Acrimonious Ache

C3; S1

Chapter Three

Scene One

The tip of my index and middle finger and their fingernails, lightly take turns tapping on my thumb to the beat of the ticking clock.The sound of it is only interested in my brain, you see. The clock is not visible, the clock is simply on repeat while humming its tunes in the streets of my brain. Don't be fooled, for it is not invisible. A virtual representation of time, that it gives. To know when enough time has been sufficient. Even so, we blindly don't know what the word amount is. No one does. Not even doctors or the law. This becomes a frustrating bore when I see my hospital wrist band. Well, at least from the amount of vision I still have in me. A black eye is an understatement for what I received was only one functioning eye and a lost teenage boy. My name is Kyle. However, that means nothing to you, or this story to this situation. It mean absolutely, nothing.

"How are you feeling?" The sweet voice, the rhythm of an angel, my sister.

"Hey." I say to avoid this circumstances. Although it has been hard due to the fact that the setting IS the hospital, which initially represent something other than comfort.

"Muah." And she plants a kiss on my forehead. Afterwards she sits on the chair next to the hospital bed.
The medicine the doctors have given me has helped me see more clearly with my right eye, but the pain to open it remains overwhelming exhausting. I never thought that my eye would have to carry so much weight.

"Mom is going crazy."

Of course she is.

"What does she say?" I ask closing my eyes, to rest them off for a while. Either way, the pain still oozes out like pus. Whether my eyes are shut or open. Don't forget my spine, it is gentle as a feather. My ribs are the main discomfort, bruised but nonetheless extremely painful and at times I find it difficult to breath.

"Eh, you know mom." I chuckle and suddenly the pain, the pressure amounts on my weak body in an instant. I grunt, and tighten my teeth but the agony continues to flow endlessly.

"Hey, take it easy." She says as she tries to relax my body by gripping on to my hand.

"I'm okay." And we both sigh in relief.

"She wants to press charges."

Of course she does.

"And she wants you to testify, if needed." I wish I can shoot open my eyes. Glare at her, to see if this is just some cruel joke. But I know better than to do so. Instead, I become paralyzed. Allowing the entrance of karma to consume my body. I remain completely still, making sure not to upset the poison of karma for it will only result into something more worse. Something I just cannot afford at the moment.

"What are you going to do?"

"I..I.." I'm not stuttering. I just can't seem to speak. My tongue is being held captive at gunpoint. My teeth freeze to avoid a tragedy from occurring. This must be some side effect of the karma.

"It's okay. You don't need to say anything." If only she knew that it's not my choice. If I could I would tell her that I plan to leave the city, the freaking state, heck even the country.

"This.." She began while dispatching herself from the chair. She paces around the room and I can tell by the way she tries to hide her hair with her short blond hair, digs her nails in her own flesh of her arm, her itching need to speak what's on her mind with hazel eyes filled with worry and fear. I don't need to see this, to know it's happening. I know her too well.

"It all hurts."

A pause is taken place. She thinks I can't detect her anger, her frustration, her pain. But I can, it's sent to me through the air. Hearing the agony and sadness in her tone as she forms those words. The pacing with her converse shoes assimilated to impatience, the unbearable torment to keep her feelings locked away in a jar.

"Mom can't have a son who gets beat up by a girl. I can't have a brother who pretends to be okay. Dad can't.."

"No!" I break free from karma, pushing a sudden rush into my mouth to get it to function again. It no longer hurts me to open my eyes or squirm my body into a more comfortable position. It will burn more if I allow her to talk about that man.

"Don't." My tone is more hushed, I never meant to raise my voice with her. My heart is in a boiler, slowly heating up as each second passes without hearing her voice, her words that aid me, her breathing that tells me she hasn't left me.

"Ollie? Don't leave me, please." I'm not a religious person, but I beg to God she hasn't left me.

"I'm here." It was enough to hear her, but it feels like home when she firmly grasps my hand and plants a kiss on the palm of it. I don't care anymore. What my pains and doctors and karma order me to do. I gently and slowly open my gaze and see Ollie with her beautiful smile with those amazing holes on the side of her cheeks. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. He's a horrible man." I send her a smile. In fact, I'm glad I grew up without a father because it has allowed me to be extremely attentive to my baby sister.

"I'm here for you. Through it all." She gazes at our hands in hopes to detain her raindrops from falling. Her mission failed as I feel the wet rainy substance reach our hands.

"Ollie?" And she continues to look downward. It breaks my heart to see her like this. There's no one to blame but myself.

"Ollie." I state playfully like when we were kids. Playing hide and seek. The problem being that we've both been hiding at the same time and have forgotten to look for one another.

"Ollie. Olive. Olivia. Octopus. October..." Joy fills my ears when I heard her laugh. Only my body feels the departure of the ach as I spread my lips into a smile while my mind's at peace.

"I love you Kyle." She mumbles when her laugh came to an end. A sudden comfort approached my half dead body as I felt her arms curl their way to a hug. With her head just beneath my chin, I tug her in by bringing her whole body in the body laying next to mine. I gently stroke her luscious gold hair and kiss the top of her head.

"I know Ollie, I know."