On the Plus Side (22 page)

Memories of that day in the woods when I was being attacked by the malevolent cheerleaders ran through my mind. I could hear my screams in my mind, I could hear myself begging for them to stop beating me, and then Jenny screamed again and it pierced my memories and brought me back to the moment. They were trying to rape her. I only had a second of shock before I went in for the attack.

“Get away from her!” I screamed.

I picked up a huge, red vase and slammed it against the head of the first guy I came to. It shattered as he fell to the floor out cold. The other two attackers swung around on me and I saw Jenny’s terror-filled eyes as she struggled to get off the bed. Her dress was ripped and her hair was a mass of tumbling curls. Black mascara ran down her face with the tears that were rushing down her cheeks.

“What the hell?” one of the guys said.

“Who the hell are you? Look, Eric, it’s a baby hippo!” They laughed.

More memories of being taunted in high school slammed into my mind, all the horrible names, all the bullying and teasing.

“Just let her go,” I tried to sound as calm as possible.

“Why don’t you go downstairs and find something to eat. I’m sure you’d much rather be stuffing your fat trap than worrying about other people’s business.”

“Oh fuck that. I got something I can stuff in her fat trap.”

They laughed again.

With a growl I threw myself at the guy closest to me, but he was stronger than he looked. He pushed me against the wall and I watched as his fist came up. In slow motion it came down against my face.

My cheek exploded and I tasted the blood instantly. I reached out and dug my nails into whatever skin I could find. I could hear Jenny fighting with the other guy in the background. I needed to get to her. I needed to help her.

Another hit came and I felt myself go dizzy. I heard cheerleaders laughing and at the same time I could see Jenny fighting for her life across the room as I fell to the floor. The memory was somehow blending with my reality.

I heard her continue to scream and fight, but every time I attempted to get up there was another kick to my ribs. Finally, the kicks never stopped as my attacker repeatedly put his steel-toed boot into my stomach.

With every kick, I could hear the echoed laughter of teenage girls. I could hear them calling me Large Lilly. It was a replay of when I was fifteen, except instead of a group of girls I was being kicked and punched by a grown man. I must say I preferred the girls.

Just like before, my body went numb and I could no longer feel his kicks. I knew in the back of mind that the numbness was a bad thing.

I heard Jenny scream again and I tried with everything I had to get up once more. Instead of my stomach, I saw his foot coming toward my face. I tried to reach out, but I couldn’t lift my arms. I felt his large boot on the side of my head, and then the room went black.

Twenty-One

Breaking News

I heard my cell phone ringing. In my sleep I couldn’t decide if it was really ringing or if I was dreaming. I kept thinking in my sleepy daze that maybe it was Lilly calling me. Then I realized my cell phone really was ringing and had been for a long time.

I jumped up quick and rummaged through the strange, dark room looking for my phone. I found it inside the couch I was sleeping on. 

The number wasn’t familiar. I figured it must be Renee. How she got my new cell number, I had no idea, but only she would have the guts to actually call me at this time in the morning. Knowing her, it was probably something juvenile and stupid.

“Hello!” I screamed into the phone.

“Devin! It’s Dad, you awake?” He sounded like he was panicking. Dad never panicked.

“What’s wrong?” I said.

I rubbed my eyes abruptly and shook my head trying to shake the sleep from my brain.

“You need to get back in town as soon as possible…something’s happened.”

I was already on my feet and the minute he said that I felt like I was falling.

“What’s happened? Are you OK? Where’s Jenny?” I blurted out as I grabbed at random pieces of clothing I had lying around the room.

I pulled on a pair of jeans and the t-shirt I wore earlier that day. I threw things into my suit-case and was ready to go before he spoke again.

“Jenny’s been hurt. There were so many of them. I should’ve been there. She couldn’t…I don’t know how, but Lilly…she tried…,” he stuttered.

“Slow down, Dad. Calm down and tell me exactly what happened. What about Jenny and Lilly?” I asked in a panic.

“She’s…I don’t know if she’ll be OK. If it wasn’t for Lilly she might not have…we need you home, Devin. Jenny was asking for you. Just please get to Saint Marion Hospital as soon as possible OK? I don’t
wanna do this over the phone and please be careful. I can’t stomach the thought of losing either of you tonight. I love you, Son, and I’ll see you soon.”

There was silence on the other line before the screen on my phone went black. Dad had hung up and whatever was going on was bad.

Dad was sober and he was still stuttering. That alone scared the shit out of me. What the hell was going on back home?

I didn’t even stop to tell Alex I was leaving. I didn’t care about that. I just needed to get back home to Charleston as soon as possible.  All I could do was pray that they were OK.

Questions filled my mind as I threw my suit-case in the backseat of my car.  I stood beside it for a minute before I got in.

Had the world stopped turning? I suddenly felt like my brain was spinning while the world around me was still. I thought I was going to faint. I shook my head trying to clear it. Jenny needed me, and I think Lilly needed me, too. They were the only women in my world who didn’t break me down or hurt me and I wasn’t there for them. I needed to be there for them, no matter what.

I made it to the hospital in record time. A four-hour trip had taken me a little over two.

I jumped out of the car and ran into the hospital. When I made it to the front desk there was no one there. I was about to lose control when I noticed Dad walking toward me. He was so pale. He came up to me and wrapped his arms around me and squeezed.

I followed him to a room where my sister was laying in the bed. I stood in shock for a minute as I took in the fact that she looked as if she’d been beaten pretty badly. I ran to the side of the bed and grabbed her hand.

“Jenny, what happened sweetie?
Tell me what happened. I’ll kill the son of a bitch who did this, I swear!”

I could feel the anger rising inside of me. I meant it! I’d kill whoever it was that had put their hands on my baby sister.

“I’m OK, just some bumps and bruises—nothing I can’t handle,” she said roughly. “I fought him, Dev. I even kicked him in the balls a few times. Oh, sorry…I said balls again.” She attempted to smile.

She went over the events of the day. I felt a stab in the stomach when she told me about her and Lilly spending the day together and Lilly helping her get ready for a dance. She explained the after party full of drugs and older people and told me about how she called Lilly before being pulled upstairs into a bedroom by three strange men. I felt like I was about to snap with rage.

“If it wasn’t for Lilly, they would’ve raped me, Devin. There’s no telling what else.” Tears spilled from her swollen eyes. “Then a bunch of people from the party came bursting into the room—they must of heard my screams—and the guys took off running. Thankfully, someone called an ambulance.”

I looked around the room for the first time. I wanted Lilly there with me. I wanted to hug her and thank her for protecting one the most important people in my life, but as I looked around she was nowhere to be found. I looked over at my dad who was in tears.

“Where is she, Dad? Where’s Lilly?”

“Follow me,” he said sadly.

He didn’t say much else as I followed him to the elevator and then down the long hallway of the intensive care floor. He opened the door and walked into the room. I couldn’t make myself go through the door. I just stood there in the doorway staring in.  Lying in the bed across the room was Lilly, and she was covered in tubes and wires.

Her face was swollen and unrecognizable. Her hair was smothered with dry blood. There were stitches over her left eyebrow and bruises everywhere. When I got the nerve to walk to her bed, I slowly reached out and grabbed her soft hand. She didn’t move. The loud machine next to her bed was beeping so loudly, but everything sounded muffled.

She was unconscious, and from the funny looking machine that blew air into her lungs, it was obvious that she wasn’t even breathing on her own. My knees felt like they were going to give out on me. I held onto the wall next to me to keep myself from falling.

This can’t be happening!

“Is she going to be OK?” My throat felt thick.

“I’m so sorry, Devin.” Dad said to me as the tears flowed down his cheeks.

For the first time since my mother left, I cried on my dad’s shoulder.

About thirty minutes after I contacted Shannon, she showed up at the hospital and cried over Lilly. She then called Mrs. Sheffield, who was hysterical.  I listened as Shannon tried to calm her. Soon she was stuffing her cell phone back into her purse and at Lilly’s bedside again.

“Mrs. Sheffield is losing it. She’s on vacation and can’t get here for at least two days,” she sniffled.

Shannon seemed upset by the fact that Lilly’s mom wasn’t going to be there for two days. I, on the other hand, was a little bit relieved. I knew her mother should be there, but I knew the minute she saw my face all would be revealed and I wasn’t ready for that. I wanted Lilly better and I wanted to hold her at least one last time before the truth came out.

Later, the doctor came in and talked to Shannon and me. Lilly had some internal bleeding as well as some swelling around her brain.

“I think if we can get the swelling around her brain down, I’ll feel a lot better about her prognosis. Right now it’s hard to say. She could wake up at any time, or she could be in this comatose state for a while longer. There’s no way to know until the swelling goes down a bit more. We have her on some
antibiotics to fight some possible infections. I’ll know more as soon as the rest of the test results come in.” He seemed as confused as we were.

Needless to say, none of us felt any better after speaking to him.

I spent the rest of the night in between Lilly and Jenny’s rooms.

I proceeded to internally kick my own ass. I should’ve been there. I shouldn’t have gone to Florida. I should’ve been there for them. Jenny would’ve called me and I would’ve killed those spineless assholes. What kind of man could beat on a woman that way?

One that deserved to die, that’s what kind.

I was in Lilly’s room when the sun came up. I hadn’t slept a wink all night. Dad and I had taken turns in the girls’ rooms. Nurses had been in and out of both rooms all night.

We found out around seven in the morning that Jenny would be released from the hospital later that day. Lilly, on the other hand, still wasn’t responding. I was slowly losing grip with reality, either from lack of sleep or from the shock of seeing the woman I loved with all of my heart on a ventilator and in a coma.

“You look like you could use this.” Shannon handed me a cup of hot coffee.

“Thanks.” I grabbed the cup and slowly sipped the hot liquid.

I needed anything that would keep me awake so that I was there when she woke up, or should I say
if
she woke up.

Shannon sat in the chair across from me.

“I just can’t believe she’s going through this again.” She started to tear up.

Her words caught me off guard, and I thought maybe I was hearing things.

“Again?” I asked, confused.

“Yeah, again.
You didn’t stick around to find out, but when Lilly was a teenager she got teased a lot because of her size and didn’t really have any friends. One day, she was approached by a bunch of the girls on the cheerleading squad and they made her think they wanted to be friends with her and asked her to meet them in the woods on the outskirts of the school property. She went, and when she got there the girls proceeded to call her names and then beat her until she was unconscious. Her mom told me more about it than Lilly did, but I know she was in the hospital for a while.”

Why hadn’t she ever told me about that? I thought she told me everything.

“What happened to the girls?” I asked with anger.

I could feel my grip on the coffee cup tightening.

“Nothing. Lilly refused to press charges or anything. Considering what they took from her, I would’ve sued the little bitches, but not our Lilly. She just switched schools and never spoke of it again. That was the last time she cried—well, until you.”

Shannon quickly got up and busied herself. The conversation had just taken an awkward turn.