The Division

Chapter 12

As I followed the nurse, I felt sad. I don't know why, I should have felt thankful that Tobias was living, but for some weird reason I felt that way. Man, I must be a good person. Overall, I felt okay with the situation. Tobias had his arm cut off, so he was going to live. I couldn't imagine what state Tobias would be in when he saw me. Hopefully he would be okay. Or at least in a fit state to talk.

When I got into the room, all was silent. Tobias was lying down on his bed dressed in a hospital gown, lying under the multiple blankets. He opened his eyes when he saw me. "Hey." I said. "Hey." He replied. "How you holding up?" "Not bad, I lost my arm." Tobias lifted his arm to reveal a stump at the end of it, wrapped in bandages. "How does it feel?" "Hurts a little, but not too bad." "Did they cut it off without giving you any anesthesia?" "They put a little, so I could feel it. It felt like it was burning." Tobias closed his eyes. "Be lucky that you are alive, at least." I said. Tobias chuckled lightly. "Nice abs." It was true. I really did have a six pack, but I never showed it off to anyone. If Jesse had one he would show everyone he knows. "Start workin' out and you'll get some." I said as we both laughed.

"I should let you have your rest; we can talk maybe later this week." I said. "Alright Brody, I'll see you later." I walked out of his room into the whiteness of the hospital. While I walked to the exit, I thought about hospitals in general. They're like heaven. Just the endless forever of whiteness. Literally everything is white.

I walked out into the cold. It was fall, and I was shirtless. I shivered and ran home. Nothing like a good run to get the blood flowing. In fact, lately I've been acting like a fat ass. But that's going to change. I ran home like an athletic guy working towards abs. The funny thing was, I already had abs.

When I got home, it was a mess. Paul was on the couch with some girlfriend. I didn't know if she was just a lady friend or not. Did old people even date? It seemed like everyone in the house had a soulmate except for me. It was true.

I pushed it out of my mind and walked up the stairs. Jesse was still in his room with Brittany. Man was she acting like a bitch. Stealing my best friend. Or maybe it could have been my jealous. Maybe both. I ignored it and went to sleep.

When I woke up the next day, I had a good night's rest. Jesse was obviously asleep with Brittany. I really cared about Jesse, but he couldn't just be ignoring Paul and I. What Jesse needed was a talk about Brittany. She was getting in the way of everything. Did she even have a home? Is she piggybacking on us? All of these questions raced through my mind.

I went downstairs to see Paul making coffee and bacon. I sat down on the table, he notice me immediately. "Hey Paul, have you noticed any...change in Jesse?" "Sure, he's been talkin' with that god awful girl." "Yeah, she's a real bitch." I was glad that Paul agreed. If he didn't, I don't know who I could talk to. Paul offered me some coffee, I accepted.

"We need to get rid of her." "But Ry, we can't murder her." "That's not what I'm saying, what I'm saying is that we should...well.....I guess you're right." "Just...how the hell do we get rid of her?" "I've got no idea Ry. "Paul sipped his coffee and started off into space, thinking. "Maybe..." Paul trailed off. We couldn't think of a plan to get rid of Brittany where we wouldn't hurt her. "The only option is to kidnap her or something." "Riley, you crazy? Jesse 'll skin us alive if he finds out we did that!" "What else can we do?" Paul paused and thought for a while. "Well Ry, I guess you're right, but when should we do it?"

"We should do it tomorrow when Jesse is out. Then, we nab her." "Are you sure that's a good idea?" "What other option do we have?" I paused and thought for a while. Was this really a good idea? If I did this, Jesse would hurt me. Very badly. "You know what Paul, Fuck it." I stood up. "We don't have to kill her, that's just a stupid idea. Let's just leave her alone, let her be bitchy." "Women will be women." Paul laughed. I sat back down and chuckled. Jesse walked in a millisecond after that. He crossed his arms.

"Jesse, this isn't what it looks like." I tried to think of something to say, but the pressure was on. "I heard everything." I opened my mouth of explain, but he went ahead and cut me off. "Why are you saying that? Brittany is not a bitch!" "Yes she is! She's taking over your life Jesse!" "Why are you being a dick all of a sudden? I get a girlfriend and you get jealous!" My mouth opened wide. I was trying to give him a signal that he was wrong, but I knew he was right. I was jealous. I was being selfish. But I was still pissed about Brittany. "Brittany is a bitch!" I yelled. "Take that back Riley!" "No, she's a bitch!" By now we were practically screaming at each other. Jesse screamed and jumped on top of me.

I tried to punch, but Jesse was strong. His strength surprised me. I heard Paul yelling for us to stop, but we kept going. He ran out into another room, I had no idea why. But I didn't care. Jesse punched me again, almost breaking my nose. Anger fueled me after that. I didn't want my nose to look stupid, so I socked him back in the face.

His glasses came off and fell somewhere. It seemed to daze him for a second, enough time for me to punch again. I punched again, but not very hard. I didn't want to kill him. I pushed Jesse off me with my legs, making him fall backwards and land on his butt.

He backed away to the fireplace and got a metal pole. He ran towards me but Paul came in at the right time. "HOLD IT FUCKERS!" He held a rifle at Jesse, giving him the message to back off. He stopped and dropped the pole. "Now what you two been fightin' 'bout?" "I called Brittany a bitch, so Jesse attacked me." I looked at Jesse. "I'm sorry bro." He looked at me with his good eye. "It's cool Ry." He looked at me for a second and sighed. He bent down and looked for his glassed and then found them thirty seconds later.

"You're right, Brittany is a bitch." "I'm going to go break up with her now." "No Jess, don't do that." "The worst thing you can do is break a girl's heart." "Screw that bitch." Jesse smiled. I was happy that the mood wasn't wild anymore. "Well, I guess conflict in now over boys, don't you think?"

Jesse and I got cleaned up after that. We both apologized to each other; I was the one who really needed to the most. Jesse was only responding to what I had said. He couldn't really control his anger; then again, neither could I. Is there anyone who can?

After Jesse and I got cleaned up, we had dinner with Paul. We didn't talk at all about the fight, while we were cleaning up we decided we would never speak of it again. Jesse and I made up like every best friend does. It's perfectly normal for best friends to have fights, physical and verbal.

For dinner we all had microwavable mac n cheese with French fries. It was an unhealthy dinner, but we all needed something good to take the edge off. Jesse planned to break up with Brittany after dinner. I didn't want to, but Jesse insisted that we did. He agreed with me that he was paying more attention to Brittany than any of us. I told him that he shouldn't break up with her, but just have a talk. Still, Jesse argued with me.

After dinner, Jesse was ready. Paul and I stayed downstairs just so Jesse could have privacy. Paul looked at me and held his breath as Jesse descended up the stairs. We heard yelling upstairs. It lasted for a long time, it felt like forever. At one point, the yelling increased. We heard the door open and Brittany crying. She was carrying her belongings. She ran out, bawling. Jesse looked at us with sympathy. "That went well." Jesse sighed. "What?" He asked as we looked at him. "Nothing." I held my fist to my mouth. Jesse sighed. "I'm going to watch some old movies." He said as he went upstairs. "Well?" I looked at Paul. He paused and looked as if he was looking for the right thing to say. "He's in a...developing state. It's a teenager thing." "Are you kidding?" I laughed. "Jesse's like, twenty five!"