Quiet As A Mouse (Outsiders Fanfic)

Chapter 17- Almost Dead

        I woke up to the sound of the T.V. on and the typical noise of seven loud teenage boys all gathered in one house. 

        My eye was cold and I couldn't see out of it because there was ice on it, and I felt the weight and wetness of ice on my side, too.  Though it was wrapped in a towel, the ice was still melting. I must have been asleep for a while for it to have started melting already. I had a pounding headache and I ached all over, but with a hoarse groan I sat up anyways, pain shooting through my arm as I removed the ice from over my now swollen eye.

        "Don't worry Two-Bit, she's not dead!" someone called loudly, his voice ringing in my ear.  Of course Steve would do something as inconsiderate of the injured as that.

        "Well, look at that.  I was starting to get worried I'd have to carry your corpse to the cemetery.  You've gotta be more careful once in a while, Mick," Dally said smugly.

        I stiffened, my face immediately hard with hatred for him. A lot like Dally's normal expression, but for an entirely different reason. No one called me Mick.  Ever.  Except for Him.  And he was gone.  Forever.  Which meant I would never hear it again.  I hoped to never hear it again, but now that I had...I was about ready to explode, and I would have bolted out the door right then if it weren't for my cousin.

        He came running into the room, a look of relief on his face, but I'm not sure if that was because I was awake or because of the piece of chocolate cake in his hand.  I felt like crap though, so it didn't really matter why he was happy.  It's not like anyone had ever seen Two-Bit not happy in the first place.  For a second though, his cheery expression turned serious.

        "I was so worried about you, Michael," he said, using my full name.

         He hardly ever called me by my full name.

        "I swear, I'm never letting you go someplace by yourself again.  If Dally hadn't come along, you'd be dead by now," Two-Bit said, concern and worry filling his voice.

        With a barely audible sigh, because for some reason my throat was sore all the sudden but strangely enough my vocal cords were half working, I grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen from where it was sitting next to some medical supplies off the coffee table.  I recognized it as a homework sheet from last week, it was Ponyboy's and he had been helping me with that very same assignment yesterday. 

        I flipped it over to write on the back, 'I'm sorry, Two-Bit.  But can we please go home now?'

        He sighed and gave in, "Yeah.  You've been through a lot today, Mickey. First time I ever heard of you skipping school," he joked with a grin, quickly returning back to his old jovial self.

        I offered a weak smile as I slowly got up, putting my shoes back on and grabbing my jacket, trying to ignore the guilt in my stomach at missing a day of school, but I think for once I had a viable excuse.

        We had to walk home, and as we neared our house, Two-Bit said out of the blue, "I won't tell Aunt Kat about this if you don't want me to.  She'd probably want to know, but we don't really need to give her anything else to worry about."

        I didn't know how to reply for a second, staring straight ahead as I thought about what her reaction would be if she found out about what had happened.  I simply nodded in agreement to what my cousin had said, hoping she wouldn't be home from work yet that I'd have to hide from her.  I didn't really like lying to her, especially about something as serious as this, and I didn't want to have to.  It'd be easier to just avoid it altogether.

        We continued on in silence, and right as we turned onto our block, Two-Bit pulled something out of his back pocket and handed it to me.  It was his black-handled switchblade.  I had never held a weapon in my life, and it felt foreign, heavy, and deadly lying in my palm.

        He never gave anyone that switchblade, so he must have been severely worried about me.

        "I want you to take this with you next time you go someplace, just in case.  Usually you can scare 'em off with a blade," he said seriously.

        I nodded and clutched the smooth heavy item in my sweaty fist, wondering if I'd ever have the guts to use it.  The thought made me shudder, and I immediately knew the answer was no.  Two-Bit knew it too, but he had given it to me anyways.

        Kayla was waiting on the rickety front porch when we came into the yard, and she happily jumped up and bounded over to meet us, but the minute she saw me, her jaw dropped.

        "Wha-what happened?" she stammered timidly, seeming almost scared of me right then.

        "We'll tell you later.  Come on, let's go in the house," Two-Bit said, ushering us both inside.

        I went down the hall to go take a shower, because I was probably covered in blood and dirt besides all the bruises.  I tried to avoid looking in the mirror before I got in, I didn't want to see how badly beaten I was, but I caught a glimpse of my face right as I was about to climb in the shower.  I did a double take.  Like Dally had said, I looked just like a corpse.

        My face was pale and had lost all it's shine and color, except for where all the reddish-purple bruises were.  My right eye was completely ringed in a plum color, I had a bright red cut across my forehead and my face was smudged with dirt.

        I shuddered at my deathly expression and quickly climbed in the shower to wash away the image from my mind, the hot water smarting all over my body as it hit the bruises covering the surface of my skin.