The Mute Fighter | 3

028

028 - Game

"You're moving?" Francesca half whispered, her voice broke and the mood dropped tremendously in the room. I didn't have it in me to turn around to face everyone.

But I knew I had to.

"Honest answer? I haven't decided yet" I said quietly. Everyone became quiet and I looked up to see Mitch, Oliver and Fran in front of me.

"I'm sorry," I added. Guilt washed over me as Mitch's face fell. "Things are fucked right now, my parents are getting divorced, I think. So, I have a lot of things to decide" I said and frowned a little.

"Oh" Both Fran and West said.

Mitch signed something and my heart fell even harder in my chest. 'Now you're leaving me?' Oliver shifted his gaze from Mitch to me, he understood what he had signed to me.

"I-I don't know, yet" I said. Mitch nodded his head and clenched his jaw, he scoffed before turning back to his friends.

I made my way back to the bed, I winced a little as I got back in. I opened the nightstand and saw my phone. I turned it on and saw all of the calls and texts.

Suddenly Mitch walked back over to me. 'You lied, you said he wasn't a close relative, you lied for months' He signed. I knew he was talking about Ward, I nodded my head, admitting that I had lied.

"I was starting over, completely over" I said, he shook his head a little. 'Were you ever going to tell me?' He signed.

'Were you ever going to let me in? Tell me what is really going on in your family?' I signed to him.

He couldn't play the victim here. We both weren't honest. It wasn't just me. Mitch scoffed at the question and left the room.

Everyone became quiet and glanced back and forth between the door and me. I didn't have it in me to give a shit about it. I needed rest.

If I couldn't get answers, I could get rest. I rubbed the bridge of my nose and winced at the hammering pain in my head. It was like tiny needles forced into my brain.

"You okay, Nick?" West called out. I hummed in response but didn't stop trying to massage the inner corners of my eyes. "Are you sure?" Francesca asked.

"Hmm" I mumbled and clenched my eyes shut. "We need a nurse in here!" Oliver shouted incredibly loud.

The nurse called a doctor and he checked my vitals. "It's common to get these kinds of episodes due to head trauma, you will experience them for a while. If it gets too painful, do not hesitate to come in, okay?" He told me.

"Yeah" I said and he nodded before exiting the room. "Can anyone tell me what exactly happened? From your side of the story" I called out.

"Well, someone filmed live. I showed it to everyone and saw how Daniel showed up. Me, Sophia and Fran were already on the way there when we saw the live at first. Everyone else hurried to get there afterwards and as you know we couldn't get through to you on the phone at all" West started out.

"Mitch beat Daniel to shit when he saw him doing those things to you" Oliver said with a sigh. "Everyone joined in when the whole thing had escalated, we all tried to keep an eye out for you, but yeah-the whole thing took a wild turn" North said with a wince.

The rest of the remaining days in the hospital, I told them stories about my brother and I, they were all so curious to know about my pro fighter brother.

I gave them everything, Mitch didn't stop by after that day. I left him alone for now, I would try to make amends, but I needed to be able to stand without hurting.

Thursday came around, all of us were discharged from the hospital and we were back in school, all of us still bruised and we came back to one hell of a rumor.

Everyone had new respect for all of us. At least for the girls and I. That was new, the guys-not so much.

Thursday was also the day Mitch and I had to present our english presentation. I hadn't worked with him for weeks. So, I did it myself. Funnily enough, he skipped out on that period.

The rest of the day he was there. Mrs. Banks had insisted that I didn't need to do it, but I wanted to. Hell, I did most of the work.

Friday came around and it was safe to say most of us were drinking our pains away. The nightclub was once again hosting and even as underages, we were let in. It paid off to know the right people.

I didn't care if I had bruises everywhere, I was getting drunk. Francesca and Celina were with me, they joined in too. It had been one hell of a week.

We all wanted to drown it out.

So, here I was. Dancing, drinking, partying. It wasn't that it was painless to do all this, cause it hurt like hell. But the alcohol drowned out the physical pain, it was my mental pain that kept resurfacing.

My mind wandered to Mitch all the time, if he was going to show up? Was he already here? Would he mind me dancing and drinking like this?

Had I lost him for good?

"Mitch has been isolating himself, he's at a family dinner tonight. He tried to get out of it, but since his dad woke up from the coma-they insisted" North told me. I nodded my head and knew instantly that was where Oliver was as well.

"Well, let's make tonight count then" I said and West smirked, Sophia looked confused. "Does that mean-""--Shots" West and I said in unison.

North, West, Francesca, Sophia, Celina and I had a drinking contest. I won over North and Celina. But nobody could top West. The guy was like a sponge, he sucked it in.

"Fuck yeah! That's how you do it!" West shouted, Fran, Celina and Sophia cheered as I beat North once again. I laughed and jumped to the music.

I got lost in the music and before I knew it, the girls and I were dancing together, it was hot and everyone was sweaty. I didn't have a care in the world, for one tiny second.

I knew then that I had made my decision. I wanted to stay.

My father had moved out the day my mother burst out in the hospital. She had turned stronger and happier than ever, it was a side of her I never saw before this.

It made me realize just how toxic my father was, the fact that he had gone so far to hurt me, bruise me and shout those things in my face. He never listened, he only heard what he wanted. He blamed everyone for everything, he was unhappy. He always had been.

Ward had stayed at our house for the past week. It was great to have him under the same roof again, I missed him a lot. I knew he wasn't going to stay, so we got as much family time as possible.

The lights in the nightclub blinked wildly, out of order, I loved it. It was wild and free, just how I felt at that moment. Who knew how long this would last?

Francesca brushed her lips over mine seductively, North cheered like a hungry wolf as we danced closely. Both of us turned the situation from seductive to laughing our asses off.

Celina wrapped her arms around both of our shoulders, we posed as West took a picture of us. He posted it and took a few of us girls dancing on the bar counter. I barely remembered that we had done that, it all was a blur.