Incurable

Ethan...

Elijah POV
I wake up a-round 10 AM. I walk to Ethan's room and no-tice he isn't a-wake yet. I qui-et-ly tip-toe to him, then I hit him with a pil-low. Ethan wakes up, clear-ly an-noyed, but when he sees it's on-ly me he sighs.

"Elijah... it's 10 AM. School ain't today. Let. Me. Sleep." Ethan says tired-ly.

"Awwwwwwww, but I wan-na play!" I whine.

"Alright. I can't say no to an adorable face like yours. Let's go."

I jump up. I pull Ethan down the stairs and we go out-side. We bring our bi-cy-cles from the shed and we ride a-bout the field. We had so much fun!

3 hours later

My bi-cycle han-dle is stuck. I am tra-vel-ling ve-ry fast, and I'm al-most at Ethan. I try the brakes but they're stuck to, and soon my bi-cy-cle crash-es in-to his, caus-ing him to fly all the way in-to the woods.

I groan a lit-tle when get-ting up. I re-mem-ber Ethan and I run to the woods. I find him by a tree. Blood is all o-ver his face and his head.

"Ethan!" I yell, try-ing to wake him up. He doesn't, and I start to cry. This is all my fault. I try to car-ry him out of the woods, and I just a-bout make it to my house.

"Mom! It's all my fault!" I cry.

She runs down-stairs to see Ethan in my arms. She takes him from me.

"How'd this happen?" she asks.

"I asked him if he wan-ted to play and when he said no I kin-da forced him. While we were out-side my bi-cy-cle han-dle got stuck and my brakes too! I crashed in-to Ethan's bi-cy-cle which made him like this!"

"Come with me." Mom says.

We go to the hospital. I sit in a chair, ve-ry wor-ried. I guess this is what it feels like. To know your twin might die. Think-ing like it's all your fault. Hours go by like months.

Fi-nal-ly, the doc-tor comes to speak to us. "He has a slight concussion, but that's all."

My mom sighs. On my way to Ethan's room I meet Alex.

"Hey Alex!" I say.

"Hi! What brings you here today?" Alex asks

"I al-most killed my brother."

"I'm pretty sure that's not true."

"It is! I forced him to play with me and he got a con-cus-sion! Whatever that is!"

"It's a head injury."

"Ooooooohhhh...Any-way, why are you here?"

"Well...my dad started to drink again. I'm...I'm here to see my mum."

I gasp. "What did that nut-job do?!"

"He poisoned her. So, I snuck out of the house to see her. It's not the type of thing I'd usually do but I just want to know she's okay."

"I get it. I know how it feels to wor-ry a-bout some-one close."

"Yeah...I'm pretty sure Ethan would feel the same."

"Prob-a-bly worse. Last time I had a sur-ger-y the doc-tors said I won't live long. They expect my death in a-bout 2 years."

Alex tears up. "I don't want that to happen..."

"I don't ei-ther. Let's go check on Ethan."

"Sure."

Alex o-pens the door. Ethan is sit-ting on the bed, sing-ing.

"Hey Ethan." Alex says.

"Hi..." I feel bad. Things could've been much worse. I'm such an i-di-ot. I de-serve death for do-ing this to my own twin! "Ethan, I'm sor-ry. Real-ly ve-ry sor-ry. I was be-ing an i-di-ot as u-su-al and I could've killed you. I'm sor-ry."

"Elijah, don't say that about yourself! Accidents will happen." Ethan says soft-ly.

"My birth was an ac-ci-dent."

"No it wasn't! I can't sit here and listen to you beat yourself up for something that was totally unexpected!"

"But look at you! This wouldn't have hap-pened if I just left you be."

"And look at you! You're 4 and had 10 surgeries! 10! You're so young yet you have heart and breathing problems! We're both still living! And...I hate it when we fight so..."

"We should get o-ver this?"

Ethan nods. I squeeze him in a hug. I give him his clothes and me and Alex walk out.

"You guys have a strong relationship." Alex says.

"Like..." I say, grossed out.

"No!" Alex laughs. "Like a family relationship. The bond between you two can never be broken."

"Oh. Yeah!"

Ethan comes out. Mom meets us in the wait-ing room.

"Mom, can we vis-it Alex's mom? She's in here." I ask.

"You guys..." Alex says, smil-ing.

"Sure." Mom says.

We fol-low Alex to his mom's room. It looks like she's in a co-ma. Alex cries. Ethan and I stand by his side. That's what friends do, right?