Stay ≫ Jack Gilinsky

chapter seventeen - coma

"She hit her head" Hayes continues for him, "Bad."

"Did she.." I can't finish my sentence.

My heart sinks to my stomach, I knew this kid had issues but I wouldn't have thought of him to be a murderer.

"No no no, god no" Nash interrupts.

"But she was put in a coma and Gilinsky was put in rehab, which he got out of pretty quick because his family's loaded"

I'm relieved that he didn't kill her but I still feel uneasy about the whole thing.

"Did she wake up?" I ask.

Hayes nods, "a couple weeks later, Gilinsky tried for months and months to get her back, he called her daily, just to hear her voice-mail message and leave endless messages."

"He gave up about three months later and nobody's heard from her since" Shawn mumbles.

"Gilinsky spiralled after that, endless hangovers, drugs, sex with random girls"

I gulp what felt like a boulder.

I look down at my sweaty hands, my fingers are drawing random shapes on my thighs.

I can feel the blood pumping around every inch of my body and I don't know what to say or do.

"Don't worry" Shawn chuckles lightly, "it's not like it's your fault"

I nod, "but, if he's so bad with alcohol why was he going to order some for all of us tonight?"

"He cleaned up his act last year, he still smokes though, says it calms him" Hayes answers.

"He wasn't going to actually drink tonight he-" Nash's voice trails off.

Has everyone forgotten how to finish their sentences?

"He was going to get you.. the girls drunk and then not drink himself, then, you know."

Yeah, I do know.

"I guess his old buddies are back in town" Cameron seethes, fists clenched tight.

"This is their town" Nash adds.

"Who are they" I ask.

All the boys look at each other.

"You're about to find out" Cameron mutters, gesturing to the bus as we get closer to it.

We mumble our thank you's to the driver and race out the black car.

The boys march to the bus and Shawn interlocks our fingers and squeezes my hand.

"Is it that bad?" I mumble.

Shawn sighs and looks down.

"You don't have to go in if you don't want to" Nash breaks the silence and all the boys nod.

"I'm fine, I've seen worse" I say truthfully.

Hayes nods to Nash who walks up the steps and opens up the door.

When I look into what was once our bus, I can hardly recognise it..