Remember This✔

Chapter Sixteen

It's a couple of hours later when Charlie wakes up or rather is startled into waking up. The doctor pulls his hand away from Charlie's shoulder and Charlie blinks in confusion. He looks down and sees Molly's blonde hair against his chest. She's still asleep and the doctor backs up slowly to the door in silence as Charlie gently rolls Molly to the other side of the bed. She turns over easily and doesn't make a sound.

Charlie pulls himself up and walks towards the open door. Before he leaves, he steals one last look at her. He hopes it isn't the last time he will ever see her, but there's a chance that it might be.

"Goodbye, Molly," he whispers.

He follows the doctor onto the hallway and down to the locked security door. He hears the same noises as before, the squeals and the cries. His head pounds.

"What happened?" the doctor asks him.

"I made her so mad that she fell asleep on me," Charlie says.

"Made her mad how?"

"By getting her to confront the truth. She really wants to die, Doc."

"How did you get her to confront the truth?" he asks.

"By making her mad. Keep up."

Charlie walks through the door as the doctor lags behind for a moment. Charlie heads straight for the phone booth in the reception waiting room but the doctor isn't done with him yet.

"Is there any chance you could come back tomorrow?" the doctor says as Charlie takes the phone from its holder.

"No."

The doctor takes the phone from Charlie's grasp and angrily slams it back into the holder. Charlie narrows his eyes with caution.

"You want that girl to get help, don't you?" the doctor demands.

"I need to make a phone call."

"I can't help her unless she opens up to me. She isn't going to confess to jumping until she wants the help. And right now the only support she wants is from you."

"I can't help her," Charlie says, reaching for the phone. The doctor puts his arm across it, causing Charlie to clench on his teeth. "Are you allowed to behave like this?"

"No," the doctor says. "But when it comes to saving a life behavior is minor. She fell asleep with you; doesn't that tell you something? She's comfortable with you, she might start to let her guard down."

"I'm not a therapist," Charlie says. "Helping her is your expertise. I was just the one that pulled her over that wall."

"She's been in therapy for a while," he says. "It might be my expertise but I'm not naïve to the fact that others have tried and failed to help her. I don't know Molly yet, I don't know how deep her depression is or how strong her suicidal thoughts are, all I know is that she wants to talk to you and that tells me something. She's probably ashamed to admit what happened but you saw it, you were there, she knows she can't hide it from you."

"I just want to go home and sleep," Charlie says. "That's all I want. I'm sorry but I can't come back here, I can't help her."

"Fine. Keep telling yourself that when she really is dead."

The doctor storms away holding a hand to his head. Charlie dismisses his clearly worded warning and places a quarter into the slot. He dials his home number and waits with his eyes closed and his head pressed against the wall.

"Hello?" his mother says.

"It's me," Charlie says.

"Charlie! Where the hell are you? Do you have any idea what I've been going through?"

"It's a long story. I'm at the hospital down town, I need you to come get me."

"The hospital? What have you done this time?"

"Nothing, I'm fine. I've torn a muscle in my shoulder but it's nothing. I'll explain everything later okay?"

"Right, well lucky for you it's my day off. I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

"Thanks."

The phone disconnects and Charlie leaves the hospital quickly. He sits on a bench outside of the building that Molly is in. He glances up to the windows but apart from a few creepy half-naked men standing in them he doesn't see her. Many cars pass him and many loud pedestrians walk by him and the minutes feel like hours.

Just as he starts to fall asleep again a car pulls up onto the sidewalk and beeps its horn. He opens his eyes tiredly to see his mother staring at him through the car window. He approaches the passenger side and then in the corner of his eye something catches his attention from above. He looks up at the building and sees Molly in a window. She just stares back at him, emotionless. He'll never be able to get that image out of his head. He takes a deep breath as he slides into the car.

Charlie's mother doesn't look at him. She starts the car the moment his seatbelt is on and Charlie watches the world go by from the window.

"Are you going to say anything?" his mother says. "I've spent half the morning calling you. I'm guessing your battery is dead like last time and the time before that. Do you know how close I came to calling the police?"

"I went out for a walk," Charlie says. "I'm seventeen, you've got to stop thinking the worst whenever I spend the night somewhere else."

"Is it any wonder I worry? Given your past? Oh and look you're injured. Have you been fighting again?"

"No," he says. Charlie looks at his younger sister who is watching something on a tablet in the backseat. "I'll explain it all later. I'm just really tired."

"Fine. But don't think you're getting out of it. I want the truth."

"Fine."

Charlie isn't sure if he can give her the truth. He doesn't want to relive it all, to relive the horrifying moments that led to his self-discovery of just how selfish and pathetic he really is. His mother is a lawyer, a good one, and she's always known when he was lying. Charlie has never been able to keep something from her for more than a day but he's never had a secret like this. He's never had a burden like this. When he gets home the first thing he's going to do is crawl into bed and sleep. The second thing will be harder. It will require facing a dark truth that he isn't ready to confront. It will require making the choice of whether or not Molly is capable of being helped and if he's the only one that can do it.