A Memory Faded - [Fifteen]

Fletcher woke up from the noise of his sister’s screams at 2 a.m. on the Monday morning. Pulling on his clothes as quickly as he could, he ran into the room, where his parents and a paramedic were. Fletcher’s messy hair was out of the way of his fearful amber eyes, and he stared at the people in the room. He could hardly hear. It was all a blur. Words like ‘sedative’ and ‘ambulance’ pierced through his daze. His thought processes were scrambled, and then everything collapsed like a wave of everything that had happened.
Everything spiraled back into place moments later, and his mother held his hand.
“My head hurts,” he mumbled, “Where’s Alice?”
“She’s gone to hospital with your father. She’s getting put on dialysis for a few days.”
“Dialysis?! My little sister is on dialysis?”
“Fletcher calm down…now, I need you to make a decision. Are you going to come up to the hospital and stay there with us, or are you going to go to school and look after the house?”
“It depends. Will Alice be okay without me?”
“I’m sure she will. They have the best people for her up there. Even if me and your father are having to dig into our life savings again.”
“So are you going now?”
“Yes. You get back to bed, hun.”
“Okay mom. Night.”
“Goodnight, Fletcher.”

He pulled himself out of bed at six after having four hours of worry-ridden sleep. Pulling on his uniform and putting gel in his black hair, making only the slightest bit more messy than it already was. Flicking open the arms of his aviator sunglasses, he slipped them on, disguising his blackened eyes. He considered daubing some eyeliner on, but his enthusiasm for living had drained since the early morning disturbance. He walked heavily down the stairs and grabbed his bag. With his hand wrapped around the door handle, his mind was used to the routine of turning round and announcing his departure. But no-one was here to hear him now. The door slammed shut, echoing through the house. The click of the lock resounded in the empty hallway. Fletcher sighed and turned around, looking across the lawn.
Alex was sat on the wall, waiting for him. She had been there for five minutes, and the school-bus they usually caught had already gone by. But, at least it would give them a chance to talk. Give him a chance to ask the question. Maybe he’d have someone to hold onto if he lost everything.
“Morning,” she said, cheerfully, “Are you okay?”
“I’m not really. My sister went into hospital last night.”
“Oh god, is she okay?”
“She’s on dialysis last I heard. So no, not really. But…can’t do anything about that. How are you anyway? Feeling good?”
“Hmm, I guess so. What’s with the shades?”
Fletcher removed the sunglasses and showed Alex his blackened eyes. She put her thumb under his right eye and rubbed slowly across. She leant over to him and hugged him. He looked like he needed it. Leaning back, looking into those sad, amber eyes, she gave a smile and the fragile words, “Everything will be okay, trust me.”
“I do trust you…and I need to ask you something.”
“Uh, go ahead, shoot.”
“Do you like me?”
Alex suddenly blushed, and stammered. She hadn’t expected him to be so to-the-point. He was usually quite laid-back and not uptight in the slightest. But now he was serious and expected a serious answer. He was staring straight at her, almost through her.
“Yeah, I do.”
“Ah. Right. Cool.”
“You don’t sound too convinced.”
“No, it’s okay…I’m just not great at responding to the fact people like me.”
“I noticed. Do you like me back or…not? I take it you don’t by the reaction…”
“I’ll get back to you on that one. I need to think things over.”