Broken Facades By Alex Bright Chapter 24 Fasten Your Seatbelts
Brad
As I ran out of the bathroom I felt like I was going to throw up and pass out. When I went outside I quickly rushed over to the side of the building and lost my lunch in the grass. I fell to my knees, the floodgates suddenly opened. For three years ... three years ... I had to deal with the pushing, the glances, the whispering, and lately the physical abuse. And why? Because of a rumor started by my best friend, someone I thought cared about me. How could he, I wondered. Suddenly I started to feel dizzy, then darkness.
"Brad, Brad...Brad, sweetheart. Please wake up!"
"Alisa..." I called out as I opened my eyes to find her holding my hand in a dimly lit room. I was lying on a bed.
"Brad, Oh my god, thank god you're awake." Her eyes were red from crying.
"Alisa? Oh Alisa," I said as I tried to get up to hug her. Suddenly everything started spinning followed by a sharp pain in the back of my head. "Ouch," I said as I grabbed my head and fell back onto the bed. "Alisa what happened? Where am I?"
"What happened? You don't remember? Brad, you passed out in front my 5th period building and the school called the paramedics. We're at St. Luke's Hospital. Your mom and dad are on the way. We were so worried."
"My head is still spinning. How long have I been laying here?" I asked as I reached for her while trying to get up.
"For about almost an hour. No, don't move," Alisa said as she got up and called for the Doctor and Alex. "He's awake everybody .. he's awake." A Doctor and a nurse quickly entered the room followed by Alex.
"Hey sleepy bear," Alex said as he walked over to me and grabbed my hand. "I told you he'd be ok," He said to Alisa as I looked at him. His eyes were red too.
Looking over at Alex and Alisa I could see the concern on their faces as clear as day. After 15 minutes, 15 tiresome minutes of being poked and prodded I started to become impatient. I could feel my anger returning as the doctor and nurse continued their examination of me.
"Well everything seems to check out ok."
"Good, so can I get the hell out of here then?" I asked with a slightly irritated tone in my voice.
"Wait a second champ, I would like to hold you overnight for observation," The doctor said, trying to lighten the mood when he saw that I was becoming upset.
"Ah man...Great! There goes the game and the dance," Alex said looking very disappointed.
"Good, I don't want to go anyway." Alisa and Alex looked at me then each other, puzzled but not saying anything. I could feel my anger starting to return "Thanks, but no thanks on the overnight," still with a tone of irritation in my voice. I started to get out of bed
"Whoa there champ! I think the reason you passed out was due to some sort of anxiety attack brought on by stress."
Now the champ thing was starting to piss me off. "And you had to go to school to make that brilliant observation?" I asked as I started looking for my clothes
"I think you may also have a slight concussion," He said. He could now tell that I was a little past upset.
"Oh goodie," I said to him, still searching for my things. "Where the hell are my clothes and can someone get this fucking thing out of my arm?" Alisa's and Alex's mouths were now wide open. They couldn't understand why I was so upset
"Brad, can I call you Brad?" the doctor asked, realizing how upset I was.
"What you can call me is a wheelchair so I can get the hell out of here," I yelled while trying to put on my pants.
"Did anything happen to upset you today?" he asked.
"Gosh Doc, what makes ya think that?" I yelled again.
"Bradley, what is wrong with you? He's just trying to help you," Alisa said as she walked over to try to calm me down.
"Yea buddy, and I thought I needed help with my anger. Bear just breathe, buddy," Alex said, smiling at me trying to calm me down.
"Well I just want to get the hell out of here and be alone with my girlfriend! Is that too much to ask for?" I asked him. As I reached for Alisa's hand I could feel the tears forming.
"You know what? I see that you're upset and I don't think I am helping the matter," the doctor said gently.
"Ya think?" I said sarcastically, cutting him off.
"So, I'll just wait until your parents arrive and talk to them," he said as he walked out of the room.
"Bradley you're being an asshole," Alisa said as she let go of my hand
"Dude you're really pissed for some reason," Alex said as he started to laugh. "Remind me never to piss you off."
"Alex, this isn't funny," Alisa said, now starting to get upset herself. "Sweetie, why don't you want to go to the game or the dance?"
"Yea, I mean Justin ..." Alex started to say, but I cut him off.
"Don't you ever mention his name to me again! Fuck Justin! He's the one who started the rumor!"
"He what?" Alex stammered, looking like he suddenly felt ill.
Alisa
"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!" was all I could say as I looked at Alex. He looked like he was about to pass out. No wonder Brad was so upset. I started to walk over to Alex and try to keep him from either falling down or running out of the hospital room to find Justin "Oh my god, how did you find out?"
"I overheard him and Tony in the bathroom," he said as tears started rolling out of his eyes. I could see his anger reaching its peak because with his tears came no wails.
Then I slipped. "You weren't supposed to find out....Shit!" I said as I closed my eyes, knowing that I had just messed up. Alex then snapped out of his trance and now grabbed me.
"Alisa?" Alex said quietly looking shocked.
"You...you knew?" Brad asked as he grabbed the IV and pulled it out of his arm. He started to slowly walk over to me. I could see his tears stop suddenly.
"Alisa, you knew...how?" Alex asked as he started to loosen his grip on me.
"I...I found out three days ago," then my tears started "I went to ask Justin if he had talked to you lately and that I wanted to talk to you. He got upset after I wouldn't tell him what I wanted to talk to you about. We argued about why we all broke up. He said something about me running away and turning my back on my friends, and me being the reason why we broke up." By now I was fully in tears and crying.
"I got angry with what he said about me and called him a hypocrite. I told him that I unlike him I would never have outed my best or turned my back on him when he needed me. He asked me what was that supposed to mean. I told him that I knew that he was the one who started the rumor about you...I had realized for the past few months that I missed you so much. I just wanted to find out the truth, just ask you if it were true. Because I loved you, I always have loved you, ever since we were little."
"Alisa you knew and didn't tell us?" Alex asked.
"I know, but I saw how it upset not only you and Brad were, but was Justin too." Alex then let me go and started to walk to the door but I got in front of him "Alex please." I said crying "Justin is so sorry, and now that we're back together everyone is happy. Look at yourself. Do you want to throw all that away?"
"Alisa move...please," Alex said flatly.
"No Alex, I'm not going to, not until you remember the promise you made. Remember the promise to all of us, to me, to Brad, to Justin?"
"FUCK JUSTIN! FUCK THE PROMISE!" then Alex got real quiet "It's just a piece of plaster Alisa," he said with tears rolling down his cheek.
"What are you going to do Alex? Go and beat the shit out of Justin? Your best friend?" I asked as I stepped close to him then started to hit him, all the while crying. I hit him over and over, then finally quit and pulled him into a hug.
"Alisa don't," Alex said as he stepped away from me. "Right now I ...I..."
"Alex, please," I begged him, but he gently moved me to the side and walked out the door. I turned around to face the music with Brad. As I turned I saw the blood on his arm from where he pulled out the IV. I reached out to him, I needed to feel him to show him that I loved him, I knew that if I could just touch him everything would be ok, as I was just about to touch his face he jerked away from me and turned around.
"Alisa, I don't really want to be around you right now," he said with his back to me, and then started to walk back to his bed.
"I said I was sorry!" I yelled, "Why can't you forgive me?" When he reached the hospital bed he crawled in and laid down with his back to me.
"Alisa, pleases leave," he said. I could hear the pain in his voice.
"Ok...I'll leave," I told him quietly, still crying. "But I want you to know that I'll be waiting for you. If I have to wait another 3 years I will, because I love you Bradley Theodore James Westrick, I love you." As I started to walk out, Brads parents came rushing in.
Brad
"I love you too." I said in a whisper
"Alisa, what happened? Why are you crying? Where's bear... where's Brad?" my mother asked hysterically as she and my father entered my room.
"He's ok, he's...going to be ok.," I heard her say as I turned around just in time to see her run away, leaving my parents with puzzled looks on their faces.
"Bradley....Bear," my father and Mother called out to me as they approached the bed that I was laying on.
"Mommy! Daddy!" I returned their call and reached for their arms, crying like a baby.
Justin
The walk to my car was the longest walk I had ever made. My mind, my body ached, but not from being hit. The pain was from everything being numb; my whole world had just been ripped from me. I still had the ice pack in my hand and started to place it on my face, taking a quick glance in my side mirror to check the damage to my face, when suddenly Alex was behind me.
"Alex," I said quietly as I turned around, his eyes telling me he knew. Without him saying a word I saw the disappointment and betrayal in his eyes.
"Alex, please let me explain," but before I could say anything else he started yelling.
"Explain?" He said sarcastically as he stepped up close and grabbed me by my shirt with both hands, shaking me and pushing me against my car. "You want to explain to me? How are you going to explain to me? Better yet how are you going to explain to Brad why you, his best friend, would tell everyone in school that he was gay? This I gotta hear,"
"Explain to me how a person, a person that you love more than a brother, could start a rumor like that. A rumor that not only alienated him from everyone, but also caused him to get picked on and beat up by every asshole in school." I tried to look away but couldn't. I saw the tears welling up in Alex's eyes.
"Alex I'm sorry. I didn't mean for Bear to get hurt."
"Shut up! Don't you ever call him that again; only his friends can call him that! Look at the pain that you caused us Justin. What would have happened if Brad couldn't take all the abuse? What if he tried to kill himself because he wasn't strong enough to take the beatings and the verbal abuse?"
"I'm sorry," I said. I started to cry after I realized what Alex said could have happened.
"You're sorry." He said now crying, "Hey everybody, he's sorry," he said, letting go of me and looking around and yelling in the parking lot. "He's sorry, so I guess now everything is ok now. The great Justin Kemper is sorry and we can just go back to being friends again, right Just? Well Justin, it doesn't work like that. You fucked up big time, and that's not even the best part. Not only did you put another dagger into Brad's back, but you also managed to rip his heart out by dragging Alisa into your little lie. I guess you didn't care that by asking her to not say anything when we found out it would caused another separation, but I guess that you wanted that all along. You ...Never ...Cared!"
"That's not true," I said with tears streaming down my face. I grabbed his arm and tried to look into his eyes and show him how much I was hurting. "I only need you listen to me and then let me talk to Brad to clear everything..."
"I don't want to hear it," he said as he pulled away from me "The only thing you need to do is stay away from Brad, Alisa and me," he said as he leaned up close to my face. I could see the hate building in his eyes.
"Alex, please?" I said as I tried to reach for him, only to have him pull away from me.
"No, it's over. You stay away from us or so help me god....Justin, so help me god! " he said. Then he turned around and ran out of my life.