The Little Things

Chapter 3: June 15th, 1988

TW!! VIOLENCE AND STRON LAGNAUGE(SLURS)!!

"At least youll get the sympathy from the girls Steve?"

"Just the girls?"

My parents were once again away, I never actually know where they go. The first time I stayed home alone, I was 9, I never got an ounce of sleep that week, but I guess I just got used to being alone.

I had invited the kids over for a movie night (and to check up on them), I was shopping for snacks and stuff for them. It was a perfectly normal day, I had drove there listening to "Sally Cinnamon" by the stone roses. The weather was humid, it had been one of the hottest days so far and my plain blue shirt was starting to stick to me. I had just stepped out my car when the first punch landed.

They were a group of people in masks, they started kicking and punching me and I couldn't do much. They were tall and masculine with broad shoulders and huge fist. They had black masks over their face, and they were shouting slurs at me and other such words.

*Wham* A blow to the chest.

*Whack* *Boff*

They just kept hitting me and I just lay there letting them. One of the masked assailants looked at me and screamed

"This is what you get for protecting a murderer,you f@aggot!"

At some point, I had been knocked out. When I awoke I thought they had killed me. It was so ethereal, the light was shining in my eyes, I could hear indistinct noise but I couldn't make much out. There was the distant sound of sirens which struck fear into my heart. There was a strange noise in my right ear, almost like static but at the same time it was like a whooshing effect.

When I finally regained my proper eyesight, I looked up and there was a new group of strangers, they seemed to be trying to help me. They were saying words, but they were so quiet I couldn't make it out.

Eventually an ambulance appeared and took me to the nearest hospital, throughout the ride I kept losing consciousness, the paramedic kept trying to keep me awake asking me random questions.

"Hey kid can you hear me?"

The screeching in my ear got more intense as we kept going, I couldn't hear anything but the screeching.

"Stop it please!"

"Stop what? What's wrong?"

"STOP IT I'M BEGGING"

"Hey kid calm down, you're going to be okay,"

I tried to control my breathing,

'Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. You got this, I'm here' I remember his voice in my head and my breathing slows just a little.

"alright, can you tell me what's wrong?

"I can't hear anything in my right ear but a horrible sort of screeching noise, please stop it. I'll do anything for you to stop it"

"Hey, whats your name kid?" He queried this in a somewhat thick New Jersey accent. It was super hard to hear him as the noise in my right ear kept getting louder and louder.

He was a somewhat middle-aged man, about 40 years. He had light green eyes, short brown hair and a frizzy brown beard which had breadcrumbs stuck in it.

"St-Steve Harrington"

"Alright Steve, can you tell me how old you are?" He started to inspect my injuries, first analysing my face. Then he started to take my shirt off, I instinctively tried to fight him off, but he kept persisting. I made a noise of disagreement and protest.

"Steve, I need to check how injured you are, I'm only going to look okay?" He took his hands away from me and looked me in the eye.

I nodded but I was still scared what would he say when he saw them. Would he know? Would he judge? Or would he just leave me to die? Was I going to die?

"These scars look old? Can you tell me where they're from?"

He traced the scars on my chest. Two straight lines across each part.

He then noticed all the others. The constant bruises and scars from too many fights.

"Do you get in a lot of fights, Kid?"

I stayed silent, not quite sure how to explain where some of the scars came from.

"Where are you parents? We can get them to meet you at the hospital"

"No."

"No? Why dont you want your parents there?"

"I don't want to bother them"

"Well, is there anyone I can call? You shouldn't be alone?"

"Call Robin"

"Robin? Who's Robin? Is she your girlfriend?"

The question made me snort and the paramedic looked concerned.

"No, she's my best friend, just call her please?"

"Of course,"

A while passed in silence, the paramedic kept checking my scars and trying to patch them up. It was about 10 minutes later when we arrived at the hospital and there to great me as I got out the ambulance was Robin herself.

"Hey, is he going to be, okay?"

"Yes, but I believe he's permanently deaf in his right ear, I'm not quite sure how this happened. It should have taken a significant amount of head trauma to do this. I'm sorry we need to get him inside. to do an MRI"

"Steve? I want you to know, it'll all be okay"

"Robin? Is that you?"

"Yeah, Steve, I'm here. I'll always be here"