Saturday/Sunday
“Wh-What the…” My body was moving on its own, my head was filling up with a million questions and scenarios. I couldn’t really believe what I saw, “… Hey! Emily! Are you okay?!” She wasn’t okay, not at all. Nothing I could’ve imagined would’ve prepared me for this.
“I didn’t…” Her eyes were full of tears, painful tears. She sank down along the guard rail. I didn’t know what to do, I poured everything out of my bag before I’d even crouched down beside her, “I’m sorry.”
“Hey, it’s alright. I uh, I’ll help you, yeah?” I had no idea how to help, everything was scattered around me.
She certainly noticed my frantic search for the cause of her pain, “it’s the stomach, I… just, hand me a bandage.” My eyes darted across the ground, I found the bandage and brushed off any dirt before giving it to her. She pulled herself up and grabbed my hands, “hold them there, press harder,” I did as I was told. She winced while moving her body away from me, “shit.”
“You okay?” That was the second time I looked like an idiot in the span of five minutes. Her eyes said more than enough, she told me to keep applying pressure while she started rolling the bandage around her, “uh, shouldn’t you clean it first?”
She shook her head, “it’s not a priority…” she grimaced when I lifted my hands to get the bandage over her stomach. They were covered in blood, her shirt was soaked in blood, everything had blood on it, but I didn’t care. She kept rolling the bandage, “you’ll have to call an ambulance.” I really should’ve done that first I realized, but it was too late to think about that now, I pulled up my phone and tried to unlock it, the blood smeared on the screen. I frantically wiped my hands and the screen onto my shirt before I managed to unlock it. I dialed the number, they answered almost immediately.
“911, what’s your emergency?”
“I uh, need an ambulance.”
“Okay, where are you?”
“Trophy Bridge, 31 Acton Road.”
“What’s the emergency?”
“My friend er… She’s hurt! A-and bleeding! Like… a lot!”
“I’ll send emergency services right away.”
“Great! Thank y—“
“You sound very young, is she really hurt?”
“What? Yes, of course!”
“…Alright, there’s an ambulance close by, they’ll be there soon.”
“O-Okay, I’ll wait with her.”
I put my phone back into my pocket, Emily tightened the bandage around herself and pushed the end under the layers to secure it. I let my phone slide into my pocket before I gathered everything into my backpack, I hesitated to pack the alcohol.
“They’re sending an ambulance, hopefully.” My fingers lingered around the neck of the bottle; it wasn’t even opened. It had stood in our cabinet collecting dust since we got it, “do you uh… should we at least like, wash our hands?”
“Did y—" Her own coughing interrupted her, “water? Did you bring water?”
I showcased the bottle in my hand, “only vodka.” I grimaced, she scoffed and reached out her hands.
“Better than nothing, it’ll wash off the worst of it.”
The pungent smell of the liquid was like a hit to the face, Emily didn’t seem to notice, though she probably didn’t care about it. “Why are you uh…” Anything I thought of saying felt wrong, “…out this late?” Even that felt very wrong to say.
“I was with Ashley, it was fine and all at first…” She paused to take a breath, it was ragged and slow. “She started talking about college, she was asking me… things, like where I’d study and what I was going to study.”
“What’re you gonna study?”
She fell silent, pondering what to say. It was like it wasn’t her choice, that she just had to roll with the fate given to her. “Economy or Law, but I don—”
“What do you actually want to study?” Emily looked up at me, she looked confused at first. But her eyes turned soft, her mouth showcased a small grin as she spoke.
“Psychology.”
“Really? That’s—”
“I could prevent other people ending up like this.” Her face changed, it turned cold and numb. She looked down at her own hands, they were still stained orange from her blood.
“Huh?”
“Yeah… Who would wanna smell like a pair of drunks in the middle of the night on a bridge? Seems kinda stupid to me, to be honest.”
“Uh… You’re uh jo—”
“Joking, yeah, I am.” She laughed, “but honestly, I’m not sure what I want to do. I haven’t really thought of it much, right now I’m just trying to get through high school. What about you?”
“Me?”
“What do you wanna do? When you grow up.”
“Huh, I’m not too sure, I like traveling. We used to do it a lot when I was younger. But now we’re mostly at home during breaks.”
“A businessman, savvy. You’re not the first one to think that.”
Neither was my dad, the more I thought about it, the less I wanted to be like him. “Hah, hilarious.” I didn’t know what I wanted to be, I didn’t like thinking about the future, or planning that far into it for that matter. “But I don’t know though, it’s kinda hard to decide now. Maybe I could be a judge.”
“…Ah.” She turned her head and nodded distantly.
“What? What’s wrong with judges?”
“Nothing! There’s absolutely nothing wrong if you wanna be a judge, I just… have a bad relationship with the whole court thing.”
“Why would you wanna study Law, then?”
“It’s what they want me to study, I have no choice.”
The siren made itself heard before the ambulance stopped a few feet away from us, the paramedics asked me if we were drinking illegally after they had put Emily on the stretcher and loaded her in the back. I tried my best to explain the situation, they seemed to believe me when I told them about the percentage and using it to wash off, although I had planned to disinfect her wounds. They wouldn’t let me come with due to visitor’s hours, but they’d make sure to call me the next day. Mom was still asleep when I got home, I put everything back into the first aid kit and what was left of the alcohol was put back in the cabinet. My hands reeked of alcohol, my hands were still stained with blood, and so were my clothes as well. I couldn’t go to bed like that, I had to shower. My clothes were soaking in the sink while the hot streams tried their best to eliminate the smell. I stood for way too long, trying to scrub it off. When I was done, I went into my room to get new clothes, comfortable clothes I could sleep in. My phone started buzzing on my desk. I had what seemed like a million missed calls and text messages from an unknown number. I called it and not so unexpectedly, it was Ashley’s. I groaned, I really didn’t want to talk to her, it was definitely about Emily, so I had no choice but to answer.
“Uh, Hel—”
“Where the hell is Emily?!”
“Jesus. She’s at the hosp—
“Why is she there?! What the hell did you do to her?! Did you abuse her?!”
“What? Of course not! She was hurt before I even got to her.”
She was silent, almost as if she was wondering what threatening comments to say next, “… Who hurt her then?” She sounded sincere, I calmed down and sighed. Maybe she started to care more about her friend’s health instead of frat boys.
“I uh, I don’t know.”
“Jeez, you’re hopeless. Guess I’ll have to ask someone else, thanks for nothing.” She had not started to care about her health, at all.
“Wasn’t she with you though?
“Huh? How do you kn—”
“She told me, and you don’t really care about her, do you? Why do you hang out with her?”
“That… I... It doesn’t concern you!”
The line clicked, I started to understand why Emily had left her place that night. I sighed and looked at the time, 02:00 a.m., sleep. But all the running had made me hungry, so I went to the kitchen and made a bowl of cereal. I sat in total darkness eating my cereal. After a while mom came into my room, when she opened the door some light from the living room shone through and lit up me, sitting on the floor, looking at her.
She waved her hand in front of her to fight off the strong smell of spirit. “Man, you reek of booze. Are you drunk?” I placed my bowl beside me, unfinished. I could’ve kept eating, but I had lost appetite after she made me aware of how bad I still smelled.
“Yes mom, I’m drunk.”
“Michael! I’ve told you before not to joke about that. I’m not gonna take you seriously if you keep doing it.”
“I’m sorry. I tried taking a shower.”
“Well, it didn’t work, you still smell. I should dowse you in perfume.”
“Be glad you didn’t see me before I showered, my clothes were covered in b—” I stopped myself, “Uh, I mean. They were dirty. Yeah.”
“…Where are your clothes, Mike.” I knew it was a question, but at the same time it sounded like she already knew where they were and what had happened to them.
“They’re in the bathroom.”
“In the hamper? Did you put them there?”
“They’re uh, in the bathroom. But not in the hamper.” I knew she wasn’t going make a big deal out of this, she didn’t really care. “They’re in the sink, soaking.”
“Why are they soaking?”
“They’re uh, dirty.”
“Honey, I’m not stupid. Is there blood on your clothes?”
“Blood… Stains.”
“Is it your blood?”
“Uh, no. It isn’t mine.”
“I’m sorry? You’re telling me you have someone else’s blood on your clothes?”
“Would it help to say that I might’ve saved them from a slow and agonizing death…?”
“Wh- no! I mean, yes! No? I don’t know! What were you doing?!”
I explained everything to her, that I had started talking to Emily. That we went out for a walk earlier, I got to know about her friend as well as her parents. It was much harder to tell her about what had just happened though, but after collecting myself and just going for it, she sat patiently and listened. I couldn’t tell if it sounded worse than what it was, but it definitely felt worse to talk about. I finished with the ambulance coming to pick her up. Mom sat quiet for a while, she looked a bit puzzled.
“So… you were helping your friend, Emily, was it? Why was she on the bridge in the first place?”
“She had left her friend’s place, she didn’t tell me more than that. I don’t know why she hurt herself.”
“I see, one more question.”
“What?”
“Why did she call you and not someone else? Surely, she has other people she’s friends with?”
“Uh…” She realized what the words she had said actually sounded like, mom stuttered as she tried to explain what she meant.
“O-oh, God no! I didn’t mean it that way! I just meant like, why did she call just you?”
“I don’t know. But I’m glad I answered, I can’t imagine what would’ve happened otherwise.”
“Well, you did the right thing to help her, are you going to see her tomorrow?”
“Yeah, if she feels okay, I’ll go during visitor hours. They were gonna call when I could come.”
“You’re gonna be a great man when you grow up. I’m proud of you.”
Sunday
After a few hours of sleep I woke up due to my phone buzzing, it was the hospital’s receptionist. I wondered if she had told Ashley what had happened, or her parents. She probably hadn’t, although Ashley already knew some of it. I went out to put on my shoes in the hallway before I heard mom clear her throat.
“Good morning to you too, hun.” She stood in the kitchen with a whisk, she looked a bit too energized for her own good.
“Oh, sorry. Good morning. The hospital just called.”
“I was just gonna ask about that, do you know when you’ll be back?”
“I’m not sure, but I’ll text you when I start heading back.”
“Alrighty, have fun! Or uh, wait that sounds wrong. Say hi to Emily from me!” She turned back to her whisking while humming some half-modern pop song.
I nodded and opened the front door. “Ten-Four."
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