Still Over The Garden Wall

Chapter Eight

Ryan's POV

As I usually did on Mondays and Wednesdays, I slept on the chair by Jasmine's bed.

Though, I usually didn't sleep. More often then not, I would constantly be looking at Jasmine to see if she had any signs waking up soon.

She never did. But I still had hope that she'd wake up. If she didn't, well, that would mean that I had killed my little sister.

If we let go now, if we just decided to give up, I'd have to deal with that for the rest of my life. Not only the fact that it was all my fault, but also that I would never, ever see her smiling face again. I wouldn't be able to help her with homework, or tease her about crushes, or any of those sibling things that makes life just that much better.

Yes, I did have three little brothers to do that with, too, but I really wanted to do that type of stuff with her. Some other person didn't count.

These were the types of things I thought about on Monday and Wednesday nights instead of sleeping.

Usually, around 3 a.m., I'd drift off to sleep, but not today. Today, I found myself unable to fall asleep. I felt like something was going to happen soon.

I didn't know it was, I didn't know how soon, but I could feel it...

Maybe it was just my imagination. But, imagination or not, it kept me from sleeping.

~~~

Michael's POV

The next morning, I woke up to the surroundings of the old room I used to share with Jasmine. I glanced around, and found that I was directly under the drawing on the wall. I guess I fell asleep after hugging the wall.

I lifted up my wrist to see my watch.

5 a.m.

I got up, deciding to head to the guest room and get an extra hour of sleep. I took one last look around the room, before I headed off to where I usually slept (the guest room).

Before I left the room, I could hear someone pacing back in forth in front of the door.

"Yes, yes. Yes, I know my sons will all be very disappointed, yes, I know."

My dad? It sounded like he was on the phone. What was he doing on the phone at 5 a.m. in the in the morning?

"I know Michael will be upset when finds out we're getting rid of it, but its time for this family to move on."

He couldn't possibly be talking about what I thought he was talking about...

"Do you know how this family lives? Michael refuses to sleep in his room, because he wants it be exactly the same for Jasmine when she gets back. We see Ryan so little, sometimes I forget he even lives here! And do you know why? He spends all of his time at the hospital just waiting for jasmine to wake up. And every time we get bad news, me and my other two sons have to act like we aren't surprised."

Okay, okay. So maybe he is talking about Jasmine, and maybe he just said that more than half of our family has given up, but that doesn't mean-

"We're pulling the plug on Friday. After that we're going to move all her stuff out that room and put it in storage. Our family really just needs to move on."-then he paused for at least thirty seconds-"Yes, I understand, you have other patients and other families to deal with. Just please, don't tell Ryan I said any of this- Yes, okay. Bye." And then a small beeping sound came from the phone, signalling he had hung up.

No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no ,no, no, no! How could he say that?!

I couldn't handle this.

I swung the door open and stomped down the hall, all the way to the guest room. Not once did I look back at my father.

"Michael-" he said, but he didn't say anything more. He just sighed and went downstairs.

After I was in the guest room, I closed the door and locked it. I threw myself into the bed and hugged one of the pillows tight and close to me. Tears fell down my cheeks, and I didn't bother to wipe them.

After an hour or so I cried myself to sleep. Whether my father wanted me to or not, I wasn't going to school today. Or ever again.

It was never going to be the same after this...