Eaton

12. Old habits

A few weeks later...

William p.o.v

'So I'll pick you up at like seven then?' I'm  on the phone with Cara. I asked her out and we're going on a date tonight.

'Sounds perfect'I can hear her smile through the phone. I pick her up and take her to dinner.

'Awesome, well then uh I'll see you later then bye'

She chuckles at my awkwardness and I cringe. 

'Bye' She hangs up. I can't believe I'm dating Cara. I can't believe I'm dating, period. The last time I had a girlfriend, well let's just say things didn't go so well. I was nineteen years old and our mother had just died. The loss hadn't upset me as such, it was the nightmares that did. The weeks, hell the months following my mother's death were unbearable. Marcus came into town the first few days to sort things out. He talked things through with the lawyers and arranged it so that even though the old bastards didn't leave anything in the will, I'd still get to keep the stuff like their car and the house. But then, like all those years before, he left. I was on my own again, in a house filled with haunting memories of pain and sadness. My friends, well not xactly friends. These were the type of people I'd say good morning to at college or the guys I'd exchange lecture notes with. Anyway, they were big on the whole drinking business. They would drink to celebrate, to forget, for anything really. They would tell me to join them but I'd always declined politely. Until my mother's death. I'd been having so many nightmares, too many, I needed a break, desperately. So I decided to tag along and I was surprised to find out just to what extent they were right, It solved all of my problems. I'd sleep like a log, wouldn't even think of nightmares. In the morning I'd just take a cold shower and pop a few advil down my throat before heading out. Alcohol became my escape and I relied on it with my life. I'd drink and drink and then one day my girlfriend, I think her name was Mia, found out and realized I'd become addicted to it. She'd tried to help me but I wouldn't let her. Instead I just told her that she was paranoid and she needed to mind her own business,

On the night that we broke up I'd left in a huff . I got in my car and started driving. I was drunk out of my mind at the moment but I needed to leave. I drove on my eyes blurring, my tears weren't helpjng the drunken state I was in and I could barely see where I was going. Suddenly everything froze. The windscreen burst into millions of pieces, glass flying everywhere. Branches from the tree poked into the seat and I hit my head, hard on the steering wheel. I fell unconcious and woke up about a week later in the hospital.

*Flashback*

Marcus is here. He's pacing the room.  A tube emerges from the crook of my arm and I follow it to an IV bag. A cannula is hooked to my face and I can feel the oxygen enterring my nose. I can hear the steady beep of the heart monitor to my left. I shift and the movement sends pulses of pain through my body. Marcus notices and turns around, a look of relief flooding his face. 

'Will, Thank God'

He opens the door and calls for a doctor. She comes soon after and checks my vital signs. After a while she turns and starts talking to my brother but I zone out. How did I get here? What happened?

'What happened?' I ask. Marcus turns to the doctor and murmurs something. She nods and leaves.

'Marcus?'

He turned to me with anger in his eyes. I sat up in bed, trying ym best to hide the pain.

'What happened? God dammit Will, you crashed into a tree that's what happened!'

I shrunk back, my brother rarely yelled at me before. How did I crash my car? My mind is so fuzzy.

'What, how?'