Chapter 10 - Guilt and Shame
Austin's Point Of View
"Everyone knows what to do?" I ask in a whisper to the people gathered around me.
"Yeah, sure, yup, yes," Voices fill the air with shushed tones. I smile; I don't have to go over that again.
"I'm not sure what you mean Austin," Dez, a little absentminded at times, says, "We're supposed to jump up and yell when the lights go on? But they're on right now, why would we turn them off just to turn them back on?"
I roll my eyes at my best friend. Sometimes his questions can become quite ludicrous but he is much better at not sounding dimwitted than he was a few years ago. "Because we want to save on the electricity bill..." My voice trailed off as I felt my phone silently vibrate. I pull my phone out and check the messages. Mr. Dawson sent me a text, warning me they will be arriving momentarily.
"Ok guys, show time!" I flicked the lights off, the sound of footsteps and hush laughter preceding the darkness. I grabbed Dez, who was mindlessly watching everyone rush by, as I rushed by him, pulling him with me to my hiding spot.
Within the span of a few minutes, a car pulls up in the drive way, turning off shortly thereafter. Everyone in the room, no matter if they were making noise or not, stops moving or whispering.
My heart starts beating loudly and I find myself getting impatient. Every noise seems too loud, even my own breathing sounds loud enough to give us away.
The front doorknob jiggles as the slight tinkle of keys are heard through the door.
As the door opens, I peek around the corner of the sofa, trying to see Ally. It has been weeks seen I'd seen her last. My heart almost stops as Mr. Dawson wheels Ally inside. I look at her, her figure lit up by the last rays of sunshine that shine from the open door but at the sight of her, my heart hurts and drops…
She sits in her wheelchair still unable to walk since she hasn't worked on her prosthetic leg in physical therapy.
The once plucky, yet timid girl I knew is now a fragile, delicate and beautiful young woman who will never have the future she should and it's completely my fault.
They don't stop by the door as I had planned but Mr. Dawson stops Ally in the living room, a mere few feet away from me.
I glance over to the corner, barely seeing the outline of my guitar and I wonder, how could I want to sing a song about her? Should I even be here?
My heart plummets further into guilt and shame, and I pull my head back, leaning heavily against the sofa's back. All I want to do now is curl up into a ball or scream my head off, maybe both.
I look up when I feel a hand placed on my shoulder. Dez looks at me with a comforting and encouraging smile. It was if he was trying to tell me everything is going to be alright. This is one of the rare genius moments Dez has.
He is right, I might blame myself for what happened but right now, I have to win Ally back over. I can always get over guilt later.
The lights flick on and in an instant I leap to my feet, along with everyone else.
"SURPRISE!"
Seeing the look on Ally's face only cemented my determination even more. I will not, cannot live with Ally Dawson denying my existence
So sorry about the wait. I have been doing this story on my laptop but I don't get on it very much. Normally I would work on this on my phone but almost two weeks ago my phone went kaput and I have yet to get a new one...
I also have been busy, still will be busy. School (senior year), lots of graphic designing, helping my mom in her event planner business, and trying to teach. I would've put work in there but I am now out of a job... Major plan crasher.
I hope everyone's year has been going well.
BTW, I am still needing an artist to draw this story. Please get with me if you are interested. If you think you suck at drawing but still are interested, send one anyway, you're probably better than I.
~ND~