Not Mine

~Part 10~

The doctors decided to have Maria stay a few extra hours to make sure everything was fine before they sent her home.
Philip was glad John could spend time with his mom, but then he started thinking 'Wait. Where's my mom?'
He asked Alex if he could step outside for a second. Alex nodded and followed him to the hallway.
"So uh, y'know how Maria is John's mom?"
"Yeah..." Alex could already see where this was going.
"Where's my mom? Eliza, right?"
Alex shuddered at the mentioning of her name.
"Dad? Is something wrong? Did I do anything wrong?"
"N-no Philip it's not anything you did... Eliza..." He could barely continue after thinking about it. "Was killed in a car crash... shortly after you started 8th grade..."
"D-dad? Why do you keep hiding things from me?"
"I wish I could tell you... But remember when I said she was going on a long vacation? I think to England?"
"Y-yeah..."
"That was the cover-up story I made for it..."
"I can't believe you..." Philip sunk to the ground, crying. "I'd like to trust you... bu-but you make i-it so hard..."
"I'm not asking you to trust me, I know I shouldn't have kept anything from you, but all I'm asking is we stay together... We can survive this ourselves."
"But I won't be here forever dad, I need to go to college, live life to the fullest, just like you!"
"Hearing that makes me so proud of who you've become... I wish I could be that way... Have all those childhood fantasies again... Everything I had before the-" He stopped, realizing he was trailing off into childhood stories.
"Before the what?" Philip stood back up and faced Alex.
"Fine... I guess I should tell you this at least... When I was a little older than you are now, my family got killed in a hurricane... I tried to raise money to move here to forget, and it worked, but my past is following me..."
"I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked..."
"No, it's fine, I needed to tell you eventually, especially after you slowly figuring everything out anyways..."
They went back into the room, Philip's eyes still teary from hearing what happened to Eliza. John saw him and asked what happened. Philip looked over at him and shook his head, then looked back at the ground. John walked up to him, and Philip tried backing away, but tripped over himself and ended up flat-back on the ground.
     John reached his hand out to help Philip up, but Philip quickly shook his head 'No,' and started crawling backwards.
     "Uh- Alex? What's wrong with Philip?" John looked over at Alex, who was still standing in the door frame.
     "It's noth-"
     "Eliza," James quietly said from where he was sitting.
     "Oh- shi- I'm sorry..." John looked back down at Philip.
     Philip quickly got up and ran out of the room, hitting everything on the way out. John stayed still, hoping everyone else would stay also, and give Philip a few minutes to cool down.
     Alex started to follow Philip outside before John called out, "Alex wait!" Alex stopped right where he was, sighed, turned to John, and asked, "Yessss?"
"Just thought maybe he'd like to be alone for a minute? Up to you..."
"I think I might go in case, remember what happened last time?"
"Oh yeah... Alright..."
Alex left the room in search of Philip. It didn't take him very long before he saw Philip on the ground being beat up by one of the hospital staff. He quickly ran over to Philip and shoved the other person off him, then picked Philip up and brought him back to the room.
Alex set Philip down on a chair and looked at John, "Guess who got in another fight? And guess who could've stopped it if SOMEONE didn't distract them?"
John looked at him, "Don't blame this on me. I'm not the one who kept secrets from him his whole life."
Alex walked over to where John was sitting, "Listen. Kid, I don't want to have this argument, and I'm sure you don't either."
John stood up, almost being as tall as Alex, but more muscular, "And remind me again who started it?"
Alex backed away, seeming intimidated by John, even despite everything else, "N-never mind... You're r-right..."
     John stepped towards him, and Alex backed away again. This kept up until Alex was against the opposite wall with John in front of him. He thought, 'Great. I'm cornered... How do I get out of this?'
     John put his hand on Alex's shoulder. Alex starting shaking in fear and taking quick, shallow breaths,
knowing John could probably do some major damage.
     "What are you scared of, Alex? I thought I was just a 'kid'." John started smiling at Alex, keeping his hand on his shoulder.
     Alex started looking around, trying to come up with a plan to get out without John hurting him. He saw Philip in the chair, but realized Philip was sleeping. James and Maria had left the room a while ago. There was nowhere to go.
     John saw Alex nervously looking around and let go, "Fine, you're safe this time. But please at least tell me why you got so upset at me, when Philip was the one in the fight."
     Alex tried running, but John tripped him, which caused him to fall.
     "Is it really that hard to answer the question?"
     "N-no... I jus-just have a lot on my mind right now... I d-don't want to be adding more."
     "Fine...," John picked Alex up extremely easily and Alex thought 'Okay either John is a lot stronger than I thought or there's a problem. Either way, it's a problem.' John carried Alex down the hall and layed him on the mini couch that was in the lounge, then went back and got Philip from the chair and brought him out to a chair in the lounge.