• Did You Hear ? She Made The Playboy Cry !

    Chapter Fourteen: Lifeless

    Josh P.O.V


    I stared miserably up at Zaine’s face. He didn’t look like he was paying attention, his eyes were glassed over, and his books weren’t on the table. He looked hollow, lifeless. I turned to the front. That girl Stephanie was sniveling, she had tons of tissues on her desk.

    The whole class looked miserable, even the girls that didn’t like Angelina. It had been 4 months, and Angelina wasn’t making any progress, she was linked up to a life support machine. Zaine went to see her every day without fail. He’d been kicked off the football team because of it. Coach said there was no time for sluts and Zaine just flipped.

    Slammed Coach into the locker, pummeled his face in. It was the only reaction, anyone had seen out of him, since the whole school found out Angelina was in hospital. Some people had tried to tell Zaine how sorry they were, others stayed clear away from him.

    Scared that he’d have another outburst. I knew why everyone was being mellow today. It was the day they decided whether or not they should pull the plug. The lasts round of tests hadn’t come back good Angelina’s state was deteriorating. I glanced back at Zaine again he was in the same position.

    He looked lifeless; I remember he cried when he found out the news. The head teacher pulled him out of lesson and told him. That same day the whisperings started, the girls. They started praying for Angelina, saying she was the one, the queen of this school. The only girl to have made Zaine block everything out this way, the only girl he cried in public about.

    Even when Mason hung herself, Zaine made the effort, looked normal, smiled. Now he just sat there, and occasionally he’d cry. Angelina was going down in the records, the girl who made the playboy cry. I didn’t understand it though; the doctors said she tried to kill herself. But Zaine refused to believe them, saying she was fine, when he left.

    It was her dad that found her, in the kitchen. I don’t think she tried to kill herself, I think she was attacked. She wouldn’t do that to Zaine; he told me exactly what happened after I left. It sounded pretty much like love to me. The teacher’s didn’t bother ask Zaine for anything anymore, their eyes glided past his chair like he didn’t exist.

    When the bell went he was the first one out the door. I saw the expression on his face, I rushed to shove my stuff in my bag, there was no way I was leaving him alone today.

    “ZAINE!” I yelled, charging down the corridor after him.

    He turned around his face looked dead, haunted, it was scary. He didn’t answer me, we walked in silence to our next lesson, I could feel him shutting me out he didn’t want to cope with this. His mum was scared; frightened that he’d do something to himself if they pulled the plug.

    So was I, he had already told me, that once Angelina leaves this earth he plans going straight after and there’s no way to stop him. I don’t think he was being serious just exaggerating. I think he sensed that I was going to be following him, every second of the day.

    “There’s no point following me, it’s going to happen, when she dies, I’ll die shortly after.” He murmured to me before walking into Mrs Kingsley’s class.

    I followed after him in shock. So he was serious, but Zaine wasn’t the type for suicide, he just wasn’t. I couldn’t deal with this by myself; I pulled out my phone and texted Matt and Henry.

    Guys I need ur help, Zaine’s gne all suicidal on me, we can’t let him leave our sights. J

    I tuned back in to listen to the utter rubbish spewing out of Mrs. Kingsley’s mouth; I turned to look at Zaine. He was zoned out again. He was staring at the seat beside him, where Angelina normally sat. I remember how he chewed the new girl out, because she dared sit in Angelina’s chair.

    From there everyone pretty much left it alone. It wasn’t worth it. I felt my phone buzz in my pocket; I pulled it out and read the text. It was from Matt.

    WTF? Suicide? Jesus, don’t u fink we shud tell some1 a teacher maybe, this is out of hand, wat can we do? M

    I looked to the back of the room and saw him watching me, I shrugged my shoulders at him, what can we do? He flicked a glance at Zaine and his face turned slightly pale. I looked at Zaine and saw what was wrong. His wrist was on display, there were angry red scratches everywhere.

    I felt like my breakfast was about to come up. I turned back to the front feeling sick, my phone buzzed again, it was Henry.

    What can we do, if it doesn’t happen 2day it will happen 2moz, we need 2 tell some1. H

    I glanced back at Zaine’s wrist, it was happening already.

    Stephanie P.O.V


    I cried when I heard the news. I cry every time I go to see her. It’s the worst feeling in the world. Knowing someone you care about is dying right in front of you. Me and Zaine used to meet up by the beach, Angelina’s favorite spot in the whole world. We used to meet up and talk about her.

    Cry together; share our best and worst times we had with her. It made me feel better at the end of the day and I could see it helped him. That was back when Angelina had a fighting chance. I didn’t understand what was wrong. The wound had healed up it was fine.

    The doctors said her body wasn’t responding properly, something was wrong, and she couldn’t wake up. It seemed her brain was giving up, even if they didn’t pull the plug, it looked like she was going to die anyway. The doctors claim it was a suicide attempt, somehow I could believe that, Lina had been depressed for ages, I was realizing that now. I should have realized ages ago, and then I could have helped her.

    The doctors showed us the cuts she’d made on her wrist, more proof towards their theory. I was angry with her, with myself. How had I not seen this sooner? How could Lina do this to herself? It made me mad, frustrated just to think about it. I felt that Zaine had got the worst end of the stick; he was the last person she’d been with. It would have been a murder crime except for the times didn’t match.

    Zaine was at home, about the time the doctors estimated the crime had happened. He looked really glum these days. The first couple days after he heard the news was the worst, he went on a rampage, literally beating up everyone in his sight. Crying randomly all over the place, even in lessons. He’d just break down and cry. I’ve never seen him cry before; it made the female population of this school soften towards him because it showed he had some compassion.

    That was until he decided to be a total douche and basically say they were his hump and dumps, lash and dash, no-one feels sorry for him now. The odd few girls think they still have a chance, but he shoots them down so fast it’s unreal. He cussed one girl out during assembly last week, I haven’t seen her since. I looked over to him now and let the memories flood my mind.

    We were sitting on Lina’s beach. Just sitting on the sand staring out into the ocean. It was empty, we’d bunked school. I could feel the adrenaline coursing through my system, it was the first time I’d ever bunked. It was exciting. It was quiet around us all you could hear was the gentle waves of the ocean.

    “I miss her you know.” Zaine said. I looked up at him; he was staring down at his hands.

    “I miss her too, this place reminds me so much of her.” I said calmly.

    “Yeah, I wish I got to know her a bit more, sometimes when were sitting here I feel like I hardly know her, the Angel I know wouldn’t give up.”

    I didn’t understand of course Zaine knew her. “What do you mean?”

    He raised his eyebrows at me “She wasn’t one for letting people in.”

    “But you do know her.” I retaliated “She let you in, it’s hard to understand that but Lina’s not as complicated as you think, I bet you picked up on things she didn’t even tell you about. Come on I’ll test you.”

    He nodded. “Favorite color?” I demanded. “Turquoise.” He answered.

    “Food?” “Cheese & Apple”

    “Song?” “None, she likes loads of songs.”

    “Time of day?” “Night, because you can remain hidden.”

    “Sport?” “Dancing. And she’s very good at it.”

    “Biggest wish?” I watched him turn away from me, and he stared out into the ocean as well “To be with Ayden.” He whispered.

    Neither of us said anything after that. After an hour of silence he got up and left, without saying a word. It was the last time I saw him at the beach. The meetings just stopped after that, and he became more depressed, recently I’ve started to wonder whether it was my fault.

    I looked after him ”Your wrong.” I whispered, knowing he couldn’t hear me “It was to meet her mother.”

    I pulled out a tissue from my pocket and wiped the tears from my eyes. It wasn’t time for that. The past was the past; we had to live in the present.

    Tony P.O.V


    I decided it was time I went back home to Angelina to see how she’d been getting on. I’d found her mother, told her all about Lina, but she didn’t want to know. She had a new life, a nice house, a boyfriend, who has two children. I couldn’t stand being there for more than a week so I went to my mum’s for a while. She didn’t ask many questions but she thought I was doing the wrong thing leaving.

    I stayed away for a month and a bit. Not too long, and I knew Lina was fine. It was dark in the house when I arrived, I checked my watch it was about 1am. Lina was probably in her bed. I put my keys in the door and turned the handle. I slammed the door behind me. I thought I heard some rustling in the kitchen.

    The light turned off, as if the person didn’t want me to know they were there. I heard the stool scrap across the kitchen floor and there was a loud scream. It sounded like someone was in serious pain. It sounded like my Lina. I rushed into the room, flicking the light on as I went.

    I looked down and saw Angelina, with a bread knife sticking out her gut. The blood was seeping through her clothes, onto the floor. Her breathing was coming out all raggedy. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

    “Angelina, Angelina, stay with me now.” I yelled leaning over her, trying to look her in the eye.

    I heard her breath stop short; her chest wasn’t rising and falling anymore. I hurriedly picked up the phone off the wall and dialed an ambulance. I hugged my baby to me crying and rocking her back and forth. The ambulance arrived shortly. I got in the back of the ambulance with them.

    I watched as they used the defibrillators on her, using the paddles to shook her heart. It didn’t work the first time. The second time it did. I saw her take a big gulp of breath, her eyes flapping open and looking round. She caught my eye before lying back onto the bed.

    We pulled up to the hospital and they rushed her out. I had to run behind, as they took her to surgery, they wouldn’t let me go into the operating room but I waited on the outside.

    “She’s going into recovery.”

    “...Not too much she’ll lose a lot of blood.”

    “It went fine...Knife is taken out...”

    “Watch the monitor we don’t want her heart rate to drop.”

    “...she’s fine...Coma...”

    I caught snatched of random conversations. It didn’t sound too good. I had to fill out a form whilst I waited. I didn’t understand it though, had she tried to kill herself? Had someone stabbed her? But they couldn’t have, there was no-one else in the room, in the house.

    That could only mean one thing, she was trying to take her life, or she heard me coming in and panicked. Maybe there are people after her and she thought I was one of them. Maybe’s she’s in a gang, and it was accidental. Maybe it was some drug fight or something. Maybe this maybe that, no definite answers.

    “Are you Mr Sheerwood?”

    I looked up to see a young boy looking at me. He looked ruff like he’d been crying, his hair was all over the place, his blue eyes looked dull, and his clothes looked crumpled. He looked a mess. He looked to be in the same state as me. Did he know my Lina?

    “Yes and you are?” I answered.

    “Zaine Lockhorn." He said shaking my hand “A friend of your daughters.”

    “Ahhh Zaine, I know you, she spoke briefly about you, you were in a fight and weren’t speaking or something, I can’t remember.”

    “Yeah, but we made up, a couple days ago really, I was with her today, how she doing?”

    I sat down and invited him to sit with me. He seemed like a nice lad. Quite good looking, looked like a football player, fairly built, he could take care of my Lina. I wondered if he was her boyfriend. It would mean she’d moved on and it about time too, nearly a year she spent mourning for Ayden, and not even trying to get better.

    “She’s fine, stable; doctors have no idea if it will hold out though, so we’ll see.” I answered.

    “I wanna stay here, I wanna look out for her, I promised I would.” He mumbled.

    I smiled at him, he looked like a good kid, I knew he’d be good for my Lina he could take care of her, protect her from herself. I smiled and patted his back.

    “I’m glad she has you.”

    He grinned at me, probably the only grin he made since he heard the news. We sat out there for ages, I tried phoning Angelina’s mother but she wasn’t answering. Zaine phoned her friends. Bianca and some very polite ginger girl called Stephanie. She was crying hard, apparently my Lina was her best friend; she’d taken her in, shown her not to be cowardly. I smiled proudly, Lina was an amazing girl.

    The doctor came out, but he didn’t know anything yet. I tried Lina’s mother again. Nothing. I bunch of high school kids showed up an hour or two later, some brunette girl called Amy. From what I could tell she had history with Zaine, she looked pretty pissed when Zaine told her to leave. I gathered that she didn’t come to see Angelina and kicked her out myself.

    Angelina’s doctor came out then. He had a taunt face, he was Chinese and very tall, quite skinny. He was holding a clipboard to his chest, the whole waiting room slowly quietened down to a silence so loud it was uncomfortable. I swear I couldn’t hear humming even though no-one was making noise.

    He smiled “Well, good news or bad news?”

    I groaned, this was not good “Bad news first.” I whispered.

    “We had to put Angelina in a drug induced coma, but the good news is she looks like she’s on her way to recovery, her red blood cells are still working at healing the wound, but her brains shut off to protect itself.”

    “Is there anything we could do to...to wake it up?” I asked feeling silly.

    He shook his head “No, it’s more a psychological thing, it’s how the brain protects itself from memories, anything like that, it’s up to Angelina really if she wants to keep fighting.”

    He smiled gently and walked off “Thanks for your help doctor!” I called after him.

    I slumped down on the chair, this was not good. I knew Angelina wasn’t one for giving up, but if it was up to her, I’m sure she wouldn’t wake up. I put my head in my hands. The room was still silent, everyone was watching me. I felt a large hand on me. I looked up to see Zaine smiling at me reassuringly.

    “It will be alright” he whispered. But that was back when Lina had a chance.


    ******************************



    3 months later and her condition was worse than it was to begin with, I think the doctors had messed up her medicine but wasn’t telling me. It seemed her brain was slowly giving up. The wound had healed, we was just waiting for her to wake up. Her body had started attacking itself; they had to put her on the life support machine. She got three injections a day to try and keep her alive. If it wasn’t for that she’d die.


    ******************************


    4 months on. Nothing, not even a twitch of a finger. I had to make a decision today, was I going to pull the plug. Her condition looked like there was no way she was going to recover, if only she’d open her eyes, the doctors say should could take oral pills to strengthen her immune system, if she was awake. I sat on the bed watching her. Was it cruel to let her keep on like this? Have to live like this for the whole of her life.

    The doctor had given up any chance that she was going to wake up; it would take a miracle they said. I went to the church every day, praying to God to save my baby. I bowed my head as I left the church the day before I had to make my decision. Was I going to pull the plug or not?