Saturday

It was a pretty chilly night for May, causing Senn to wear a hoodie to Liam’s birthday dinner with their family at Valiano’s; the town’s best pizzeria. They had a lot of options for kids, and they had an entertainment room for children too.

While their parents were still at the table, finishing their glasses of wine, Senn was seated at the edge of the ball pit, watching Liam throw balls around, giggling and screaming in laughter and joy. Ever so often, Liam threw a ball in his direction, and he sometimes wanted to climb onto the slide, requiring Senn to trudge through the ball pit to help him up, and back down the slide.

Liam was still playing with a girl who was a few years older, when Senn felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Sweety, we’re ready to go. It’s getting late, Liam needs to go to bed, and we need to prepare the party for tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I’m cool with that. It’s not like I’m having the time of my life here,” he turned around and smirked, finding his mother smiling down at him warmly. “I do think it’ll be a fight to get Liam out.”

“I’m sure you can handle it. He listens best to his big brother.” His mother winked, pecked a kiss on his cheek and went through his hair with a hand. “We’ll see you outside when you’re ready.”

“Give me five minutes to fight Liam and get his shoes back on.” Senn pushed himself up. “And then I’ll be your lovely taxi chauffeur and drive you home safely.”

His mother nodded and left, leaving it up to Senn to get his brother into his shoes and coat. The coat was hardly a fight, but the shoes weren’t a big success.

“Liam, you need to wear your shoes. You can get rid of them at home again.”

“No shoes.” Liam shook his head, trying to walk back to the ball pit. Senn grabbed his arm, steering him back towards him. “No, Senn, no. I wanna play.”

“Yeah, uh, that’s not going to happen. Put them on.”

“No.”

“Fine, want me to carry you like a baby? Or did you become three today, and therefor a big boy who wears his shoes when he needs to?”

“Baby,” Liam threw his arms around Senn’s neck.

“You know what, I’m too tired for this.” Senn chuckled, lifting Liam up with one arm, carrying his shoes with the other hand. “Let’s get you to bed. You have a big day waiting tomorrow. With tons of birthday presents and friends, and cake. You love cake, don’t you?”

Liam nodded his head, but the lack of audible response and a yawn that followed, told Senn that Liam would be asleep before they reached home. He walked up to his parents, handed Liam’s shoes to his father, and took the car keys from him.

“He’s already falling asleep. Maybe we shouldn’t have taken that last wine,” Senn’s mother Felicia said, slightly walking behind Senn to look at Liam, who was apparently falling asleep with his head on Senn’s shoulder.

“It’s fine, mom. I clearly remember you guys telling us that when Killian was just a baby, you took him to a bar and left him sleeping in his Maxi-Cosi under the table. He turned out fine, so I’m sure a late night in a ball pit won’t scar Liam either.”

His parents laughed, both nodding their heads.

“We had tons of things to learn back when you and Killian were little. But we’re happy with how you two grew up so far. We can only hope Liam will be just like you two.”

“But in his own way,” his father Archie said, waiting for Senn to unlock the car.

“I’m sure he will. You two are the best parents a kid could wish for.” Senn placed Liam in his car seat, buckling him up, checking everything to make sure he was safe. Before he walked around the car and got behind the wheel. “If you two wouldn’t be so awesome, Killian wouldn’t come home nearly every weekend.”

“I still think he should focus on his social life in college more. Don’t they have parties or something during the weekend?” Felicia asked, buckling up beside Senn while his dad took a seat next to Liam. “Isn’t that what teens are supposed to do?”

“Well, Killian isn’t a teen anymore, Mom,” Senn joked. “But yeah, he usually attends parties on Thursday. He’s going to take me to one next year when I go and visit him.”

“Have you two already made plans for that?”

“No, we’re waiting until we both know our schedules in school, and Killian will be dealing with his internship too, so we’ll wait and see.”

“Speaking of parties, you had one hell of a party last night too, did you?” His father leaned forwards a little. “Which is something we need to talk about—”

“I’m sorry I didn’t let you guys know I was going to be home late. I should have, and I’ll promise to text next time, but I fell asleep.” Senn shot his mother a look to watch how she responded. He had spent hours in the treehouse with Julian, and when it started becoming light outside, they had both hurried towards their homes.

“Good, because I was a bit worried,” Felicia admitted. “I woke up in the middle of the night and your door was still open, and your phone went straight to voicemail.”

“Empty battery,” Senn lied, focusing on the road so he wouldn’t have to look her in the eyes.

“You can make up for it,” his father said, sounding a bit amused. “By telling us where you slept. Is there a new girl that you’re hiding from us?”

“No, no! I just, uh, you know. I was tired and I went to lie down and I fell asleep over at Patrick’s.”

“So? No girl?”

“No, sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. You’re young. High school is a great first try, but things hardly get serious in high school so you should just enjoy being young and free.” His mother reached out to push his hair out of his face, when Senn looked at her from the corner of his eyes. A bright light rapidly got closer, and before he was even able to respond, a loud crash was heard, multiple screams sounded—one possibly his—and Senn closed his eyes, bracing himself while the car started spinning and rolling over and over again until it hit a tree and stopped moving while laying on its roof.

His ears were ringing, but other than that, it felt eerily quiet. His mother wasn’t next to him, and his neck and head hurt too much to see where Liam and his father were. His seatbelt kept him in place, hanging in his seat, while his head started pounding painfully. Blood rushed to his head, and not just inside, but it started trickling down his face too.

But the pain he could handle. It was the silence that was killing him; knowing Liam should cry, his dad should try to comfort them and search for their mother.

Still, it remained silent, besides a car horn honking endlessly, and Senn had trouble opening his eyes after each time he blinked. He forced himself to keep his eyes open and tried to call for help. But without a sound leaving his throat, he felt hopeless. He didn’t even know what had exactly happened, let alone how to solve this.

He blinked one more time, losing the strength to open his eyes again, and soon, all there was, was a darkness that was both soothing and scaring him in the same time.