Saints of Georgia

Chapter Eighteen: Red Wine

"Are you feeling any better?" I asked her.

"Yeah," she replied "A little better." We'd finally got a good, nutritious meal in Marina and thankfully it seemed to be working, she looked much less pale now. I laid her down on the bed and and knelt over her.

"Is there anything I can get you?"

"Could you put the radio on?" I nodded and did exactly that, some independent band was playing on a local station. It brought me back to listening to Buddy Holly and eating pizza in Brooklyn not that long ago. I left her to rest in bed, I entered the bathroom and began to brush my teeth. My mouth tasted like stale liquor and cigarettes, and my teeth weren't what they used to be, they being chipped and slightly stained. I can't afford to go to the dentist, all I can do is stick a brush in my mouth and pray to God that it'll fix all my problems.

While wringing out my mouth out, I caught my own eye in the mirror. They bags under my eyes where Lin only huge put a piercing black. How long had I looked like that? If I lost anymore sleep you wouldn't be able to tell me apart from a raccoon. I'd never looked so shit in my life, I tried to look away, I tried to forget. I heard Kit entering the dorm room. I splashed some water on my face and left the bathroom.

Kit was carrying a bottle of red wine, protected inside a brown paper bag. With his hair uncombed and he having not shaved for a while, he looked kind of like a bum. Someone you found on the street asking your for change so he can fulfill his heroin addiction. Yep, this is where we are from. "Kit, you look like hell."

"Yep, just got back." She smirked. "Is she alright?" He did pointing at Marina who had since fallen asleep.

"I think so," I replied. "She certainly looks much better, more color in her face."

"That's good I suppose," Kit said sitting down on his bed.

"Where have you been anyway?"

"Well, you lot ditched me at Olive Garden to go have sex or something so I paid and left to go get some coke!" Kit pulled out a small bag of white powder, a ugly grin on his face. I snatched it off him.

"No, you're not having that." I took the little bag into the bathroom, Kit followed me, panicked.

"What are you doing man? That cost me forty bucks!" I held the little bag over the toilet.

"If you want to do drugs, do it on your own time. I'm not going to carry you're dead, vomit coved corps to the bins because you can't look after yourself." I dropped the coke into the toilet.

"Dude!"

"Kit, you're drunk and even worse an idiot for bringing this shit in here. Those days are over you know, we have responsibilities now, we can't be messing around with this stuff."

"We have responsibilities?" Kit growled. "I've done nothing but support you. I've paid for medical bills, meals and every other expense that came with dragging that bitch around with us. You can hit me all you want, I give no fucks. You know what man, I'm out. Go raise you're bastard little Indian cunt on your own!" Kit pushed me hard against the wall of the bathroom. It hit my head hard on the windowsill.

"I've had enough of you! I've had enough of this I don't know what to do! All you've ever done is make everything worse! What have you ever done for me, huh? You walk around thinking you can control me but listen here buddy, you don't own me, and I don't owe you anything!" He picked me up by the collar an continued to slam my head into the windowsill, so hard until it snapped and the exposed wood pierced my skull and made a gash down the side of my head. Everything was fuzzy now but I could still see Kit screaming at me, I couldn't make out what he was saying anymore. I felt myself fall to the floor once he let go of me. I saw a pool of blood form by my head, it looked like somebody had split read wine by my side, except thicker.

"I'm only trying to help you!" I tried to speak.

"Asshole." Kit said under his breath as he stormed out of the dorm room. And into the street, if he got caught I'd never see him again. I rubbed the back of my head as I listened to the silence. I felt tears in my eyes, I hadn't the strength to cry so I let them pool there for a while. I didn't know what to do, I hated myself, I blamed myself because that's what I always do. I lay on the bathroom floor waiting for my life to end.

****

I didn't wake up where I last remember being, I was laying in a bed, the linens white. The walls were white too. All I could hear was murmurs of others and the sound of machines turning, doing their jobs. Was I dead? Was this heaven? My vision was blurred and I couldn't move. I tried to speak but the only sound that would escape was a high pitched squeal. A quite peculiar sound honestly. I tried, tried, I need to make a sound, and finally it came. "Hello!?" My throat was sore. I waited to be acknowledged as my vision be an to defog.

"Robin! You're awake!" Came an excited yell. I tried to speak again but it wasn't quite working. I saw a woman's face appear at my bedside, she was dressed in white and had her dirty blonde hair tied in a bun. "You've been in a coma."

Fuck, I thought for speaking was hard.

"You had quite a bad head injury, you passed out from blood loss and didn't wake up for months."

How many months!? Has Marina had the baby?

"But you're very lucky as you weren't out for too long. Some people can't gather the strength to wake up for many years."

Well at least I have that.

"You were out for four months, but don't worry you didn't miss much. The world didn't go away, it's here for you to enjoy once again." She smiled.

Thank God.

"The head mistress of your school, St. Georgia's Home for Troubled Boys, I believe. She wants to speak with you." That, I was not looking forward to, once the nurse had left I saw Sister Eileen enter the room, she stood over me.

"I'm sorry about what happened to you." She said grimly. "You've been very brave, but I regret to inform you that we can no longer offer an education for you here at St. Georgia's. We tried to contact you're parents but they must have changed their number. I trust you to give them a call when you can, you're a good kid Robin." She wasn't looking at me per say, she was just staring off into space, speaking while I listened. "We found out about Marina, she's been evicted also. I must admit, you've got courage to a set the challenge to look after her. Most men would freak out and leave." I saw a tear run down her cheek. "I fell pregnant to my boyfriend when I was nineteen. When I told him, he broke up with me and left. I raised my son on my own, he turned out alright but my God it hurt. I am so proud of you Robin. Unfortunately we just can't have you at St. Georgia's any more, it's just policy I'm afraid." She looked down, into my eyes. "Good luck with whatever it is you decide to do with you're life." She said. Before she left she handed me a necklace, I don't wear jewelry myself but the necklace has a tiny statue of St. Georgia on it. And as I imagined, she was beautiful. I could feel her smiling down on my helpless body from her special place in heaven.

I could imagine, Marina sitting out on a street corner somewhere with nowhere to go. Seven months pregnant, hungry and cold. The imagine was burnt into my mind and wouldn't leave me. I was to weak to fight it, I let guilt overtake me, I closed me eyes once again.