Ash’s POV

We were back at school and I made my brother promise me he would call me while I was having lunch. That way I knew he was fine and I would be calmed down for the rest of the day. But I had been sitting at this stupid table with Jack, Rian, Alex, Harper, and Lianne for half of the lunch break already and there had been no call. Great way to calm me down, right? I totally forgot that I’d be worried sick if he didn’t call me.

I hadn’t touched my food and kept playing with the phone in my hands, spinning it around while I tapped it on the table. All I wanted was to get that stupid call, and if not that, I’d even be happy with a simple text message. He promised to call… I would call him instead, but I couldn’t. From experience, I knew that I shouldn’t do it. If he were to be having an attack, it would have only made it worse. He couldn’t deal with confusing noises and it would only make his panicking worse.

“Ok, what’s wrong?” Jack put his hand on top of mine so I couldn’t twiddle with my phone anymore.

I snapped out of my daze, my eyes flickering to Jack, “what? Nothing! I’m fine.”

“You see, I don’t exactly believe that…” he squinted at me and slowly took the phone away from me.

My eyes stayed on my phone and I immediately started worrying. Maybe I would miss the call because Jack had the device! I needed to be able to answer as soon as possible, or things could go wrong. Freaking out was probably the worst thing to do, but I couldn’t help it.

“I’m fine, I swear. There’s nothing wr-” I started arguing, but got cut off by my phone ringing. The sound didn’t make me feel any relieved, though… I scrambled to get the phone out of Jack’s hands while everybody was giving me weird looks. They probably thought I was some crazy person who couldn’t live without their phone.

To my surprise, it was my dad who was calling, not my brother. But I didn’t have time to frown before I answered the phone. I was happy with any information I could get.

“Hello?” I breathed out.

“Ash?” My dad was in a place with some background noise.

I tried to figure out where he was from the noise, “yes.”

“He’s in the hospital.”

I didn’t need him to tell me who was; I knew exactly who, anybody could know. The background noise was people talking in the waiting room and doctors walking past. My dad was there with him while I was stuck hours away.

“He’s in the hospital?” I asked, even though I knew it had to be the truth, I just didn’t know how to react. When I mentioned a hospital, my group of friends suddenly focused even more on me and gave each other glances. I would have left the room if it weren’t for the fact that I was frozen in place.

“Yes, he overdosed on his medication,” my dad got straight to the point, not beating around the bush.

“Was- was it on purpose or was it an accident?” I dared to question.

There was some silence before I finally got an answer, “they don’t know. He’s passed out and I’ve been asked to stay in the waiting room while they try to fix him up as much as possible.”

“What do you mean ‘they don’t know’?”

“I mean that Charley and I went to pick up Jaxon from football practice, and we found him when we got back. We also don’t know if he accidentally took another dose or if it was on purpose. His normal dosage is pretty strong, so having another could mess him up for a while.”

I absentmindedly looked at Alex, who was sitting opposite of me, “wait. So you’re telling me that you came home, found him practically dead, know that it’s because of the medication, but don’t know whether it’s a suicide attempt or not! Dad, he’s only ten!”

“I know, darling-”

I stopped listening to him. My body unfroze as soon as I actually realized what was going on. The looks my friends were giving me gave me the extra push to stand up and leave the cantine. They heard me saying the word suicide and mentioning my brother. I wasn’t ready for their comments, questions, or worried and sympathetic looks.

I left my lunch on the table and walked out to find a more private place. The corridors were deserted and quiet, but there were still too many people to just talk with my dad out in the open. Speaking of which, he was telling me a more detailed version of how he found Kayden, but I didn’t care. I actually didn’t want to know, it would only be too terrifying for me to know. Who would want to know the story of their dad finds their brother almost dead?

When I finally found a place I thought I could be alone, some guy came up to me. His name was Jonathan and he just couldn’t seem to stop trying to get with me. He would make stupid comments that were supposed to be flirty, and many girls fell for it, but I didn’t. I wasn’t here for that, and if I were to get a boyfriend, it would never be anybody like that asshole. He was basically a fuckboy. Like, seriously, he just couldn’t get the hints.

“What’s up, baby?” He gave me his signature smirk.

I glared at him and covered the microphone of my phone, “sorry, can’t talk.”

“Oh, come on, baby,” he got closer to me, “just one little kiss.”

I sighed and quickly said something to my dad, “hold on one sec, dad. Somebody’s asking me something. I’ll be quick.”

“Ok,” he replied, “there’s nothing else I can really tell you, so it’s fine.”

“Thanks,” I quickly muted the microphone so I could talk to Jonathan without my dad hearing anything.

“Oh, so she’s finally agreeing,” Jonathan licked his lips and tried to get even closer.

I took a step backward, “nope, you got that wrong. Can you please leave? I’m kind of busy right now.”

“Come on, baby,” he reached out to caress my cheek.

I slapped his hand away, “dude, seriously, leave. Now.”

“I don’t think-”

“Yo!” Rian appeared around the corner, “she said to leave her alone, so obey the girl and leave.”

Jonathan let out a deep evil chuckle and instead took a step towards Rian, “or what, Dawson? What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know,” Rian shrugged and took out his phone, “probably stay here, film your future failed attempts, put it on the internet and humiliate you.”

I didn’t think it would work, but Jonathan looked very taken aback. His eyes were wide with panic and he was looking around for a way out. This guy was really messed up. With no sneaky place to leave, he pushed past Rian and disappeared. You could definitely say that Jonathan wasn’t the smartest kid on the block.

I looked at Rian and thanked him. He was going to the bathroom and coincidentally heard us talking. We didn’t talk anymore afterward, and instead, he only gave me a half-hearted smile before continuing his journey. It was just luck, but at least I wasn’t being felt up by some douchebag.

I unmuted my phone again, “hey, dad, I’m back.”

“Hey, darling,” he greeted me again, “the doctors just told me that Kayden will be ok, but it will take him a couple more hours before he can wake up. I’m walking to his room right now.”

“That’s great,” I was happy he was ok, but at the same time, I felt pretty sad. I couldn’t be there for Kayden. He had never gotten this bad, and I couldn’t be there for him.

“I know what you’re thinking,” my dad interrupted my thoughts, “but you shouldn’t worry. Kayden knows that you are worried and care about him. There’s no way he will think that you left him behind and betrayed him. I can promise you that he will understand, and to make you feel better, I’ll make sure to arrange a time for you guys to video chat.”

“Ok,” I mumbled and felt a tear roll down my cheek. But Kayden was ok, he was going to be fine.

“I have to go now, darling, I have to be quiet in his room.”

“Ok, bye, dad. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

I hung up the phone and slid down the wall. Even though I loved every one of my brothers and family members, I just sometimes wished I had a normal family; a normal situation. I lived in constant fear that something would happen to one of them and that I wouldn’t or couldn’t be there. And now it had actually happened. There was no way for me to get there, and I had to leave Kayden, my dad, and my two other brothers alone in this situation. It was difficult for all of us, and I couldn’t be there to help us get through it.

I was on the other side of the world.

Notes

We have finally gotten to the part that inspired this whole story! The main idea will come in the chapter after the next one! I'm actually pretty fucking excited for it! Are you guys?

It seems kind of wrong to be excited while this chapter was a bit morbid... but still. What do you guys think?

Here's Alex somehow managing to get himself stuck in a balloon, enjoy it while you can.