Hi everyone! I'm SO SORRY for the long wait! I was in a musical, so I didn't have much time to do anything but homework and musical, back and forth, etc. The week before our show, I had 37 hours of rehearsal, it was crazy! Thank you so much for encouraging me to put up another chapter, Pottergirl, I love the support, it keeps me writing. I know, I'm sorry this note is really long and this chapter is sad, just a little heads up. But good news: now that the musical is over, I'll be updating on pretty much my same schedule, (even though I really don't have 1...) which is every couple weeks or so roughly. I love you guys, y'all are my motivation. Sorry again, I know...I'm babbling. I'll let you get to your reading now. As always, ENJOY!
-8Tickles
(Thomas's POV)
Weeks went by, and nothing bad happened. It turned out that Isabel and I had two classes together this quarter, and we sat next to each other whenever we could. We took the bus home together, sometimes just sitting quietly, other times we would chat the whole way back. Jack hadn't been home in a while, and when we told momma of Isabel's situation, she welcomed her with open arms. Life was pretty good. I should have known better than to think that it would last.
Jase had been silent. Eerily silent. I would pass him in the halls, and as soon as he saw me coming, his face would snap to the floor so fast that I never got to see what I'd done to his nose. The fact that Jack hadn't come home was also scaring me. The longest he's ever stayed away from home was a month. It's been almost two.
Isabel incorporated into the family with a graceful ease. It'd taken Ricky some time to warm up to her, but once he did, they became instant friends. Mom and Ricky were hardly ever home due to their jobs, which left Isabel and me alone often. We helped each other with homework, watched Netflix, and had a few make out sessions in-between. I was the happiest that I remember being in my entire life.
(Isabel's POV)
I swear I fall more in love with that boy every day. He is my other half. Where I lack, he succeeds, and vise versa. I'm a stronger English student while I struggle in Biology. Thomas is the exact opposite. While his science skills are impressive, his grammar requires some extra work. We compliment each other so nicely that I wouldn't be surprised if we win best couple in our yearbook.
It was a Monday morning when it happened. Thomas and I got up to get ready for school and he took the bathroom first since he's faster, as usual. He dressed and ate quickly, racing all the way to the bus to avoid missing it. We reached the pick up just as the bus was pulling in. We made a beeline to our typical seat in the very back of the bus, settling in for the long ride to school.
I propped my head up against his shoulder and he threw an arm around me. I cuddled my ear into Thomas's side, listening to his rapid heartbeat. I laughed.
"Do I still make you nervous?"
"Is it that obvious?" He asked, turning bright red.
"Yes, and I find it absolutely adorable." He squeezed my side, pressing me closer to him. I leaned my head back against him again and listened as his racing heart calmed into a steady, rhythmic beat. And before I knew it, Thomas was shaking me awake at our stop. Our first classes of the day were different, so after our walk into school, we parted ways with a gentle kiss.
"See you at fourth." He smiled. "I love you."
"See you then, love you too!" Little did I know then that I wouldn't see him at fourth, or at lunch, not until the end of the day would I find Thomas again. First through third dragged on, and finally, fourth period came, and with it, the thought of Thomas. When I arrived at fourth, English, I immediately began looking for him. I took my seat in the back right corner of the classroom and waited. Other kids began filing in. No Thomas.
When all the other kids were seated and the teacher finally came in, I began to worry. Where was he? Did he decide to skip class? Was he sick? I'd feel really bad if he was sitting in the nurse's office, sick as a dog, while I was here in class. He probably was just running late. I tried to focus on the lesson. Slowly, English ticked by. Still no Thomas.
Next was lunch. I looked for him, but among the sea of teenagers, not one of them was Thomas Anderson. I sat with some of my other friends and distractedly picked at my food, not really eating anything. They looked concerned about me, but not one of them said anything. Their light and joyful chatter usually helped me take my mind off of my problems. Not today.
I sat through 6th, 7th, and 8th without him. Finally, the end of the day came. STILL no Thomas. Now, I was panic-stricken. I searched the whole school top to bottom, asking kids wherever I went. No one had seen Thomas since we departed at 1st period this morning. I asked teachers, too. Most of them knew of Thomas but had never seen him, so they were of no real assistance. I'd been texting him all day, and by now I must've called his phone 30 times. No answer.
I went to his locker just down the hall from mine. It was unlocked. Thomas NEVER forgot to lock his locker, he had too many things in it that were valuable to him. I opened it up to reveal his cell phone, cracked, and drained of battery. Another huge red flag. He always kept his phone in his pocket, fully charged.
Something didn't feel right. Not at all. Suddenly, something clicked into place in my brain. I had a last resort contact, someone who I really hoped hadn't heard of anything, because if he had, it meant that Thomas was in deep, deep trouble. I picked up my phone and dialed a contact labeled " the informant". Julian Garcia always knew everything that went down in smoker's corner, the back alley where the garbage dumpsters were, and where nothing good ever happened, but I had to check. I had no other options.
He picked up on the very last ring. "Little miss Isabel, how can I help ya?" His voice was deep and mysterious, but he had a slight New Jersey accent, making him sound very sketchy. His H's, D's, and G's just weren't there while his R's sounded like W's and Y's.
"Have you seen Thomas?" I tried to keep the absolute panic out of my voice, even though it weighed down my stomach like a lead balloon. His tone darkened and became softer. "Yea I've got youwa boy heeya, but ee ain't in very good shape. The guys an' me 'ave been doin' everything we can ta keep Jase from gettin' at 'im again, but it han't been easy owa pwitty." Part of me was relieved that Thomas was alive. The other half was horrified that he'd somehow ended up in smoker's alley, obviously hurt. "An' Isabel, befowa you 'ead 'own, you might oughta check youwa social media pajes, cuz thin's ain't lookin' good…"
"Ok thanks Julian. I'll be down in as soon as I can." He just hung up. I took Julian's advice and started by checking Facebook. One post that had been shared several hundred times already caught my attention. The caption read, "Gay, dating, AND a cheater? Tsk, tsk boy." Beneath was a picture that caught my breath in my throat.
It was a picture of Thomas and me snuggling, but someone had cropped out my face and replaced it with Hannah Syramore's, our grade's slut. When was this taken? Someone must have snuck in that night when we didn't notice! This was awful. The image was clearly photoshopped, but still it had over 30 comments and several hundred likes already. If several hundred people had liked it, how many people had seen it and just hadn't clicked the "like" button? The thought was scary.
Not wanting to see anymore, I shoved my phone back in my pocket and brushed away the angry tears that had sprung up, hastening my pace to reach smoker's alley. I sped down a set of stairs and out into the cool November air. I took several more turns, relying on my nose and rumors floating around my head to find smoker's alley. At the entrance stood Julian, tall, Goth and handsome, wearing black jeans and a tight black t-shirt with no jacket out in the frigid weather. "Where is he?" I asked. He made a motion for me to follow him, so I did.
Thomas lay balled up in a corner where wall met wall, so there was a little shelter from the brutal cold. Several jackets had been thrown over him, but his unconscious form still shivered. He'd been beaten badly, obviously with something more than just fists. Possibly a metal bar, or something similar. Blood trickled down the side of his face.
His arms were scraped up and bleeding from top to bottom. His right arm hung at a weird angle, probably broken. His lip was busted open and it was bleeding, too. His bitch scar had been cut open anew, flowing freely despite the fact that someone had tried to put a Band-Aid over it. If I hadn't have known his face like my own, I wouldn't have recognized him. He looked terrible, and clearly needed serious medical attention right away.
Julian was a little bit older than us, but I wasn't sure if he could drive or not. "Julian can you drive?" I asked, panicked.
"Yeah. 'imme a 'and with 'im, will ya?" I couldn't do anything but nod. With a grunt, Julian took most of Thomas's weight near his midsection while I cradled his head in my palms. "'Ey Fabio 'elp!" Another boy who'd been hanging around smoking a joint got up and grabbed Thomas's feet. The three of us together hauled him all the way to Julian's beat up old pickup truck. We laid Thomas across the two backseats while I took shotgun and Julian drove.
As soon as we got to the hospital, the doctors took one look at Thomas and rushed him into the ER. I grabbed the shoulder of one of the doctors rushing past. "Is he going to be ok?" I asked frantically. The doctor stared back at me sadly. "Oh sweetie." Was all he said with a shake of his head. The radio clipped to his white jacket buzzed. He looked down at it, gave me one last sad, saturnine glance, and then sped off, clipboard in hand.
AHHHHHH WHAT"S GONNA HAPPEN!? hehe I know, but you'll have to find out by reading chapter 6! Actually I still have to figure out where I'm going with this...Sorry but you can't rush good writing :)
-8Tickles
