It's All Your Fault (Palaye Royale)

You're Looking Skinny, You Sleepy Head

Remington

"I can't do this anymore." I could hear the faint sound of arguing as I woke up in the middle of the night.

"Stephanie, no. We've already lost Sebastian and Emerson, why would you want to lose him too?"

"Because it's his fault that they're dead! If it wasn't for him, then they would still be here!"

"What is the logic in that?! It wasn't Remington's fault. He wasn't even the one driving! And now he's traumatized. Doing this will only add to that!"

"I don't care! I will not have a killer living in my house!" Before I could even sit up, my door was being flung open and the lights were turned on.

"What's going on?" I asked with a hand shielding my eyes from the light as I could hear her shoving things into a bag.

"Stephanie, think about this!" I could hear my dad yell.

"Get out." I felt a bag being thrown at me an move my hand to see my duffle bag packed with random stuff, "Take your things and leave!"

"Wait, why?" I tried to say more but she grabbed my by the hair and forced me to my feet, practically dragging me out of my room and out of the front door.

"I don't ever want to see you again!" She screamed before slamming the door shut, enveloping me in darkness.

"Mom, please, no! Don't leave me like this!" I cried as I sat up, my duffle bag on one side of me and my slippers on the other. I could still hear them arguing and the sound of what I think was picture frames being smashed.

I knew things were different after I came home from the accident. Every time she looked at me it was with hatred. She doesn't see me as her son anymore just because Sebastian managed to unbuckle my seatbelt before getting knocked out so I was thrown out of the car when it smashed into the river. I still made it into the water but I wasn't trapped inside of the car.

Seeing as I had no choice in the matter and it was clear my father wasn't going to do anything, I manage to stand myself up, slipping on my slippers and grabbing my bag before leaving. My wrist was throbbing in pain. I was convinced that it didn't heal right but there's nothing I can do about it now.

Finding the park we always used to hang out at, I climbed in and made a makeshift bed in one of the tubes, laying own and crying myself to sleep.

"Emerson, don't forget to use your blinker when you're turning." Sebastian warned. Sebastian was sitting in the backseat of Emerson's new car and I was in the passengers seat. We were teaching him how to drive. It was his sixteenth birthday when he got this car and he immediately wanted to take it for a drive.

"And don't lane surf. You don't wanna be that guy." I added in.

"I got it, I got it." Emerson rolled his eyes as he rolled to a stop. We were at a rather busy intersection and the street we were turning onto ran parallel to a river.

"I'm not saying you don't have it, it's just that people drive through this intersection like they're high on cocaine." Sebastian replied.

In the next thirty seconds, that couldn't have been more true.

"LOOK OUT!" I yelled as Emerson was turning. I could see a pickup truck rapidly approaching and next thing I knew was we were flying through the air, rolling over and coming to a stop mere inches away from the small cliff leading down to the river.

That wasn't going to last, though, because a soccer mom van couldn't stop in time and hit us. The next few moments felt like they were happening in slow motion. I could feel Sebastian reaching over and unbuckling my seatbelt and then the car was toppling over the edge.

Except I wasn't in it.

I was flung out of where the windshield used to be and could feel myself tumbling down the cliff alongside the car. The car landed in the water first with a loud bang sound, followed by me.

"Call 911!" I heard somebody yell as I was bobbing in and out of the water, trying desperately to stay afloat as the current carried me downstream.

"I'm at the intersection of South State Street and Monroe Avenue. Some drunk guy in a pickup truck slammed into this little sports car and sent it flying. Then a minivan couldn't stop in time and sent the car off the edge. There was at least three people in the car. One of them got thrown out of the car and they're being carried downstream. There's others at the crash site and I'm doing my best to follow the one kid, but the river's really fast and I can't figure out how to get down there."

I was pulled under for a few moments and hit a rock, my vision going blurry before I resurfaced.

"Oh thank God there was an ambulance nearby. Help! I need your guys's help! There's a guy that was a part of that accident up the street and I don't think he has the strength to pull himself out of the water, and he's being dragged downstream!"

"Alright, sir, we're gonna go get him now." I was pulled under again but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get afloat again, the current was too strong and I could barely see.

Right as I was about to black out I could feel a pair of strong arms grab ahold of me and lift me up above water.

"I've got him!" I heard the guy yell and soon I was being pulled up onto the street.

"He's got a major concussion and at least three different bone fractures." I could hear them say.

"Stay with us, kid. We've got you."

"You're gonna be okay."