Chapter 10:

For the rest of the day, everything seems like a blur.

Mrs. Martin picks Cody up—he's too shocked to tell her who hurt him. She looks at me like I should have done something, but how could I? I tried, and she finally gets it, with this sympathetic look she gives me. By this time, Zack's out here, and he's telling her he had no idea what happened because he was at basketball. He's putting on a sob story act, bawling about how he's so mad he couldn't have saved Cody because he loves his brother and how he should have known because his twin connection was hurt. Yeah right, what a bunch of watermelon seeds.

She buys it. People always buy Zack's sad stories—I hate it.

Anyway, she drives me home—even though I tell her I'd rather not go home—and she drops me off. I feel really bad because her whole car seat is covered with pink paint and it smells sort of funny—but hey, her son did it. I don't say anything. It's up to Zack to confess, or Cody to tell on him. I know Cody won't though. He still loves Zack even after what his stupid brother did to us. Why didn't he run? Why'd he just sit there and stare at me like an idiot when I told him we had to get out of there? I'm not that strong, I can't lift more than one hundred pounds and run with it, no matter how skinny Cody really is.

She parks and I climb out of the car, noticing the lovely picture that has been painted on the car's seat.

I ring the doorbell of my house, and my dad opens it. Oh God. I look around at the driveway, and my mom's car isn't parked there.

Woohoo. Bonding time with Daddy.

My dad waves to Mrs. Martin, and then slams the door shut after I've gotten in the house.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE NOW?"

I don't blame him this time. I really don't. I mean, my hair is all plastered together with light yellow paint, my shirt is covered in pink paint, my face has little dried paint flecks all over it, my pants are purple, and when I walk, my shoes squirt out white paint.

I don't answer him. I know that that's going to really tick him off, but I don't really care anymore. He can kill me.

"ANSWER ME BOY!" he yells.

I just walk by like I didn't hear him. I'm not surprised when he kicks me from behind in the legs and I fall down. Pretty soon he's on me and my head's hurting because I think he's kicking me from behind. Oh well, I've lived for a couple of years—I guess I don't need anymore. He's screaming at me, but I don't seem to hear him anymore. Everything's just all blurry and I can't tell anything apart. This pain hits me, and I guess this is what it's like to die as everything goes black.

xxx

When I wake up it seems like 10 million hours later, which I remind myself it probably is. I have a killer headache, and when I raise up my head to see where I am, I think my head is going to split itself in half. I put my head down immediately, but not before I've seen where I am.

A hospital. The walls are white, I've got a cast on my arm, and Cody's sitting in a chair, sleeping, his head resting on his shoulder. His eyes are red, so I can tell he's been crying. Yeah, what's going on?

I try to lift up my head again, but it hurts so much I let out a small moan.

Cody's eyes flash open. "Tape!"

"Yeah?" I mutter.

"Oh my God, you're awake!" He looks across to my other side where I haven't looked and keeps yelling. "Tapeworm's awake! Tapeworm's awake! TAPEWORM'S AWAKE!"

Yeah, ok, I know I'm awake, and Cody's voice sounds as loud as a Fall Out Boy concert. How loud is he screaming? Is he trying to wake up King Tut? The mummy's dead, stupid. I close my eyes and try to drown out his voice.

Pretty soon someone's shaking me really hard and yeah, it's Cody. His eyes are so excited and happy that I really can't get mad at him. I've told you a lot about those eyes.

Someone pulls Cody off me, and I look up. My blood almost freezes. It's Zack.

I bring my eyes away from him, but Zack stops me. "Tapeworm. I need to talk to you."

"Ok…" I break off warily. But before he can say anything, my mother pops seemingly out of nowhere and hugs me so hard I can't breathe.

"Oh my God, Sean, I'm so sorry, I didn't know." She's almost as hysterical as Cody when he starts hyperventilating after he eats too much sugar. "I'm so sorry, I left you home with that man, I should have come home, I should have babysat you, I should have known better. I didn't know. I'm sorry. Don't hate me, please forgive me…" She's babbling away like a broken record and all I can do is sort of pat her and hug her back weakly. "I should have done something, why didn't I notice the bruises? I'm so stupid, I'm such a bad mother, I shouldn't have left you home alone, you're too young, you're too small… I'm so glad I kicked that man out of my house, I'm sorry. I'm sorry Sean."

"It's ok," I say weakly. Then I realize what she just said. "Wait, you kicked Dad out?"

"Well after I got the call, of course I kicked your dad out! I've already gotten divorced, and he's spending awhile in jail, Sean." My mom talks a lot when she gets the chance. Did I ever tell you that? She's going on about how sorry she is even though I already told her it was ok.

I guess I get the talkative genes from her.

I'm curious. "What call?"

She looks around warily and closes her mouth. That is strange for my mom. She's always talking away all excitedly. She looks close at me and kisses my head. "I'm sorry Sean."

She gets up and gets ready to leave the room. Cody follows her, and Mrs. Martin, who has been sitting there quietly the whole time gets up and leaves to. Cody winks at me and mouths, "Zack wanted to talk to you."

Wow. My mom's leaving. It must be a big deal.

Silence settles over the room and Zack takes a deep breath. He opens his mouth to get ready to speak, and closes it, like he can't believe he's doing this. He opens it again, reminding me of a stupid goldfish.

"Tapeworm…"

Review? Haha, next chapter this story will probably be finished.