Breaking Point

Goodbye The End

"Justin. Take my hand, please." Maribelle whispered, tears falling silently from her eyes and down her cheeks. Justin grasped her hand as if it were his last lifeline. Today was the day. Jen was going to die.

Everyone was surrounding Jennifer's hospital bed and watched her chest mechanically rise and fall in unison with the pumping sound of the life support machine. Justin felt all residual hope that Jennifer was going to wake up and the grief came in huge tidal waves, so huge he felt that it was going to crush him.

Finally, Jennifer's parents entered Jennifer's room, ten minutes late. Everybody in the room glared at them for a brief moment, then turned their attention back to Jennifer.

Her face was pale. Her lips were chapped and cracked. Her skin was translucent and a light shade of blue covered her fingers and toes. She wasn't Jennifer anymore. She was a corpse.

"There's not anything we can do? We can't try to stop them?" Pattie whispered to Scooter, tears threatening to fall from her own eyes. She stole a glance at her son to see someone she didn't recognize. Once full of hope, all she saw was a dejected grieving boy who looked as if he hadn't slept in days, eyes bloodshot from the tears, and jaw clenched as he tried so hard to find some shred of hope to cling on to.

"I've tried everything," Scooter replied with a broken voice. "I even said that I'd adopt her, take her off their hands. But they won't agree to anything. They want her dead."

Pattie held her hand to her heart. She couldn't bear the thought of Jennifer being gone forever. Stealing another glance at Justin, she felt her heart sink. She knew that by Jennifer dying, Justin would never be the same. He would never forgive himself, and he would never try to find another love.

Suddenly, the attending on Jennifer's case and a few nurses filed in the room. Justin noticed that a few of the nurses were wiping their eyes or still crying. Anger filled him to the point of bursting. Why are you crying?He wanted to scream at them, you didn't even know her!

Maribelle took one look at the adults in the scrubs and lost it. "Get out." She said softly and angrily, and when they gave her baffled looks, she raised her voice to a scream. "Get out! I want to be with my best friend for a few minutes before you fucking bastards kill her!"

Tears streamed down Maribelle's face in a constant stream. She couldn't believe she was here, again, about to lose another one close to her. This can't be happening. Not again. She repeated over and over in her head until she was sure she was going to wake up from this nightmare.

"This isn't happening." She whispered, slightly rocking back and forth. One hand remained interlocked with Justin's, the other was trying to smother her heart from the outside, in to ease the pain. "This can't be happening."

"Belle..." Scooter said softly, and slowly walked over to her, but she backed away into a corner.

Maribelle backed away so that Scooter couldn't embrace her and lost her cool once again.

"No! This isn't happening! Not to me! Not again! This can't happen! Jen was good! Jeremy was good! Why is this happening to me?! Why am I losing everyone I love?!" her screams combined with her sobs to make a heart-crushing and angry symphony. She immediately turned on Jennifer's parents, who were watching the scene play out with stone faces. "I hope you burn in hell. You're taking my best friend away from me when she didn't do anything wrong! Why?! Why are you doing this?!"

"Jennifer was a good person! She never did anything bad in her life! So why are you taking her away from the world? Huh?! Because you're monsters! You're gonna burn in hell!! I hope you die!" Maribelle went in to try to hit Jennifer's mother, but Justin picked her up and dragged her across the room.

Maribelle held onto Justin as if he were the only thing she had left to hold on to. He was the only one in the room who understood what she was feeling. He was the only one who loved Jennifer as much as she did. She was losing her best friend. And there was nothing she could do about it. It was Maribelle's turn to hit her breaking point.

The sight of Maribelle losing it was too much for Justin to handle, and he found himself sobbing along with his friend.

"We'll give you five minutes to say your good-byes, and then we have to pull her." The attending said softly, his eyes gleaming with tears. "I'm so, very sorry, Justin."

Pattie was the first to step up to Jennifer's face. Planting a kiss on her forehead, Pattie whispered, "I'm so sorry, Jen," she looked up, "take care of her, Jeremy."

Scooter was next. Trying so hard to keep himself from crying, he merely pet Jennifer's hair and said a small good-bye in his head.

Maribelle shakily stood up, her breath coming in short gasps. "If you can hear me," she whispered, "come back. Don't leave me. Please. You're my best friend and I don't know if I can make it without you. Please, Jen. Who else is going to keep me in check?"

Before she could scream at someone again, Maribelle forced herself to sit back down. Keeping her hand on Justin's, she watched him stand up and sit at the top of Jennifer's bed, where her head lay lifeless.

Placing his forehead on Jennifer's, he willed himself not to cry. "I'll never forget you," he whispered, so softly it was almost inaudible. "I'll always love you. You'll always be my babygirl. I love you so much. Jeremy, take care of her, please. Save her for me."

When he was done, Justin didn't move. He simply placed a kiss on her forehead and rested his head atop her pillow, petting her brittle and nearly colorless hair.

The nurses began to unhook Jennifer from her tubes and wires. This is it, Justin thought as he heard her heart ceasing to beat and her breathing die down to nothing, she's gone now.

"I'm so sorry. We'll give you another few minutes, then we have to take her to the morgue."

The doctor and nurses walked out of the room, and Justin heard one of them give a slight sob. Justin was all out of tears, though he wanted to do something to relieve the pain.

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy, when skies are grey." He sang softly, petting Jennifer's hair.

Jennifer's parents walked out of the room wordlessly, and the whole room fell silent apart from Justin's soft singing and Maribelle's sobs.

"We should probably... probably head out." Scooter said quietly.

Pattie was sobbing quietly in the corner, but Justin could hear something else. Something different.

"Everybody shut up!" Justin yelled, and tried to find the source of the new noise.

Searching around the room, Justin couldn't find the source. He shook his head and rested it back on Jennifer's pillow in frustration. His mind was playing tricks on him because of the grief.

But he could still hear it. Turning towards Jennifer, he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Eyes widening, he saw a change. It was so small it was barely noticeable, yet it was so huge it might as well have smacked him in the face.

Her color was different. Her face was different. Everything was different.

In the moment it took Justin to notice the change, Jennifer's eyes popped open and she began choking on her own breath.

THE END