A Single Stroke ✔️

51: Loyal

"Some people just don't realize how precious life is."

"I think they do. But what happens when life's the thing that tears you down? Sometimes, they run out of options."

"Not an excuse to do something like this."

"He was alone... I found him alone. In school, he just seemed so...I don't know, vibrant? Is that a stupid word to use? I didn't know him well enough. Who knows what made him decide to do it?"

"He knows. He's the only one who knows."

* * *

If you looked back on your life, you might see a timeline.

But forget about the colors; what about the moments? Life could be gray, black, and white, or it could be a colorful rainbow. Who was to say the gray moments couldn't count towards your greatest hits? Life could be depressing, tragic, hopeless, painful... But maybe those moments needed to happen sometimes. Not always. But maybe they were there to remind you to notice when there was color in your life.

This was one of those moments. The one where something gray actually did turn out to be one of my greatest hits. The one that would've been my greatest masterpiece despite the rips, tears, and smudges.

* * *

I faded in and out of consciousness. Sometimes I felt light, sometimes I felt heavy. I wanted to move but I couldn't.

Let go...my mind said.

Hold on...my heart said.

It was too late. I couldn't let go anymore. Not when so many voices and sounds reeled me back to consciousness.

Hours, maybe decades later, I opened one eye. Opened the other. Blinked several times.

"Emery? Can you hear me?"

I blinked more. Tried moving. Someone had cemented my body in place.

"Squeeze my hand."

Someone held my hand? I didn't know which one to squeeze, but I went with the left. Last I checked, my right was useless.

"Thank God." I felt a hand on my shoulder. Then, "You're such an idiot."

That voice was familiar. I looked to my right but no one was there. But when I looked to my left, I saw a girl close to my age. She sat in a chair next to my bedside and leaned back before crossing her arms. Her hair was braided and tied off by silver bows. Her lips were bright silver.

Brynn.

"What..." My voice was hoarse. "What happened?"

"You tell me. You're the one who was lying in a ditch under the bridge with a freaking needle in your arm all passed out. I thought you were dead!"

I blinked again under the bright lights. My arms had several tubes and needles in them connected to hospital drips. One tube was under my nose. A blanket covered me. "Where am I?"

"Um, duh? A hospital."

I looked back at her. "How'd I get here?"

"So many questions. I called my mom."

I raised an eyebrow.

"She's a doctor. When she comes back in here, you need to thank her for saving your sorry ass." She leaned over to a tray near my bed and grabbed a granola bar before unwrapping it and taking a bite. Crumbs stuck to her silver lipstick.

"You...called your mom?"

An eye roll. "Come on, Emery." She snapped her manicured fingers in my face. "Wake. Up. Get the drugs out of your head. Yes, that's what I said, isn't it?"