2009 - Tom Kaulitz

chapter sixteen

Mia was sitting alone on the second story of the bus while the rest of them was testing out the big tv on the bottom floor. They had realized that other than the two sofas there were also a armchair hidden away in one of the corners. Gustav and Georg was sitting in one of the sofas with Riley and Bill in the other one. Tom was sitting in the armchair when Georg put on some comedy for them to watch, but not long after that Tom remembered that Mia wasn't there so he went to look for her. He sat down in the sofa in front of her in the work area. He asked why she wasn't downstairs watching the movie with them. "I'm admiring the view. But you go ahead and watch it. I don't mind being alone." 

"No it seemed boring anyways. But hey, we didn't finish talking before, let's just finish the conversation." 

"I don't know, I'm tired." She said but after some convincing from Tom she decided that he should know, they would be spending a lot of time together so he would find out at some point anyway. "You were asking why I don't talk about my parents and instead about talk Riley's?" She looked straight at him who nodded for her to continue. "Well there's not too much to talk about. Riley's parents are like parents to me too. We grew up together and when we got closer-" 

"Yes, when you were six, but what happened then? You didn't answer me last time."

"Well, I don't know, nothing really." She looked away avoiding his gaze making him grab her hands, cupping them in his over the table.  

"What happened?" He asked in a calm voice making her comfortable to share this clearly heavy part of her life.

"I don't want you to tell everyone about this, okay? When people find out they feel sorry and it always brings the mood down just by them looking at me afterwards. And it's really not such a big deal. But when I was six my father was in an accident at work." She started to explain. She hated talking about this, explaining it in every detail to nosy people saying half assed apologies. 

"That's not nothing Mia." He squeezed her hands stroking them with his thumbs. 

"Well it's gonna happen to everyone at some point, losing a parent I mean. But the accident was extremely gruesome. It was 'take your daughter to work day' or something like that, I don't remember much. But anyways I saw it all, I was standing next to him not being able to help, I just saw it it happen and heard him screaming for help i couldn't give him. He was working with some big machine that was making stuff at a construction place. I can't remember any of the details except for when it happened. He had picked a work shirt that was way to big for him and the arm of it was caught in the machine. He started screaming instantly telling someone to pull the emergency stop. No one was nearby, except for me, so he was slowly pulled into the machine starting with his arm. After that I remember a fireman that came to talk to me, he started crying when he saw me and I didn't understand why. Now I recon it must have been because I was covered in blood." Mia finished talking to look up at Tom who had turned a weird type of pale. His eyes were wide and he was looking at Mia in a cautious way. "So that's why I don't talk about my dad anymore I guess, I don't have one. My mom though, is alive, barley. She's there but not really, you know? It's not that surprising, she lost the love of her life that day, her other half. But I lost my dad too, you know? I just wanted a hug from her that day when I got home, but she just fell asleep. I still to this day think she believes it was my fault. But whatever, long story short, he started drinking heavily when I were seven and after that she started doing drugs two years later. That's when I got my first job as a babysitter, and I occasionally mowed lawns. And then finally I got my first real job at eleven." Tom hadn't stopped stroking her hand but he was still looking at her the same way as everyone she told did. Like she was a ticking bomb.