That run was the most refreshing and mind-clearing thing I have ever experienced in my whole entire life. It might become a habit. Thanks Rod. Thanks Dad. Thanks Mum.
I manage to survive the whole of Wednesday without so much as seeing Derrick, and the spare time I have is humorously spent with A and BB. I thank Oli for taking the fall for me yesterday, he says that it didn't matter; he didn't get into any trouble for it anyway.
Wednesdays go by so fast, I think. The day ends on a high, I have no homework but the extra work I've done gets full marks. So I call Skyar and tell him not to pick me up, because I'm going to BB and A's place for the evening to 'chill'. We attempt to make a sponge-jam cake whilst getting hyper off sugary drinks, ending up in a hysterical mess surrounded by a bomb-site of a kitchen. I'm sure the neighbours thought there were more lunatics living with A now, because if they didn't suspect his madness, they would do now
Thursday is ...interesting. I'm reminded before I leave the house about my taekwondo lesson, and also that I have to find out when exactly I'm supposed to see this...councillor person, as well as where my 'anger management' session would be. The reception lady tells me that my councillor is to be seen on Friday's, and my anger management sessions are on Tuesday. So, because I knew Rod would yell at me for missing the 'anger management' session, I went and found the person that was running it – someone named Tori – and apologised for missing the session and that it wouldn't happen again. And I meant it, because if it did happen again, I wouldn't be getting My Lovely back any time soon.
As the day progresses, I find myself looking forward to the taekwondo lessons that are being held after school. I find out what time it roughly finishes and text Skyar the time so he knows when to pick me up, but the day passes by uneventfully after that. I see BB and A at break and lunch, but I didn't have any lessons with them today, so I make up for the lack of chatter by talking with some people I 'kind of' know, and get to know them better. Nothing wrong with having allies, especially against someone like Derrick – not that he has many real friends anyway; his friends are probably only his 'friends' because he forces them to be, bribery or blackmail m'thinks.
After the surprisingly quick lessons of the day, I head to the gym for my taekwondo lesson. The guy doing it is alright, but he's too lenient. There were far too many people lazing around, doing a few 'knocks here' and a few 'knocks there', and not really doing much of anything. But I made the most of it, he seemed to know more than he was teaching the amateurs anyway, so when he came over, I asked for a few harder things to work on and he told me. We got on swimmingly – he was impressed with what I knew, but was nice about the fact that yes, I needed to work on a few things. I don't think I'll mind attending these taekwondo sessions. It's the counselling and the anger management thing that's got me like a worm on a hook. Eugh.
As Skyar drives me back to the house I get a call from A:
"Hey" I chirp. "Those taekwondo lessons weren't as bad as I thought y'know"
"O-oh..that's good..." He sounds nervous, afraid almost... His voice is quiet and unsure, croaky as though he's only just woken up, or as if he's been crying.
"You okay?" I ask, frowning. I signal for Skyar to slow down a little.
"...It's B..." A sighs, a mumble or something catching at the end of it. There's some shuffling on the other end of the line, and I catch a 'click' or something. "...Melly, i don't know what to do..." He whispers, choking out a sob. Crying?
"What to do how?" I ask. "A, what's wrong?" I urge, my voice getting louder. The line goes dead and I panic. "Skyar, drive to BB's" I pocket the phone frantically and fidget nervously in the passenger seat of the car.
"Only if you call Rod and tell him about the detour" Skyar raises his eyebrows. I take out my phone again and dial Rod's number, urging Skyar to be quicker as I did so
Skyar pulls up on the kerb and I dive out. I have a spare key to the place because it's like my second home, like a kid would have a tree house, I have their place. Sometimes it's nice to have a change. I rush in, Skyar coming after me after locking the car up.
"What's the hurry?" He whispers. I know he's not too keen on BB and A. It takes a while for people to get used to their... personality, and despite being a member of our Extended Family, even he wasn't immune to their...quirkiness.
"Not sure yet" I mumble. Raising my voice, I shout – "A!". After getting no response, I rush to their bedroom on the second floor, finding suspiciously bloodied bed-sheets, but no couple. I turn to the bathroom next, stepping backwards into Skyar in shock. The bath is filled with diluted red water, a bloodied arm hanging over the edge of the bath and a contrastingly pale one clutching it. In the bath, BB wore only his dark jeans (now muddied and ripped), his torso covered in lacerations, heavy bruising and severe wounding. His head is bleeding from somewhere too. Most of the worse things have been bandaged up, much to A's best efforts presumably, but the weaker male must've had a hard time getting BB from one place to another. A is sleeping, his neck awkwardly resting on the side of the bath, his hand clutching BB's bloodied arm. I gulp and turn back to Skyar without taking my eyes off the pair. I can't get my words out!
"Ambulance?" He offers. I shake my head numbly. Both hate hospitals. BB thinks they'll take him to a mental asylum without understanding him, and A is paranoid that he'll be separated from BB; he also hates the smell.
"Can you get some...some medical things? There's a shop around the corner, just buy...buy bandages and pain killers and antiseptic...stuff like that..." Skyar disappears off and I quickly check A's pulse. Yeah, he's just sleeping. I slowly remove his hand from BB's arm and pull him backwards lightly. He's a light sleeper but it normally takes him a few minutes to fully wake up, so I hush him and tell him it was me. I then propped him up against the cupboards whilst he came around. I check BB's pulse, it's erratic, but then again it normally is. I drain the now cold bathwater and grab the shower head. I turn on the hot water, make it warm and leave it to run through as it hangs over the edge of the bath. In the meantime, I peel off A's amateur-first-aiding and find any antiseptic that I can. A's used it all, so I'm assuming they should be ok. I sponge them down the best I can, forgetting about A behind me until he gasps and jerks into position beside me.
"He came home like that" He whispers. "I think it was Derrick...he said something about Derrick, and me ... Melly, what if this happened because of me?"
"I'm sure it didn't, A...just calm down. Do you have any more towels?"
"Sure Melly" A moves away and gets one for me, passing it to me with a shaky hand.
"A, he's going to be ok. He always is" He gives me an unconvinced look, but I smile all the same. "Skyar's gone for some more medicine stuff; it'll take a while, but trust me A, he'll be fine by the end of the week, ok?"
"Did I do it right?" A's pale finger ran over an exposed bruise and trailed around a cut. "Bandaging them"
"Yeah, yeah you did good. The more we clean it the better it should be, is all"
"Yeah" A agree's weakly. He's tired, and his eyes are red. He's been crying. Skyar comes back with the medicines and we patch BB up and dry him off. I help A to change the heavier (in comparison to A's weak state) teen into something that would cause less friction, like tracksuit bottoms. His torso is best left exposed. BB's still unconscious, but between me and Skyar, we manage to put him on the bed once A has removed and replaced the bed sheets. "He's going to wake up...isn't he Mel...?" I finish tucking BB in and move to hug A.
"Of course, he just needs to rest" A nods. "And so do you" I prompt. A smiles.
"I don't think I can sleep Melly, not until he wakes up" I roll my eyes and move A over to the bed, lightly pushing him onto it and encouraging him to lay down. "...won't be able to..." He mumbles, before yawning and cuddling more into BB's corpse-looking body.
"Just try" I whisper, heading into the kitchen and taking a jar of jam from the collection of twenty from the fridge, and placing it on BB's side of the bed. I then tell Skyar I'm planning on staying the night, so either he can stay (which could be debated) or he could go (causing equal debate).
"You know I find them freaky" Is his debate for leaving. "But I can't leave you" Is his debate for staying.
"So we phone Rod and find out" I conclude. Rod says I can stay but I have to go to school tomorrow, and he will send Skyar to pick me up at half eight. Skyar leaves reluctantly, giving me some money for emergencies. I go to check on A, sleeping with BB, and they're both fine. I turn my attention to the bloody bathroom, and – much like a housewife, eugh – I decide to clean it down and make it looks less like a massacre scene, and more like a bathroom. After that, I find the sofa, and go to sleep.
I grumble as something heavy and metal clatters about. It's followed by a quiet 'crap' along with a sharp hiss. I prop myself up, rub my eyes and look over to the kitchen.
"A...whadda'yer'doin'?" I yawn and roll off the couch, crawling half way to the kitchen and stumbling up before gripping the counter.
"Making a cake?" A admits sheepishly. "Well...it's supposed to be a cake. I'm not too good at this, remember last time?"
"You're making another cake? Don't we still have that one from Tuesday?" A shrugs.
"You can't go wrong with jam cake" His shoulders raise a little as he gives me a smile with utter love in his eyes. "Besides, BB will eat both by the end of the week" I nod in agreement and move over to assess his 'cake'. It was still in its raw mix state, but it didn't look too bad. "It's too lumpy"
"We can fix that"
Friday, I actually make it to school on time. Tired as hell due to staying awake with a franticly paranoid A all night, but on time none the less thanks to Skyars awakening car-honking and race-car driving. As becoming habit, BB and A don't come in with me, BB obviously has the excuse of being 'sick', and A's excuse was...well... A's excuse was that he couldn't go in if BB wasn't in. I relay the message to the receptionist who is still probably trying to work out what happened, but at least it goes on record. I roll through the lessons, keeping myself awake by taking notes and talking more than I would like to have been; I even received a hot chocolate from a random girl I've never talked to before, so that was ... nice.