A/N: here's chapter 3, enjoy!
Chapter 3. 'Brother…'
"Hey ya little," [place synonym for female dog here.] I looked up, disgusted. His words were slurred to the point that they were barely interpretable. A lazy sneer was plastered on his face as he staggered over.
From feet away I could smell the alcohol on him. He steadied himself on a pile of boxes that belonged to Keo, spilling some of his half-emptied bottle of beer on them. I saw Keo's jaw tighten out of the corner of my eye. I gingerly touched his arm, just above his wrist. That was our signal for 'stop.'
My 'brother' mock-scrutinized Keo.
"I see you brought the little cockroach," he slurred, glaring at Keo and very purposefully knocking the stack of boxes down. "Oops," he mouthed with an overly triumphant grin. I noticed Aunty Oshiro—Keo's mom—cringe from the corner of the room. I gave her an apologetic look. Instances like this were common, sadly.
"What do want, Tye? If your trying to make my life hell, as usual, then why don't you just get your intoxicated and probably high self back to wherever you came from and go drink a few more beers," I snorted as I motioned to the green bottle in his hand. "Hopefully you'll pass out somewhere and leave us all in peace for a night, you idiot." As soon as I said it I knew I'd gone a tad, just a tad, overboard. Tye's pakalolo (marijuana) and booze induced smile faded into an angry scowl.
"What did you just say?" he growled, making an effort to stand up straight. I will admit, he was pretty intimidating when he wasn't slumped over and swaying back and forth. Maybe he wasn't as drunk as I thought he was.
My best estimate of his height would be at least six feet tall, maybe an inch or two more. Either way, he was nearly a good foot taller then me. I gulped.
Being my stupid—at times anyway—self, I attempted to act tough.
"I said go. I'm sure—" all I saw was a flash of brown before my head snapped sideways, me falling to the ground in the process. Then I felt the pain.
Tears sprang to my eyes, not because of the pain, but because I was pissed. My hand automatically flew to my face as I worked my jaw, making sure it wasn't damaged.
Finally, I looked back up at Tye, ready to yell at him. He had just bitc—uh, slapped me after all! His hand was still elevated, why it was I did not know. I did notice his eyes, so brown they were nearly black. They were hazed over slightly, from both rage and the high that came along with alcohol and/or drugs.
The corner of his mouth pulled up slightly, as if grinning at the fact that he had brought me to the floor in one snap of his wrist. I was about to stand up and drag him out of the room, he had caused enough trouble, when yet another thing surprised me—Keo.
Keo stepped around me, I wondered when he had gotten so fast, moving closer to Tye. Then I realized it, he was close enough to throw a punch. No! Maybe Tye wouldn't seriously injure me, I was a girl, hurting me would damage his 'rep,' but he would have no such restrictions with Keo.
I heard a fist connect with bone and flesh.
I stood, only moments after Keo's punch connected with Tye's face. Some small part of me took extreme satisfaction in seeing Tye get hit like that, but I knew better. This was trouble.
Glass and booze exploded, a piece slicing my calf, but I didn't worry about that at the moment.
Tye fell, hand lashing out to catch himself, and he did…on a pile of broken glass. He yelped an expletive as the shards embedded themselves in his fleshy palm, blood joined the puddle of booze spreading across the wooden floor.
His eyes refocused, away from his bloody hand, and on Keo. I jumped, planting my feet in between him and Keo, as if I could stop my brother, one of the best street fighters in our school.
My attempt was futile, Tye was like a bulldozer. He threw me aside, into the edge of Keo's dining table, as if I was a rag-doll. I gasped as my side came in contact with the hard wood, it was only slightly painful, but quite a shock. My head followed, making a loud bang—at least to me—as it hit the table. For a moment my vision went black, but it wasn't long enough for me to miss much of the now full-blown fight before me.
Keo was fast, but Tye had a lot more experience fighting, and it was clearly evident. Tye threw his fist at Keo, his whole body rotating with an almost lazy look. I heard a very suspicious thud as his fist made contact with the side of Keo's face
I tried to move as I watched Keo fall to the ground, gasping and clutching the side of his face. His lip was split, and blood steadily dripped out of the wound. Although, his gaze was still determined.
Again, I willed my limbs to move, and this time they listened. Tentatively, I moved into a sitting position, yes I needed to hurry, but falling over again would do nothing for me.
Tye slowly moved towards Keo, exaggerating his presence.
C'mon, c'mon, I thought to myself, carefully I stood up—bad idea. My head throbbed, almost causing me to double over and fall back to the ground. My vision got blurry for a moment, but I could still make out the shape of Tye standing haughtily over Keo…reaching down…grabbing Keo by the shirt, pinning him to the wall. My vision returned to normal.
Keo tried to struggle, get a punch in on Tye, but Tye's free arm pinned both of Keo's to the wall.
I tried to move, taking a step forward, the room began to spin around me. I braced myself against a pile of boxes, they were everywhere, lining a path through the already tiny apartment. My head throbbed again, I paused, squeezing eyes shut and putting my free hand to my temple. I was only about a yard and a half from Tye, who was occupying himself by repeatedly punching Keo in the stomach and face. Tears began to fall from my eyes. How could I be watching this and doing nothing! Keo needed my help and a stupid headache was stopping me!
I saw blood begin to spill from Keo's mouth, he was beyond the point of crying out when he got hit. Why did that idiot challenge Tye? He'd seen him fight at school before, he knew Tye was way better then him… I pushed aside such thoughts and focused on what I would do when I reached Tye. Try to pry him off Keo? Yeah, that would work. Not.
I ended up settling on kicking him hard enough that he'd be distracted. Yeah, good plan. I took another step, flinching at the pain that ripped through my skull with each movement. I began to notice the cut on my leg, it was a lot deeper then I thought.
Could this situation get any worse?
I looked around for anything that I could use as a weapon, hoping I could hit Tye hard enough for him to drop Keo. I noticed two things as I looked around. One, Aunty Oshiro—who I'd, truthfully, forgotten was in the room, she was so small, both short and delicate—was on the phone, speaking frantically to someone, I couldn't care less who it was. I only hoped it was the police. And, two, Thorne was gone. I knew I couldn't really trust him to help, but, once I remembered about him, I wished he had his little flute thing to go attack Tye. I guessed I had no help then.
Just as I pulled my foot back, ready to kick as hard as I could, head still feeling like something inside of it was exploding, the door burst open. Three faces snapped towards the sound, one of them nearly collapsing from the pain the motion caused. One person didn't look—Tye—he continued punching Keo in the face for the 10th time at least. If I was all tipsy from pain, I wondered how Keo felt. I was surprised that he hadn't already blacked out.
Finally, a positive emotion filled me—relief. I wouldn't have to distract Tye after all. My mother stood in the doorway, worry and rage filling her features. Why did seeing my mother, who was just as fragile looking as Aunty Oshiro, make me so relived? Because, she had the landlord with her. If Tye was tall, he was huge. He was about the same height as Tye, an inch or so taller, but he was strong. I had seen him stop fights between people on the street by pinning both of the participants. I did say Tye was a good fighter, at our school. Compared to the rest of NYC? Not so much.
The landlord—Greg—tackled Tye, effectively pulling him away from Keo as well as pinning him to the ground. Tye snarled, almost like an animal as he tried to struggle free with no success.
I fell to the ground, seeing no more reason to try to remain moving. I let my eyes close, falling into a dim abyss where I felt nothing. Much better then the real world, at that moment anyway.
I woke up to a new world. I was surrounded in white, white walls, white floors, and the bed I was in was covered in white sheets. Even the loose dress-like thing I wore was white. Ew, a dress. I moved, propping myself on my arm, wondering where I was. I couldn't hear anything. As I moved, something rustled, and I realized the gown I was in was paper. And my arm had a needle stuck in the skin opposite my elbow. Frantically, I looked around, glad that my head no longer hurt, but I felt drowsy… I attempted to shake the feeling as I took in my surroundings.
I let out a sigh of relief as I saw what was on my left. A bed identical to my own was there, rails on the edges, I wanted to laugh, realizing that Keo was in a bed with rails on the sides. Then I remembered, so was I. Not to mention, the reason we were both here.
Keo's chest rose and fell, I could hear his deep breathing—he was asleep. A slight smile spread across my face. After figuring out how to pull the rail on my own bed down, I focused on the IV and clip type thing on my finger. They were annoying.
I began to hear what was going on outside. There were a lot of painful-sounding noises. I shuddered. By this point, I knew I was in a hospital, in a way that bothered me, but I knew Keo needed medical attention so it was okay. But being forced to sit in a bed, 10 feet away from him, unable to see the extent of the damage done was beginning to get on my nerves.
Forgetting all sense, I pulled the IV out of my arm. It hurt a bit, but I was sure it was nothing compared to whatever Keo felt when he was awake, so I ignored it. Blood beaded up on the wound left behind, I ignored that too. Next was that weird clip. I pulled that off without a second thought, this one didn't hurt.
I carefully placed my feet on the cool floor and stood, using the bed to brace myself. Maybe I felt fine sitting down, but standing up made the world spin, my head began to hurt again, not an explosion of pain, more like an everyday headache…most importantly, it was bearable.
On my bedside table was a glass of cold looking water. I downed the whole thing immediately, not caring whose it was or where it came from. I hadn't even realized how thirsty I was until that point. The water made me feel better, less dizzy and more in control.
Slowly, I moved forward until I reached Keo's bed. I sat in a comfy looking chair by the side of his head, placing my hand on his hair, it was smooth, as if someone had combed it. I knew it wasn't Keo—he never paid attention to his hair other than to brush it away from his electric blue eyes.
My eyes finally registered the bandages. His face was covered in them, as was his whole stomach. I immediately felt horrible. It was my fault that what had happened to him did. Tears began welling up in my eyes. Jeez! I had been getting so emotional lately.
Suddenly, the door at the opposite end of the room burst open, some guy in a long white coat appeared in the doorway, looking determined and worried. My and Keo's mothers followed him. They were all staring, dumbfounded, at the bed I had recently vacated.
"Adri!" my mother yelled, frantic.
"Uhm, yeah mom?" I replied as I stood up—no dizziness or headache this time, fine…I'll admit it, I downed Keo's water too—fighting back laughter.
The guy in white, a doctor I assumed, sprang forward, arms out as if to catch me. This time I couldn't help but burst into laughter. The look on the poor guy's face made the moment even more hilarious. He stared up at me, as if he was somewhere between waiting for me to fall and wondering why the heck I hadn't already collapsed. He remained frozen as my mom rushed towards me.
"Adri!" she exclaimed, smiling, "you're okay! How're you feeling, honey?"
"Other then pretty pissed off at Tye, perfectly fine," I scrunched up my nose then smiled to emphasize my point.
The doctor cut in, eyeing me around my mother, "'Perfectly fine.' You mean, no headache, dizziness, nausea… nothing?" his tone was that of disbelief.
I shook my head. "I had a headache earlier, but I drank some water and I'm fine!" I smiled again to prove my point. Keo and I were away from Tye. Just that fact made me bubbly. The doctor's expression was shocked, I fought the urge to giggle again. "So," I said, putting on a straight face, "How's Keo? He's not seriously hurt is he?"
The doctor came back to life, medical training kicking in. "No, he'll be fine. He has two broken ribs," the doctor pointed to two places on Keo's left side. "Amazingly, his organs weren't damaged at all. But his face has some cuts, and some of them will scar…" the man eyed me, about to cringe, like he expected me to throw a tantrum.
I giggled again, sighing happily. "As long as he's alright… I got no problem with scars." I showed the man my elbows, covered in little white marks from my various outdoor escapades. I was feeling oddly child-like and happy. I was in a hospital and I was happy. Odd.
"The painkillers, hon," Aunty Oshiro said, reading my mind. "They make you a little crazy." She winked, for who knows what reason. But, that did explain my mood.
I sat back down in the chair, the doctor springing all over the opportunity. "Are you okay? Dizzy at all? Any pain?" he blurted the words out, expecting me to answer. I shook my head.
"Just shocked. Not a big fan of hospitals here."
"Well," he said, "you need to go back to your bed. Rest is what you need right now."
"I can rest sitting here just as well as other there," I nodded to the hospital cot, that looked a heck of a lot less comfortable when I looked at it from the side.
He looked at me for a moment, and then capitulated, rolling his grey eyes. For the first time, I really looked at his face. He had kind of long blond hair, lazily smoothed back out of his face. Stubble covered the bottom of his face. Surprisingly enough, it didn't make him look like a hermit. I chuckled inwardly. All of it kind of worked for him. His masculine features matched his height and build pretty well. Although, he was kind of an idiot in a way.
After another moment, he noticed the blood on my arm.
"Jeez!" he said, acting more like a family friend then a doctor, "you could at least not hurt yourself, make my job a little easier?" he mumbled as he turned around and pulled over something that looked like a coat rack with a bag of fluid on it—the IV. He pulled some other unidentifiable thing over as well, putting that weird clip back on my finger.
"This was the reason we ran in," he gave me a pointed look, "leave it be, 'kay? I can't be under the impression that you've died whenever you're annoyed by it." He paused, looking me up and down. "Are you hungry?" the moment he said the words my stomach growled. "Guess you don't really need the IV… considering you oh so delicately ripped the thing out of your arm." He chuckled as he cleaned and bandaged my arm. I blushed, realized that ripping the thing out of my arm was exactly what I'd done. Oops? "I'll tell a nurse to bring some lunch," he said as he left the room.
A few seconds after he left, I turned to my mom. "Who the heck was that?" I asked.
"Old family friend?" she offered, shrugging. I contemplated, deciding to drop the subject as I faced Keo again. He would be fine. Keo would be fine. I let out a sigh of relief as I put my hand back on his hair.
The door burst open again, causing me to jump.
Thorne walked in, face tense.
"Thorne!" Aunty Oshiro and my mother said together. How did they know him?
"What are you doing here?" my mother said.
Thorne looked straight at me, brown eyes serious.
"I need to break you out of here."
A/N: if you're reading this I assume you read the chapter, I hope it was good. And I'm sorry for not getting them to camp Half Blood already, but there's so much other stuff I wanted to write! Now I'm babbling... sorry, again. Well, please review you're opinion. Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thanks =)
