Together We Fall

Chapter 64 | Truth & Trust

Max's whole family finally showed up last night. His parents were in shock when they saw their son was in bed and the hospital was flooded with their wails and tears. Now, they'd come to realise how important their son was? They'd been gone for such a long time, now they came back when Max was finally lying on his deathbed.

They were lucky that he was still breathing.

I didn't want to talk with any of his family members. I didn't know why it seriously annoyed me to see them but at the same time, I was glad that they came as soon as Matt received Tyler's phone call. At least, Max got to see his family members again.

Luke drove me home just as soon as the family came, leaving Tyler to tell them how the story went when he spent the night with Max at the bar. Trying to think of it, I really should've invited both Max and Tyler to come to my Thanksgiving dinner. Then, Max wouldn't have ended up lying on the hospital bed.

Now, Ben and I were having a debate in the kitchen in this early morning, of whose fault that caused Max to be in the hospital. I was only explaining things out to Sara why I was in a rush last night and Ben happened to listen our conversation and he decided to jump in.

"I told you, it was clearly his fault for being too stupid to drink it," Ben claimed.

"Max is the victim. Why would he be the one to blame?" I fought him. "Obviously, it was the bartender's fault. They should be suing that dude for giving him that drink."

"Tell me," Ben placed his hands on his hips. "Whose decision was it to go to the bar?"

"Well, it was Tyler's—"

"There you go. Tyler is the one to blame here," he shrugged.

"But things could go differently if they were served by different bartender, don't you think?" I didn't back down.

"And still, it was Tyler's fault for going to the bar with Max," Ben said after sipping on his coffee, standing idly behind the island. "If they didn't go there, none of these would happen. Don't you think?"

I got off the bar stool and faced him, "They didn't know—"

"Oh, can you two just knock it off already?" Sara groaned. Apparently, she'd grown exasperated hearing us bickering in the morning. "It's everyone's fucking fault. There. Period. Now, you go to school," she pointed at me with her forefinger before she shifted her eyes to her husband. "And you, go to work."

"It's neither Tyler nor Max's fault," I said to Ben while grabbing my backpack on the island before I got out of the house.

*      *      *      *      *      *

I had no one to hang out with during lunch time. Max was still in the hospital, Tyler was not in school — I bet he was sleeping in or his mom was giving him an earful for bailing on of their family's Thanksgiving dinner — and Luke told me that he was going back home for awhile to get the cheesecake that he promised to give me. Well, I'd been craving for it frankly.

I meandered through the hallway, letting my hand touched every single locker that I passed by, not knowing what to do or where to go. Cafeteria wasn't the place I wanted to go right now. Not without any of best dudes. If I were to sit there all by myself, there was a high chance that one fucking asshole would come near me and commence a drama which was something that I didn't want to face right now.

Out of nowhere, someone gripped my hand and pulled me into the dark and small janitor's closet then pressed me against the wall. It was so abrupt.