Like Real People Do - Jill Roord

It Meant Something

TW: abuse, death, suicide, injuries, hospitals

Hunter's POV

set in the past

My hand clutched over my ribcage, applying pressure with every step I took as I heard the crunch that set my teeth on edge and body on fire. I could still feel the blood trickling down my face, it had fallen onto my tank top, turning the white fabric red.

I knew I couldn't make it all the way to the hospital. I knew I probably couldn't even make it out of this street. But most of all, I knew I couldn't sit there alone waiting and waiting to find out if Maya would be alright. 

And there was only one person I wanted by my side right now. 

I pulled out my phone, fingers trembling so much that I could barely type in my password. I found her name, the phone began to ring and then finally the lines connected. 

"Hunter?" 

My eyes glazed over at the sound of her voice, the tears choking the back of my throat as I tried to speak but was somehow stopped.

"Hunter are you there?" Alexia asked, she sounded surprised. Of course she was surprised, I never called her anymore because I was too busy lying to her. My sister had done nothing other than try to save me and I'd repaid her with years worth of lying and as little contact as I could get away with.

"Lex," I croaked out, clenching my eyes shut.

"What's wrong?" Alexia had always been quick to worry.

"Can you come with me?" I asked, my mind had been torn into too many pieces to even be thinking straight anymore. 

"Hunter, I'm in Barcelona," she gently reminded me.

I gulped, "So am I and I need you to take me to the hospital," the was silence. "Please Lex."

"I'm on my way. Where are you?" Alexia didn't even hesitate, I heard the door slam behind her. 

I sent her my location and she assured me she'd be here soon, though until then I just had to wait. My eyes fell to the pavement, my mind so detached from reality that I almost didn't feel that awful stabbing pain in my ribs anymore, I almost didn't taste the blood in my mouth or notice the throbbing pain on my cheek bone. 
I almost didn't feel broken anymore because I didn't feel anything at all. 

That was until I heard a car door slam, I looked up to see my sister running towards me, this dreadful worry contorted across her features and mimicking the look on her face from when she'd first found out about the drugs.

Alexia stopped in front of me, her chest heaving and hands hesitant to touch me. Though when she went to pull me into a hug, I cowered back, shaking my head. Alexia leant down, "What happened Hunter?" She asked quietly, yet with force.

I winced, it didn't matter what had happened to me. It just mattered what had happened to Maya. "We need to go to the hospital," I whispered, barely able to look at my sister for the destruction I'd caused went far further than the normal antics of a seventeen year old.

"Clearly," Alexia stood up, "Let's get you into the car, can you walk?"

I looked back to the floor, "Not for me."

Alexia paused, learning this situation was even worse than it already seemed, "Then who for?" 

I didn't even want to tell her, I didn't even know how to tell her because once I told Alexia, it meant that it was true. 

"Maya," I closed my eyes, finding it within myself to take deep breaths but in the midst of all that darkness, my mind was only taken back to one place; seeing the blonde of her hair trailing over the edges of the stretcher, blowing gently in the wind while her body lay still. Completely still.