Chapter
33
“If you don’t care then what does it matter if
I stay or not Nick? Why didn’t you want me to leave?” Aaron was spouting off to
his brother, “Huh? Answer me!”
Nick narrowed his eyes, “I don’t know.
I don’t know why I do anything I do anymore.”
“Admit it Nick, you want help,” Aaron
said, “You want help out of this. See you were lying before when you said you
didn’t want anything.”
Nick slumped down on his pillows, “I’m
cold. Can I get another blanket?”
“You can get a bowl a soup Nick,” BJ
said firmly, “That’s the only thing that will warm you up, not a blanket, but
food.”
Nick shook his head, and wrapped his
arms around his bony body and shivered.
“Damn it...” Aaron rubbed his eyes to
push away his tears. How do you help someone who won’t help himself?
“Something’s going on down there,” AJ
said in a hushed tone, “I hear Brian and Kevin... and Bob arguing, and some
other voices, and that ain’t Howie. I’m gonna go and check it out.” He opened
the door and slipped out, closing it behind him. He went to the stair
railing to lean over and look down into the living room. The voices were
louder and he could hear the strain in his friend’s voices. They
were...begging? Pleading with Bob and whoever else was down there to go away.
That Aaron said he would leave willingly, just don’t crash upstairs.
“What the hell...?”
“You can’t tell me where to go when my
children are involved..”
“Including the one you disowned?”
Brian’s voice rose.
“Just let me through,” Bob said. There
was more yelling and thundering footsteps clambering up the stairs. AJ
blinked as he watched in a daze Bob running up the stairs pursued by Brian,
Kevin and Howie. That old man runs fast... Oh! AJ threw himself at
the top of the stairway blocking Bob’s path.
“I knew there was one missing!” Bob
yelled as he fought AJ to get past, but AJ and Kevin, Brian, and Howie catching
him from behind was enough to keep him in place.
AJ looked past the confrontation to
see two police officers coming up the stairs, “You will have to step aside
sir, “ one said to AJ.
“On what grounds did you get
permission to come into my house. What did he pay you?” Kevin was demanding.
“Step aside,” the officer instructed.
They pushed through the barricade the Boys had created. Bob passed
through them and walked down the hall calling the names of his children.
“Shit...” Aaron muttered.
“Aaron your mouth is the most vile
thing...” BJ began, but quieted as she heard what Aaron did, “Dad.”
“Shit,” Aaron said again, rolling his
eyes, “I’m going out there. I’m gonna stop him from getting in here.”
Aaron stood up and stalked to the door hoping to slip out before Bob
rounded the corner to see what door he had come from. He shot a look
at his two older siblings who sat on the bed, BJ had pulled Nick into her arms
trying to calm his shivers.
Aaron opened the door and slid out
only to run into his father, “Oof! Damn! Hi Dad, I’ve got my stuff and I am
ready to go. I know I was wrong for what I did, and I am prepared for
whatever lecture and punishment you have prepared. Lets go.”
Aaron took Bob’s arm and tugged but
found that his father wasn’t quite so easily moved. “Come on Dad, before
Kevin’s veins pop out of his neck. Did you go see Mom and Leslie?”
“Are Nick and BJ in there Aaron?”’ Bob
asked calmly staring at the door Aaron stood in front of.
“No,” Aaron said, “That was the room
Kevin gave me.” He looked behind his father to see the guys standing behind the
police looking angry, but helpless.
“Move Aaron,” Bob grabbed Aaron around
the waist and lifted his slight weight away from the door. “DAD NO! Please!
They don’t wanna see you! Nick doesn’t wanna see you! I don’t know what he’ll
do!” Bob put Aaron behind him, and ignored any warning that he had given.
He opened the door and stepped inside the room, unprepared for the
sight that was there to greet him.
BJ and Nick huddled together on a bed.
BJ, his first little girl, his princess, was glaring at him like he was
the devil himself. He could feel the hate radiating from her body. He
shuddered... and the sight of his oldest nearly brought him to tears, the
look in his eyes. He looked so afraid, afraid of who? Me? Bob quickly
regained his composure, “Your mother and I have come to an understanding. You
two are get your things together now, and we’ll be on our way. No charges
will be pressed on your friends and things will run smoothly. Nick...” Bob
approached the bed slowly, grimacing as Nick flinched away from him and held
onto BJ tighter. “Nick, your mother and I spoke to your doctor, Dr.
Sears, and he knows of a place where you can go to get....”
“DAMN IT DAD! Don’t you get it?!”
Aaron had trailed Bob, “He doesn’t need a doctor he never needed a doctor, he
needed you. He needed you and Mom, but Mom was too busy writing him off
to doctors... and you were too busy stuffing your head up your ass, and your
tongue down Vivian’s...”
“Aaron!” Bob was enraged, “I don’t
know where you learned to talk this way...”
“You better watch it Aaron, he’ll
disown you too,” Nick muttered.
Both Aaron and Bob looked at him,
“Nick, I never disowned you, I was only angry. Angry with myself and the
situa...”
“You told me I wasn’t human... I
wasn’t normal.. Was a traitor. A mistake,” Nick continued not listening
to Bob, “A mistake that no one will let me correct.”
“Nick you’re not a mistake. I...”
“Then why’d you say it Dad. You’ve
been mad before and you never told me I was a mistake.”
“Nick I...”
“The sex was good wasn’t it Dad.
You sold me out, you sold everyone out for sex,” Nick was shaking his
head, “I mean, hell, I don’t blame you. I’d do it now too... but you know what
makes it even better? You now what makes the sex wild...” He had let go of
BJ, he was standing or rather balancing himself with one hand on the wall,
“A little coke, it’s great. Some people think its marijuana, but I
think...”
“Nickolas, do you do drugs? You do
drugs!” Bob was enraged, he stared at his oldest child in shock, “Why the hell
would you do something so stupid so careless?! I didn’t raise a junkie,
an idiot, a fool! What did you think you were doing! And the example that you
set... Is this why Aaron talks to me with no respect, why he hates me? Why
Leslie won’t make eye contact with me? Why BJ won’t...”
“SHUT UP!” BJ screamed at her father,
she made her way to Nick cautiously, trying to reach out and touch him. His
face was dangerously pale and his body practically vibrated, his teeth
chattered, his knees knocked together. His chest heaved in and out loudly
and he clutched the wall, the table, a chair, anything he could get his hands
on to keep him upright, “Look at him Dad, LOOK AT HIM!”
“I am looking at him, and what I see
makes me sick. Come on, come Aaron, BJ, Nick get your things. You’re going
to the Center right away Nick. As soon as we get home and buy you what you need
you’re getting on a plane to Canada,” Bob charged forward towards Nick and Nick
shrank back, his breathing becoming more desperate. He clutched his chest as he
gasped in and out fighting for a breath, “Leave me alone... I’m not going to
see anybody else.. I don’t want anyone to see me... Oh God, I can’t breathe...”
He swooned and collapsed right into Bob’s open arms.
Bob, Aaron, and BJ let out a startled
cry. “Oh no,” BJ breathed. She knelt beside her father and her older
brother, “Nicky? Nicky can you hear me?”
“What have I done what have I done...
Nicky, baby... Daddy’s sorry, he’s so sorry. Honey, wake up please...
Please... Oh God what have I done?” He hugged Nick’s limp body to his
chest.
“I’m gonna go call an ambulance,” BJ
said in a quiet voice,, she jumped up and ran from the room leaving Bob alone
with Aaron, and Nick.
“You bastard, what were you thinking?
I thought you said you wanted to help? Nick hates himself, and a lot of that
self hatred comes directly from the cruel words you said to him months ago.
You turned him to this... you and Mom, and stress, and God everything.
Everything Dad. You messed everything up for us. You... and then you come in
here to make things right... claiming that you want to make things right, and
then you do this. Oh Dad, he tears himself down enough, he didn’t need
your help,” tears coursed down Aaron’s face, “You’re smothering him, lie him
flat!” Aaron snapped bumping Bob’s arms as he cradled Nick like a small child.
“I’m so sorry.... I just want him
to...”
“Dad, he said he couldn’t breathe, lie
him down!” Aaron barked.
Bob blinked, then gently lie Nick on
the floor, tenderly brushing his blond hair behind his ears with his fingers,
“I don’t know what came over me. I just got so scared, so angry that he would
pollute his body in that way.”
“It all started with prescription
drugs from the very same psychiatrist you guys want to send him back too. Dr.
Sears just wants the money Dad, he doesn’t give a damn about Nick. And when you
try to send him away, Nick feels that you don’t give a damn.”
Bob was trying to calm himself down,
he sat stroking Nick’s hair and talking to him lovingly. Brian, Kevin,
Howie, and AJ came into the room, “BJ’s calling an ambulance in the hall. What
the hell happened?”
“Nick!” Brian tried to push Bob out of
the way, “Nicky?”
Bob shoved Brian back causing a very
violent reaction from Brian who abruptly pulled back and punched Bob
square in the jaw, “Son of a bitch! You get out of here! This is all your
doing! It’s all your fault!”
Bob lunged at Brian with a snarl
trying to land a fist but was restrained by the other Boys and the police.
“Watch Nicky! Watch out for Nicky!”
Howie was yelling. He dropped beside Nick trying to shield him from any stray
limbs flailing that could strike him. Kevin pulled out of the fight,
shaking himself and gazing down at Howie and Nick. He took Nick from
Howie, lifting him up and carrying him out the door. AJ pulled out
of the fight just in time to see Aaron, Howie, and Kevin leaving with Nick.
He gripped Brian’s collar and dragged him after the others. Bob and
the police also followed.
“What happened up there Aaron?” Kevin
demanded.
“Bob started yelling and calling him
names,” Aaron said in a angry voice, “He got really upset and started
hyperventilating.”
“Well, are you happy now Bob, huh?”
Brian asked from Nick’s side. He was lying on the couch. Brian held his limp
hand and coaxed him to wake up. Bob stood with his head in his hands, “No
I’m not happy. What’s wrong with him, he weighs what? Twelve pounds? What
has he done to himself... besides the drugs?”
AJ simply rolled his eyes, “Where’s
the ambulance.”
“It’s on its way,” BJ said coming down
the stairs.
“Why don’t you ride with him Beej,”
Kevin suggested, “He’ll be glad to see you when he wakes up.”
BJ nodded, “Yeah.”
“Are you ignoring me?!” Bob shrieked.
All eyes peeled towards him, “Yeah, we
are. We have nothing to say to you,” Howie simply said, “Perhaps someone should
call Jane and Leslie to let them know the situation.”
“I’ll call,” Bob said. He immediately
pulled out his phone and began dialing.
Sirens could be heard coming from
outside, “Here it comes.”
The next few minutes were a blur
as paramedics rushed in and took Nick’s pulse and started an IV, “He’s
dehydrated...” one commented, “Temperature of 101.” Nick was loaded on a
stretcher and put into the ambulance. BJ climbed in after him. After the
ambulance whizzed away, Kevin ran back into his house to grab his keys, “Come
on lets go.”
“Aaron where are you going?” Bob
called after his son who was running to Kevin’s garage along with the Boys.
“To see my brother,” Aaron said
flatly.
“Ride with me I’m going to the same
place,” Bob said feeling rather shaky he needed the company. If he could be
with one of his sons and feel that he was ok...
“Oh Dad, I would ride with you... But
the thought of it makes me wanna hurl. And I know how well you treasure your
appearances in public, and I wouldn’t wanna tarnish that with my regurgitated
insides. Sorry, I’ll see you there,” Aaron smiled sweetly and waved to his
stricken father. He ran to catch up with the guys leaving Bob Carter to
remain staring after him.
“Lets go Mr. Carter, we’ll take you to
the hospital,” a police officer offered kindly.
Bob nodded blinking back a tear,
“Thank you. I appreciate it.”
***
