Won't Stop Running

Chapter 1 - When It Rains, It Pours

When I was 22 years old I thought I knew what pain was. I thought that death had stamped my heart PAID like I was filling a debt. I thought I knew what it was to hope and pray to a god I didn't worship. I thought I knew what love was and what it wasn't.

I thought a lot of things I now know aren't true. On New Year's Day, there were 10 people who very nearly escaped being main characters my life.

***Author's Tip: This chapter is split up between a lot of characters, it won't be like this for the whole book, just this bit at the beginning. Also, Meg is Jack's nickname for Saylor***

Jack and I

We had stayed up until one thirty am partying as hard as possible from a room in the Sunshine Coast University Hospital. The view from the window was no longer another brick wall but the Sydney Harbour Bridge lit up with fireworks drawn messily in crayons and butcher's paper stolen from the waiting room. We'd stuck it on the window with Hubba Bubba chewing gum. Gross but necessary as blue tack was in short supply. Empty bags of Goon and bottles of orange juice were littered on the ground. Twelve red plastic cups shared their time between Jack's table tray and the side table set up at the foot of the bed, three beer pong balls rolled off somewhere unforgotten.

The tiny television in the corner had been quietly blaring the music videos of the year, while the pop streamers blew in the breeze of the fan. One of the streamers was tickling my nose hairs but I ignored it because Goon can give a girl one hell of a hangover.

"Meg." Jack groaned, "Meg I'm hungry."

"Shut up." I groaned back and buried myself further into the chair I'd squished myself into.

"I want Maccas. Lots of Maccas and I want it now."

"Don't care."

"Maccas cures hangovers, you know it's true."

I look at my phone through squinty eyes because fluorescent lighting in this place is the expensive bright kind. Jack is in serious best friend debt to me waking me up before 7 am on New Year's Day.

"Jack you drank orange juice all night."

"I have a Chemo hangover, that's worse. Just pray you never know the pain."

He was joking but the guilt trip worked. When your best friend has cancer, you never really get used to it.

I left five minutes later in Jack's old State Rep jumper and a spare pair of his trakky daks which turned out to be a bad decision because the second I stepped outside the hospital twelve giant cameras like the news crews have were stuck on my face. Not ten second later all the camera's ditched my sorry looking self and turned back to focus on the doors.

BY the time I made it to the street, I'd fought my way past police starting to make a blockade.

I decided to walk to Maccas because there was no way in hell I was giving up my parking spot in all this craziness.

Elijah

The first thing Eli heard when he woke up were sirens. He remembered staring at the fire. He remembered staring at it for hours.

He remembered the sound of the axe ringing in the back yard as Austin had cut up the firewood. He remembered Austin leaving.

He remembered lighting the match and blowing on the tiny flame to keep it alive.

He remembered how strange it was to bring to life the thing he wanted to end his.

That he could find lyrics somewhere in that irony if he thought about it. There were always lyrics, lyrics and no music.