apartment c - grayson dolan

chapter iv.

   "You're a dick," I muttered over video chat, as I sliced the fruit in my kitchen.

   Giovanni, my twin brother, laughed out loud, from my reaction to the information I just received from him.

 "He was right there, and I sat on his shoulders, pretending to take a photo, and I literally pissed on Valentin, and he jumped in the pool," He giggled, trying to catch his breath.

 I shook my head as I waited for him to breathe. I watched as he positioned his phone across from him on his nightstand before laying down on his bed. He sighed, coughing a little bit before turning around and laying on his arms.

 "Mama and Dad are wondering why you're not married yet, or haven't found a guy," Gio giggled, laying on his back again. I rolled my eyes, almost stabbing my thumb with the knife in the process.

 "I'm not looking for anyone right now, Gio, I honestly just want to live by myself and finish college," I told him, "Besides, they should worry about you. You've never even found a girl yet, and you're the least likely to get anyone to date you at the moment."

  "Actually, princess, you're now the only without a partner," Giovanni smirked, "I found a beautiful named Alexia, and we've been dating ever since you left for college."

 I rolled my eyes. Gio always thinks he's going to get himself a nice girl or whatever, but she ends up being a stripper or something, and they have to break up. Giovanni has the worst luck with girls, I don't even want to know about her.

But of course, he decided to continue on talking about her anyway.

"She graduated last year, and she plans to be a vet. She loves animals more than anything else on Earth, she's such a sweeheart, I want to marry this girl one day," Gio sighed.

He's said that about every girl he dated, but this girl actually doesn't sound like a punk rock crackhead. Of course, I pretended to love her and smiled to make him happy.

 A soft knock is heard at my front door and I tell Gio to hang on as I dried my hands on a paper towel, walking to the door.

 "Who is it?" I asked.

 "Laurentine, open the damn door! It's Daniel!"

 My eyebrows scrunched together as I opened the door, seeing a sobbing Daniel in front of me. His skin and grey tank top is covered in red splatters, which frightened me. 

 "Daniel, what in the bloody hell is wrong with you?" I screamed, pushing the door between us in case he tried to run in. He could've murdered someone and tried to come and make me his next victim.

  "It was just, s-she was j-just," Daniel stammered, his hands in his hair.

 "Who? Who are you talking about?" I asked, looking at him weirdly.

 "It's Pam, Laurentine, she's in the ICU," Daniel croaked.

☼  

It was four in the afternoon when I got the news about Pamela's injury.

It's now 10:25 PM.

Being here for in the hospital for six hours makes you think about things. In my case, I couldn't stop thinking about the friendship Pamela and I shared for the past four years. 

In year eight, she used to constantly pick on me and tease, she was my bully. I was taunted by her and the people she hung with. We had all the same classes together, and for some reason, I didn't know why she hated me so much to the point she wished death upon me.

In year nine, the teasing wasn't as bad.

In year ten, it completely stopped, and Pam apologized.

From then now, she was my best friend, the only female other than my mom that I could be with and rely on for any problems I had. We trusted and loved each other so much, we moved to Canberra together to start a new chapter in our lives together.

Now, here I am, in a hospital waiting to find out how Pamela is doing. I've been here for six hours, and not a single word from a doctor.

Daniel is sitting beside me, and I've been listening to him sob ever since we drove here. I don't even want to ask him what happened, because every time he looks at me, he bawls even harder. Whatever happened to her must have been horrid.

"It's all my fault," Daniel muttered, sniffing and wiping his eyes, "I let her drive, she was so dizzy a-"

"She was what?" I interrupted looking at him.

"S-she had a few bottles of beer, she was complaining about this guy at the party who hurt you a-and she wanted to drive around," Daniel wept, crying even harder when I looked at him angry.

"You let Pamela drive drunk?" I growled, Daniel quickly shaking his head 'no'.

"I saw how a-angry she was, I made her pull over after three minutes, a-and she just t-threw up blood everywhere and violently s-shakng, I don't know why s-sh-"

 "When did this happen?" I closed my eyes, preparing for his answer.

"F-five hours ago, I-I was with her before I realized I should go and get you, since you're her sister," Daniel explained.

 "Sister?"

"The doctor wanted me to contact her family, and your address and phone number was written under the family list in her phone," Daniel told me, as if surprised by his answer.

 I could feel a tear slip out of my eye as the doctor came out from Pamela's room. I could already read his wrinkled face and know that Pamela was in critical condition, I knew that she wasn't going to make it.

The doctor sighed, wiping his brow before stating, "There's not much we could do for her. She consumed too much alcohol for even a grown man to handle, detoxing her was impossible." I sighed, closing my eyes waiting for his final words.

"10:29PM, she passed away," the doctor whispered, "I'm so sorry to tell you this. If you would like, she will stay in the room if you would like to see her."

Daniel was already on the floor, crying like a mad man. I couldn't even let out a tear for her, knowing that I should've never let her leave my house in the condition she was in. She was drunk, I could tell, even when I did all those tests. I was pissed with myself more than anything else.

I stood, entering her room. There she was in her bed, the sheet covering her body from head to toe. I could see her black hair sticking out from the top of her pillow as I walked over to her. I stood over body, looking at her with no emotion. 

I couldn't feel anything, I was completely frozen in time at the fact that I saw her just yesterday. It always worried me how emotionless I could be at times like this, I seem like such a heartless person.

But to be honest, I lost my heart when she died, she was my pride and joy, my sunshine.

I sit in the chair next to her bed, taking in a breath, which was filled with nothing but her sweet, citric perfume.

"I'm sorry you had to leave in such a terrible way, Pamela Castro, and I'm sorry that I wasn't stubborn enough to keep us away from that party, and I'm sorry for everything negative that I caused upon you. You deserved nothing but great things, and you had so many plans for the future, and it just ended for a shitty reason," I mumbled.

"The last thing you told me when I saw you was that if I relied on someone to keep me happy, it was going to get bad," I reminisced to her.

I reached for her cold hand that was underneath the sheet.

"I relied on you for happiness,  Pamela, you were my joy,"  I whispered, "what's going to happen now?"