WE ALL DIE ▸ NICK CLARK

xi. memories

We were in the shower. On any other occasion, I would be all over him, but since I can't stop crying I'm definitely not turn on by his naked body in front of mine.

All I thought that was true, was not.

And my father knew. He knew Paulo was alive but let me cry his death. I was fourteen! I was a kid! Then Rose when I was sixteen. Our mother died and he didn't show up. The world had to end for him to come back.

I only have Nick.

"Don't leave me." I ask him while I analyze his face, finally stopping sobbing.

"Never. I love you, Katherine. I'm here okay? I'll always be." He hugs me and I just hope he's telling the truth. "It's you and I." he whispers in my ear.

***

I was at Madison's house, waiting for him to come home like he said he would.

I waited almost three hours. Maybe more. Only to hear the phone ringing.

"Would you mind picking up Kat?" Maddie asks me and I nod at her and walk towards it.

"Hi... am I talking with... Madison Clark?" A woman with a serious voice tone asks.

"She told me to pick up. She can't come to the phone right now..." I look at her and she gestures me to keep talking with whoever was on the phone.

"I'm calling from the St. Vincent Medical Center, there was a patient that came in by the name of... Nicholas Clark." She says and my heart stops.

Not again. Please, not again.

"W-What happened? Is he okay?"

"Yeah... he overdosed but we were able to save him. You can come to visit him if you wish-" I hang up the phone and run towards Maddie.

"Nick is in the hospital!"

We almost fly our way there. Maddie kept saying how much she would kill him for doing this to us. She kept telling me that he wasn't the first time but he didn't have to put me in this mess since I had already been through it once with Rose.

"Where's Nick Clark?!" Maddie asks the nurse and she walks slightly back.

"He can only be visited by family-"

"I'm his mother!" She almost snaps and the lady tells us the room.

Nick was laying on the bed, looking as white as it gets.

"Hey..." he says and I sit on his feet.

"Stay with him." She tells me and walks away.

"How are you feeling?" I ask and he looks at me slightly smiling to make me feel better.

"Like I've been hit by a truck." He says and I smile back at him. "How's my mom and Alicia?"

"I don't know about Alicia but your mom's mad," I say not looking at him.

"Kat..." he calls and I look back. "Don't leave me."

"Never." I rest my hand on his cheek as my heart breaks a little for him. "It's you and I."

__

Nick has left with Ofelia for her to talk to her dead mother while I said in our bedroom. Paulo was still in my head and I was most certainly not comfortable with his presence. When I look at the clock I noticed that it was probably too late for Jane's rats to be running around so I walk outside to smoke a cigarette.