Chapter Song: 21 Guns by Green Day
~Track 15 on 'Songs For When You Give Up' (made by Alex)
Webster
Without the record store, Webster felt like a lost wandering soul. She missed the place, the smell of dusty old records and weed. She missed the sound of the bell tinkling when a customer walked in. She missed stacking the CDs.
It was hard to move on when you didn't really want to.
Her mam was at her nearly all the time about Alex, but this time Webster wasn't giving in. She didn't know what to say to the man with the rose tattoo anymore.
Well, that was a lie. She knew exactly what she wanted to say to him, but she knew if she said it, she would fall for him all over again. Just as she had swept up the pieces he had smashed...she knew he would do it all over again.
It was kind of like a sick cycle.
The Alex cycle.
She had been just another girl in his cycle. And the sad thing was that her life had been the happiest in his cycle.
She hated him for making her feel this way.
Fuck him.
Fuck him for doing this.
Fuck him for screwing up everything.
Alex
Without the record store, Alex spent most of his time with Lorraine. She was always making him do chores around her house, whether it was washing windows that she couldn't reach, washing her party dresses, cooking her dinner because she was too tired after work. He couldn't take it anymore. He had to go out.
So he told Lorraine that he was going out to the Whiskey Princess, the local bar. He would have rathered to call for Webster, but he knew he was not in her good books at the moment, so he stayed away (not that he particularly wanted to).
He sighed as he stepped into the Whiskey Princess. It was one of his favourite bars around town and usually had a great atmosphere. He was known as a legend in the bar due to the fact that he held the record of the most shots taken in under a minute (thirty-six).
He knew why he had come here.
He was here to forget about her.
He was here to drown his sorrows.
He smiled as he sat down on a high stool at the bar. Some guy named Rian was serving at the bar tonight. He ordered a bottle of Jameson.
"Just a bottle? Nothing else? Won't that be a little strong?" the guy was bombarding him with questions he wasn't in the mood to answer.
He shrugged.
"I'm here to forget about someone." he said as the dude handed him a bottle.
"Drink really isn't the answer." said the man, giving him a frown.
Alex just shook his head and slammed a couple of dollars on to the counter.
"No, you don't understand. Nobody does." he sighed as he opened the bottle.
"Cheers."
He took a huge swig of the whiskey, the liquid burning his throat all the way down. The feeling was greeting him like an old friend. It had been a while since he had drank alcohol.
"Was she pretty?" asked the man as he leaned against the counter. He looked a bit like a potato.
"She was more than pretty." Alex hiccoughed.
"She was even more than beautiful."
Webster
When Brianna called at her house at half-four in the morning, Webster knew there was something seriously wrong because:
A) She knew for a fact that Brianna didn't get up until one o'clock in the middle of the day.
B) Nobody called to someone's house at two thirty in the morning unless it was an emergency.
C) Brianna looked as anxious as she had the day the record store got shut down.
Her mam had answered the door, and Webster had wheeled out into the hall when she had seen the pink hair.
"Brianna?" her mam yawned as she rubbed her eyes.
"What's-"
"I need you guys to come to the hospital right now." she said quickly, her voice grim.
Her eyes fell on Webster.
"It's Alex....he...he was drinking..." she trailed off.
In seconds Webster had thrown on a jacket and her mam had the car keys in her hand.
"Come on. We have no time to lose." her mam said, suddenly wide awake. Webster nodded, her heart starting to beat at a hundred miles an hour.
"He's not dead." said Brianna as Webster wheeled out into the bitter November air. The sky was clear tonight, a million constellations were shining in the sky.
They reminded her of his eyes.
She checked her jacket pocket for the playlists.
Yeah, the new ones for him were there.
All seven of them.
All of them for each day she hadn't talked to him.
************************************
Webster
As she wheeled into the hospital, a million panicked thoughts flooded ino her head. Was he dead? No, Brianna had said he wasn't. But that had been minutes ago. What if he was? What if their story had ended on on a bad chapter? What if their song had ended on a bad note?
She gripped her hands tightly on the handles of her wheelchair. Brianna had started to push her.
When they arrived into the hospital, Webster wrinkled her nose. She had always hated the smell of hospitals. Bleach and hand sanitizer.
Ew.
They were greeted by three people at the reception, one of them being Jack, one of them being Lorraine, and one of them being a guy that Webster didn't know. He was wearing all black and a name tag with the name 'Rian' on it.
Her mam sent Webster an odd look.
"Is that skunk-haired guy, the one waving at you, is he wearing a t-shirt that says BONER on it?" her mam whsipered worriedly to her.
Despite the situation, Webster laughed weakly and nodded. Of course he had to wear that stupid t-shirt when he met her mam.
Just her luck.
"Webster! Brianna!" Jack said in a relieved voice. He gave her mom an awkward nod of the head.
"Missus Walker." he mumbled.
Her mam laughed.
"Please tell me your mother doens't see you in that t-shirt."
"No m'am" he mumbled.
Webster sent her mam a look, to say
"Mam! Alex!"
Her mam sent her a sad look.
"Right. I'll check with reception if he's allowed to see visitors." she said and she walked over to the counter, leaving the five of them alone.
Webster took the time to study everyone.
Brianna was itching at ther jean pocket, her fingers playing with the outline of the packet of cigarettes she had in them. She always smoked when she was nervous.
Jack was staring at his shoes, his usualy bubbly-self failing to make an appearance at the moment.
Lorraine was crying (Webster tried to ignore the pang of jealousy that shot through her) and the stranger, Rian, was scratching his head and trying to keep himself distracted from everybody.
Webster had started to fidget with her sleeve.
All of them were trying to avoid each other.
All of them were trying hard not to think about Alex.
It felt like an age had passed before her mam returned, but when she did return, she looked grim.
"Only one perosn's allowed to visit him tonight." she said slolwy.
Before anybdoy could even say anything, Lorraine had stepped forward.
"I'll go. I am his girlfriend." she said simply, her pretty eyes flashing dangerously at everybody.
"No way. Not you." growled Brianna, stepping out to block the red-head's path.
"Jack should go. He's the best friend." said Rian slowly. Jack beamed at him.
"Yeah!" he said, although he didn't sound too sure.
"You're all idiots, you know that? If anyone should go in, it should be Webster." Brianna said, her eyes blazing.
Everyone fell silent.
Webster stopped fidgeting with her sleeve and looked up.
All eyes were on her.
"No." said Lorraine quietly.
"No way. She doesn't even know him-"
"Shut your pie hole Lorraine. She knows that bastard better than all of us put togther."
"Brianna." her mam's warning tone made the pink-haired girl fall silent.
"Webster should go." said Jack quietly, nodding his head in agreement.
"He would want Webster to be the one to see him first."
"Ahem." coughed Lorraine. She sent Webster a dark look before turning to face everyone else.
"I think we could all agree that the girlfriend of Alex should see him first. Why would he want to see some chick in a wheelchair-"
"Watch your mouth Missy." her mam scolded, and Lorraine swallowed.
"Uhmm...I..uhmm..." Lorraine started to stumble over her words, her face was turning red.
"Someone took a leaf out of Spike's book-"
"Brianna."
"Sorry Missus Walker."
"Fine! Let Webster go!" Lorraine snapped suddenly, sending them all into silence.
Webster blinked, shocked.
Her?
See Alex first?
She was supposed to be mad at him.
Without another word, Webster started to wheel up to the reception. A nurse was waiting for her there.
"You must be Webster." said the nurse with a smile.
She raised an eyebrow at her.
The nurse's smile grew wider.
"I knew it would be you who got to see him in the end." the nurse said a she started to wheel Webster down the corridor.
"Mister Gaskath won't stop mumbling your name in his sleep."
************************************
Webster
She hadn't really known what to expect when she wheeled into Alex's hospital room. Apparently he had been moved into a private room because his mumbling in his sleep was annoying the other patients.
When she saw him, she started to cry.
His eyes were closed, his arm attatced to some sort of drip, his skin a pale sort of yellow colour. He looked awful.
"Oh A-Alex." she breathed as she wheeled over to the side of his bed.
The tears were falling fast now, the rolled off her cheeks and splashed on to her lap. She didn't care though. Not right now.
"W-what h-have you d-done." she sobbed, her stammer out of contol. She let her head fall on to his chest like she had done nearly a hundred times before.
He didn't wrap his arms around her like he usually did though.
He didn't even stir.
"I-I b-b-brought you n-new p-p-playlists." she sniffed, digging her hand into her pocket and taking out the seven playlists.
"T-There's G-G-Green D-Day on o-one of t-them. I-I know h-how m-m-much y-you l-love t-them."
She placed the disks on to his little bedside table.
"I-I'm s-sorry I w-was m-mad at -y-you." she cried, a new wave of tears washing over her.
"I-I w-was j-just u-upset."
He didn't move.
He looked so weak.
He looked like he was going to die.
She nuzzled her head into his chest. He still smelled great. She wondered if he still tasted like Christmas.
"D-Don't l-leave m-me." she sniffed.
"Y-you're a-all I h-have."
She didn't know how long she cried into his chest after that.
The nurse had to call her mam to calm her down.