Some People Change (Currently Editing)

Chapter Forty

All I could see was white light. I was in a white room and I was sitting on a chair. Where was I? What was going on?

“Is she going to be okay?” 

“I don’t know, Taylor.”

Jason’s and Taylor’s voices echoed throughout the room. Things took an even weirder turn when Billy appeared in front of me. 

“Billy?”

He smiled his sweet smile as he nodded. Wait, was I dead?! What the heck was going on?!

“You’re not dead. Not yet.” Billy clarified. “You’re slipping away, Kayla, and I won’t let that happen. I love you, honey, but you need to go back. This is not your time to die.”

Freddy came out of nowhere then. She held Joanne in her arms.

“Freddy? Joanne?”

Freddy nodded.

“I love you, Kayla, and I miss you. All of us do, but it would be selfish for me to ask you to stay. Go back. It’s okay. I’ll see you again, but it better not be for a long time.”

I looked at my sister and she grinned.

“You have so much life in you, Kayla. Don’t you dare let it get away from you.” Billy ordered.

I never had been a disobedient person so I decided that now wasn’t the greatest time to start.

My eyes opened gradually as I was unsure if I wanted to face reality. But once I saw Taylor, Ed, Amy, Jason, Emma, and Jackson staring back at me, I knew that I had made the right decision.

“Hi, baby,” Jackson murmured.

“Hi…everybody.”

I gazed down at my right hand and I wasn’t the least bit taken aback when I found a splint on it.

“It’s not broken. Just really badly sprained.” Emma said.

“It should heal just fine,” Amy added.

“How are you feeling?” Taylor asked.

“A little claustrophobic.”

The mood lightened a little with everybody’s laughter.

“Honestly. How are you?” Jason questioned.

“My head hurts, but that’s about it.”

“We should’ve never left you alone, we just…”

Ed’s sentence trailed off.

“It’s not your fault.”

“Baby?” Jackson said. 

“Yeah?”

“There’s someone here to see you. Is that okay?”

Only one person came to mind.

“Yes.”

My mother stepped into the room cautiously.

“Hi.”

“Hi, Mom.”

She looked like she was trying to hold back tears.

“I thought about what you said the other day.”

“You said a hell of a lot of things, Mom.”

“And I promise you I thought about all of them.”

My mother truly sounded sincere. But then again, she had managed to fool me so many times before. 

“Oh, yeah.”

“The friend I was staying with kicked me out yesterday. Her husband’s coming back from a business trip.”

“I don’t feel sorry for you, Mom. If that’s what you’re getting at.”

“It’s not. What I’m getting at is that you were right.”

“About?”

“I don’t have anyone. I am all alone. And you don’t need to tell me why. I know.”

“If it’s any consolation, which I’m not really sure if it is, you’ve got me. You’re my mother. You’re my family, and if I’m not mistaken members of a family are supposed to have each others’ backs.”

I glanced over at Jason. He hung his head. 

“Jackson, Taylor, Ed, Emma, and Amy, can you give my parents and me a few moments alone?”

They exited the room without argument. 

“W-why are you doing this?” my mother stuttered.

“I just got the freaking crap beat out of me, Mother. Don’t give me that shit. This might be the only time that I get to have my mom and my dad in the same room together."

“I’m not going to play nice just because you’re in here, Kayla,” my mother said.

“Good. Wouldn’t want you to. However, I would like you to apologize, Dad.”

“No.”

“You told me that you were sorry. Why not her?”

My father’s eyes locked with my mother’s. 

“Annie, I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I left you with nothing. I’m sorry that I didn’t live up to be the man that I knew you thought I was. I’m sorry for all the pain that I put you through.”

“I forgive you, Jason. I can’t really say that I blame you.”

“Kayla, I know I apologized once already, but I want to say it again. I’m sorry for not being there when you needed me to be. I’m sorry that I didn’t call or leave you any trace of me. If I had never done what I did, maybe you wouldn’t be lying here with bruises covering your face and with stitches in your forehead. Maybe there wouldn’t be a splint on your wrist and maybe your ribs wouldn’t be so sensitive to the slightest touch.”

“Like I said before, Dad, we’ll never know. And I’m alright with that.”

“I love you, Kayla. For that reason and so many more.”

“I love you, too, Dad.”

When I turned my attention back towards my mother, I was a little shocked to see her crying.

“I should’ve never married that…that…bastard! Look what he did to you! He killed Joanne! I’m sorry!”

I promised myself when I was young that I never would believe any of my mom’s apologies to be true. But now, with the new chapter in my life, I guess I was willingly to rethink that. Things change. People change.