Chapter Sixteen

Once again I open my eyes the way I had before; to a bright light. I squint but my vision doesn’t clear. I close them.

            I depend on my sense of feel for the time being. Something heavy is at the foot of my bed; or someone, lying down sleeping because my legs are balled up. My left hand is on someone’s head…a guy’s. The only person I can think of is Julian. He’s the only one I do that to. Suddenly I remember Julian and Ivy saying something to me before I fell asleep. From this, I conclude that Ivy is the one sleeping down there.

My right hand is around someone, on their back. Their head is on my side. This person is bigger than Julian; more grown up. Dad?

I’m panicking now. Where the hell am I?! Something’s beeping loudly now. Is that from me? I try to calm myself quickly and when I do the beeping quiets and slows to a moderate pace. I hadn’t noticed that before. I think of The Bride from Kill Bill. “Wiggle your big toe.” I need my eyes to work. Why aren’t my eyes working?

I feel my Dad move. He sits up and moves some hair out of my face, his habitual gesture of concern for me.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers.

He places my arm on my bed. I hear his feet walking away from me then I hear the door.

“Daddy.”

“Kendall?”

“Ivy?”

I feel her body move from my feet to take the place of my father.

“How ya’ feeling? Like crap?”

I smile then it fades. “I can’t see.”

“Well, your eyes are closed.”

I open them and still, I can see the light but nothing else. I hear a sharp intake of breath from her.

“What?”

“Your eyes are grey. Not Julian grey but dull grey, almost white.”

“My eyes are brown.”

She doesn’t say anything.

            “I’m blind?”

            “Don’t panic. It may be temporary.”

            I feel the hyperventilation beginning.

            “I’m blind.”

            “Kendall-

            Before I know it, I’m screaming. I’m blind and screaming.

            I feel Julian jump. Something breaks on the floor. The door bursts open.

            “What’s going on?”

            “Kendall, stop screaming.”

            I do. That voice sounds familiar.

“Donny?”

            “And Derrick.”

            I sit up and reach my hands out. I feel Donny on my left and Derrick on my right. I wrap my arms around them and cry harder than I did the night before.

            “What’ wrong? What happened?” Derrick asks when I release them.

            “I can’t see,” I sniffle.

            “What do you mean?”

            “I mean I’m blind.”

            The room goes silent.

            “Well, do your job and fix her before I sue this hospital for everything its worth,” my Dad commands, to a doctor I’m assuming.

            I hear a Velcro-ish noise and feel cool material go around my right arm. There’s some squeezing, some hissing then he says, “Her blood pressure is 186/104.”

            “Why’s it so high?” my father asks.

            “Kendall, have you been under any stress at all; from work, friends, siblings, your father, a boyfriend-

            “She doesn’t have a boyfriend,” my father chimes in aggressively.

            “A coach maybe?” the doctor finishes.

            I lower my eyes and feel Ivy’s hand on my leg. I give in to the fact that she knows everything now.

            “No. No stress.”

            “Don’t lie, Kendall,” Derrick states in an undertone.

            My eyes look to where I know he is on my right.

            He’s always been this way; lovingly aggressive. Not like Dad. He had confidence in and for me. He was always very firm with me. Telling me I could do without a doubt in his mind. He’s never used the words might or maybe with me. I simply was and am to him. And I believed him. I was strong. I was confident. I was all the things he believed me to be. Then he and Donny packed up their lives along with my confidence and left. My father checked me back into reality and I relapsed drastically into a self-loathing wallow of misery.

            The direction of my thoughts reminds me that people are waiting for my response.

            “Kendall?” I hear the doctor say soothingly.

            “Yes?” I respond politely, acutely aware of my father’s presence.

            “What’s stressing you out?”

            I take a deep breath, “All of the above. But I don’t have a job.”

            “Or a boyfriend,” he chimes back in.

            “I don’t feel stressed,” I groan.

            “It could be that you’re so used to the weight that you don’t notice it anymore.”

            “What does she need to do?” Derrick inquires.

            “Just take it easy while you’re here. If your vision’s not back by the time visitation is over, we’ll keep you until tomorrow morning. In which case, your sight should have returned.”

            “Really?!” I exclaim.

            “Really.”

            “And if it hasn’t?” I hear Donny ask.

            “Lets pray it does. In the mean time, you all need to remember to keep your conversations with her light. Have fun. Talk about things you all like: movies, music, food. I don’t care. As long as it’s nothing heavy.”

            “We’ll make sure of that,” Donny says in his QB voice.

            The doctor leaves the room.

            “I’m going to go speak to the doctor a little more about this.”

            “Alright, Dad,” the twins say in unison.

            I hear the door close.

            “Where’s Will?”

            “He couldn’t make it,” Ivy says.

            “Who’s Will?” Donny asks.

            “The boyfriend I don’t have. Dad knows nothing about him and I’d like to keep it that way.”

            “I’ll take care of him when he shows,” Julian proclaims.

            “Why didn’t either of you give him a ride?”

            “Because I don’t like him,” Ivy and Julian say simultaneously.

            I sigh.

            “I would apologize but I’m not sorry,” Ivy announces. “We both know who I’m in favor of.”

            I smack my lips, “Yeah.”

            Donny places his hand on my shoulder and I feel the clothe slide off. I cringe.

            “Stress has nothing to do with why you’re in here. What happened?”

            “We’re supposed to be keeping it light,” Julian speaks up.

            “We’re her brothers. We deserve to know what’s really going on,” Donny says with more force this time.

            I know Julian’s backing off simply because he respects them, they’re his mentors and he wants to get to the bottom of this just as badly as the next person.

            I feel everyone’s eyes on me. I try to put myself in my father’s shoes. What would he have told them? How would he explain the many different shapes and sizes of the bruises on my tired, battered body?

            My mouth opens, “I fell down the stairs. I’ve been so tired lately that I can barely keep my eyes open these days. And you guys know how slippery they can be sometimes with me getting in and out of the pool. He wanted to take me to the emergency room but at the time I felt fine. I only had a few bruises here and there; nothing too serious. At least that’s what I thought.”

            “You fell down the stairs?” Donny repeated. “How dumb do you think we are? You’re insulting us right now. Do you really expect us to believe that?”

            “Yes.”

            “How about one of you? The truth. Do either of you have it?”

            He looks at my friends.

            “Someone’s beating the crap out of her,” Ivy says, simply.

            “What the hell?!” Donny, Derrick and I say together, me for an entirely different reason.

            “Is this true?” Derrick asks indignant.

“Well, of course not,” I practically shout.

It goes quiet and since Ivy already answered, I assume all eyes are on Julian who cannot lie to them.

            “It’s true.” I hear defeat in his voice.

            “Who is it? Tell us now,” Derrick growls. He is the more hostile of the two.

            “It’s no one!”

            They can’t make me talk. There’s nothing they can blackmail me with and they wouldn’t dare raise a hand to me.

            “You want to go to Northwestern with us, right?” Donny asks.

            “Of course.”

            “If you don’t tell us, we’ll make sure you don’t get in. We’ve got pull with the deans because of the attention we’re bringing to the school.”

            “You don’t know what you’re saying,” I reply.

            “Tell us.”

            This would ruin everything. What did I want more; a father who wasn’t in jail or to be with my brothers?

            “Well?” Derrick prods.

            “I won’t say.”

            “D****t, Kenny!” Derrick barks.

            I hear the door open.

            “What’s going on in here?”

            “Dad, maybe you can talk some sense into her. Someone is been beating up on her and she won’t tell us who it is,” Donny explains.

            The culprit is standing right next to you, I think to myself.

            “What kind of nonsense is this?” he inquires, playing along.

            “Boys, please. Just drop it. Please,” I begin to cry.

            “She’s supposed to be taking it easy,” Ivy snarls and it sounds directed at my brothers.

            “You’re right. We’re sorry, Kendall. Don’t cry.”

            I feel someone kiss my forehead.

            “I’ll see you later, Dilly. I have to head over to the office. Will you be okay with your brothers?”

            “Sure.”

            He leaves the room.

            “This isn’t over,” Derrick says.

            “We have to fly back later tonight but when we find out who it is, we will definitely be back,” Donny promises.

            “Julian. We need to talk,” Derrick announces and I hear the door open.

            Feet move away from me and the door closes.

            “It’s just us girl now,” Ivy informs me.

            “That was close.”

            “Not close enough.”

            I don’t say anything to that. I feel her come sit next to me.

            “I have something to tell you and then it’ll be up to you if you still want to be friends or not.”

            “What?”

            “Before my family moved here, we lived in Portland, Oregon. My best friend’s name was Audrey. We met in fifth grade and the rest is history. I loved her. I’d do anything for her. In our relationship, much like yours and mine, I was the guardian. She meant so much to me. I’d do anything for her.

            “In eighth grade, she got really into guys. She got kind of loose but I was always able to reel her in. She listened to me. If I told her that she need to dump someone, she was on it. She trusted me and I never took advantage of that. If I didn’t like a guy but I knew he made her happy and was good to her, I let it be.

            “Well, she met this guy, Chris, the summer before we started high school and I could tell right off the back that he was bad news. He looked a filthy kind of grungy, he was working or in school. He just existed. He was nineteen and he wanted Audrey. He pursued her throughout summer and she finally gave in just before school started.

            “I didn’t like him and she knew it but I didn’t say anything. That is until I started to notice the bruises. She was becoming flinchy and defensive. She was always blowing me off saying that Chris thought I was a bad influence and he didn’t want her hanging around with me as much. I didn’t like that. Our paths crossed one day and I told him I know he was beating her and trying to control her. He said he didn’t care what I knew. She was his. I warned him that if she came to school again with bruises, he’d hear from me. He found that funny.

            “You can guess what happened after that. It was a Wednesday. She came to school with a black eye. She tried to tell me that it wasn’t him but I didn’t believe her. She’d do, say, anything to protect him. I promised her that he’d never lay another hand on her but she kept insisting that it wasn’t him. On Friday night, I went by where I knew he lived. He was on the porch smoking. When he finished, he went inside but left the door open. I went in after him.

            “I told him I’d go to the cops if he didn’t leave her alone. I was so naïve thinking blackmail would work. He didn’t like that so he came after me. He slapped me around nice and good but I wouldn’t let him kill me before I got him off the streets for Audrey. Our tussle led to the kitchen. He was choking me with my back against the sink. I was gonna die. But I managed to reach back and grab hold of a knife. I stabbed him in his neck. His eyes glazed over almost immediately and I could breathe again. I knew he was dead and I knew that deep down I’d killed him on purpose. I could have easily stabbed him in the stomach or arm but I didn’t.

            “One of his friends ended up showing up and called the police. I was arrested but after all the court and trails and everything, I was found not guilty. It was considered self-defense. But even after all that, she never spoke to me again. I’d killed her beloved boyfriend. Everyone looked at me different and finally, my parents figured it was time for us to get a fresh start somewhere else.”

            I watch her shake her head and laugh to herself.

            “It’s ironic that I end up right back where we started.” She goes quiet. “Kendall, I’m telling you this because I feel like you needed to know. And I don’t care if you don’t want to be friends anymore because if I’ve learned nothing else, I learned this, do what you have to to save someone you love. Audrey may not be talking to me anymore but she’s not talking to Chris either. The same goes for you. I’ll stop your dad one way or the other just like I did Chris.”

            “I won’t let you kill my father.”

            “I won’t let him kill you.”

            I feel her touch my arm then I hear her leave the room.

            I’m left to think about what I just heard.

 

 

Reviews

[Samantha Lynn]

FINALLY!!!! lol, I love the blindness issue. it gives the story an extra twist. good job! XD