‘Listen, mate, you’re jumping to the wrong conclusion. You should trust your girlfriend. She cares for you, and that’s not something you should take for granted.’
Whack! His right fist smashes into my jaw, knocking me to my knees.
Man, I didn’t see that coming.
‘Adam!’ Sophie screams. ‘What are you doing?’ She struggles to escape Josh’s arms but they’re braced like iron bands around her waist. ‘Let me go, Josh!’ He doesn’t respond. ‘What’s the matter with you? Let me go!’
He continues to stare straight ahead.
‘Josh? Josh!’ She catches my eye and shakes her head. She can’t explain what’s going on any more than I can. She tries again, ‘Think about what you’re doing, Josh.’
Josh tries not to look at Sophie’s big pleading eyes staring up at him.
‘Josh,’ she pleads, ‘we’re friends, aren’t we? I made you a chocolate cake for your birthday.’
Finally she gets through to him. ‘I’m sorry, Soph, but I saw you two with my own eyes.’
‘Saw what exactly? Jordan and I have been out here talking, that’s all.’
When he doesn’t answer, I yell at him, ‘You saw nothing cos there was nothing to see.’
‘Go on, Josh,’ Skinner pipes up, keeping his eyes fixed on me as I inch my way into a better position. ‘Tell her how we saw the two of them meet up at the front desk like they obviously planned, then cosy up together every chance they got. And when that wasn’t enough, they came out here for privacy!’
‘I came on my own!’ Sophie protests. ‘Jordan came with Danny Webber. They just happened to walk in at the same time as me. Adam, we didn’t plan to meet, I swear!’
‘Danny was your cover. And you know how I know that? You couldn’t wait to sneak out the back without him.’
Sophie groans. ‘It wasn’t like that! I can explain everything. We’ll go somewhere quiet, just the two of us. Tell this brute to let me go. And if you don’t take me seriously, I’ll report this to the cops.’
‘Shut up, Sophie! I saw all I needed with my own eyes. Evidence doesn’t come better than that.’
‘But, Adam …’ Sophie’s voice softens. ‘I know what happened to Seth.’
Everyone freezes. Even the cat picking at the hole in the garbage bag suddenly stops. Realising she’s made a mistake, she reaches out to Skinner’s other pal, Damien Hall, with her eyes, but there’s no help there. He knows mentioning Skinner’s brother is a forbidden topic, especially today of all days.
‘You know nothing about my brother,’ Skinner hisses, and pointing at me says, ‘You dumped me for him? If it were anyone else, maybe we could talk, but him? From now on you are nothing to me. You’re dust!’
Sophie gasps. She’s never seen this side to her boyfriend before and it’s clearly scaring her half to death. ‘How can you dismiss me as if I’m nothing after these last three months?’
He turns slowly as if he’s listening, but then he raises his hand and sucks air in loudly, making a torrid hissing sound through the gap in his front teeth. ‘You cheated on me with the person who destroyed my family.’
Whack! He slaps Sophie in the face with the open palm of his hand.
It shocks everyone.
Sophie whimpers in disbelief, ‘You hit me.’ She lifts a trembling hand to her cheek.
Stunned, Josh loosens his hold. Sophie breaks free and charges at Skinner with both fists flailing. ‘Don’t you ever! Don’t you ever raise a hand to me again!’
Josh and Damien pull her off, leaving Skinner completely open to me for the first time and, those two momentarily occupied, I ball my right fist and jab him across the bridge of his nose.
Enraged and in pain, he grabs my arm and twists it behind my back. ‘Think you can get away with that, do you? You’re a weakling, a girl, a weak little girl!’ He continues to yank and twist my arm. Over the top of my head he yells at Sophie, ‘I don’t understand why you would pick this loser.’
‘Adam, stop! What does it take to get through to you?’
‘You’re a moron, Skinner,’ I yell. ‘Do you think Sophie will stick with you now? You just lost the best thing you’ve ever had when you hit her. She’s not going back to you now, not ever, man.’
‘Shut up, Blake!’
When this doesn’t work, I try to reason with Adam’s mates. ‘You guys want to risk going to jail all over a misunderstanding? You’re dumber than I thought!’
‘Shut up!’ Skinner bellows, dragging me to the brick wall, where he starts punching me in the gut and yelling at Damien to give him a hand. Damien rushes over and hauls me to my feet. Glaring at me, Skinner knees me in the back, then kicks me with his left boot.
After a few more minutes of this, Damien releases me, steps back and says to Skinner, ‘Mate, I can’t do this.’
I slide to the ground.
The kicking doesn’t stop.
Meanwhile, Sophie is screaming. She breaks free from Josh, hollering accusations at the two friends. ‘You should be stopping him before he ends up doing time for this!’ They stand back but do nothing. ‘You’re both pathetic.’
‘He tried to steal my girl. It’s what he deserves,’ Adam says, pointing to my beaten body sprawled on the ground.
‘That’s bullshit!’ I tell him. ‘This goes back years.’
Finally Skinner stops and stares down at me, gloating. ‘You’re right. I should have done this a long time ago.’
Hurting in more places than I can count, I scramble to my feet. Broken, but not dead yet, I ram my head into Skinner’s gut. He doubles over, winded. Trying to keep the momentum going I ball my fist again, and connect with the underside of his chin, then again with his nose. He sinks to his hands and knees and, gasping, scuttles away like a rat.
Skinner will get his breath back in a few seconds, so time is short. I look at Josh and Damien. I don’t think they will stop me if I take Sophie and run. They glance at each other with confused looks. This is more than they had bargained for.
Standing in the darkness, Skinner appears as a ghost, hunched over and breathing heavily, blood dribbling from his nose. He steps out of the shadows, eyes on fire with rage. That’s when we all see the empty beer bottle in his hand. He smashes it over the banister rail, breaking off the end. Glass scatters across the concrete.
Did I say how twisted this world is?
The golden glass glistens under the light of the single globe hanging above the club’s exit. I hold my hands up, palms out, as Skinner points the bottle at me and I’m thinking I’m screwed cos Skinner is out of control. I knew he would snap one day.
He’s reached the point beyond reason, but I still have to try. ‘Adam, listen to me, man. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry for what I did. We can walk away from this peacefully if you put the bottle down. At least let Sophie walk away. She has nothing to do with the real reason we’re here.’
Josh stares at Skinner as if he doesn’t recognise him. He’s no help at all. I try to reach Skinner again. ‘Dude, remember how it used to be. I loved Seth too. He was like … man, you two were my brothers! I never meant for Seth to die. If I could go back, I’d choose differently. I swear I would take his place.’
My words only enrage him more. But at least Josh comes to his senses and tries to make Skinner see reason. ‘Adam, come on, mate. This has gone too far,’ he says. ‘We were just supposed to shake him up a bit. Not this. And … and … what if they’re telling the truth? You could be making a big mistake.’
‘Shut up, Josh. Just shut up!’
Damien says, ‘Mate, I can’t be found here if this goes bad, and it’s bad enough already. You never mentioned hurting her!’ Glancing briefly at each other, Josh and Damien start backing away.
‘Wait!’ Sophie yells after them.
They don’t look back.
Disgusted, Sophie yells, ‘Cowards! I thought he was your friend!’
‘Sophie, stay back,’ I call out before she makes a rash move. Skinner’s friends are gon
e, but that doesn’t mean he’s any less dangerous. ‘Go around to the front and get help.’
She shakes her head. ‘I’m not leaving while this maniac is aiming a broken bottle at you.’
‘He needs help, Sophie. Please, get help.’
She scans the ground for her handbag. Running to it, she gets out her mobile phone and calls the cops.
Undaunted, Skinner blocks the stairs by moving in front of them. ‘Calling the cops won’t help,’ he taunts. ‘They won’t get here fast enough to save your new boyfriend.’ He turns his attention to me. ‘I should never have let you get away with killing my brother. Consider yourself lucky I allowed you to live this long.’
The door swings open and Danny steps on to the platform. ‘There you are!’ Oblivious to what’s unfolding before him, it takes him a moment to figure out something is wrong. ‘I was wondering where you two had gone.’ And then, ‘What’s going on?’ He steps down on to the top stair.
‘Go back!’ I take my eyes off Skinner for a second to gesture to Danny. ‘Get security out here, quickly.’
But a second is all it takes for Skinner to charge. The sharp inhalation of air screeching through his front teeth is my warning, but it’s not enough. He slams into my chest, plunging the jagged glass into my gut. It rips through my shirt, my skin, the muscles of my stomach and everything in its path. I drop instantly forward into his arms. Holding me up with one arm, he twists his hand, driving the glass upwards, shredding my insides as if his purpose is not to stop until he pierces my heart.
I glance up, our eyes connect, and instantly I know two things for certain. One is that I’m looking into the eyes of someone who has lost his grip on reality, and two, I’m going to die.
It occurs so quickly it starts to feel surreal, as if I’m watching it happen to someone else. Sophie and Danny reach me simultaneously, pulling Skinner off and tossing him to the ground. From there he crawls past the bags of garbage along the back wall, scrambles to his feet and disappears into the night.
Automatically my hands search for the broken bottle. They fold around the glass, still stuck in me, slippery with my blood. I look up through a growing haze, my brain registering pain from front to back, rapidly becoming excruciating. Everything that follows is a blur. I hear sirens in the distance. People are pouring out of the club, their faces curious, alarmed, horrified. Danny and Sophie support me, one on each side. I’m still clutching the bottle with Danny’s hand now folded around mine. They talk over me, frantically discussing whether they should or shouldn’t remove it.
A security guard takes a look. ‘Don’t touch it!’ he orders. ‘Right now it’s acting as a plug. Release it, and he’s gone.’
Gone? Dying, he means. I know that. He orders a staff member to bring a blanket, then tells Danny to lay me down. ‘Flat on his back,’ he says. ‘Here, I’ll help you.’
My mind drifts. It’s a strange sensation, as if part of me is floating while the rest is heavy as mud. I get a moment of clarity. ‘Where’s Skinner?’
‘Beats me,’ Danny says, ‘but the cops will find him. His life is over, man.’
Like mine … It seems an alluring thought.
No life, no pain. Right?
This life was too hard anyway.
But it was getting better, remember? You met that girl tonight, the girl of your dreams.
Yeah, and now I’ll never get her number … never get her name … never …
I close my eyes, drifting in a fog, but Danny urges me to stay awake, his voice breaking through my thoughts. ‘Don’t shut those pretty blues of yours, OK? Stay with me, Jordy.’
I open them and see Sophie. ‘Where is that ambulance?’ She sounds scared.
There is blood everywhere, saturating my clothes, sticking to my legs, all over Danny and Sophie. She shakes her head. ‘Forget the blood. They’ll give you more at the hospital.’
I feel myself drifting once again, but then I hear Danny pleading as if from a distance, ‘Stay with us, Jordan. Come on, buddy. Stay focused, man!’
Sirens bleat loudly and an ambulance reverses into the lane. Two paramedics leap out and start working on me. The urgency in their voices scares me more than the sight of all the blood. They put me on to a gurney and gingerly take over the bottle-holding. My hand slides away.
Danny and Sophie stay close as the gurney starts moving, and Danny asks, ‘I can come to the hospital, right?’
I don’t hear the reply because a girl steps into my line of sight and for a second there is nothing else but her. It’s the girl of my dreams.
A grey haze swims before my eyes, making everything blurry, and now the girl with the violet eyes and Sophie are side by side.
Maybe my mind is playing tricks on me. I have a broken beer bottle carving up my insides; it’s not outrageous to be seeing things.
They slide me into the ambulance. Danny tries to climb in after us, but the paramedic stops him. All I can do is hold on to the three stricken faces until the door closes. Then I give in to the pull of the darkening haze.
7
Ebony
Kids with shocked faces fill the corridor near the exit. It doesn’t take long to figure out something terrible has happened outside. I stare at the people around me but Jordan is not among them and my stomach sinks like a rock dropped into deep water.
Something is wrong.
Two security guards in their black T-shirts push past us, one carrying a blanket. Amber murmurs, ‘This doesn’t look good.’
‘No.’ There is an urgency escalating inside me now. Somehow I know Jordan Blake, the guy with the sad blue eyes, needs my help. I start pushing people out of my way, careful not to shove and possibly hurt someone.
Amber calls out, worried about what I’m doing, but I don’t know what I’m doing!
Finally I’m outside, overlooking a chaotic scene. There are people everywhere, blue lights flashing from two police cars, another arriving with its siren blaring, and an ambulance with its rear door open wide.
When I see him, something inside me jerks and I stagger forward, stumbling down a few steps. It’s Jordan, and he’s dying. I know this like I know my own name. He’s lying flat on the ground with the new girl from my physics class, Sophie, down on her knees on one side of him, and another boy from my year on the other. It’s clear they are trying to keep him from bleeding to death, with their clenched fists pushing down on pressure points above and below a wound to his stomach. Someone has stabbed him and it doesn’t look like an accident. Sophie’s face is coming out in a bruise, her right cheek gleaming bright red.
A security guard moves through the crowd, ordering everyone inside. I slip around him while his back is turned.
This is my chance.
The paramedics are working fast to strap the boy to a gurney and hook up an intravenous line. His friends are now standing aside. Sophie turns and notices the gawking crowd still hanging around. ‘Hey! Get lost! This isn’t a freak show!’ She spots me and hesitates, probably recognising me from school, or sees my concern in the anguish that must be showing in my eyes. ‘Ebony, are you OK?’
‘I have to talk to him.’
The gurney starts moving towards the ambulance parked a few metres away. Sophie notices, but turns to study my face again. Blood drips from her soaked hands. She doesn’t know what to do with them so just holds them out in front of her. ‘Are you his girlfriend?’
Girlfriend? How well does she know this guy if she thinks I could be his girlfriend? Apparently not well enough to know the intimate details of his life. ‘Ah, no, I’m not.’
‘Friend?’
‘Er …’ It takes a moment to reach for the right word. At my hesitation her eyes flare with white-hot anger.
‘You don’t know him at all! You’re like the rest of these vultures.’ She flicks her head at the crowd, holding their phones in the air, taking pictures. ‘Go back inside and take the rest of these sick losers with you.’
She rushes over to the gurney and takes Jordan?
??s hand. Unable to stop myself, and not understanding what’s driving this odd, compelling urge to touch him, I run over too and grab hold of the gurney. I try to get his attention.
But he’s in shock and dazed. His eyes close and open several times as he looks from one side of the gurney to the other. He’s fighting to hang on to consciousness.
I don’t know what’s got into me, but I’ve got this inexplicable yearning to help him. I can see I’m adding to his confusion, but I can’t stop myself.
Looking down at the injured boy I whisper, ‘I can help you. You just have to let me. Do you understand what I’m saying?’
I manage to hold on to the gurney for a few more seconds before a paramedic attempts to prise my fingers away. ‘Let go or I’ll have you arrested!’
I step back, feeling helpless as the ambulance door closes. Blue lights flashing, the ambulance rushes away, and I’m left standing, an emptiness searing me from the inside out.
8
Jordan
A woman’s gravelly voice calls my name and demands I open my eyes. She sounds so much like my fifth-grade teacher Mrs Barnes, I open them right away.
‘He’s awake, doctor!’
A woman in a white coat bends over me and shines a pencil-thin beam into my eyes. ‘Hello, Jordan. I’m Dr Beth Reinhardt.’
‘Where am I?’
‘You’re in Cedar Oakes Regional Hospital. You have a broken beer bottle in your abdomen.’ I feel my eyes start to roll up into my head. ‘Stay with me, Jordan. Good. That’s good. Now, listen and don’t talk. You have sustained serious injuries to your liver and spleen, causing you to bleed internally. It’s imperative we operate now. Do you understand, Jordan?’
I blink and she takes this for a yes. My eyes drift to my middle and she gently pushes on my shoulders. ‘Don’t be alarmed,’ she says, her voice starting to come in fragments, ‘Too deep … remove in surgery … stay with me, Jordan.’
Through the haze I hear her explain how they’re going to operate without parental permission; that it’s too urgent to wait.
‘Your friends Danny and Sophie –’ I blink slowly to let her know I’m following – ‘who managed to beat the ambulance to the hospital –’ she smiles briefly – ‘explained about your state guardian, Lillian Fisher. One of my staff is letting her know you’re on your way to surgery now.’