sleeve white shirt and jeans that I picked out. I put the towel that I used into the dirty laundry and put the clean laundry that was in the laundry basket away. The only thing that was mine in there were the clothes that I put on just now. I got my backpack from the entryway of the house.
I walked up the stairs and into the long hallway.
As I walked past my brothers' empty bedrooms like I normally do, and to my room. My parents' room is downstairs, so I have the whole upstairs to myself.
You're probably wondering why my brothers' bedrooms are empty. Well, let me enlighten you. My brothers are all older than me and live ten hours away from here. I have three older brothers, the oldest is Maverick who is 21, then there is Jonas who is 19, and lastly there is Ellis who is 17. When Maverick was seventeen almost eighteen, he took the money that he had been saving up for since he was like ten, and bought a fixer-upper in the town outside of the college that he got accepted to. He left first and then Jonas along with Ellis wanted to go. My parents were reluctant at first, but when they saw how nice Maverick had made the little shit shack that he bought, my parents let my other brothers go a year later.
That left me at home with my parents since I was ten and they said I was too little to go. My brothers don't like me anyway, so it worked out quite well. From what my parents tell me, my brothers didn't always hate me. They just got mad because I was so much younger than them and wanted to tag along and do everything they did. Every time I would break something of theirs or do something and wouldn't get in trouble, my brothers would get super pissed and knew that I knew better. Ellis used to get super mad and try to beat me up like our other brothers would do to him, and he'd get in trouble. They just didn't like the fact that my parents treated me better than them since I was the last kid and they just got tired of parenting.
I got to my room, sat at my desk and started doing my homework.
"Uriman!" I heard Dad call after a few hours.
I smiled at the nickname he's called me since I was a baby, and called back "In my room, dad!"
He walked up the stairs and into my room.
"Hey, Uriman. How was school?" He asked.
"Good." I lied while plastering on a fake smile.
"That's nice. Want to go out for dinner when your mom comes home?" He asked.
"Sure. Sounds good." I answered.
"Okay. I'll let you get back to working on your homework." He replied and walked out of my room.
I finished my homework and went downstairs to where dad was sitting on the couch.
We watched an action movie and mom came home.
"There's my hubby." Mom smiled as she came into the room and saw dad.
"And there's my baby." She smiled as she saw me.
"Mom, I'm twelve. I'm not a baby anymore." I whined.
She laughed along with dad and she hugged me.
"I know, but you'll always be my baby no matter how old you are." She said and kissed my forehead.
She tells me this all the time, so I knew exactly what she was going to say.
"Are you boys ready to go?" She asked.
We both nodded and got into her car.
We drove to the restaurant and got seated.
"So I got an F on another test. I'm really sorry. I froze up and couldn't get the information to come out of my stupid brain. I understand if you're disappointed with me." I told them.
"Uri, it's okay. We will never be disappointed with you. We love you with all our hearts, don't ever forget that. It doesn't matter to us what grades you get. What matters is that you did your best." Mom replied.
I smiled and dad said "Your mother's right. We'll always be proud of you."
We talked a little more and our food came. We ate dinner and paid for our food. By the time we got out of the restaurant, it had started to rain and we got into mom's car. Dad started driving home on the highway and we could barely see anything on the road. Dad went to go pull over to the side of the road so we could wait for the rain to stop, but a big truck swerved into our lane and hit us. I heard mom and dad scream and the air bags went off. I started screaming and crying and felt blood drip down my forehead.
"Mom?! Dad?! Are you guys okay?" I exclaimed.
They didn't respond and I couldn't see anything.
I heard somebody knocking on the window and saw the outline of a man's face in the window.
"Unlock the door and I can get you out." He said while knocking on it.
I was being crushed by dad's seat and couldn't move.
I started fading in and out of consciousness and closed my eyes as I heard the ambulance sirens.
I woke up in the ambulance and started freaking out.
"Where are my parents?!" I exclaimed trying to get away from the paramedics.
"Sir, calm down. It's okay. They're in another ambulance." One of them said and gently lowered me down so I was lying down again.
I felt my eye lids start to droop and I closed my eyes.
I woke up a few hours later in a hospital bed with a cast on my left arm. The light was shine through the curtains of the window and I slowly got up to go to the bathroom. I went to the bathroom and when I came out, I heard someone say "Yeah, we need to find a guardian for the child. The parents emergency contact is their oldest son. Janet at the front desk is calling him right now."
I walked back to my bed and laid down.
A doctor came in and saw that I was awake.
"How are you feeling, Mr. Hawthorne?" She asked.
"I'm okay. Where are my parents? Can I see them?" I answered.
"Not yet. Now that you're awake, we need to check you over first." She replied and I could tell she was avoiding something.
The nurse came in and he checked me over.
"So Mr. Hawthorne, you have three stitches in your head, three stitches in your chest, your legs are heavily bruised, your right ankle is sprained, and your left arm is broken." She told me.
"Yeah, I'm aware. So can I see my parents now?" I asked her, nervous of her answer.
"Well, Mr. Hawthorne, I'm sorry I have to tell you, but your parents died last night. We tried to save them, but they had died on impact. I'm so sorry. We've called your brother and he said that he'll be here as soon as he can." She told me.
My face dropped and my eyes filled with tears.
She walked out with the nurse and I started crying.
I didn't stop crying for a couple hours and I wore myself out, so I fell asleep. I woke up and saw Ellis and Jonas sitting it the chairs in my hospital room. I closed my eyes so they wouldn't know I was awake and I heard somebody walk into the room.
"Mom and dad already had funeral preparations and a Will made, so tomorrow we're gonna go find the Will and see what we have to do with everything. You guys will do that while I make the funeral preparations with the funeral home." I heard Maverick say.
"Well what about him?" Jonas asked.
"I'm sure mom and dad put something in their will about him, so we'll find out tomorrow." Maverick answered.
"What about the house?" Ellis asked.
"We're gonna pack everything up and sell it." Maverick answered.
"When's the funeral gonna be?" Jonas asked.
"Ideally in a couple days. Then we can go back home." Maverick answered.
"What did the doctors say about him?" Ellis asked.
"He's gonna be fine. They just need to watch him overnight. They say that he's lucky to be alive. He could have died. Dad's seat crushed him. He can go home tomorrow." Maverick answered.
"Everybody stop asking questions and go to sleep. It's almost midnight." Maverick added.
I heard him sit down on a chair and felt somebody put their legs up on my bed.
I kicked them as hard as I could with my good leg and heard Maverick say "What the hell?"
He sighed and didn't put his legs back up again.
"Did he hurt you?" Jonas asked.
"No. He just kicked my legs off the bed. His weak ass kicks couldn't hurt me." Maverick answered.
I tried to get to sleep, but couldn't. I heard two people snoring and heard Jonas sigh.
I heard him shuffle around and he pushed my leg to see if I was asleep.
I didn't open my eyes and felt him lay down on the left side of my bed, while I was on the right side of my bed.
"I'm glad I didn't lose you too." He whispered, mainly to himself.
He slowly put his arm around me and pulled me closer to him.
I heard him start to quietly cry and I eventually fell asleep.