Shots Fired

Chapter 20

"We're here." I said as I pulled into Sam's driveway. "Huh." Sam growled. "Who is that?" I said indicating to a man sitting on the front porch steps. "What?" Sam perked his head up and immediately jumped out of the car once he saw the man. "Sam!" I yelled as I got out after him. "Dad! What are you doing?" I stopped dead in my tracks once I heard him yell dad. Sam's dad is never home, I've never met him before either. Sam told me that the only time his dad comes home is to get drunk and that's what it looks like he's doing now, getting drunk. "Dad what are you doing here?" Sam asked as he stood in front of his dad. "Your mother." His dad never finished what he said, that's all he responded with. "What about mom? Is she okay? What's wrong?" Sam quickly said. "She's dead." Sam didn't say a word, he stood there in complete and utter shock. "She's dead?" Sam asked but he already knew the answer. "Yes she died while you were off probably getting high somewhere! I called you multiple times and you never bothered to answer!" Sam's dad started to yell. "You're a piece of shit Sam, you never visited your mother. She asked for you until she forgot and you never bothered to show after all this time and now she's dead!" Sam's dad stood up and walked closer to Sam. "Dad I'm sorry she didn't remember me, she thought I was a stranger." Sam said as he slowly backed away from his dad as he got closer. "You're a piece of shit. I wish you were never born, make my life a whole lot easier if you were just gone!" Sam backed tripped over a stone that was placed for a path. His dad pulled him up by the collar of his shirt and kept repeating that he should've never been born. His dad threw Sam back on the ground and raised his fist up. "Stop!" I yelled as I ran towards them. "Who the fuck are you?" His dad said as he put his fist back down and walked away from Sam. "Leave him alone! You call him the piece of shit but you're the one wasted and about to beat his son! I'm sorry about your loss but that doesn't give you the right to beat him!" I screamed. I didn't know what I was saying the words just flew out of my mouth and I couldn't stop it. "Who the fuck are you?" His dad asked again but slower. "A friend, now leave Sam alone or I'll call the cops on your ass." Sam's dad didn't say another word after that. Sam quickly got up and walked away from his dad. Sam didn't say anything else until the house was out of our view. "Thank you." Sam said almost in a whisper. "He can't treat you like that." I said. "I know, I just can't say anything when he's like that. I don't know why it's like I just all of a sudden forget how to talk." His voice went in and out. "Sam, I'm so sorry." "I never heard my phone go off." I didn't know how to respond, he always knows exactly what to say and when it's my turn to be there for him I never know what to do. "She's gone, I expected this to happen sooner or later but I always hoped for later. No matter how many times I tried to visit her and she would scream at the top of her lungs because she thought I was a stranger trying to take advantage that she can't remember anything and put stories in her head. I even showed her pictures but all she would say is she never had a son." "Sam -" "I haven't visited her because the nurses told me to stay away that it'd be best for everyone if I didn't come back." Sam said chocking on every word. "What do I do?" Sam asked looking up at me with tears forming in his eyes. "There's nothing you can do. You just have to sit there and let everything happen because there's nothing you can do to stop it, no matter how hard you try to prevent all the bad from happening. You can cry and mourn but you can never let it control you and make you into someone else." Sam nodded his head in agreement. Today has to be one of the worst in a long time. I found out that my only brother, the only person I had left is gone and Sam's mom passed away too. "When does the pain end?" I accidentally said out loud. "Never." Sam added.