ECHOES OF YOU

Chapter Nine

Kelvin’s POV
I saw the breaking news and my heart almost stopped. There had been a car accident and two deaths. I looked closely at the picture and I managed to recognize the car. It was Leila’s blue tesla. I didn’t want to imagine what had happened. If there were two deaths and yet they were four of them when they left the school, that meant that there was a possibility she was still alive.

I quickly took my jeep and drove to the hospital. It was chaotic when I got there. Doctors were running up and down you’d think it was a mass killing. I saw Liam being rushed to the operating room. Behind him was Leila, and just then I realized that she’d be fighting for her life in about three hours or more.

Sheila wasn’t in a critical condition, she’d only experienced shock and some minor injuries. I started asking around the hospital and I found out that the two deaths were of Chris and the truck driver. Leila would break if she found out. If she managed to wake up, she’d just die from heartbreak over again.

I wanted to wait for her but I got a call to go back home. I just wanted to be beside her when she woke up. I wanted to hold her hand through the pain. But I couldn’t because I had to go back for my brother.
I already hated him so much and he just had to come back at this particular moment. He just liked to ruin everything perfectly in my life. Now he was coming to ruin the only thing I had this time, my relationship with my mom. Even with him gone he still managed to come between us. He’d taken both my parents’ love from me. I had to be the mature older brother who needed to walk his mom through the pain of losing both her love and her son. While he was away with the man that had brought all this upon us.

I got to the house and the moment I saw that bike outside there I knew he’d arrived.

“You’re back Kelvin,” mom said the moment she saw me enter the door.

“Where he’s he mom,”

“Please just be nice, you haven’t seen each other for over three years, I’m sure you’ve missed each other dearly,”

I took one look at the person sitting there and that wasn’t my brother. He wasn’t someone worth missing.

The only thing that was my concern now was Leila’s health. I wanted to keep track of how she was doing. Occasionally I would be in the hospital checking up on her.

The day she first came to school is a day that was still vividly stuck in my head. As she walked on that hallway most elegantly, her head held up high as her raven hair ran behind her. Her hazel eyes were filled with fire that made her both intimidating and inviting at the same time. And her heart-shaped lips. Once she smiled you could just but see the perfect dentation ever. She glowed with the most exquisite aura ever. People said angels don’t exist but, on that day, I’d seen one.

And now she lay here in the intensive care unit. She was still as beautiful as ever. Doctors had said they couldn’t tell when she’d wake up. It was up to her if she wanted to wake up. It had been one week since the accident when her brother succumbed to death. He’d tried fighting but he didn’t make it. The second they’d reported Liam’s death was the second she woke up. I guess it’s a twin intuition. The first thing she wanted to do was see her brother but no one could let her. Her parents knew that the moment she knew what had happened she’d be much worse than she was now. How were they going to explain to her the death of the two most important people in her life? She’d lose it.

Later when she was finally told the truth she was shattered. She locked herself up in her room for two weeks straight without talking to anyone. She’d isolated herself from even her own best friend. When she’d finally gotten out of her room she collapsed before her parents. She’d slit her wrist, she’d attempted suicide. No one could blame her. She was even strong than most. She’d managed to stay two weeks only crying in her room.

I know it’s weird how I was following up on her, but they say love makes us do crazy things.

Now when she realized that slitting her wrist didn’t work, she decided to overdose. It was clear she only wanted to end her life. She’d had too much at once and her mind was slowly killing her. Losing them broke her to a point of no repair. But her parents weren’t ready to lose her too. She was sent to rehab for her depression. She was there for three months but when she came back, she still wasn’t the same. She still isolated herself. She was still going through the stages of grief. I guess she’d passed the first three and went direct to depression. But she’d come back to school anyway. And I’d wait for her.

For the next few months, we lived like total strangers, my brother and I, under the same roof. It got worse when he enrolled in the same school. He’d already taken over my own home now he wanted to take over my school. Why couldn’t he ask to be enrolled in a different school?

He'd only been in school for less than two weeks but girls were already all over him. He had this bad boy vibe, but underneath all that leather was just a nerd. The principal had asked him to be a tutor to a certain student I didn’t know who it was but I was still curious.

That morning I was following him as he entered the school when I suddenly bumped into Leila. She’d come back. She wasn’t as elegant as before. But for the first time, she smiled at me. It was the first time I’d ever seen her smile at me. I was busy staring at her that I’d missed following Nathan.

For the rest of the day, I failed to run into her. It was only later that night that I saw her running out of the library. I was too scared to approach her. She’d think I only wanted to talk to her about the death of Liam and Chris. But then when I saw her walking alone at home, I knew the perfect opportunity had provided itself. I took my jeep and went after her.

“Mind if I give you a ride?” I asked as soon as I caught up to her.

“No thanks, I can walk,”

“Don’t be stubborn and climb in,”

“I know you mean well but I’d hate to be a bother. I’ll just walk home, it isn’t even that far,”

“Leila, I know where you live and it’ll take you almost an hour to get there,”

“Don’t worry about it, I’m sure you have somewhere to be,”

“How can I not worry about leaving a girl on the road all alone at night? And we can say it’s you returning the favor for what happened today,” I wasn’t just going to let her go home alone this late at night.

“So, she can laugh,” I said as I stepped out to open the door for her.

“I don’t even know your name,” that kind of broke my heart but I knew there was no way she’d want to know it.

“Do you’ll only get in if I tell you my name uh?”

“Ever heard of stranger danger?”

“I guess you’re right. But why don’t I drop you off first then I’ll tell you my name,”

“That doesn’t sound fair but you’ll still bug me if I don’t, so okay,” she reluctantly climbed into my car.

The drive was a silent one. I didn’t know what to say to her. I’d been stalking her for more than a year now that she was right beside me, and I had nothing to say to her. Suddenly she started screaming. I pulled over and grabbed her. She was crying hysterically. All I could do was hold her. It was as though she’d seen something. Like a trigger of some sort.

“Are you okay now?” I asked. The only thing she could do was nod her head.

“I don’t know what happened that night but if you need a friend I’ll be here,” I squeezed her hand as a way to reassure her I’d always be there.

None of us dared to speak for the rest of the journey. We got to her place and I dropped her off. I watched as she left and I remembered I’d forgotten to tell her my name. Without thinking I just shouted it out.

“It’s Kelvin,” then I drove off. I went home feeling like I’d just won a jackpot. I was slowly getting closer to her. Now she knew my name and she knew who I am. Isn’t that what we call progress?

I was in a heightened mood till I got home. Nathan was warming his way back to my mom’s life. Now they were making dinner together and laughing like high-school best friends who just reunited. I didn’t want to see more so. I just locked myself in my room.

The next morning, I got to class and the Leila I saw was a transition from yesterday. She was always way better this way. I hoped she’d maintain this image of her.

“You look nice,” I whispered in her ear as soon as I sat down.

“Thanks. Thought I’d intimidate you more this way,”

“Well, it’s working, I am intimidated, little miss.”

I could see she was blushing and I knew I was winning. For the rest of the class, I couldn’t concentrate. I was having these wild thoughts about the girl in front of me. How my hands would tangle in her hair as we made out. How her soft lips would feel on mine. How I’d hear her run out of breath and patting. It came down to this now. She was driving me overly crazy and I was getting desperate to waning her. She’d make my blood boil by just smiling. I needed to have her, I had to. This time there was no one between me and me. She’d surely be mine. By any means possible.

The bell rang and my mind came back to class. Before I could say anything she’d already stormed out of the classroom. I followed her to the library. It looked like she was waiting for someone. I wanted to approach her when I followed her gaze to see Nathan and Annaliese walking in. It took me a second to realize she was waiting for Nathan. It just had to be him. Wasn’t he contented with everything else he had taken from me? Now he’d crawled his way into her life. I wasn’t going to let it happen. I decided to go let out my rage at the gym. I needed to think clearly if I was going to have her to myself. One would say I was obsessed but who wouldn’t be? She was a treasure, my treasure and no one had the permit to get near it except me. I was the only one allowed to be near her.

After calming down I went back to class, only to be met with a shocking scene. Annaliese was trying to lay her hands on Leila. Not on my watch. I quickly intervened and stopped her. No one was going to hurt her again.

I was busy staring at Leila that I missed whatever Annaliese did, the only thing I saw was Leila pouncing on her. She was letting out her rage and anger on her. She didn’t care that she was fighting like a man but that was a lady below her. Sheila and I quickly intervened before she could break Annaliese’s blonde head. We took her outside for her to cool down first.

Like always I found myself staring at her until something caught my eye, Nathan was carrying a milkshake and I knew it was for her. I took my handkerchief and wiped her tears, oh to spite him. I didn’t even notice him leave. I guess he’d gotten the message. This was my territory and he had to step back.