noise isn’t enough to drown out the noise in my head. It’s not nearly enough to relay how twisted and fucked up the Fitzgerald family is.
Headline after headline, my father always finds a way to drag our family through one scandal after another; and my mother, ever the sensitive heartbroken, money-loving woman she is, forgives him.
I ball my palm into a tight fist and drive it into the wall beside me.
Blinding pain shoots through from my knuckles up my hand, but for some reason, that felt good.
Because I’m a fucking unfeeling jerk and a glutton for punishement, I do it again. And again, aware that I’m hurting myself and that what I’m doing is stupid, pointless, and reckless.
My knuckles start bleeding. I feel some satisfaction as I watch the metallic red stain the otherwise unharmed white wall, dismantling this clean façade that hospitals carry.
Breathing hard and fast, I can still hear the loud beeping of machines they hooked my brother on in his hospital room.
But then it’s the look on Aiden’s face when he woke up two hours ago, looked around the room, a look of hope and optimism on his face, only to find the large hospital room empty of the faces he wanted to see. It was just me, without a good explanation for the absence of his family.
“Fuck!” a soft whisper escapes my lips like a litany, feeling a ball in my throat. It’s like the life has been sucked out of me. I want to punch the damn wall again, pretending it’s my father’s face wouldn’t make a single iota of a difference either.
“Are you done?”
A sweet, amused, and sarcastic voice speaks from behind me. I spin around, ready to tell her off. I don’t need anyone’s sympathy, let alone if it’s someone from my school. Worse if they’re from our rival school, here to get some dirt on me to exploit me.
Paranoia or caution? I don’t know, they both kind of bleed together for me.
When I turn around, words fail me when I come face to face with her, the girl I saw dancing in the rain earlier today.
Twirling and spinning in puddles, her delicate arms reaching up to the heavens, as if she was trying to catch raindrops. She had her beautiful face up turned to the sky, as if to let the rain wash away the sadness in her eyes. But as I look at her now, I don’t think the rain did a good job—though it tried.
She’s still sad. Pissed, curious, annoyed, yes, but still sad.
My chest expands, I stand there frozen, knowing better than to breathe because if I so much as breathe wrong, she’ll disappear. I mutely stare at her for a full minute, as if I’ve just seen an angel but the more I stare, the more I notice the devil’s glint in her eyes.
“What?” I grunt.
“I said are you done punishing the wall for your sins?” she questions, this time walking toward the chairs I kicked. “Because if you are, then you should apologize to the wall. It did nothing to receive your wrath.”
For some fucked up reason, that annoys me and intrigues me all at the same time. The fact that she somehow thinks whatever’s going on is my fault, makes me frown. That I sinned and now we’re here, makes me suck in another breath, watching her because it’s true. I did cause all of this. I wasn’t there when Aiden needed me.
“Who are you, the hospital hall monitor?” I mock, rolling my shoulders back, standing at my tallest, knowing that my height intimidates almost everyone, and I’m still growing.
“Please, I last did that in middle school.” She places a hand on her hip, still watching me like I’m a feral, wounded animal. But the thing is, she’s not afraid. Not one bit. “And I was quite good at it if I remember correctly. I never allowed a slip-up, from anyone.”
I narrow my eyes at the raven-haired beauty with aquamarine eyes, there’s a hint of yellow specks in them that make her look like the perfect devil’s advocate—since she’s talking about sin and shit.
“Aren’t you still in middle school?” I question, studying her. She’s young. Maybe even Liam’s age. She’s tiny, petite, with a hell of a lot of promise to the way her body curves. She’s gorgeous, this girl, and the tragedy is, she’s fully aware of her beauty. And mine is I notice it.
“How old are you?”
She perks up, puffing her slightly flat chest