Leave The Past In The Past

Previously

So here I was, surrounded by the dead and the dying; surrounded by illness; surrounded by the strong smell of disinfectant and bleach. I was stood in a room that was too white, and too clean to belong anywhere else other than here.

I felt my bodyweight shift so I was leaning against the doorway, because I feared I wouldn’t be able to hold myself up. My body shut down for a second, and all I could do was watch.

There he was, stood next to my dying father’s bed. Everything and nothing had changed about him; his hair was darker, but he was still the same. He was paler, but he was still the same. Wearing what appeared to be an Armani suit, but he was still the same.

My eyes travelled around his familiar face; his overconfident smirk, his amazing deep blue eyes, and his crooked nose… that was now perfectly straight? The things cosmetic surgery can do.

And then he turned to me, and I swear my heart stopped for a second. I couldn’t remember anything; how I got here, or why I was here. All I knew was that I needed him. I needed him more than anything.

-*-

And so I stood not knowing what to do. My father was staring out of his window and Carlton was staring at me. What was I staring at? Everything and anything other than the two people in the room due to the strong feeling that I might just tackle Carlton to the ground and rip off his clothing.

“Would you please enlighten us on whom you may be?” Carlton’s cool voice rang out. It had changed. In the place of his usual backhanded compliments and rather annoying sarcasm was arrogance.

“I-I’m… I’m his…” But words evaded me, and I was left looking like a babbling idiot.

“She offers free mental support to those with terminal illnesses.” My father answered, still staring out the window. His answer sounded forced and as though he’d rehearsed it to the point of being able to tell you how to say it backwards.

Carlton looked me up and down frowning, before coming out with the statement “Are you a stripper?”

I stood staring at him, at arched eyebrow and his leering eyes. I watched as his eyes travelled around my body, and suddenly I felt angry. Why gave him permission to look at me like that?! To judge me?!

“No! Of course not!” I said glaring at him whilst pulling my top up to cover what little cleavage was on show.

This seemed to amuse him, but all he did was turn to my father and say simply “I don’t care that you’re dying. I don’t care that about your petty problems. Either you get me my money or you’ll fucking regret it, okay?”

“And what exactly will you do to him?” I said abruptly before I could even stop it “Because due to the fact that he’s stuck in a hospital bed about to die, there’s not much left is there?”

Carlton turned to me and smiled in such a manner I found myself wishing I’d kept my mouth shut, “I’ll tell you what I’ll do love, and you better listen up too you old sod; I’ll find your goddamn fucked up whore of a daughter and I’ll do to her everything I want to do to you but am unable to do! I’ll make her pay for every last cent of what you owe me, interest and all, and then I’ll make her pay for what she did to my family. You get that?!”

And then it dawned on me; he didn’t realise who I was. I was just some random girl off the street to him. It felt so strange.

“And as for you darling, don’t stick your nose into things you don’t understand. Do you not know who I fucking am?!”

“Not really…” I said feeling rather embarrassed, because it was true. I lived in England with no TV and a poor excuse of a radio. I didn’t have any friends, therefore no one to gossip to, and quite frankly I couldn’t give a shit about ‘hot shots’ that lived in another country to me and I’d never meet.

“I am Derek fucking Renn and I am abig deal”

What?!