Sliced Trees and Dead Words

23 - Torture.

- WOLFE -

Luna hasn't stopped crying since I placed Medusa carefully on her lap and hightailed it to the closest twenty-four hour veterinary hospital I could find on Google, which was all the way back in bloody Noosa.

If there was one thing that could top the shitness of this already shit week, it would be Medusa not pulling out of the surgery she was currently under in an attempt to repair a fracture and dislocation to her front legs, as well as suspected internal bleeding.

I didn't even hesitate when the veterinarian told Luna and I how much the surgery would cost. I have more than enough money saved to cover whatever it is, which didn't stop Luna saying she would pay herself. That's a battle for another day. The only one I want to fight right now is between me and sleep, because I need to be awake when they come out of that small, over-lit white room to tell me that Medusa is okay. Because I can't lose her too. And neither can Luna.

She's an absolute mess. And I understand why.

I'd just found out that my best friend, who I thought I knew better than anyone, was sexually abused his whole childhood by his own fucking grandfather.

Just the thought of it is so repulsive I want to cry and vomit and drive all the was back to Dalen's parents' house to punch that disgraceful, evil prick in his old, wrinkled face. Fuck not being a violent person. Fuck respecting your elders. That son of a bitch deserves nothing more than a good ass-kicking and I'd probably only feel a tiny bit guilty about it if I were the one to give it, and that has nothing to do with him. Just that I hate the idea of using my fists to solve anything. But damn it if Darren Rivers Sr didn't have it coming to him.

I'm not sure I would be able to stop myself from driving back if these veterinarians came out and said Medusa wouldn't make it; and I'd stop along the way to find that steaming sack of shit who was speeding, hit her, then raced off like nothing had happened.

I already lost Dalen, and if Medusa died tonight then the only living thing I have left of him is Luna.

I can't believe the things I said to her tonight; nor, for that matter, the things she said to me. I've never been in that intense a fight in all my life with anyone. No girlfriend I've dated has ever made me feel as strongly as I do towards Luna, which means when shit is bad, it's really bad. Like tonight. And the sucky part is I can't be mad about it without fully acknowledging how unfair that is.

Luna, in all her roundabout, snarky ways, tried to warn me about this, as did each of her friends and sister (though, admittedly, they were a little less passive aggressive about it than she was); and I just didn't listen to her or take heed of any of my own gut instincts about any of it.

I knew Dalen had a strained relationship with his parents. When I met him he was already not seeing them, and spoke very, very infrequently with his mum over the phone. Her birthday, Mother's Day, Christmas. The occasional random hello. That was it. He never spoke to his dad, and never mentioned a single other soul even being alive in his family. And he absolutely never said, or even insinuated, anything about what had happened to him as a kid.

I don't blame him. I can't imagine what it must have been like to be a child and have that happen to you even once, let alone for years and years. Especially when you had to see that person around your home and your town, and at every family event where you had to pretend that nothing of that magnitude of fucking evil had been done to you.

I wish I had known just as much as I'm glad I didn't. I can see how affected and emblazoned with rage and hatred Luna is for having known this happened to Dalen, and I'll never again feel resentful for how much of his attention she commandeered from him. I truthfully thought she was just encouraging his affections for her by being inconsiderately cute and flirty with him. I never knew it had anything to do with the fact he had confided in her what he never could with me, and that she might just be listening sympathetically and patiently to him as he disclosed the finer details of his abuse, and that she continued to allow the intimacy of their relationship because what they shared between each other was something above and beyond simple friendship. This is just how it had to be between them once he trusted her enough to let her in completely. I can't imagine he's found too many other people in life who he's been able to share that with. If I wasn't one of them given how close we were, I seriously doubt that a single soul other than Luna ever knew.