My friend, Demise

Chapter 5

I'm in pain, but the first thing I see when my eyes open is my mother. She's leaning over me and shoving my hair out of the way. "Mom."

"Look at my finger." She held one finger in front of my eyes and moved it from side to side. I followed it with my eyes, making her sign out of relief. "Are you okay? The doctor gave you a lot of pain medication so I didn't know if you'd be feeling normal or not."

I don't feel normal. My mom's face looks different than usual and my body is tingling. I keep seeing colors I don't recognize out of the corners of my eyes. "I feel fine."

"Your friends are in the lobby."

"Where's dad?"

"He's talking to the doctor outside."

"Can I talk to Demise?"

"Demise? What kind of name is that?"

"He goes by Demi. Can I see him? I need to talk to him." I sat up but she gently pushed me back down. "Mom-"

"You shouldn't put strain on your abdomen for a while."

"Mom, I need to see him! Please!"

"Shh." She hushed me and gently ran her fingers through my hair. "You can see him when we leave."

"No, I want to see him now." I grabbed her wrist. "Can you please ask if I can see him? I need to talk to him."

"Alright. I'll ask, okay? Just try to relax."

She left me alone, allowing me to look around the hospital room. Due to the drugs, the colors seemed way too bright and....moving.

My head hurts.

"Azriel." After a few minutes, Demise walked in and sat at the end of my bed. "Your mom said you wanted to talk to me. Do you feel okay?"

"I feel like I'm on crack! No I don't feel okay! Whatever drugs they gave me- I-....I'm tripping balls right now."

He laughed. "Yeah, the color mentioned that."

"I remember you said you couldn't get involved with what was going on but....why did he even ask you to?"

"Ha....haha" he laughed again, but a lot more nervously. "I think you're just talking nonsense."

"I'm not. Why did he ask you that?"

"I hope you feel better, Azriel." He stood up. "I'll let the doctor know you're doing okay."

I stood up and grabbed his hand tightly. "I'm not done talking and you're not done giving me answers."

"Yes. I am. We're both done. Now let go of me." He turned and glared at me, the same way he'd glared at the girl in the hall.

He's so intimidating. But why? Nothing about him makes him scary to me. Why do I want to back down now?

"Denise."

"If you don't let go of me, I'm going to give you a reason to and trust me, you don't want that."

I quickly let go, watching him leave and slam the door behind him. My mom's came back in after, making me lay back down. "He looked mad."

"He is. And I want to know why." I shoved her hands off of me and sat back up. "When am I getting discharged? I need to talk to him. Somewhere he can't run off."

"Your health is more important right now. Demi will still be there when you've recovered. Just wait."

Except he wasn't. I spent my time out of the hospital in my room, waiting for the wound to heal up enough that I could go back to school.

Only 37 students had been shot that day. I'd just gotten unlucky.

But I couldn't stop thinking about my conversation with Demise. Why did he leave like that? Why was he defensive? Why didn't he answer me? Why did he threaten me?

I'd tried calling him but I never got an answer. It went straight to voicemail and Amanda knew nothing about the matter. She'd told me that Demise was ignoring her too.

On Wednesday, when my parents weren't home, I went for a walk with crutches under my arms to help take the weight off of my abdomen. I waited until nightfall outside of his house. And even after the sun went down and he got home late enough to see me, he completely ignored my presence and went inside.

I started waking up early and waiting outside, waiting until he came home from school. But every time I saw him, he'd pretend like I wasn't even there.

This went on for two weeks and only ended when I stood directly in front of his door. He opened the door to go to school and flinched so hard he dropped his bag.

"Start talking." I spiked directly, watching him look for a way around me. He turned up his nose and shut the door in my face. Though, before he could lock it, I opened it and went inside. "Now."

"Dude what the hell?! Get out!"

"You're avoiding me because of a simple question so it must be pretty damn important, now TALK."

"I'm not telling you anything! Leave me alone already!"

"You said that we're friends. So why are you acting like this?"

"I've hardly known you....I'm not gonna out myself already just because I answered a dumb question."

"Out yourself?"

"My dad wasn't the only gangster of the family, okay? I was too." He scoffed. "Now please, Leave me alone."

I guess everyone has a past. Maybe when he declined, he just didn't want to relieve it. I shouldn't have been so persistent.

It explained a lot. How intimidating he was, the scars he tried to hide when he changed during gym. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry, just make yourself scarce."

"Right. Goodbye."

I headed for the door but he grabbed my arm, his hand shaking. "Wait!"

"Hm?" I turned and raised my eyebrows at him.

"Don't....don't go."