The Kick Back

After Dark

I sat in the hospital bed at St. Helen's, confused and broken. I couldn't walk or speak much without feeling excruciating pain. I knew that from the moment I was shot, my life wouldn't be the same anymore. All this because I was trying to be a good big brother and protect my little sister from the cruel world. She wasn't old enough to be fucking and she definitely wasn't old enough to be fucking a nigga like Vince. It seemed like it was all a bad dream.

I took a deep breath and a tear streamed down my face. My nurse came in with a meal for me but the last thing on my mind was eating. "Good morning, Mr. Garcia. I brought you some hot breakfast so you don't have to eat that disgusting jello we've been serving you the past two weeks." she said, laughing and smiling at me. Nurse Johnson was beautiful, black, and stacked like you wouldn't believe. She had medium length curly hair and a killer smile. She had a soft caramel complexion and stood about 5'4. Just having her around made me feel better. That was probably because I was a horny teenager and having any beautiful woman around made me feel better at that point.

"Thanks but I'm not hungry." I responded. She approached me and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. "Now honey, I know this is a terrible experience for anybody. I've seen young men your age come in with gunshot wounds all of the time. Most of them lose some kind of feeling in their legs and some of them don't even walk up out of here. Be thankful that you're alive and the team brought you back. You'll get out of here and you'll be fine." she advised me. I had to smile. Being alive and able to walk was definitely something to be thankful for. All I could think about was seeing Stephanie. She hadn't visited me yet but I knew she had heard about the shooting. I figured maybe she didn't wanna see me in that condition and I couldn't be mad at that.

There was a knock at the door. I looked over to see my sister Gabby walking in. Nurse Johnson greeted her, "Hello sweetie. Is this your sister?" she asked me, noticing the similarities in the way that we looked. Gabby was the female version of me, olive skin, green eyes, dark hair, and our faces would hold an emotionless expression at times. It was hard to tell what we were thinking.

"Yeah, that's my little sister. She can come in." I told her. Nurse Johnson made her way towards the door. Before she left, she tapped my sister's arm and said, "Make sure he eats something. We've been trying to get him to eat and if he's gonna be strong enough to start physical therapy in the morning, he needs to eat." Gabby nodded, "I can make his stubborn ass eat." Nurse Johnson laughed and a smile even stretched across my face. Gabby's sense of humor was a lot like mine, she was a smart ass and I was proud to say that I knew where she got it from. Nurse Johnson left out, shutting the door behind her to give us some privacy. She slowly approached my bed and sat down in the chair to the left of me.

"Did it hurt?" she asked me, curious to know how it felt to be shot. I nodded. "Like hell." Gabby was quiet for a moment. She looked away and then looked back at me. "He could've killed you." she said tearfully. I looked up noticing the tears in the corners of her eyes. I had to swallow the lump in my throat, I didn't want her to see me cry and upset her some more, but seeing her tearing up tore me up. "He didn't though. I'm strong, I made it through it. I'll do anything to protect you and your honor. This should let you know that I love you and that you need to do better, lo entiende?" I asked, she nodded in agreement. "I never wanted you to get hurt like this. You're my big brother and because of me, you're layin in a hospital bed." she said through her tears. I reached out and rubbed her arm.

"It's not your fault. He got beat up and decided to retaliate with a gun. Some people are like that. We can think about the fact that I could've been killed all day or we can be thankful that I'm alive and well. Yeah it hurts but I'd rather be here than in the morgue." I told her. She wiped her tears away and then touched my hand. "You're right. Por favor no nunca me dejes." she said, caressing my hand as she spoke. We had been through a lot but nevertheless, we loved each other. We'd grown up together and been through family shit together. As far as I was concerned, it was just the two of us, despite all the other siblings we had. "Estamos en esto juntos." I said to her, touching her face in an effort to comfort her. She smiled and then she pulled some playing cards out of her pocket.

"I know you're in the mood for some Spades." She said with a smile. I smiled back, that had been our favorite game to play for years. "Of course. Let's get this ass whoopin started."

________________________________________

Gabby left after about seven games of Spades. The medicine dripping from my IV had put me straight to sleep for a few hours. I felt a familiar pair of lips on mine that woke me from my slumber. I opened my eyes to see Stephanie standing over me, smiling and stroking my hand. "Hey." I said, more than happy to be in her presence. "Hi. How you feeling?" she asked me, moving her hand to my face to rub it. "I'm better now that you're here." She kissed me again and it took me to a different place. I had been so depressed before she arrived and she was distracting me from reality. I don't know if any other gunshot victim would have been thinking about sex at that time, but I definitely was. Before long though, curiosity swept over me. "How did you know where I was? I haven't called and not a lot of people know where I am because the police are still lookin for Vince." I inquired. She sighed and immediately became nervous.

"I know where you are because the man that made sure you made it here is sort of like a father to me. I asked him to look out for you and he did." she told me. I gave her a blank stare, confused and a little scared. Vince was still on the run and if she knew my whereabouts whose to say he didn't? She immediately eased my mind saying, "Mateo made sure that nobody knows but me. I'm not allowed to speak on where you are to anybody. Not that I would and besides that, who would I tell?" I breathed a sigh of relief. I needed to focus on getting better and fear would've been a roadblock.

"Thank you. Thank you for bein there and thank you for makin sure I'm okay. But who is Mateo?"...