Second Chance

Chapter 14

I paced back and forth in the hallway of the emergency room in the town's hospital, feeling nervous and scared and anxious and absolutely terrible all at once. Why did this keep happening? I kept getting into bad situations, and I dragged Riley down with me, further and further into the abyss of death and destruction. I hated myself more and more every time I hurt Riley. I hated myself so much while I waited to find out if my brother was going to live or not, that I was half tempted to steal a scalpel from the surgery room and slit my own throat with it. That wouldn't solve any problems though, I would just be dumping all of them on Riley. If he survived. Then I would go to hell for all eternity and be slowly tortured while burning in flames but not being able to die. That was what I deserved after all, for bestowing all living hell on the kindest person I have ever met.

Honestly, I wouldn't blame Riley for never speaking to me again. It's one thing to get him arrested, disowned and stuck with me as a roommate, but it's a whole other thing to put him in a hospital because I almost got him killed. To make it worse, this wasn't the first time it happened. I almost got him killed before, way back when we first started high school. Way back when we were only fourteen.

Flashback
—-

"Come on, Riley! It's not that hard." I laugh, looking down at my best friend who is trying so desperately to climb the tree that I'm sitting in.

"I can't! You know I'm not good at this stuff." Riley whines, looking frustrated.

God, he is such a complainer sometimes. He's also weak, nervous and kind of short. All reasons why he can't climb a tree, and also why he's still a virgin who has never had a girlfriend. Sometimes he's a little pathetic, and I wonder why I'm still his friend. Probably because he has no one else, and neither do I. Maybe I should work on getting a gang or something....

"Justin! Can we please do something else?" Riley pleads, stepping away from the tree.

I pretend to think for a moment, then say. "No. I want you to get your ass up here. If you need motivation, I got something for you; if you don't get up to where I am in five minutes I will let myself fall out of this tree. I'll most likely break a few bones, then I'll blame it on you. You'll get in a lot of trouble, Riley. And you don't want to hurt your brother, do you?"

Riley stares at me with wide eyes and shakes his head. He then looks back at the tree and attempts to scale it again. I try not to laugh at how ridicules he looks right now, but I don't do a very good job. After about a solid minute, Riley manages to pull himself up onto the first branch. I'm about half way up the tree, and there's probably about twenty branches between me and him, so the chances of him getting to me in five minutes is basically impossible. At this point, I'm just trying to decide if I'll actually go through with falling out of the tree and breaking my arm or something. It's insane, but it would be hilarious to see Riley get in trouble for something that I did. It's one of my favourite games to play actually, and I do it a lot. This might be taking it too far though, but I'll see how it goes and how far Riley gets.

I'm broken out of my thoughts as I hear Riley calling up to me again. "Justin, I can't do this! I don't want to fall. I'm close enough to you, right?"

I look down at him and see that he's wedged awkwardly between two branches that are about a level below me. "Hell no." I laugh again. "You need to grow a pair, Riley. Come on, you can do it!" I encourage, since I'm literally the most amazing friend ever.

Riley tries to push himself up again, but one foot slips and one second he's staring at me with terrified eyes, and the next he's falling down the tree that's probably equivalent to falling through a two story building. That's how tall the tree is.

"Riley!" I scream, suddenly feeling panicked, which is a very rare feeling for me.

I can't see him anymore, so I climb down the tree as quickly as I can. Riley may be disappointing sometimes, but he's still my brother, and I still love him. I make it to the bottom of the tree, and see him lying near the truck, seemingly unconscious. I then realize there's a pool of blood seeping out slowly from the back of his head. My stomach lurches, but I know he's not dead, since his eyes are closed. Still, I'm panicking because I have no idea what to do, except for calling the police.

I whip out my phone and quickly dial the number. They answer almost immediately and I tell them exactly what happened. Well, almost everything, except for the fact that I basically blackmailed him into climbing the tree. Instead, I make it seem like I was the reasonable one, and Riley was being the impulsive idiot who was trying to prove something for his own sake.

An ambulance shows up about ten minutes later and loads Riley into the back. The paramedics ask me a few questions, and I just retell my version of what happened. They leave a few minutes later, taking my best friend with them.

Every day I regret making him climb into that tree. Every day I try and be a better friend to him. And every day I hope and pray that I will never actually get him killed.

—-

The door behind me suddenly swung open, breaking me out of my depressing memory. I turned around and saw a nurse looking at me. I felt hope and dread slam into me simultaneously, and I needed to remind myself to keep breathing.

"Are you Justin Blok?" She asked stiffly, peering at me as if I was secretly a toad and not a human at all.

"Yes! That's me. Riley's friend. Is he okay? Can I see him? Is he at least alive?" I demanded, half expecting her to shake her head sadly and explain that his moronic friend let him die and it was all said moronic friend's fault.

Instead, to my immense delight, the nurse nodded. "Yes, Mr. Sumit is actually quite adamant to see you."

"Thank you! What room number?" I cheered, basically beaming.

"Room 75." She answered.

I immediately bolted through the doors and raced down the hallway until I reached room 75. It came up much quicker than I thought, so I had to skid to a stop before I ran into the doorframe, which resulted in me almost falling on my ass.

"Careful, I don't want you busting up your other shoulder." A slightly groggy voice said from inside the room.

"Riley!" I cried, latching my eyes onto my sleepy looking best friend.

I ran over to his bed and collapsed onto my knees, trying to give him a hug on his level, which was kind of awkward because he was still laying down, but trying to sit up. "So I take it I'm not dead yet?" He joked, giving me a small grin.

"Not yet I'm afraid." I sighed sarcastically. "But maybe by next Wednesday you might be."

"I'm afraid next Wednesday won't work out." Riley said sadly. "I have an English test that day, and you know I take classic literature to the grave."

I laughed, then said. "You know, maybe we should play a fun game called 'try not to royally fuck up for twenty four hours' and see how we do. Winner gets a Lamborghini."

Riley laughed this time, then said. "I miss this side of you, Justin. This Justin is my brother, and I love him very much."

"I love you too, Riley." I said honestly, trying extremely hard not to cry. "And I'm sorry for everything."

"It's okay, man. We're both going through a rough time. As long as we have each other, we'll be okay." He said encouragingly, and I was getting dangerously close to tearing up.

Luckily, I didn't end up crying, as a ginger girl came rushing into the room. I stood up and backed away, letting Morgan through so she could interrogate Riley. I thought of staying in the room with them, but that would be awkward, so I decided to give them some privacy and stroll into the hallway.

I was extremely relieved that Riley was okay, and that he had other people who cared about him. The dark part of me was still there though, and I couldn't help wondering if people would be that relieved if I nearly died. Or if I did die, how many people would cry at my funeral? Would I even have a funeral, or would they even care at all?