Title: Blame us cause we are who we are and hate us cause you'll never get that far
Author: alienangel19852003
Rating: M, language and adult situations
Summary: AU. Enter a world where Phil's the rebel, Pim's the well behaved proper girl. Keely's the shy girl, Seth Wassumer is the most popular guy in school. Owen's a closeted cheerleader and Keely's only friend. Whenever I hear a specific song I try to put whatever characters I'm working with together to see if they fit the song, this time I had to rework things so it would fit. Extremely OOC….for nearly all of the characters.
Disclaimer: I do NOT own POTF. If I did for starters it wouldn't be on the Disney Channel it would be on the WB or Fox and it sure as hell wouldn't be cancelled.
Author's Note: Just a little noteski, um...song title come from Lifehouse's Spin, from the ablum Stanley Climbfall. This chapter came faster than I thought it would, and it'll probably make this one of three of the longest stories I've ever written and it's not even at ten chapters yet. I really dig this story, and I hope you all like the chapter. L8R skaters...xoxo Christine...
"Let you turn me inside out"
Phil was sitting alone in his hospital room, Keely had been released two weeks ago into the custody of her grandmother. Bryce was being brought up on charges for the true allegations of abuse. The full meaning of his condition had finally set in, he couldn't walk. He didn't remember anything about the accident, had he been conscious Via would never have been given his keys he knew that much for sure.
During the week or so hat he'd been in the hospital, his parents had finally separated. His mother had totally snapped on his father right in his hospital room on one of the many days he was feeling rather antisocial and wouldn't talk to anyone. He really tried to come to terms with what had happened and that things could really be worse he could be dead.
But then he countered that with the fact that he wouldn't have half the freedom he once in enjoyed he would be strapped to a chair for the rest of his life, never again feeling the blades of grass against his bare feet, never being able to swim, and worse yet he didn't think any of his male parts worked anymore.
He didn't know what to do about the Keely situation. He'd been avoiding her for the past four or five days since he'd found out in detail his limitations. He'd been ashamed, sad, angry, and about two hundred other emotions he hadn't yet processed.
He felt broken like half a man, he was more angry with himself than anything, it was his fault for getting so drunk that he didn't know what the fuck happened. His only thought was of how his life would be from here on out an angry lonely dependent existence. He was sitting in his wheelchair, staring out of the window at the hospital parking lot. He saw a familiar car pull into a parking spot. A sliver late model Cadillac.
He watched as three blondes got out of the car, he recognized one of them as his own sister. His mother had left only minutes before he wondered if they were seeing him in shifts. He could be pretty mean to all of them, it was such a raw deal for all of them involved but there wasn't much he could do about any of it.
He felt phantom pains in his legs, and loss in his heart. He hadn't had time to think about Via's death. He was too angry with her, to do so.
"Hey Phil," Calli said causally, as the three girls entered.
"I brought you some Starburst, is the original kind." Pim told him as she set two huge bags of candy on the table.
He glanced at it finding the candy rather unappealing.
"And I brought you something else." Keely said leaning over and kissing him on the cheek.
"It's not like I can get it up anymore." He whispered bitterly.
She stood up straight, "Phil…"
"What? I can't get it up. Why do you even try Keely? You need a man who can make love to you."
"Phil, please let's not get into that. I want to be with you." Keely said.
"Please Keely, you feel sorry for me. The whole damn town does, not mention my own family. You can quit playing the sweet doting girlfriend role." Phil said.
"Phil, that was mean. Keely cares about you. We all do, and we've all been through a lot over the last few months." Calli said.
"Yeah, and things keep getting worse." Phil stated rolling his chair away from the window.
He was already out of breath, he used to think he was in great shape but it seemed he was exerting more energy wheeling his chair than he would have running a mile or two. As much as he hated present day gym classes he'd give anything to get up out of that chair and run.
"If you keep acting like that people are going to stop coming to see you."
"Fine. Fuck them, if one more gawking kid I don't know shows up here trying to be my friend bringing sympathy cards and flowers and crap like that I'm going to throw my bed pan." He smirked at the idea of doing that to poor freshman girl as sick and depraved as it was it actually made him smile.
"That's little gross Phil…" Little Danny breezed into the room.
"Danny…" Pim said smiling.
"Give me a fucking break," Phil whispered.
"Phil," Keely said.
"What?"
"You won't even look at me."
"Come here." Phil told her.
She came and sat on the edge of the bed.
"I'm sorry I haven't been myself, and that I've been a little mean. I'm just…I don't feel like I'm the guy I used to be."
"I'm sorry," she whispered resting her hand on his knee he wouldn't have noticed it had he not been watching her.
"I don't need sorrow Keely. I need to be okay, and I can't do that and feel like I'm neglecting you as a man." Phil explained.
"I can help you feel like yourself again."
"How?" he demanded, "Are you going to make my lower half functional again. Are you going to change what happened that night?"
Keely's chin trembled, "You know if I would I could."
"I can, and you won't let me." Pim said.
"You know that would arise suspicion and everyone will be watching us if I'm miraculously healed." Phil pointed out.
"Can you guys excuse us for a moment?" Keely asked.
"Get the hell out of here quit staring at me like I'm a circus freak!" Phil shouted at them.
The teenagers made haste leaving them in the room.
"Phil, I'm in love with you and I'm not going anywhere." Keely said.
"I know, and I want to be with you Keely." Phil said.
"Well, be with me." Keely leaned in and kissed him hard on the mouth.
He allowed her to take him over succumbing to her kiss, they still excited his being. But he couldn't help feeling like she was trying to prove to him that she still felt like he was a man when he didn't even feel that way anymore. He felt like an invald. He'd seen the way some girls their age treated and Gulf War Vet who'd lost his legs in Iraq in 1991. They treated him like he was less than human, Phil was appalled at the treatment the girls had given the man. He would have thought that the girls would have treated the poor guy better but they called him names and made fun of him despite the fact that he'd been hurt for his country, something that Phil himself would never have done.
He wondered how long it would be before the kids he went to school stopped feeling sorry for him and began to taunt him. Whenever that was he was going to counteract that by being vicious to everyone he knew.
He knew Keely would eventually be disappointed with his limitations but she'd stay, and be unhappy because he can't fulfill all of her desires and her dreams for their relationship, and she'd grow bitter and angry and she would treat him with scorn and disregard. He didn't want that for either of them. He needed to push her away before that happened.
She broke the kiss and smiled brightly at him stroking some of his dark hair off his forehead her fingers lightly brushing the stitches in his head. He moaned at her light gentle touch. A gentle smile played on his lips despite his dark thoughts, she had a way of making him smile when he felt like his heart was black and blue.
"Keels, we need to talk." He took her hand in his.
"Yeah…" her smile faded.
"I'm not–okay…" he began.
She rolled her eyes, "Okay, you sound like Gerard Way."
He tried to smile but he really wanted to cry, "I love you so much, but I can't be with you right now. It would be better now for me to let it go than to keep holding on and having my condition hurt both of us."
"Phil…after all this you just want to give up? Don't you have any faith in me?" she asked.
"I want you to have that life we talked about to be a real girl in the world. You're no longer shackled to Bryce, and I don't want to chain you to me. You're free Keely; you can be a real girl."
Tears escaped her eyes, "I want to be your girl Phil…"
"You'll always be my girl. But I'm not okay right now, I'm not in the best mood and I'd never want to do or say anything that might hurt you." He told her.
"Phil, I know you're hurting. I can't leave you now." She told him.
He was crying to, "I'm no good to you now, I'm half the man I was before. I'm just not the same, sometimes things happen and it changes you."
"You haven't given either of us a chance to adapt to the changes." She pointed out.
"Keely, would you just go–FUCK!" he shouted.
She let out a broken sob and he completely crumbled.
"Phil…" she whispered holding a hand to her heart.
"Keely I can't– just go!" he sobbed.
"I love you…" she whispered pressing her lips to his once more.
He kissed back and he could taste the salt from their tears.
"I'm going to love you whether you like or not. I'll go, but you'll know where to find me." She hugged him before she left the room.
He sat there sobbing with his head in his hands long after she'd gone.
"Phil…" Pim was standing in the doorway.
He wheeled around so she couldn't see him crying.
"Did you just break up with Keely?"
"Why the fuck do you care? Did mom send you to baby-sit me while she kicks dad out of the house?"
"No, I came because you're going through some heavy shit and brothers and sisters are there for each other no matter what century we're from." Pim said, it was the first time he'd heard her curse.
"Go away," he told her as he turned his gaze to the window Keely and Calli were leaving.
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A month passed and it felt like a year for Keely. She'd all but given up on being with Phil, it seemed like the fates were really against them but she still held onto the hope that they would be together. She had first been so sad over Phil ending things (AGAIN) now she was only angry that he thought that she was so shallow and superficial and wouldn't want to be with him because he was paralyzed.
She couldn't imagine being with anyone else she was convinced that he was the only one for her, it didn't matter that he couldn't walk or even that he couldn't make love to her. All she needed was him she felt like their love was strong enough to conquer everything but their own fears. They were just going to have to own up to those on their own.
Bryce was awaiting trial for the abuse she'd suffered at his hands, she was nervous about having to take the witness stand and having to tell in detail all of the things he'd been doing to her since her thirteenth birthday. Living with her grandmother was okay, but she missed being home, she wondered how it would feel to live there without Bryce being there. Would it feel like home again?
She still hadn't gotten around to seeing her mother yet, she hadn't seen her in four years almost, why would she rush now? She was a bit apprehensive about going to down to the asylum anyways she didn't want to look into her mother's eyes and see herself. She was so afraid that after all she'd gone through that she'd end up in some psych ward somewhere locked away.
She spent time with Owen and the girls from Swing Choir at first though but Owen and the girls began to talk about her behind her back, flinging nausating rumors connected with the court case that was preparing to start. Alone and unable to trust anyone at school she missed Phil terribly, it was boring living with her grandmother just as was living at home she spent hours just thinking about him. She sent him text messages, she called him to check on him but he wouldn't respond. She went to digging details from Pim. The reports weren't good, Phil wasn't talking or eating, all his time was spent in his room with his eyes glued to the screen of his laptop.
She went for a walk down the street, every time she passed his house she'd wanted to stop by. She remembered the days when it was the other way around. She was the one shackled and he was trying to get her free. It wasn't long before she was standing in front of his house wearing his leather jacket over her flannel shirt in attempt the keep on the virtually nonexistent chill of November.
She still wasn't ready to fight her way back into his life, with the trial coming up she didn't have the strength to. She had to be strong for this Bryce had taken so much from her he wasn't going to take anything else.
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Two lonely months had gone by Phil had spent most of that time in his new room in the basement everything was all accessible for him whatever in the hell that meant. He spent most of his time stoned on the internet making fun of kids on missed Keely so much, he attempted to drink her out of his head despite what it said on his prescription bottles those pain pills weren't working anyways, he still felt phantom pains in his legs. And the most embarrassing thing happened, when one of his nurses was giving him a sponge bath he maintained an erection of unfortunate timing. The question of his sex being affected by his paralysis was now answered.
With more "testing" he discovered that the isolated incident was not a fluke. The discovery gave him hope for things with Keely, he had not yet dealt with his own insecurities. And by the time he did she probably will have moved on. He wasn't going to try getting to know anyone else, none of those other girls were Keely.
He'd tried seeing someone for purely sexual reasons, that didn't work and the girl lost her life for it. Had he not began things with Via, she may still be alive, he would have his legs and he might be with Keely at that moment. He still felt guilty about her death, had he not been so drunk it never would have happened. At times he felt like he'd been the one driving and killed her.
He sighed deeply and stared intently at the screen of his computer. He was typing a piece in Microsoft Word. He didn't know what it was titled but he decided to do a Sci-Fi version of his life during the last couple of months. It was an epic Star Wars esque romance with all the intrigue and scandals of the WB's One Tree Hill
Pim burst into his room while he was rapidly hitting keystrokes with his fingers.
"Alright, enough of this," she went over to the small window in the basement and pushed a chair over to it climbed up and removed the drapes allowing much needed sunlight into the room.
"What are you doing?" he asked wincing at the light, he was so used to only the light from his desk lamp.
"You've been moping in here for two months–"
"And your point is?" he asked interrupting.
"Acting like an ungrateful ass."
"What happened to useless degenerate?"
"I'm no longer using SAT adjectives to describe this funk you've gotten yourself into. A lot of people go from active lives to being paralyzed without hiding away and acting like the Phantom of the Opera." Pim said blandly, "I'm tired of you being posted up in this house taking all of your hostility out on me and mom."
"Posted up?" Phil raised an eyebrow, she was spending far too much time with Little Danny and he had dubbed her as Little Pim.
"Yes, you once told me to talk like a normal girl my age. I do and you mock me." Pim told him.
"It was just unexpected." He said.
"What are you writing?" she asked edging closer to his desk.
"Nothing." He flipped his computer closed, "Why is everyone taking an interest in my life. I want to be left ALONE!"
"No, need to be defensive Phil. I just don't want you to feel lonely and left out."
"I exiled myself. I like the seclusion and I like it dark." Phil told her.
"Fine. I thought you'd want to see this." She told him dropping a newspaper on the desk in front of him.
"What the shit is this?" he demanded.
"Read it smartass."
He opened it and read the front page.
PICKFORD DEPUTY TO STAND TRIAL FOR CHARGES OF CHILD ABUSE, AND THE RAPE OF HIS UNDERAGE STEPDAUGHTER.
Under the caption was a picture of Bryce dressed in his police uniform and then his mug shot. His eyes looked equally menacing in each. Phil's eyes quickly scanned the article.
"Who would have thought a nightmare was lurking underneath the sleepy little town of Pickford? That such a scandal involving one of our own trusted officials could be happening right under our very noses," Phil read aloud, the intro was boring he skipped down to the juicer parts.
"Bryce Cuttingham age twenty nine, has been brought up on charges of child abuse and the rape and molestation of his own stepdaughters, seventeen year old Keely Teslow and fifteen year old Calliope Teslow. The two sisters will take the stand this week and the trail and give chilling testimonies of the abuse that they suffered at the hands of their guardian." Phil read.
When he looked up again Pim was gone. He looked back down at the paper. Damn why did she have to remind him of the trial? Now he was confronted with feelings and emotions that he didn't want to feel.
The paper set on his desk for two days before he did anything, unable to keep her off his mind he came out of his room and wheeled his chair down the hall.
"Phil…" his mother said surprised to see him come up from the basement in the elevator.
"Can you take me somewhere Mom?"
"You're awfully dressed up, where are you wanting to go? To the courthouse?" she asked.
"I need to be with Keely even if it's just for the day. She deserves that much." He told her.
His mother smiled, and tried to wheel him out the van she'd purchased after his accident but he'd only come home from the hospital.
"I can do it mom." He said with only a little trace of venom in his voice.
"Alright,"
The courthouse was packed and so full of reporters and spectators he could hardly get in, it was only nine so the proceedings for the day had not yet begun. He spotted Keely easily in the crowd she was sitting on a stone bench all by herself.
"Penny for your thoughts." He whispered wheeling up beside her.
"Phil…hey…well if you want to pay for my thoughts in pennies you might need a couple of dollars." She tried to smile.
"How are you?"
"Scared…how are you?"
"Better, but this isn't about me. I'm here for you." He slipped his mesh gloved hand in hers.
She smiled, "I miss you a lot."
"I miss you too Keels…" he kissed her cheek softly.
"Sometimes so much I can't stand it. I want to go over and see you but I'm never sure if you're even going to let me in when I do."
Phil sighed, "I know I haven't been fair to you, but I don't feel like I'm even half good enough for you. You're so strong and beautiful you need a man who can love you. A man who can sweep you off of your feet. Who can carry you into the bedroom and make love to you. A man you can walk with down the beach. A man who isn't inflicting his own emotional scars someone who isn't so fucked up he doesn't even know who he is anymore. You don't need me Keely."
"I do need you Phil. You being here has helped me already. You once told me that love isn't based on conditions, it's based on who you are. And my love for you won't change just because you can't walk and sex isn't everything Phil."
"I didn't come here to get into relationship stuff, I came here to support you." Phil said.
"Thanks," she smiled her hair falling over face.
He moved it away his hand brushing her face, her eyes fluttered closed. She must have felt that little tingle that he felt when his skin came in contact with hers. His body was alive when he was near her there was no more denying that.
"Phil…did you feel that too?"
"Yes…" he said he slid his hand across her cheek and down to stroke her neck with his fingers, her skin was always so soft and she smelled like jasmine and clovers.
She let out a low moan as he drug his finger down her neck to the low button front of her suit jacket.
He looked at her; she opened her green eyes to stare at him. She was so obviously turned on.
"Phil, I don't think that this is most opportune time for this." She said composing herself a bit.
"I'm sorry." He said.
"There's a bunch of people from the defense watching me. Bryce is trying to paint me as a whore. That I'm the one who started the whole thing. He said he never raped me that we were having sex from the beginning, that isn't true."
"I know baby, I know. There is no way anyone is going to believe that scum bag over you." Phil told her.
The trial was soon underway. Phil sat in the back with his mother and watched as Bryce took the stand. He looked so twisted and evil, how could any court not see that he was guilty. He charismatically told his twisted story of what happened; Phil wanted to beat the hell out of him. It was funnier though knowing that Calli had beat up the man twice.
"Can you tell us what happened on the night of October the seventeenth of this year?" the prosecutor asked.
"Well, it was late and I'd had a few beers. I was about to go to bed I went in to check on Keely. Like I said I did most nights since I moved in and I found her sneaking out of her window off to meet her boyfriend for some backseat action I guess. We got into an argument and she fell down the stairs."
"That is bullshit!" Calli Teslow jumped out of her seat and shouted.
"Miss Teslow pleas refrain from using profanities and please keep quiet and in your seat or you will be removed from my courtroom. No more interruptions, you understand young lady?" Judge Emily Bridle asked.
"Yes, Your Honor." Calli said blandly.
"Anyways, like I was saying we got into she fell and that one right there came accusing me of pushing her. I was trying to get her to calm down before she called 911; but she hit me with the phone, and then I tried to restrain her." Bryce said, "She got away and went running down the street, I went looking for her."
"Why did you go looking for her instead to tending to Keely who was bleeding from the head I believe at that point and lying on the floor unconscious? Why did you take the time to fight with Calli?"
"I honestly can't tell you, you know how when things happen it's like you go into auto pilot or something I don't know." Bryce explained.
"The prosecution rests."
"Go ahead and call your next witness."
"You may be seated Mr. Cuttingham."
"The prosecution calls, Miss Keely Leighanne Teslow to the stand."
Keely took the stand put her hand on top of the book and swore to tell the truth.
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"How old were you when your mother married Mr. Cuttingham?"
"I was eleven…" she answered.
Phil could see how scared she was, he wished he could be up there holding her hand.
"When did your first molestation from Mr. Cuttingham occur?"
"Eight months later, when I was almost twelve." Keely sniffled her testimony had only begun and she was crying.
"When did it progress from just him coming into your room and just touch you?"
"About three months later," she whispered.
It was so humiliating to tell in detail at times the horrible ways in which Bryce had violated her, the prosecutor was certainly trying to get a conviction or getting off on her testimony either one.
She couldn't bring herself to look at Phil while she talked, she couldn't bear the look of shame he would probably have on his face. When she finished she wanted to crawl into a hole and die, she exited the courtroom quickly.
"Keely, wait up." A familiar voice called after her.
She turned to see Phil wheeling himself after her. She noticed how defined his arm muscles were through his jacket. Pim had told her how insisted on taking care of himself once he'd learned how to.
"Was it really that bad?"
"Do you think I'd lie about that?" she asked.
"No, I didn't know Keels…I'm so sorry."
"I didn't want you to know all the disgusting details, and I had to talk about our little arrangement in there. I had to tell the world how sometimes he didn't force himself on me that I had a part in it too, do you know how cheap I felt? How cheap I still feel, no wonder you don't want to be with me. I'm just what Bryce says I am a stupid whore."
"You're not stupid, and you're not a whore. I'm the stupid one for letting you go. You are an amazing beautiful girl who was taken advantage of by a twisted man." Phil said.
Keely's resolve crumbled again and she was sobbing. He wheeled closer, his brown eyes shining with unshed tears of his own.
"I didn't want everyone to know…" she sobbed.
She'd stopped going to school midway through the first month when she'd found Owen talking behind her back, and discovered she hadn't any real friends at school.
"I know, come here." He reached out a hand to her and led her out into the courtyard over looking the fountain.
"I forgot how pretty it was out here, the last time I was here was when they got married. I didn't know that I'd end up here again, under these circumstances. But I guess everything happens for a reason."
"Keely, I can't believe that things like that just happen people make things happen. That man was supposed to take care of you and protect you and instead he beat you and raped you for the past four years of your life." Phil said.
"Maybe I'd like to believe that it happened for a reason, so that me and my sister can come out as stronger people than the spoiled girls we came in as." Keely said.
"A lot of people like to believe life is about learning and becoming a better person. But sometimes we come out of these experiences worse than we went into them. At the end of this life we might not have learned anything and we'll be more dammed than we were born." Phil said.
Keely sat in shocked silence looking at him as he lit himself a cigarette.
"I never knew you felt that way."
"That's the way it is. We've always been taught to take it all with a smile, and everything will work out in the end. You're right about experiences changing us. Sometimes it's not for the best and sometimes everything won't be okay Keely we've got to ready ourselves for that. We have to wake up and realize that the glass just isn't half empty, it's completely empty." He told her.
"You're right, but don't you feel empty? Believing that doesn't leave a lot of room for faith, and as humans we're entitled to our faith." Keely said.
"You've your faith and I've got my rationality." He told her.
"That's why we need each other." Keely said, "Everyone could use a little faith and rationality."
"Yes, but neither one of us has any stability. I'm a mess Keely. I'm just so damn angry, I'm angry at Bryce, at Via, at myself, at my dad, and at people I don't even know. It just hurts."
Keely smiled softly, "I feel that way too, but I can't let it consume me. I've let my fears run my life I don't need anger to run it from here on out."
"My anger is the only thing I have. I don't have you, I don't have the use of my legs, I'm in a completely different century. I'm just lost. Sometimes I wish I was someone else, like that would change anything."
"I used to want to be someone else. But now I realize that it's okay to be me. You showed me that, you showed me love even though it was fleeting and only for a time I thank you for it." Keely said.
"I'll always love you Keely,"
"I'll always love you too Phil…" she told him.
"I want to be with you so badly, but I'm not whole. Not physically or emotionally. I would only hurt you and I'd rather die than hurt you anymore than you've been already." Phil said.
"Not being with you hurts just as badly." She told him, "Being close to you makes me so…" she whispered she didn't want to use the adjective she'd felt when he'd touched her earlier.
"I didn't mean to get carried away," he said and she could swear he was blushing.
"Don't worry about it. Do you think we can be friends again?" she asked.
"I don't know Keely; I don't trust myself with you." He threw away his cigarette wheeled himself to the door and pulled open the door, "I'll see you around Keely, I'm here if you need me."
He was gone before she could say anything; she wrapped her arms around herself in an attempt to hold in the broken sobs that were starting to wrack her body.
Keely recovered herself and went back into the courtroom to discover Phil and his mother had left entirely. Why did he have to do this to her? He couldn't seem to realize that he was everything to her. There was nothing to find for either of them. Thinking this made her want to write a song.
Once the court had been adjourned she went home and picked up her guitar.
"Oh baby I want to make you see, there's nothing more to fear cause everything's right here. I'm everything, you want everything you need, and every little part of you is part of me. I'm everything you know, I'm everywhere you go, and I hope that you see that you're everything to me. Everything to me…" she sang strumming it so furiously.
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Two months later after Bryce was tried and convicted , Phil was in his room typing by the dim light of his computer and the lamp on the desk beside it when his mother came in with his lunch. Phil had an expecially vilolent reaciton to his mother's doting concern.
"NO! Leave me the FUCK alone!" Phil shouted throwing his food on the floor of his bedroom floor.
"Phil you have to eat something…" his mother said.
"I don't now leave me the hell alone, I'm writing." He told her.
"Phil, you can't keep living like this." She said.
"It works for me…" he told her as he continued typing.
"Well, it's not working for your sister and I. I think you need another personal care nurse."
"I don't need any fucking help from you or anyone else." Phil told her, "I take better care of myself now than I did when I was walking."
"We can't keep doing this, you're going to make yourself sick."
"I am sick. Now leave me the hell alone, I'll come and get something to eat once I finish this chapter."
"Are you writing a story?"
"You're a smart one mother." He smirked.
"Phil I don't know what to do with you." She whispered picking the food off the floor and walking out of the room.
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Keely was walking down the block it was Wednesday and since she'd quit school she had a lot of time on her hands and decided that she was going to go see Phil for a little while.
She found Barb pruning her garden and sobbing quietly.
"Barb? Are you okay?"
"I'm losing him Keely." She whispered.
"Who?"
"Phil, he's retreating more into himself. We've never been that close to begin with. And now he's getting farther away from me." She whispered.
"I'm sorry…" Keely said.
"I can't reach him. We've tried so many nurses, therapists; I've even had Lloyd, his father talk to him. He needs you Keely; you're the one who can reach him. I can't do it anymore. He won't sleep he won't eat, sometimes he takes his meds, sometimes he won't. Sometimes I can here him crying down the hall, screaming your name." Barb sobbed.
"How can I help?" Keely asked, she wanted to help them both.
"I need you to help me take care of him."
"Alright I'll do it…"
"Why aren't you in school?" Barb asked finally noticing that it was school hours and Keely wasn't in school.
"I kind of dropped out a bit, I'll get my GED in the summer." She told her.
"That makes things easier, you can start tomorrow. I'll pay you fifty dollars a day, the only catch is you'd have to live here." Barb said, "He needs attention almost twenty four hours a day, I find him with those rolling papers smoking so often. He sneaks and drinks too."
"Paying me isn't necessary. I'll talk to my grandmother about it. And I'll come by later with my answer." Keely said.
"Thank you so much, you don't know how much I appreciate this. And Phil will too, hopefully it will bring you two back together."
"Hopefully," she said.
"Well, I'll see you later. I've got to go relieve Pim, she's watching him now."
"Alright, I'll see you later."