Cyberspace Romance

Deadly Friend

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A month had passed since the accident. Bam had found a new best friend. That best friend took away not only his physical pain, but his emotional as well. That best friend was a heavy pain killer. He stayed drugged up most of the time-- when he wasn't stoned out of his mind, then the thoughts of Zoey would come to him, and he couldn't handle that pain. Everyone was growing worried about him. He didn't go out, he didn't skate, he didn't move from his bedroom. He just laid there, took drugs, and listened to music.

Zoey dabbed powders over the bags under her eyes but it seemed like the purple shades had been permanently placed there. A month had passed and she had no communication with Bam. She was actually blaming herself now. She knew she was stupid for not giving him a chance to explain. Now, it was too late-- she had lost him. Frantz didn't even talk about him anymore. She wanted so badly to know how he was doing. She still didn't know the truth about what happened that day in her shop. She didn't know whether he was at fault or not-- he could have been telling the truth. She never gave him a chance to explain.

She decided to take the day off from work. Eva, who she had become the best of friends with would play the role of boss today. Zoey just wanted to lounge around and mope. She knew how pathetic she was. She was the one who left him, she was the one who wouldn't give him a chance to explain, she shouldn't be the one moping around, but she was.

Ryder walked out of his bedroom and frowned. Summer was coming towards an end, and he was starting college in less than three weeks. He was now excited about becoming a father, and he had plans on asking Shianne to marry him on her birthday, which was in a few weeks. Everything was going smoothly for him, everything but his sister. He hated seeing Zoey like this. The bags under her eyes, the dry sense of humor. His sister's personality had been drained from her completely. The sparkle in her eye was gone, the excitement in her voice. Everything he loved and adored about her was slowly fading. She had even dropped about 15 pounds in the last month. Her rib cage was almost visible now.

"Hey sis. . . You wanna go out and do something since you're off today?" He questioned.
"Nah. . . I'm just gonna catch up on the tube." Zoey said.

Ryder sighed. He tried to convince Zoey to go out and do something every single day, but she always rejected his offer. He didn't know what else to do. What would help her? He knew Bam was the only person who could make her return back to normal, but he also knew not to even mention his name. The word Bam was banned from the house. He saw the tears in Zoey's eyes even hearing his name mentioned, he done his best to stay away from anything that would make her cry.

Bam reached down into the drawer beside his bed and dug through it for another bottle of pills. Since the doctor would prescribe him the amount he needed anymore; he had found a dealer. He had spent almost ten thousand dollars on pain killers in the past month. He felt something slick under his finger tips and brought it up out of the dresser. It was a picture. He saw the back of it first, and scrunched up his eyebrows in confusion. He slowly turned it around and a frown appeared on his face as he looked at it.

It was a picture of him and Zoey. It was the day before she moved to Pennsylvania. They were sitting in her living room-- Ryder had took the picture. His arm was wrapped around her, and a smile was on both their faces. He ran his finger over the glossy paper and smiled.

He was so happy with her. She had brought him back to life. Before she came along all of his days were dull and boring. He spent most of his time drinking, and drowning himself in his sorrows of losing Missy-- a woman he didn't even love. Now he was alone once again, the sparkle had been drained from him, and he was miserable.

Zoey was everything he wanted in a woman, and he had lost her. All because of one giant misunderstanding. Angrily he ripped up the picture until it was in a thousand little pieces and he poured it from his hand like a time glass. He was sick of this-- sick of this meaningless life. He had nothing to live for anymore. He had lost everything.

He found his pill bottle and then poured the large white pills out into his hand. Normally he would take two at a time-- they would numb him for about four hours then he would repeat. But instead of placing two in his mouth, he placed twelve or so. He swallowed them down with a hot miller light he had placed on his night stand. He leaned back in he bed and closed his eyes, as he twirled the empty pill bottle in his hand.

Ape arrived at the house late that afternoon with a brown bag in her arms. She knew Bam probably hadn't had a decent meal in a week or so; since the last time she came over and cooked, so she decided to come over and make dinner for him. She opened the door and looked around the house-- dead, as it had been for the last month. Novak wasn't even staying around anymore because of how disconnected Bam had become. Ape placed the bag of groceries on the counter and then started walking up to Bam's room. She shook her head as she picked up dirty laundry that had been scattered all along the stairs. She reached his bedroom and pushed open the door. She saw him sleeping and rolled her eyes. It was almost seven at night, and he was still sleeping.

"Bam! Wake up." Ape said.

He didn't budge.

She groaned, and then walked over and saw the pill bottle laying beside his body. She looked down at him, and panicked. She then began shaking him and it did no use. Tears were forming in her eyes as she reached down and quickly checked his pulse. It was still there, but fading quickly. She reached over on the messy nightstand and grabbed the phone. She quickly dialed 911.

She cried as she waited for the ambulance to arrive. She phoned Phil and Jess as well. Jess arrived first, and tried to help her wake Bam up, but there was no waking him up. He was unconscious. Jess feared the worse-- he feared that Bam would die from an over dose before the ambulance arrived.

They loaded Bam up into the hummer and rushed him off to the hospital. Ape followed behind in the PT cruiser with tears streaming down out of her eyes. Jess sit beside him in the ambulance clutching to his hand. He couldn't believe Bam attempted to kill himself. He had been fearing this for weeks now though. Bam kept saying he only took the pain medication for his injuries, which had basically all healed up, but Jess knew he was lying.

They arrived at the hospital, and Bam's heart was about to stop beating. The doctors rushed him back and immediately worked on stopping the drugs from doing anything else to his body. They was unsure if they'd be able to save him or not.

Zoey opened her eyes when the phone started ringing. She had fallen asleep on the couch. She slowly reached over and picked it up.

"Hello?" She said with a yawn.
"Zoe, get to the hospital right now." Ryder's voice came on the other end.
"What's wrong? What happened?" She questioned raising up off the couch. Her first thoughts were Shianne and the baby.
"It's Bam-- just come. I don't have time to explain." Ryder said.

Zoey knew it was bad-- especially if Ryder wouldn't take the time to explain. She didn't care about changing out of her lounge clothes, or applying make-up to her dead face, nor did she care about running a brush through her stringy hair. All she cared about was getting to Bam. It seemed like everything that happened in the past had been erased. Every ounce of love she had for him hit her full force when she realized he could possibly be in serious danger.

She rushed down the streets of West Chester, and arrived at West Chester General in less than ten minutes. She ran into the hospital and up to the floor where Ryder had directed her to go. She saw tons of people standing in the hallways of the hospital. Ape was sobbing quietly on Phil's shoulder as he comforted her. Kel was walking back and forth, her feet swollen and her stomach even bigger than ever. She looked as if she was about to go into labor any minute.

"What happened?" Zoey said when she reached Frantz, who was probably the one who called Shianne and Ryder.
"Bam took a lot of pain killers. . . he's in a coma right now-- their trying to save him." Frantz said.
"Trying to save him?" Zoey questioned. . . How serious was this?
"His heart has quit on them two times." Frantz whispered.