Jenna (IN EDITING)

Chapter Twelve

I was laid across my couch, watching Christine and Alex take care of all my chores. I felt horrible, I was lying down and they were doing all my work because I was sick. It's not like I asked them, they saw the note on the fridge from Nana and got on it right away. Why did they even care so much? Like my mother would say, I was a idiotic little child no one loves, why would they do this for me?

Okay, maybe that wasn't the big question to me. I think it was more like I didn't understand why Alex kissed me yesterday. It was really out of the blue, it wasn't even the way I pictured it. He just laid his lips upon mine and walked out the door to rescue his girlfriend from itches on her crotch and breasts that Christine and I caused with itching powder because she cheated on Alex with David of all people. But, wasn't Alex as bad now? He kissed me out of all the girls at our school to cheat with. I didn't ask him why, not yet, or even speak about it since. I was too scared, what if he yelled at me? I couldn't take that, I'm too fragile.

"Looks like our little princess is waking up," Christine joked, sitting alongside the couch near my head.

"You act like your my parents or something," I rolled my eyes and sat up. The worst part of this type of mouth was over, luckily. So I could at least sit up and not throw up over everyone.

"Maybe we are!" Alex told me, a tint of happiness in his eyes. "Nah, I'm just kidding. Do I look like I'm old enough to have a daughter your age?" No, he didn't. He still had a baby face which just made him so much cuter.

"Good one," I chugged down a bottle of water that was on my coffee table. "What time is it?"

"Uh, no! It's 5:48! Daddy's going to kill me, I'm 20 minutes late for choir practice!" Christine ran around grabbing her stuff, I just laughed at the fact she was so worried. Her father would never kill her, she was his last child who lived with him and his only girl. "I'm really sorry to be running off but I have to go," With that she burst out the door, hardly even closing it.

"Well, that was quick!" Alex got up and laid himself in the love-seat on the other side of the living room.

"You know what she's like Alex," I stared at the empty water bottle in my lap, thinking of the way I use to collect them in the corner of my dad's room in the hopes to collect enough money to sue Tanya for child abuse. I collected three dollars and spent it on candy. "You up for an adventure, Alex?"

"Well that depends on what it is," He sat up all straight and proper waiting for me to explain myself.

"My daddy is in the hospital a bit away, do you want to visit him with me?" I grinned, I hope the answer was yes. It would be amazing to have someone to speak to in that room that wasn't half-dead.

"Sounds fun, I'd like to meet your old man!" Alex rejoiced.

"That's the thing, you won't really meet him," I picked at the back of my neck nervously. "Remember my car accident? Well it placed him in a comma and he hasn't been out of it since."

"Oh, well I'll still go, for you!" I smiled at the fact he was so willing to just go without me having to beg him, for me.

"I'll get some non-pajamas on and we'll go, okay?" I asked.

"Fine by me," He replied.

I got up and walked to my room. It was oddly dark and messy due to the fact I was sick and didn't have the time to clean it. I closed the door and ripped off my pajama, throwing them in the hamper instantly. I threw on a baggy t-shirt and gym pants. I was going to the hospital, not the mall, so I didn't have to look nice at all. I left my room, and walked in on Alex looking at my family pictures. He had his eye on three children, two girls and one boy, with happy Nana.

"That's Kay," I pointed to a happy teenager holding a baby in her arms. "The baby she's holding is me, once upon a time ago. And that little boy, that's Harry."

"She was beautiful!" Alex said, why was he such a flirt? "Beauty runs in your family, doesn't it?"

"What, no! I don't have it. Kay did," I reacted to his foolish statement. "She had a lot of things that was destroyed that day."

"It's not your fault, Jenna, it's not your fault. Everything that happens, happens for a reason. You should know that by now!" I rolled my eyes. Why didn't it feel like that? Oh, yeah, because two people died that day that would probably make a bigger impact upon the world that I ever would in my entire life. It wasn't fair.

"Can we just go?" I calmly requested. I didn't like that Nana kept so many photos of the family. It disgusted me to know she liked to dwell upon the deceased. I would like to forget the trouble I caused, but I was constantly reminded every time I walked down the hall in the morning.

"Anything you want," Alex left and walked out the door. He was too nice, he was one of those people who didn't blame my siblings' deaths on me. But someone did, and I would never forget it.

***

I sat on the edge of my thrift store princess bed, listening to Tanya go on and on about the accident and how it was my fault. Her words, though, went through one ear and out the other. But they still stung like bees, I was tearing up at the few words I did hear.

"Are you even listening to me, you little brat?" Tanya snapped. I shook no, big mistake. The back of her hand slammed against my check burning my skin. What would the other second graders think when I arrived at school with a bruise on my cheek? Obviously no one would care, as Tanya would say. This was my payback, the revenge for killing my siblings in the car accident. And I deserved every bit of it.

***

"Hello, earth to Jenna!" Alex waved his hand in my face, one hand still on the steering wheel.

"What?" I asked calmly, hoping not to cry over the memory I just remembered.

"Something is so your mind, and I'm going to find out," Alex grinned. That's exactly what I feared to hear.