Mirror Me

Chapter 15

Eric
4th of July

'Well, well, well. If it isn't Rick the Prick royally messing things up with his girlfriend again.' Seth walked towards me, a self-satisfied smirk on his face.

I took a few steps in his direction, 'Well, well, well. If it isn't the Baxter Bastard poking his nose in everyone's business.' I fake-smiled at him. Long ago, when we used to be the best of friends, we used to call each other these names. It used to be a term of endearment back then. But now, they were just terms.

He crossed his arms across his chest and stood up straighter. 'You really think Carmella will get back together with you after the stunt you pulled? You think that you're too good for her so you treat her any way you want to, be it like trash. You're deluded, bro. She doesn't want you in her life anymore.'

'And you think you're the one she wants?' I inquired, tightening my fists. This guy needed to get a grip.

He shrugged, 'Obviously, I can give her anything.' He said nonchalantly. 'All a chick wants is dollar bills and a good dick. And you got neither.' He winked, chuckling.

That was enough for me to lose my control. I couldn't let him talk about Carmella like that. I didn't care if he insulted me, he was insulting MY GIRL. I threw my fist at his face, which made him loose balance for a moment. Seizing the moment, I kicked his leg and he fell face-first onto the grass. Turning him around, I punched his jaw again and again. Blood splattered from his nose as he blocked my fist with his elbow. His sneaker hit my chest, hurling me back from him. I started towards his direction but a set of muscular hands circled around my waist, not letting me move any further. I moved away farther from his grasp and saw Tyler Curtis standing, glaring at me. In the far corner, Jade Stone was doing the same with Seth.

'Knock it off, Neanderthals! The alpha male energy right here is drowning the girly girl hiding inside me.' Jade said in a chipper voice, rolling her eyes at the end of the sentence. Everyone in school knew Jade was anything but "girly".

Seth stood up from the ground and started brushing off the grass and dirt from his polo shirt and oxford blue denims. I must've destroyed a $100 worth of clothes. The damage to his face wasn't much, only a broken blood vessel in his nose and a few slight bruises which will fade away in three to four days. Kinda felt proud of myself for doing that. Sorry, not sorry.

Seth pointed at my direction, breathing heavily. "He launched a fist at my face out of nowhere. We were just talking one second, and the next, he started hitting me.'

I rubbed my nose and shook my head in bewilderment. The audacity of this dude! 'Oh, really? "just talking?' think again, man."

'Guys, stop it!' Tyler yelled. 'You both need to press a pause to your immaturity. This is getting out of hand. If Jade and I weren't here in time, we'd have to attend two funerals in a row.'

Jade sighed on the other side, 'Now let's get back to the party and enjoy ourselves while we still can.' She started to walk towards the house, hand-in-hand with her boyfriend.

I looked at Seth as he started limping towards the house. 'Hey!' I called out after him and waited for him to turn around. When he did, I backed away, in the direction of the cemetery. 'I can't say I'm sorry about the damage I did to you because that would be a fucking lie.' I gave him the finger, turned around and walked towards the cemetery.

It had been about 20 minutes since Carmella ran towards the woods behind Brooksville Cemetery and there was no word from her. I tried calling her cell about 15 times in the past five minutes and it kept going straight to voicemail again and again. The woods at night kinda gave me the creeps. I had heard rumors that there had been many dangerous dealings in there between drug cartels. But I wasn't the one to believe in rumors. Although, I had a deep feeling that Carmella needed me, that she was in danger. Turning on the flash light of my phone, I started walking towards the clearing behind the cemetery, the only place I think where she would've gone to "get some fresh air".

Snap.

I turned around towards the way from where the sound came. The sound was coming from my left, where there were all the tombstones. I concentrated more on the sounds. A muffled scream, someone panting hard, and then a thud, like a heavy mass falling on the wet ground. I sprinted towards the tombstones just before I saw a shadow slipping towards the other side of the woods. I followed behind the shadow, but it was no use. He was already gone. I stepped back when I stumbled over something, falling into a puddle of mud and dirt. My hands moved floppily over the wet ground when I touched something cold and moist. I flashed my assistive light at the source. Blood, everywhere I looked, there was blood. From her head to her toes she was dripping with dark, cold, sticky blood. Her head was tilted in an unnatural way and there was an open wound at the back of her skull.

'Oh my God.' I whispered.

Carmella's face was covered in cuts and scratches. The bare skin of her stomach, covered in bruises. Her nose was covered in some white substance, which I think might be cocaine or something. A sob left my mouth as I checked her pulse, she was breathing but I didn't know for how long.

'No, stay with me, baby.' I held her bloodied hand tightly. 'You can't leave me now or ever.' Holding her hand to my chest, I felt the rest of the world fade away. I couldn't live without her by my side every day. I didn't want to wake up every morning without her in my arms. I didn't want fall asleep knowing there were things that could've gone differently if I didn't act like a total dick. 'Please, stay.' I sighed.

I called for an ambulance as fast as I could, and tried to give her CPR until the meds arrived. Once they reached us, I stood there, shaking from thought of the things that happened today. I touched my face, and found it covered in dried tears.

'You coming or not?' One of the meds asked. I nodded in reply and followed him towards the back of the vehicle.

At the hospital, people came and went, giving me words of assurance, which I knew they didn't mean. Jade and Tyler came, along with their baby son, handing flowers to me that was meant for Ella. Seth came by to see her. We didn't exchange a single word. He left a box of chocolates and flowers for her.

I didn't even realize how many days went by. Maybe it was the second or the third day but I hadn't gone home since the night they had brought her here. It didn't even mattered to me, I just wanted to be close to her.

'Eric.' Sheriff Patterson cleared his throat. He stood at the entrance of the room. I motioned him inside as I took a seat in one of the plastic chairs. The Sheriff was one of the only few people who've looked out for me since the beginning. He was closest to a father figure I've had.

Sitting opposite to me, he took out his gun from the gun holster and set it on the table. 'I'm just gonna ask you a few questions, if that's alright with you?'

I nodded in agreement. 'Yes, sir.'

'The medical reports say Carmella Andrews was in the influence of drugs and alcohol when she was brought in. Is that right?'

I rubbed my arms in order to calm my nerves. 'I don't know. She was sober for more than 3 months.' I was not going to snitch on Ryan and blurt out that there was a supply of drugs and booze in his party. Carmella had had a rough past, like me. But we started to bring out the best in each other. We started to grow into better persons for each other. 'She had been to a rehabilitation centre at the beginning of this year due to her addiction. She had been doing drugs for a month back then, but I convinced her to go to rehab in spring break. She has been sober since.'

He nodded, 'It's fine, I'm not here to give you trouble. You're going through a very tough time, son. I hope everything goes back to normal.' He picked his gun up and started walking towards the door, when he paused and turned back, 'Don't give up on the girl, son. Only love can build broken bridges again, don't you forget that.' He said and walked out the door.

'I won't.'

Wednesday evening, I dozed off while watching her. It had been four days since the accident happened and I couldn't even think of leaving her here in this unfamiliar hospital room with a bunch of strangers when she'd wake up.

But when she opened her eyes later that day and looked at me straight in the eye, one of my most feared nightmares became my reality.

I was one of those strangers, too.