Timeless

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Six

            It was nearing the last few months of school, and I was spending it kneeling beside a blonde loon who changed my life.  Well, “beside” is a bit of an understatement. I wasn’t allowed to get within sixty feet of her as police and doctors and paramedics surrounded Centennial Peaks Hospital. Many other intruders surrounded the area, press with cameras and curious outsiders, all anxious to see what had happened at a mental hospital. Had one of the patients lost it? Broken out? Did we have to worry about a handful of anorexics and voice hearers running around the neighborhood?

             I didn’t even acknowledge my parents’ arrival, or the arrival of London’s parents. I didn’t even ask why London had been here in the first place, but her parents seemed to absolutely regret the decision of letting her out of the house. I don’t blame them. I couldn’t stop my heart from racing at the speed that it was, or stop the foreboding and contingent thoughts running through my head. All I really remember is seeing her walking, so carefree, so LONDON, and the next thing, she was being backed over with Ethan’s fucking truck. I couldn’t really understand the idea of London actually...being...

            I shook my head, I would not think like that, I wouldn’t even think the word. This was not a repeat of Emily. London was alive. And she would be okay. Everything would be okay,  my parents would see the mistake they’ve made, they’ll be crying and begging Starburst to come home. She’ll ignore them, she’ll be eighteen in a few months, then she can move out with Mason and go to college and live happily ever after.

            And London will be okay, the paramedics will save her, they will. And I’ll be there every step of the way, every day in the hospital room as she heals, and when she’s recovered and herself again, I’ll show her. I’ll show her how much I care about her, I care enough that I stopped hurting myself. I’ll show her the scars, not the cuts. And she’ll be happy.

            Of course...that’s what I thought of Emily, too, isn’t it?

***

            I’ve never been good with waiting. Patience to me was like homework—which I was profoundly behind on, I probably haven’t paid attention to my schoolwork for months now—I could never get a grip on patience.

            School. The word rings in my head as tears run down my face. Isn’t that what started everything? I was going back to school, I met London at school. And that’s how everything started. School.

            If I hated it before, I unquestionably loathed it now.

            My parents had tried to comfort me, but they were horrible at it. To me, in the hospital waiting room, they were encroaching on my privacy; there weren’t supposed to be here with London. Now that I thought about it, I don’t think they ever met London. Now they never may.

            I mentally slapped myself. No! London was going to be fine! Do you hear me, mind?! London. Will. Be. FINE. Her parents and siblings were trying to keep their own hysteria under control, it was the first time I’d actually seen anyone in London’s happy family cry and be so...glum. Mason was frantic as he paced the waiting room, constantly blinking back tears and biting his knuckles. When he did sit down, Starburst wrapped her arms around him and let him quietly cry into her shoulder, hushing him softly on occasion. People I didn’t exactly know were in the waiting room too: an older couple, two women in their early thirties, and a little boy about eight. I assumed they were part of London’s family; aunts and grandparents and cousins maybe.