nothing less ➸ demar derozan

twenty-four

DeMar

I shut the door and lean against it. I wasn't sure where Mom or Dad was, but Aja stared at me from the dining table. She continued eating some leftovers as her eyes bore lasers in mine. I walked slowly to her and sat on the dining table with her. She didn't get up and leave.

"How have you been?" I whisper. Her body looked so fragile and weak. Just looking at her made me hate myself more and more.

"You got blood on your shirt," she comments. I look down at my shirt and see Haro and Ella's blood. Haro is in a worser condition than Ella, but both of their shots were bad.

Ella was unconscious when I found her and someone mentioned she was beginning to bleed out. I don't really remember everything that happened since my tears blinded me. People were still in there screaming and running over her body. They literally stepped on top of her body and it broke my heart even more. I couldn't help her. However, the paramedics got there a few minutes after I saw her so maybe that helped.

"DeMar," she says and stands up. I shake my head and the tears start falling.

"Ella, she-"

"Shh," her arms wrap around my head and she holds me tightly. I was just thankful that I may have gotten my sister back. I just needed someone right now.

-

We're all sitting at the cafeteria table and it's quiet. No one hasn't said anything except greet each other. I didn't even bother to get food because I didn't have an appetite. It had been two days and everything was different.

Haro was stuck in a coma and Ella woke up yesterday. I hadn't found the balls to go see her, but I wouldn't be able to anyway. Only family was able to see her and the doctors were still running many tests on her. The police have to question her, too, to see if she may have seen who the shooter was.

"How are they?" Kevin asks Paul.

Paul replies, "Ella is fine and Haro is in a coma. They said it may be only for a few days but that everything is fine."

I broke down in tears when I heard Ella woke up yesterday. I was so glad she made it. I still love her no matter how hard I try to deny it.

"That's good," Kevin sighs and the rest of the boys gleam.

"How-"

"DeMar," Kyle interrupts Paul and grabs my shoulder. He hoists me up and pushes me out of the cafeteria doors.

"What is wrong with you?" I ask and look at him like he lost his damn mind.

"It's Aja."

"What about her?"

"She's in the nurse's office and was asking for you."

"What happened to her?" I follow him to the clinic.

He shrugs, "I don't know...Reggie saw me walking the halls and told me to tell you."

"Fuck," I whisper.

As we reach the clinic, I see Reggie in one of the chair's next to the principal's room.

"Are you in trouble?" I ask him.

He shakes his head, "Something happened with Aja."

"What happened?"

He shakes his head and talks in my ear, "When I found her in the staircase her pants were undone."

"What?" I push him away and he looks at me sternly.

"Don't push me, DeMar. I'm not trying to hurt you or anything. I don't know what happened. She was crying, and when I picked her up, she clung onto me as if she was scared. I tried to ask her what was wrong but she didn't say anything. She kept crying."