Since He Left ✓

06: Shrine of Truths

"Sometimes, if you want to change a man's mind, you have to change the mind of the man next to him first." - Meghan Whalen Turner

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"Look, it's not that bad!" I tried to protest, whirling my hands from the passenger seat. Nick looked furious, steering Maman's black Jeep.

"Not that bad? Cops were after us, you were going to get arrested!" He argued, looking at me like a toddler. "Remember when you promised me, you promised to not be reckless," he continued with a whisper.

Why is he so worried?

I didn't care if I had been arrested, let Maman blame me, let the people laugh. I didn't care. I had been through so much already with Grayson and everything else, this would have just been another milestone. Nick must have thought I was mental, he didn't know the pain. Well, he technically did, but not in the same way as I did. He didn't know the pain of being accused of something he wasn't, people didn't blame him for anything. Everyone who knew Nick's mother mourned for something real, for something that had happened. Not a hoax, not Grayson's disappearance.

How does Nick know where I was in the first place?

"Nick, how did you know where I was? How did you manage to find me just at the right moment?" I was curious, had he been following me? "And how did you get permission to use Maman's car? I know you have a driving license, but mom would never let you use her car." I raised my eyebrows at him. He took his eyes off the road, parked on the side and tilted his body to look at me.

"Isla, yes. Okay? Yes, I followed you. I saw you with those seniors, I knew trouble was involved," he looked exhausted but fierce, his whole body tensed. He shouldn't have followed me, it's not like I was his responsibility. But again, he did save me from getting arrested and from a whole load of trouble from Joseph and Maman.

Should I blame him for saving me?

I was disappointed by I wasn't going to shout at him or accuse him of anything, I wanted to speak to him. About Grayson.

"Do you know why everyone thinks I'm crazy? Why nobody believes me, why you don't believe me?" I asked him, the car still parked on the side of the road.

"Why?" He looked perplexed but relieved to change the subject.

"Because you're all insane, that's way. I have proof, I know he's alive! But nobody wants to listen, doesn't want to believe that there could be the slightest possibility. The slightest possibility that he's alive," It was nice to let everything out without getting interrupted like I always would be by Maman. Nick echoed the words slightest possibility, to what looked like to himself.

"So why do you think he's alive? What's your theory," he flashed a look at me, gesturing for me to speak with eyes. I exhaled a long deep breath, repeating everything I had told Zöe, my therapist.

"I had found him in his room, unconscious on the bed with pills spread all over the floor. Maman and I took him directly to the hospital, where they told us he wasn't dead," Nick looked more curious by the second, "he was alive. They said it was an Accidental Prescription Drug Overdose, but that couldn't be it. Maman fell right for it, I didn't. He always made sure he never took more pills than needed, Grayson hated those pills. He said it would make him feel nauseous and sick. I knew he had tried to commit suicide, but he had luckily failed. He had stayed in the hospital for weeks, alive and breathing, the doctors said he could go home when they thought he was stable enough." My breath hitched.

"Maman stayed with him all along, I would come to spend hours with him right after school. After about three days he told us he needed clothes and a book or two, so Maman and I went home to get those things. Mom also had to take a shower, she couldn't use the one in the hospital. We were home for less than an hour when we returned he was gone. When we wanted to ask his doctor where he was, the usual doctor wasn't there. A young, shady doctor had replaced him. He didn't look he belonged there, in the hospital I mean. He was too young to be a doctor, his uniform didn't even fit the rest of the staff, it was strange." Nick looked at me, perplexed.