Chapter 6.
He felt warm…
There was a clean, white room and bright lights shining at him when he opened his heavy eyes. His limbs felt as though they weighed a tonne, too weak to lift. His head was throbbing immensely: any move that he made –such as turning his head- brought him unthinkable pain, but he did this to see the rest of the room that he was in. Lined alongside him were beds…and injured people with their visitors. He could hear a steady beeping sound being made next to him by a machine. The place smelt of bleach. He looked on his other side and saw his father, a middle-aged man with deep wrinkles, short black curly hair and light skin, with dark brown eyes and a relieved expression, smile at his awakening.
Andrew started to breathe heavier, his pulse rate increasing rapidly; the machine started to beep faster and faster, and his father gently squeezed his hand.
‘It’s fine, don’t worry.’ He gave Andrew a warm smile, which set his nerves and panic down a notch, evident by the decreasing rate of the beeping machine.
Andrew tried his hardest to speak, to ask his father what had happened, but he couldn’t open his mouth…he didn’t even know if he was opening his mouth, come to think of it. He couldn’t feel his face at all: he couldn’t experience any tensing of his facial muscles, not a smile, or a frown…nothing. He couldn’t try and touch his face, because his arms wouldn’t move. He felt absolutely frail.
‘Listen, mate, you’ve done great, the doctor’s are really glad that it wasn’t anything more than a few stitches. I’m just so happy that you’re okay…’
Andrew seemed to gain enough energy to widen his eyes at the shock of it all. Stitches? Where?!
Just before he was about to make a second attempt to speak, everyone stampeded into the room: Leo, Danielle, Tony, Sabrina, Sebastien and Gregory! They smiled gratefully as they bustled in and crowded around him; his father, smiling at them all, and finally to Andrew, left the room.
‘I’m so glad you’re okay!’ Danielle exclaimed.
‘Yeah, we thought we almost lost you there, mate!’
‘It wasn’t that bad, Leo,’ Tony shook his head.
The group looked at him, sceptically.
‘Okay, well…yeah, we did.’
Andrew tried what he hoped was a grin.
Sabrina smiled at him, but he could see a glint of guilt in her eyes…or sadness.
What was she actually feeling?
He couldn’t ask her with everyone in the room, but even if he was alone with her, challenging himself for speech was his other obstacle.
‘I’m happy that you’re alright, Andrew,’ Sabrina said quietly.
The next day was his last at the hospital. By four o’clock in the afternoon, Andrew’s father picked him up, driving in their Volkswagon Polo car.
‘You…okay, Ange?’ His dad asked, stopping at the traffic lights.
He looked down, sadly.
‘I talked with the doctors; we debated whether the police should get involved.’
‘No! I mean, no, Dad. There’s no point.’
‘Why?’ He stopped at the traffic lights.
‘Because there’s no point.’
‘Look, I’m not happy -at all!- that this happened to you,’ his father replied, clearly getting angry. He turned left at the roundabout.
‘I know. I’m sorry this hap-’
‘It’s not your fault! Don’t say you’re sorry!’ He yelled.
‘Just drop it, Dad.’ Andrew said quietly.
‘I can fin-’
‘Please Dad! Just let it go!’
His father sighed. ‘Okay. Just…be careful, son. Please. I was so scared when your friends called me from the hospital. I thought I lost you. I’m so glad that you weren’t killed.’ He paused. ‘I don’t know what I’d do if that happened.’
‘Hey, look! I’m here,’ Andrew laughed nervously. ‘It’s all good!’ It wasn’t good at all for him, though: it was crap. He felt so embarrassed about last night. He was muscular and reasonably tall, he could have taken them guys last night. And the worst thing about it was he knew who they were.
They were two of Gary’s friends from outside of school; Gary hangs out with them in the park and used to sit by the bench near the playground- this was before he got together with Sabrina. Once Sabrina started going out with him, the park mates disappeared and his afternoons were spent with her. They must have been, because she sloped off with him after school a few days a week. He didn’t know exactly which of the five park boys had found him last night, because they were well covered.
Andrew really didn’t want the others talking about it. He was just too embarrassed to talk about how he got beaten up last night, how he was too weak after the first blow to fight back; it was inevitable, he knew, that they were going to at least mention it.
Why did I take the alley way home? Why, why couldn’t I just go the safer way?
He knew that if he didn’t punch Gary then this wouldn’t have happened, but it was worth it. It was satisfying to see him cry out in pain, and it was great to see him weak and vulnerable. And if he didn’t step in, what would have happened? He would have harmed Sabrina, he had his hands on her. He could have slapped her.
No. He deserved to get dumped. Gary’s been treating Sabrina like an emotional pin cushion ever since they started going out, four months ago. By what she’s confided in him, Gary has blamed her constantly for things that weren’t even her fault and has been melodramatic over the small things. And how can he forget the Saturday in May when she came to Andrew’s house sobbing, telling him the way Gary had reacted when he found out she went out with Sebastien instead of him. How he, over the course of the day, sent her abusive text messages like, ‘I hope you’re having fun with HIM while I’m alone you selfish scumbag. You never even asked me if I could come!’
What even provoked her to go out with him in the first place? This wasn’t one of Sabrina’s smartest moves she’s made...
Well, she’s not with him now...I hope she’s alright. He better leave her alone so she can get on with her life.
The conversation awkwardly diverted to a debate on what radio station they should both listen to; Andrew wanted to listen to Xfm, while his father wanted to listen to BBC Radio Four.
Andrew’s father won in the end, arguing that Radio Four wasn’t full of random malarkey that infiltrated his brain with useless information about a music artist’s colour of toothbrush.
Andrew pointed out that Xfm actually had music, not old men babbling on about the political issues in Bahrain, but its fine, it was necessary information (rolling his eyes).
His father said that he was glad that Andrew understood the point of good listening and the importance of politics at this challenging time in the world.
Of course, by the time he had won the radio war, they had arrived at their driveway. Andrew was so glad to be back at their house, a two-bedroom maisonette. As he stepped out of the car, his feet rested on dark concrete, with a couple of small weeds poking out from the small cracks. It was a tidy front garden, but there were no flowers, just tidy. Could be worse.
When they both entered the house, Andrew smiled; the place looked exactly how he had left it: light wood floors, celery green walls with numerous photographs of him and his dad in Cyprus and of other family members. He hiked up the staircase in front of him at the entrance to his bedroom on the second left.
It was rather tidy. Dad probably cleaned up a bit. He looked around the room and felt there was something missing. He didn’t know what, but he could sense it. When his eyes rested at his Xbox games pile and his stack of CDs, he noticed an empty space in the CD rack where Nirvana should be and two of his games have disappeared. What?
The doorbell rang fifteen minutes later.
Andrew charged downstairs to answer it, to find Sabrina resting against the doorframe…rather mysteriously, wearing a smug grin on her face. When she saw his face, with a stitch on his cheekbone near his right eye and a bruise on his forehead and around the stitches, her face dropped. She didn’t expect to see him look that bad after last night: she was hoping it was all a dream, as stupid as it sounded, but it killed her to see her best friend beaten. It caught her off-guard.
‘You alright?’ he asked, curious.
‘Your dad said you would be home by this time, so I thought I’d stop by and see how you are.’
‘Oh ok. You want to come in?’
‘Cheers.’ She walked in, heading straight for the living room on their first left. He followed her in, to enter a light, modern room, with cream walls, a large chocolate brown leather sofa, a large brown wooden coffee table, along with a widescreen television in front of them and an array of other high-tech things. She sat on the sofa; Andrew sat next to her.
‘I have something for you,’ Sabrina began. ‘Well, actually, Seb couldn’t be arsed to give it to you himself,’ she gave him a plastic bag, which had the stolen items.
‘Thanks,’ he carefully smiled: he was wary about ripping the stitches on his face. ‘Hey, I’m going to put these back in my room. Tell me what I’ve missed today,’ he got up and stomped upstairs, Sabrina behind him.
They reached his room; as he was putting his things away, Sabrina started to tell him what had happened for the last week in school.
‘Well, you missed the fight between Darren and Francis.’
He turned to face her. ‘That was bound to have happened. Who won?’
‘Francis punched him really hard; Zack tried to stop it, but Darren shoved him out the way; he swung to punch Francis, but he ducked and thumped him in the stomach. I’ve never seen Darren’s face go so red before,’ she laughed.
Andrew rose and walked over to Sabrina, who was sitting on his bed. As he began to sit down next to her, he said blunty, ‘I don’t like Darren.’
‘Nobody likes that guy.’
Andrew had to know something else. ‘And Gary?’
Sabrina quietened down, asking, ‘What about him?’
‘Did anything happen today?’
She sighed. ‘Well…basically, we all blanked him, but he tried talking to me a couple of times.’
Andrew’s temper began to rise. ‘And?’
‘I told him to go away, and if he wants to talk we’ll talk after school. He kept persisting to speak right there in the playground.’
‘…And?’
‘I let him say his piece later –in front of everyone after school near the gate where we wait around- then I knocked him out.’
Andrew asked sceptically, ‘Are you serious?’
‘Yeah! One punch. He sulked like a baby on the way home- everyone was cheering!’ she beamed.
He gaped at Sabrina like a fish. Oh, so that was why she looked so chirpy.
‘What?! He deserved it, you knew that!’ She chuckled.
‘Oh, um…I just didn’t know I missed that much of school,’ he sighed.
‘That’s nothing,’ she continued, laughing. ‘Tony brought his ‘board into school. After Gary tried talking to him at lunch about some random crap, he snapped.’
‘Snapped?’
‘Yes, snapped. He got his ‘board and whacked him round the head with it!’
‘Didn’t Tony get into trouble?’
‘No. It was at lunch by the park.’
Andrew was still confused. ‘But didn’t he grass Tony up?’
‘No, because he knew why Tony did it...’
‘And he did it because...’
She rolled her eyes and practically yelled, ‘Did something happen to your head as well as the stitches?! WE ALL KNOW IT WAS HIM WHO GOT YOU BEATEN.’
‘Okay! Okay! You don’t need to remind me!’
‘Do you think we’re all of a sudden alright after last night?! NO. The whole school knows as well! Everyone is after Gary!’
Andrew’s pulse quickened. ‘How do they know?!’ This wasn’t what I wanted at all! Why couldn’t it be kept quiet?!
‘He decided to let everyone know why you’re out of school!’
‘But they know who broke his nose, though?’
‘Yeah, well, Gregory did- he knows who can spread the news fast. But yeah, no one likes Gary, they were on your side.’ She threw her head in her hands. ‘Oh, why did I go out with-‘ Then she remembered why.
Andrew put an arm round her. ‘We all make mistakes...big big mistakes...’
‘At least next week is our last ever week in school, then we won’t have to see him again.’ She said, maybe to reassure herself that it’s all going to be over soon.
‘Or his nose brace-thing.’
She swung her head up to find her best friend smiling in an extremely cheeky way. Her body felt weak.
He met her gaze, and it lasted for quite a long time. His spine tingled and a lump formed in his throat. Sabrina smiled at him and rested her head on his shoulder.
Andrew hesitated. What should I do?
He put his arm around her from behind, stroking her arm.
She looked up at him, her big eyes, which now looked earthy green in the sunlight, staring directly at his. When he looked deeply into her eyes, his heart started to beat rapidly. The chills down his spine were stronger than before. He closed his eyes slowly and began to move his head closer to Sabrina’s; her eyelids lowered sensually, moving slightly nearer to his face as well.
Andrew stopped and opened his eyes. He looked at his best friend and got up from his bed, taking a deep breath from his frustration.
Sabrina sadly sighed. Raising herself from the bed, she said shyly as she headed for the bedroom door, ‘I’ve got to get going. Glad that you’re feeling better now.’
Not quite, he thought, feeling irritated.
He followed her out, watching her saunter off back home.
Andrew slammed the front door behind him as he stomped off to his room.
