We Come Alive 4

"Who..."

Only two days after having a tragic accident on the field, Andrew took off from school and drove back home to Dallas. He didn't talk about the accident to anyone after going to the hospital with the boy. He just went to school, packed what he needed for the next week, and left.

Andrew was laying in his bed in his childhood home listening to the rest of his family moving around in their overcrowded small house. He hadn't left his room since he'd gotten home early Sunday morning. It was now Monday afternoon.

Andrew heard a knock on the door which made him turn to face the wall. He heard the door open and a plate be set down on his desk and the old plate of food be taken off the desk that was previously his breakfast.

"Andrew." His mother Amber's voice floated in the air. "Your friend's here to see you."

Andrew didn't reply and just kept staring at the wall. He heard the door close then footsteps come closer to the bed.

"Hey, man." He heard Stephen's voice say. "Your mom told me you haven't been up to talking much, but I thought I'd still come and see you. See if you wanted to do something. Go to the corner store like we use to? Throw some footballs around?"

"Stephen, go home." Andrew said. His voice was dry, raspy from not talking for so long.

Stephen sighed and he sat down in the desk chair. "Good friends don't leave good friends alone when they need someone. So we can sit in silence or we can talk. Either way I'm not going home until it's my curfew."

Andrew didn't move for a couple minutes. The room was silent. But when he realized that Stephen was serious, he flipped over to face his best friend.

"What do you want?"

Stephen looked up from the book he had taken off Andrew's desk and looked at his best friend. "You okay?"

"No." Andrew scoffed. "No, I'm not. I tackled a kid and now he's paralyzed from the chest down! You tell me if you'd be fine after that!" He yelled, sitting up and facing Stephen. "He's paralyzed! Paralyzed! So you tell me Stephen, would you be fine after listening to a single mother scream and cry when she finds out her son will never walk again? Would you?!"

Stephen opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out.

"Exactly!" Andrew yelled, hopping off the top of his bunk bed he shared with his cousin and got in Stephen's face. "Football is all fun and fucking dandy until someone's restricted to a wheelchair for the rest of their lives!"

Stephen got up when he saw the tears running down Andrew's cheeks. "You didn't do that." He whispered.

"Than who did it?!" Andrew shouted, still crying. "Who hit him?! Who tackled him?! Who hit him when he wasn't looking?" Andrew broke down into sobs. "Who ruined his life? Who paralyzed him? Who put him in that chair? Who did that? Me."

Stephen wrapped his arms around Andrew when he broke down crying. "It was an accident. It's not your fault. You didn't do it."

Andrew sat back on the bottom bunk and cried in his hands. Stephen sat down next to him and tried to console him.

Andrew couldn't get the images out his head. The boy trying to get up, but not being able to move. The athletic trainers asking him if he could move his feet, his legs. Them telling him not to move while they called an ambulance. All that boy wanted to do was play football. And Andrew felt like he took that away.

Stephen snapped him out of his thoughts when he talked again, trying to assure Andrew it wasn't his fault.

"It was an accident. Andrew, it was an accident."