have faith - bill & tom k

11

tom had to take two buses to get to the hospital. the day was nearly over and though he would've arrived sooner, he had been held up by certain technicalities at school.

after bill had been expedited off to be healed and hopefully awakened, a firm but not unkindly hand grasped tom's shoulder and tom found himself staring right into the wrinkly old face of the school's principal.

"the cops are here to have a little talk with you. please come with me back up to the school. they're already having a little chat with your good friend dereck", he said.

tom mutely followed, his insides frozen numb with dread and unease. he gripped the small doll tightly in his hand and trudged after the principal, up the hill, where his stomach churned as he spotted a couple of patrol cars stationed outside, their lights flickering sporadically.

he was in deep now. if he had only protected bill sooner, if he had only refrained from telling dereck about the caterpillar, if only he had acted more like a human and less like an asshole... if, if, if... so many if's...

it was too late to change anything now. all those different paths he could have chosen and yet he always seemed to take the one that screwed up his situation the most. now, bill was dying in an ambulance and it was his entire fault because he had failed to respond to any of the if's that had presented themselves over the past few days. tom hung his head, forlorn and angry with himself for letting things swing so drastically out of his able hands.

they reached the school entrance just as the doors burst open and three cops marched out, followed by a subdued and much younger-looking dereck.

"it's alright," one of the female cops spoke, as she held on tightly to one of dereck's handcuffed arms, "this one just told us everything. the whole story. about how he was abusing the victim and how this kid here showed up to stop him. we're taking him down to the station right now though we'll have to question the other one," here she nodded in tom's direction.

"how many times do i have to tell you? tom didn't do anything! he was just shoving his face in business that wasn't his. like i would need help from a kid like him anyway..." dereck burst out angrily, shooting a theatrical glare in tom's direction.

"yeah, yeah, okay, we got the picture, sport," the cop grumbled, snapping her gum rudely and yanking dereck's arm towards the patrol car.

"wait!" tom yelled at the last second, as dereck lowered his head to fit inside the car. tom hadn't forgotten his promise...

holding out the doll, tom shoved it on dereck's chest and the older teen caught it, mesmerized by the tiny human replica.

"you...you dropped that..." tom said lamely, though they both knew that that was a complete fallacy, but tom couldn't exactly be as frank as he wanted with the swarm of cops and teachers surrounding them.

dereck seemed to be fighting deep emotions inside, for he refused to say anything. he just nodded briefly, avoiding tom's curious and sympathetic gaze and let his eyes fall back onto the tattered plaything. he held it gently, stroking away a couple of flyaway wool hairs and lovingly adjusting the buttons on the doll's dress.