Then
“Violet, I know you’re in there,” Blake says.
I go wide-eyed and my pupils dilate, making the blue in my eyes disappear. “Ugh, not again.”
“It’ll be fine,” Grayson reassures me.
“What do you want, dipshit?” I ask.
“I’ll tell you what I want when you open the door.”
“You can’t make me open the door, you know. This is my room.”
“Violet, I don’t have the patience for your stupid antics. I’ll bust your door down if you don’t let me in.”
“Just unlock the door,” Grayson says.
“Is there a guy in there with you? I heard a deep voice.”
There’s a long period of silence because I don't know how to respond. My heart beats like the sound of a thousand drums and sweat beads on my forehead.
I slowly make my way over to the door, wrapping my hand around the knob. I notice Grayson disappeared, but I don't go searching for where he went because I know Blake really will break my door down if I don't open it.
I quickly unlock the door, and it bursts open.
“Why didn’t you answer me when I asked if there’s a guy in here with you?”
“I don’t owe you answers to any of your questions.” My nostrils flare.
He destructively removes the blankets on my bed and crouches down to the ground to get a peek underneath it. When he pops back up, he scans the room, and his eyes land on the closet. He storms over there, gripping his hands on the handles and letting gravity do its thing.
We’re screwed.
The second the doors fly open, Blake’s cheeks turn red with anger. I can also see confusion written all over his face.
“What the hell are you doing in my sister’s room, Grayson?”
“Why are you full-naming me, man?”
“Answer the damn question!”
Getting in between my boyfriend and my brother, I attempt to spread out the space in between them. It doesn’t work since Blake is stronger than me.
He lifts up his hand, forming it into a fist and jabbing it into my face.
I use my hand to cover the hit and back away from him. I want to say something to him, but I find myself utterly terrified of him instead.
Grayson defends my honor by clocking him harder than he did to me. “Touch her again, and the light will go out of your eyes faster than whatever shit you can spew out of your mouth next.”
The color in his eyes fades away as his pupils get bigger. It’s as if the version of Grayson I know disappeared, and another I’ve never met before has taken over.
I’m so used to the way he doesn’t get into confrontation, but this is a side of him I’ve never seen before.
Blake gets knocked down onto the floor, but he’s still conscious.
Grayson grabs my hand and guides me out of my bedroom. We rush downstairs, stopping at the front door for a brief moment before sprinting out of the house.
He holds my face with one of his hands. “I want you to know I will always love you. No matter what happens.”
Tears bubble at the rims of my eyes, and a smile spreads across my lips. “And I will always love you.”
Hearing the sound of feet stomping, we make a run for it outside the house, but we don’t make it far before Blake catches up to us. He spins Grayson around, punching him over and over again.
“Blake, stop! You’re hurting him!” I run over to my brother, swatting at him. He pushes me away so hard I end up with scratches all over my legs from the first layer of skin scraping against the rough ground.
There’s so much blood.
“You’ve been dating my sister behind my back, huh?” Slap. “How long has this been going on?” Punch. “How long?!” he shouts, turning to me.
“A-a year,” I manage to spit out.
“Out of all the people in the world, why did you have to pick my friend to date?”
“You won’t understand.”
“Try me.”
There’s this hunger for pain and destruction in his eyes.
I’ve seen my brother angry before, but not like this.
“No, you will never understand what it’s like to love someone with your entire soul because you don’t feel anything.
You’re going to be alone for the rest of your goddamn life because you wallow in your self-pity, and you spread it to everybody else, so they’re as miserable as you are.
You’ve never given a damn about me my entire life, so I may as well just leave.
You’re doing this for your own benefit to make yourself feel good, but this all proves how shitty of a person you are. ”
Blake storms over to me, grabbing my wrists and cutting the blood flow to the rest of my body.
“You’ve been dating Grayson for over a year?
! So, you two have been sneaking around and thinking you’ll never be caught, is that it?
Well, guess what, Violet? You fucked up like you always do.
This is why Mom loves me more than you. You haven’t done one thing that she’s been proud of.
Why do you think she treats you the way she does? You’re nothing.”
“You’re such a hypocrite. What kind of person beats up their friend? Also, I don’t give a rat’s ass what you think about me.” Without a second thought, my fist comes into contact with his face. The blow knocks him onto the ground for just enough time for me to check on Grayson.
I kneel down next to him. “Gray, can you hear me?”
His eyes slowly open and close. “V-Vi, is that you?”
“Yes, it’s me. I’m so sorry this happened to you. This is why I was so nervous about going through with this.”
“You m-mean us?”
“Mm-hm.”
“Oh. Are you saying you r-regret our r-relationship?”
“Of course not. Why would you even ask that?”
“I d-don’t know. It’s just what it f-feels like.”
“Gray, I love you. You know that, right? We told each other we’ll always love each other back there, regardless of what happens. I’m staying here with you, whether you like it or not.”
“There’s nobody else I’d rather have by my side than you.”
Kissing his forehead, I feel a hand tugging on my wrist. Blake pulls me away from Grayson, so he can continue getting his anger out by punching the love of my life.
I watch in absolute horror as Grayson stops moving. All the air is sucked out of my lungs. Tears stream steadily down my face.
Sprinting back inside the house, I grab the biggest stainless steel frying pan we have, and I rush back outside. I wrap both of my hands tightly around the handle and knock my brother out cold with the bottom of the pan.
The pan drops onto the ground. I glance down at my hands, and they’re shaking.
“Gray, can you hear me?” I caress his cheek with my hand.
There’s no answer.
Pulling out my phone, I quickly dial 911.
C’mon, c’mon.
“911, what’s your emergency?”
“I-I don’t know what to do. My boyfriend isn’t w-waking up.”
“Can you tell me what happened?”
“H-he got punched multiple t-times, and he’s bleeding. I tried to wake him up, b-but he’s not responding.”
“We’re sending the police and dispatching an ambulance to your address now. I need you to breathe in and out for me, sweetheart.”
I’m living my worst nightmare. I can’t believe this is happening.
“Police are two minutes out. Ambulance is barely a minute out from where you are. You’re all going to be okay. I promise.”
“T-thank you.” I hang up the phone, tapping on Noah’s name.
I hear ruffling sounds on the other line. “Violet, what’s going on?” he asks, sensing my worry because I don’t ever call him like this.
“I-it’s Grayson. Blake found out about us, and he p-punched him so many times that he knocked him out. H-he won’t wake up.”
“Your brother is in for a world of hurt when I get my hands on him. I’m coming right now. I’ll tell Xander to meet us at the hospital.”
The line goes down, which tells me that Noah hung up.
Now, the waiting game for the calvary commences.
The ambulance is parked in front of our house, along with several Sunset Cove police cars with their sirens going off in silence and lighting up the night sky.
Noah pulls up behind one of the police cars down the street.
I’m an emotional wreck. I’m shocked that I can stand up because my legs feel weak.
“Violet.” He hugs me tightly.
“Th-this is all m-my fault.”
“You can’t blame yourself for this. This is your brother’s fault. Where is that piece of shit anyways?”
Taking a minute to stop myself from sobbing, I focus on my breathing until I can talk like a human being. “In the back of the Sheriff’s car, cuffed and ready to be taken in for questioning.”
“I hope he gets thrown into a prison cell for a long time.”
“If my mother has her way, he’ll get off without any consequences. He’s gotten out of so much stuff because of her, and it makes me so angry.”
“Maybe this time, he won’t be so lucky.”
“Don’t hold your breath.”
We watch as Grayson is loaded into the ambulance. The doors slam shut and the EMTs get into the vehicle, speeding off to the hospital.
“You can ride with me,” Noah says.
“I’m going to take Grayson’s truck there.”
“Are you sure you’re okay to drive right now?”
“I’ll be fine.”
“Well, will you follow me to the hospital?”
I nod.
“Alright, let’s go.” He runs over to his car.
I sprint back inside the house to get Grayson’s keys, which are on my nightstand in my bedroom. Looking down at the hardwood floor, I see a drop of blood and run like hell out of there.
When I secure my seatbelt, I turn the engine on.
I’ve never driven his truck before because he always drove. It’s not that he didn’t let me drive, he liked driving me around. I never asked him why because it’s not something I needed to know the answer to.
I follow Noah to Sunset Cove Hospital like he told me to. He wants to make sure I’m okay, and I appreciate that.
The drive feels like an eternity, when in reality it was only about ten minutes away from my house.
We both pull into parking spaces that are close to the entrance. I rush out of the truck, catching up with Noah.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” I say.
“I know. It’s going to be okay.”
“Please stop saying that.”
After we make it through security and receive our visitor stickers, I storm over to the front desk in the emergency section of the hospital. “My boyfriend was admitted here I don’t know how long ago, and I want to know where he is.”
“What’s his name?” the older woman asks me.
“Grayson Becker.”
She types away on her computer, making me more anxious and stressed out by the minute.
“He’s in room 220.”
“Thank you.” I sprint over to the elevators with Noah trying his best to match my pace.
When the doors slide open, I press the level two button repeatedly.
“Violet, you’re going to break it,” he says.
“How the hell are you so calm right now?” I tap my foot over and over again on the hardwood floor.
“I may look calm on the outside, but I’m a mess on the inside. I’m trying my very best to keep my shit together, but it’s really hard.”
“I wish I was acting more like you, but the love of my life is lying in a hospital bed right now, and I have no idea if he’s ever going to wake up.” My eyes line with more tears, my chest heaving like there’s no tomorrow.
“My best friend is lying in a hospital bed! How do you think I feel?”
Taking several deep breaths, I realize how harsh I was. “I’m sorry.”
He sighs deeply. “I’m sorry, too.”
The elevator doors open to level two, and we scramble in trying to find room 220 where Grayson supposedly is.
Noah and I go over to one of the desks.
“I’m trying to find my best friend, Grayson Becker. We were told he’s in room 220,” he says.
“Keep going down the hall. The room will be on your right,” a middle-aged woman tells us.
“Thank you.”
We run like hell down the hall until we make it to Grayson’s room.
Barely peeking my head inside, I see him lying there with his chest rising and falling. He’s hooked up to a bunch of machines to keep him stable.
I take a step back. “I c-can’t go in t-there.”
This is all my fault.
If I didn’t say yes to sneaking around with him, this would’ve never happened. It was inevitable that Blake was going to find out about us, but I didn’t expect him to send the love of my life to the hospital.
It’s only right if I vanish from his life. I caused this, so now I need to fix it. And if disappearing from Grayson’s life is the way to fix it, so be it.
“I need you to do something for me.”
“What is it?”
“I need you to tell Grayson that I was never here when he wakes up.”
“Pardon?”
“Everybody keeps saying this isn’t my fault, but I will always have this guilt eating me alive, no matter if I stay with him or not.
I want him to be happy. I want him to make all his dreams come true.
Promise me you’ll tell him I was never here and that you’ll stay in contact with me. I don’t want him to know about this.”
“I promise.” He walks away from me, going to the opposite side of the hall.
I’m shocked that he didn’t ask me a bunch of questions about my thought process and why I’m doing this. I guess he didn’t want to get into any of that right now.
I look into the room and see Grayson again. “I love you, and I hope you’ll forgive me one day.”
As I head out of his room, I’m overcome by an overwhelming sense of sadness. My heart shatters into a million tiny pieces.
When I make it downstairs to the main lobby, I see Grayson’s mom, Dana, rush over to me.
Oh, I can’t do this right now.
“Violet!”
“I hope you don’t hate me when I tell you this.”
“Why would I hate you?”
“You never saw me here. I need you to know how much I love your son. I’m doing this to protect him.”
“Okay, now you’re scaring me.”
“I think it’s best if I never see him again. I know it may not make sense to you, but it does to me.”
“I’m not going to ask why since this is none of my business. All I’m going to say is you can’t blame yourself for this, Violet. You’re the best thing to happen to Grayson. You brought him back to life, so thank you.”
“Thank you for being the mother I never had.”
She pulls me into a tight embrace, and my eyes are unleashing endless rivers.
“I hope we’ll get to see each other again in the future,” she says as she enters one of the elevators.
I hope so, too.