Calm Before The Storm (A River's Edge Fanfic)

Visitation

I was told by Layne that Feck was at the hospital. After a month or more of living in this town, I never met Feck. I decided to see him at the hospital. I walked in the room, he was watching TV. He had a bandage wrapped around his head.

"Feck?"

"Yeah, hey...Skylar right?"

He pointed at me.

"Yeah that's me."

"John told me a lot about you."

"He did?"

"Yeah."

"What did he say about me?" I asked a little aggressively.

"Nothing bad if that's what you're thinking."

"Well...what did he say?"

"He said you're the most innocent girl he ever met. Jamie was not so innocent you know, that's probably why he killed her."

"Meaning that I never went out and partied, what my mom and step dad suspects me all the time."

"Yeah, he told me they treat you like a mindless robot or something, no freedom to be a teenager."

"Well I'm out of there now, they killed my cat to punish me, I ran out. After I leave the hospital, I'm going to Jamie's funeral, then get the rest of my stuff, then we're gone to Portland tomorow morning first thing."

"Portland?"

"My real dad lives there, my hometown. We're getting our shit together, finishing school, maybe college, trade school."

"Good for you all, I'm glad there's hope for you all, unlike John."

"Yeah he killed someone."

"I have too, Ellie and John, yeah I shot em, promising myself I wouldn't do shit like that again. I'm sticking to drugs. At least you and your friends are getting your lives on track."

"If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have had the guts to get away from the shithole that I was forced to call home. No offense Feck, but pretty much all the adults here are useless, especially after what happened with Jamie, they weren't concerned for us. Matt's mom chose Jim, her boyfriend who screams and beats him and his siblings, Layne's father chose to act like he hardly existed. Mike and Tony are in foster care, while Maggie's family are amazingly supportive."

He just nodded.

"I understand where you're going with this. When I was a kid, I felt the same way."

"What was your reason for killing John, because he killed Jamie?"

"There was no hope for em."

"And you think there's hope for us?"

"Yeah, because of you Skylar, I think you turned them around."

"I motivated Matt to try harder in school and I got Layne to quit his substance problem...so...yeah I guess I helped them as much as they helped me. The funeral is in less than an hour, I gotta get ready, it was nice finally meeting you Feck."

I stuck put my hand, he shook it.

"You too Skylar."

I left the hospital.

The funeral was underway, we all wore traditional black dress outfits, Matt, Tony, Mike, and Layne wore suits, they looked handsome, me and Maggie wore black dresses. You may think we wore black veils to it but no we didn't. We all formed a line to see Jamie in her coffin a few seconds each. I sat by Matt on the seats, benches, whatever you call those church seats. It was depressing, after all it was a funeral. Layne sat on the other side of me while Maggie and the rest of the guys were elsewhere in the room.