Tweek in Life

Chapter Fourteen

Maria never left my side the whole time the doctors were working on me. Her lack of social skills made me like her even more as she snagged the ear of the same orderly who had treated my wounds the day before. He had made a comment about people of my type being useless to society and in need of a straight jacket and Maria had lost her shit. If only she knew that only hours earlier her stepson had done almost the exact same thing. She flat out snapped, her english shifting to spanish for a few moments before ending in english again. "I'll have you know, asshole, my boy was shot saving his kids and their cousins from an abusive prick. Mind your mouth before I sew it shut!"

The fucking woman proceeded to brandish a sewing kit she pulled from her purse like a weapon as she glared the man down leaving me to laugh hysterically on the gurney. The staff around us seemed terrified to even breathe near us, but Maria and I were having a blast. She kept people from hurting my mental state, kept me calm and laughing the entire time. I kept her on a short leash, keeping her from tormenting the nurses and doctors as they worked to fix my incredibly damaged body. I could hear the nurses rambling off injuries to be categorized, documented, cleaned, stitched, and bandaged. A single dog bite pretreated, two hundred and three small cuts across my body, a handful of bruises, a broken nose, a fracture in my jaw, bruising of the throat, self inflicted wounds also pretreated, a bullet wound treated by unnamed means, and a cracked rib. How I cracked a rib is beyond me, but that was fine by me.

"So, Tweek, honey," Maria smiled as she played with a fluff of my blonde hair. I had been patched up and was stuck for a night or two just to be sure they hadn't missed anything and I wasn't in danger. The fiery woman was staying with me until I was released. Craig would be back later, but he wouldn't be able to stay due to the kids. "Were you serious about marrying my son?"

"Maria, with complete and full honesty, I can say I'd sign the legal papers right here, right now to be Craig's for eternity. That boy is a fucking drug. He's a god. His gorgeous blue eyes, that voice, the heat he gives off, the scent radiating from him, and my god, that death before defeat mindset... Men like Craig only exist in books, and the fucking moron fell for a basket case like me and stepped straight into dad mode the second he found out I had a kid. I love him. I really do. We just met like a week or so ago, yet he opened his home to me, his kids love me, my daughter adores Star and Cael, she calls Craig Dad already. He accepted me and my faults and he's so just perfect. The way he hates mornings, the way crazy follows him, the taste of rebellion on his lips. I swear the gods pulled that man straight from my fantasies and into this world solely to drive me the rest of the way into insanity. He's addictive. Like a well written and perfectly performed song, caught in my mind, running on repeat." I laugh lightly. "I often find myself wondering if he's real, if this life is real. I've found myself cutting less to relieve pain or clear my mind, it's become less about coping with life and more about reminding myself that this is all really happening. I've often wondered if I had actually succeeded in my suicide attempt and this is my afterlife, playing out in a way only my mind could make sense of. The idea both terrifies and excites me. I no longer want to die, Maria. No, instead I want to live. Live hard, live fast, live life like it's running out. I'm tired of being scared of everything, of wishing the past had never happened, of letting my loved ones down. The last forty eight hours has shown me, I actually love the thrill of fighting to survive the war that is life. I want to pretend that life will calm down when Mark is no longer a threat, when Tyler reaches forgiveness, when Craig and I stabilize our impulse born family, but the truth of the matter is that I've been born and raised in Hell and Craig thrives best when surrounded by chaos. My daughter found her one before she even reached double digits. She thinks like a hitman on a job as a natural defense from life in Hell. Her sister is a queen at medicine, she's four and a better nurse than any I've ever met. She's a star child through and through, but she's so mature and smart. And their brother is down to fight for his family, in love like his sister, and a heart of gold. My children handle traumatic situations better than their parents, they're smarter, kinder, stronger, and more aware of danger than most soldiers on the front line of war. I don't know if we've fucked them up or performed a miracle with them, but I do know they're my brats and I'll never not be proud of them. We live life in the fast lane, loving harder and faster than most, but we live fuller and love stronger than traditional lives could ever offer. I never want to slow down. I never want the wild ride to end. Craig's the unofficial leader of the entire gang. They follow his lead and he knows it. I can never live a normal life at his side, the man's in control of so much insanity every second of the day, but Maria, I have never been happier or more sure of my life than I have been since Craig took me in."