After | Teen Ink

After

March 10, 2018
By Anonymous

I woke up in to my mom yelling that I was going to be late for school. Immediately I shot up out of bed, peeling off my clothes and putting on stuff that didn't smell like sweat and deodorant. I grabbed my backpack, and rushed out the door. Running was risky, my “shoes” were already in danger of falling apart, and running would put extra stress on the scotch tape I used to hold them together. However, I could not be late to school again. Mr. Millerson had already pulled me aside to warn me that if I was late again, he would have to give me a detention. Also, entering the class in the middle of a lecture would mean all eyes on me, including Kevin smith. Kevin is the biggest bully out there. Like holy s*** this guy has issues. I don't know what the hell his problem is but since the first day of school he went after me like a hawk. He comes from this rich family and apparently his dad is an engineer. Don't even want to know what his mom is because he definitely didn't get his dad’s intelligence. I mean like the kid barely knows what's happening in class. The fact that he has to repeatedly ask how to graph a line is honestly hilarious. Still at a full sprint I could see the school around the corner. Looking at the clock tower I had a heart attack when I saw that I had less than a minute left. Mr. Millerson saw me coming and held the door open. The bell rang right when I got through. Kevin f***ing smith came up to me, calling me oh so clever names like ‘shortstop’ and ‘midget’ “Oh yeah Kevin?” I said, “I see you're back at it again causing what he thinks is havoc when all he really does is push other people around. I guess it helps ease your insecurities about what a damn failure you are. Bet your mom and dad wish they had aborted you when they had the chance. Do us all a favor and stop wasting food and water you f***ing leech.” Oh you f***ing b****, I bet you're all so clever walking around in tape.” Said Kevin. “Actually I am. You see I can graph a line. I can solve simultaneous equations. I don’t f***ing beg my mom for the newest game, even when she wants to kill herself because she regrets ever making you and wishes she didn't have the moral obligation to clean up after you! Come talk to me when you start contributing to society.” At that the whole class went silent, Mr. Millerson doesn't really care what happens in his class so I could go out. Getting all the hate and anger and frustration off my chest. School was a breeze for me. All the subjects just came to me. Quite honestly it's boring. Nothing that I can't get a grasp on quickly ever comes my way. Everything honestly makes me want to f***ing die sometimes. “Hey john, you are contemplating whether or not you should continue living or not are you?” “No john, I’m not gonna blow my brains out so don't play that autistic song you're obsessed with” john is my best friend. We have the same twisted humor, both sarcastic to the point where we seem like damn sherlock holmes. And we both just get things. Nothing in school is really that challenging. The next thing we saw was a wall of metal as a car careened off the street and tore through the chain link fence next to us.

       The first thing Mr. Millerson saw was a kid screaming at the top of his lungs, then he saw the car. The window was rolled down, and he wasn’t surprised to see a kid behind the wheel. But his blood ran cold when he saw Seth in front of it with his friend, John. Time seemed to slow down, and he froze, not believing that any of it was real. He watched as the car crashed through the fence, tossing his mangled body away like a bag of feathers, eventually skidding to a stop with a trail of blood leading to him.  Seth had seen the car right before it came through the fence, so he had the opportunity to jump out of the way, but he didn't make it that far. The car had clipped him as it passed, shattering his hip, at that point he passed out from the sheer agony.

   John wasn't granted the gift of sleep, he had to lie there as his senses were bombarded with pain, he couldn’t move, he could hardly breathe, everything hurt. To the point where all he could think about was the pain.

    The car kept on going, until hit the low wall surrounding the playground, where it flipped once, twice, three times, before landing on its side on coming to stop three feet in front of a kindergartner who couldn't process what was happening. Utter chaos rang out. Kids were screaming, teachers were freezing, and no one knew what to do, until one brave soul woke up and tried her best to restore order. She went to each of the teachers, jolting them back to reality and getting them to take care of their subjects. They immediately called 911, then got to work calming down the children. The teachers who were trained in first aid went to John and Seth first, and then to the rest of the kids. It wasn't long before the paramedics were swarming the area.
    When they got to the hospital, John had lost far too much blood, and was already circling the drain, they knew that, even if he survived the next few hours, he would never walk again because of the severe damage to his nerves and bones. He had complete breakage of his T10 and T11 vertebrae, and his skull had been fractured in 2 places. He had completely shattered both arms, and his finger bones were completely obliterated. His doctors would later joke about how he looked as if he had taken a beating from Hulk himself, then launched into space and thrown back down by God. Seth was better off than John. While he was still in critical condition, he would be able to survive.

We all know that saying, “Everyone grieves in their own ways.” when John's mother heard that her son was going to die, she laughed, hysterically, for fifteen minutes. She was still laughing when the doctors took her to her son, who was hooked up to numerous machines, looking more machine than human. It wasn't until they unplugged him that she finally realized what was happening. Seth’s mother had always been strong, but when her boy was in critical condition, her will broke, leaving her a shell of her former self.

Seth was unable to attend his friend’s funeral, due to the fact that he had to get a liver transplant, which required that he be on immunosuppressants, so he was unable to go outside, lest he contract the sniffles and die. This sent him into a pit of despair. He felt guilty because he had survived and John didn’t, and because his transplant and his stay in the hospital ruined his family financially. He knew that his mother blamed him for everything, although she tried her best to hide it. He would catch her looking at him with the utmost hatred that could only come from a woman scorned.


In the end, their insurance stopped paying the bills, and they were forced out of the hospital. Seth’s immune system was still on the fritz, so on his first day out he contracted the flu and was rushed to the hospital. He died in the emergency room. His mother was forced out into the streets and became one of the nameless people wandering the town.



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