L is for .....

L is for ..... Loner

I was having a nightmare, there were those flashing lights again, and faces. I could hear someone calling to me. I realised then that it wasn’t a nightmare. The pain from my head and foot hit me. But instead of yelling out when I opened my mouth I was sick over the side of the gurney. Then I lay back and passed out again.

The next thing I knew I was waking up in a white room my head spinning.

“Callie?” someone asked, I tried to find them, but my head was spinning too much. Again I threw up, but luckily this time someone had a bucket waiting.

After getting some orientation back I find that my foot is strapped up and I can feel the stitches in my head.

“Hey,” someone says from my side. I turn to see Caden of all people sitting there grinning. “Had your own party then?”

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“Erm…well.” He looked uncomfortable. “I thought you’d want someone to come see you. You gave Ari a huge scare you know. She went to tell you to turn your music down and she found you passed out on the floor holding an empty Vodka bottle and bleeding all over the floor!” He told me.

“So…why isn’t mum here? Where’s Ari?” I questioned.

Again I watched as he looked down and looked uncomfortable. “Well, see she didn’t know what to do, she called an ambulance and then tried to get hold of mum. When she didn’t answer she called me. Lucky for her I had just stepped out to get some more booze. I came straight over. Mum, well she isn’t exactly…” He paused.

“Just spit it out.” I stated, I wasn’t in the best of moods of course.

“She hasn’t come home yet. I called her friends and it seems she went home with a guy.”

I wasn’t shocked, she did this practically every weekend. I was worried though. I hated it when she stayed away and didn’t call. Normally she phoned.

“So anyway,” he continued, “the doctors did some tests and you seem to be fine. They just want to check before you go, but they don’t think there’s anything serious, just one hell of a hang over. They were concerned when they saw the bottle was empty but it turns out about half of the vodka was on the floor. Oh and I brought you a new set of clothes, yours were soaked.”

I was in disbelief, my brother actually seemed to care! After I was discharged we went to the café where Caden had made Ari stay under the watchful eye of the waitress. She lived down our street and was always willing to help.

As soon as Ari saw me, she lept into my arms and started crying.

“shhh,” I said to her, “I’m okay, just a bump on the head, oh and my foot.” I said as I leaned too much on it.

“Maybe I do need babysitting, I was so scared.” she sobbed.

“Actually I don’t think you do, you coped very well and I was meant to be the one looking after you!” I laughed to lighten the mood.

We made our way outside after I’d passed Ari on to Caden. We got into his car and he drove us home. When we got there was a bunch of wild flowers and a note that said, ‘Get Well Soon’ written on it. No name just beautiful, delicate handwriting. It was obviously to me. Caden looked at me questioningly and I just shook my head.

Mum still wasn’t back but the red answer phone light was flashing. Ari pressed the button and mum’s voice could be heard. Slightly slurred, obviously still drunk from the night before.

*Don’t worry about me, I just met an old friend and went to stay at his house, the time is…what the hell's the time Mike? OKAY. The time is 9 f*cking am. I’m going to sleep, I’ll see you later. Bye*

It was all in her sickly sweet ‘phone voice’, but that wasn’t our first thought. Mike…he had been the one who dad had to fight to win mum’s heart. He wasn’t exactly good news. He was meant to be living in America somewhere, and he just happened to be in the same club as mum last night. Somehow I didn’t think it was a coincidence.

Caden sat Ari down in the living room and put on a film for her. Then we started to clean up the mess in my room. It looked dreadful, and stank of Vodka which made me want to throw up again only I hadn’t eaten. I flung open the windows and grabbed the bleach, scrubbing the floor, while Caden dealt with the mirror. The rest of the day wasn’t much better.

4pm, we were done.

4.30pm, Ari wanted to go to the park, Caden took her.

5pm, we ate fish and chips

6pm, mum arrived home, without a word to us she just went to bed.

Soon after we all follow as none of us had had a good day.

Caden was back to his normal selfish state the next day, of which I was thankful in a way. It was Monday, meaning school. Caden left early for morning practice while I was left to look after Ari. I hadn’t long taken my test so I took the roads carefully, especially as I had Ari in the car. Mum usually dropped her off but today mum was still comatose in her bed.

I arrived just as the bell went, I ran inside as the rain was now pelting it down. I walked into my form room and was met by Simon putting his arm round my shoulders. I shrugged it off.

“God to hell Simon, I thought I’d already told you we were not getting back together. Can your dunce brain deal with that or do I have to say it slower. We…are…over…” And with that I walked down to our my first lesson. Biology. I can’t even remember why I took it. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew my mum was set on me becoming a model. The first half of the day dragged on. I didn’t have any time to myself till lunch. As I’d expected though when I entered the dining hall the popular table, including my brother just stopped and stared at me. Then they started whispering behind their hands. When they had stopped everyone had followed suit and so I had every eye on me. Once I'd collected lunch I didn’t stay to eat. Instead I went to our classroom. I was so thankful that no one was there. Or so I thought; as soon as I sat down Mrs Andrews, the headmistress, poked her head around the door.

“Oh, Callie, just the person I was hoping for. Can I have a word?” I got up, throwing my half eaten lunch in the bin and headed towards the head’s office.

There was a lady and a guy there. At first I didn’t really look at them, but as I came further into the room I realised that I’d seen recognised him. He was the boy from the beach…