Don't Leave Me (A Bajan Canadian Fan Fiction) (Watty Awards 2013)

Chapter Seventeen: I Just Can't...

Chapter 17

I finally wrap my head around it. Rebecca left me. I clench my fist over and over. She left me. I stand up walking to my mirror. I look in it. I'm still skin and bones but I've been eating for the past 5 days. I punch the mirror the hardest I could. It shatters, the glass falling onto the floor, my hand bleeding, drops of blood falling silently onto the glass.

I step back and stare at the broken mirror. I start picking up the broken pieces of the ugly, blood splattered mirror. I fall to my knees, crushing the blood splattered glass in my hands, putting more cuts in my hands. I look at my hands, watching the blood drip from my hands. I scream loudly.

Rob runs down the stairs quickly, trying not to wake Reegan upstairs, which I bet I did with my cries of utter pain.

"Mitch what did you do?" he yells. I fall onto my back, my legs bent, my hand bleeding the red, hot liquid. Tears started to fall down my cheeks.

"I can't do this anymore. I just can't..." I say, my voice cracking. Rob helps me off the floor, bringing me to my bed and laying me down before running upstairs. I put my hand on my stomach, blood trickling down my fingers and onto my exposed skin.

I close my eyes as I hear Rob coming down the stairs. He runs up to me with a tweaser, medicine, medical tape and guaze. I sit up and give him my hand. He takes the tweasers and takes out all the glass in my hand before spraying it with medicine and wrapping it up.

 He finishes wrapping it before walking upstairs to get Reegan. He comes back with Reegan in his arms. He puts her down and she doesn't move. She doesn't bother walking over to me. I sit up and face her before getting up. She looks at my stomach, how concave it looked, how my ribs showed. She puts on a face of disgust.

"HOW COULD YOU DO THIS MITCH? HOW COULD YOU NOT EAT!" she yells before throwing her doll at me and running upstairs. For a four year old, she acts like she's 8. She had to when she was in her old foster home, so I definitely understand that. I held my stomach, groaning as I walk over to my gaming chair.

"Mitch she's just upset," Rob says. I look at him, breathing heavily, still holding my stomach.

"How... how can she be upset over something I did?" I ask. Rob sighs.

"She's been through a lot in her four years, so I suggest you get your act together and be the uncle she needs you to be," he scolds before walking upstairs. I turn around in my chair, looking over my desk. I spot a needle  out of the corner of my eye. I reach for it hesitantly, picking it up and examining it.

I put it to my arm, steering just below my wrist. I press down firmly, dragging it across my arm, opening a small cut. Blood started dotting about the red line on my arm. I put the needle under that mark, dragging it across. I do this for about a minute before I realize what I'm doing. I throw the needle behind my desk, putting my hands behind my head.

The blood from my arm trickled onto my face, leaving a streak of blood on my cheek. My Skype decided to ring as soon as I reached for a towel.

Mat.

He was calling from the hospital. I can't deny his call. I press accept, waiting for the worst. I quickly grab a towel and wipe off my face. His face shows up on the screen. He had tubes in his nose, an IV in his arm, the cuts visible slightly on his wrist.

"Hi Mitch," he said, smiling. I swallow before wiping off my arm, the white towel turning a pinkish-red from the blood. Mat looks at me with confusion before realizing.

"Mitchell Hughes, you did not," he says, his face turning from confused to stern. I break down then and there. I cry. I cried so hard, my eye socket hurt. Mat looked down at his scarred wrist.

"Look, Mitch, Rob told me you burned the help we were trying to give you," he says. I look up at him.

"He what?" I ask.

"He said you burned all the letter everyone sent you, even Rebecca's. Rob told me where she was, told me everything in fact. She's not going to stay with a friend in Chicago. She found someone else..." he stopped.

"Who did she find, Mat?" I ask. He swallows.

"Rob told me not to tell you. He doesn't want you to know," he said, before hanging up, not even bothering to ask to see his daughter. I guess he just didn't want to talk to me. I look around my room and grab the medical tape Rob had left in my room.

I wrap my arm in it after I put medicine on it. My brain processed what Mat had said.

He doesn't want you to know.

My head burned, as did my heart. I was betrayed. He went behind my back and hurt me. He told everyone but not me. I ran up the stairs. Rob stood up from playing with Reegan. He tells Reegan to go to the other room.

"How could you?" I ask, my voice crackling. Reegan poked her head out of the doorframe.

"You went behind my back, told Mat about Rebecca, and you NEVER TOLD ME? WHAT KIND OF FRIEND DOES THAT ROB? WHAT KIND OF FRIEND WOULD PUT THEIR FRIEND, WHO IS DYING OF HEARTBREAK AND IS STARVING, THROUGH SHIT LIKE THIS? I HATE YOU!" I scream, pushing his chest. He stumbles back.

"I DID IT FOR YOUR OWN GOOD MITCH! YOU'RE GOING TO DIE IF THIS KEEPS HAPPENING!" he pushes my chest harder. I punch his face. He punches my gut. We start punching each other until we hear a cry.

"STOP!" Reegan yells. I push Rob off of me to stare at Reegan.

"YOU'RE ACTING LIKE CHILDREN! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU TWO!" she yells, grabbing a tack off the floor and throwing at me. I dodged it as it hit Rob in the arm, needle side facing into his arm. He wails in pain.

"YOU TWO SHOULD GROW UP!" she yells, running into the room she was staying in. I stand up, helping up Rob and taking the tack out of his arm.

"She's growing too fast," Rob says.

"She has to. We aren't acting like adults. She has to," I say. Rob nods before going to the kitchen. I go back downstairs before I hear the sound of a notification on Skype.

From: Mat

It's Jason