We're Not Perfect

Escape the Fate was in their music room practicing; it was early for them all to be up doing anything productive, but they were leaving for the tour in a month and they wanted to get in as much practice as possible before then. They were all trying to ignore the fact that Rylii hadn’t come home for three days, and she wasn’t answering her phone, but it was in the back of all their minds.

“Craig, answer your phone already,” Monte said as Craig’s phone rang for what seemed to be the tenth time in the past hour.

“Just ignore it,” Craig replied, glancing at the number. “It’s not a number I know, so I’m not answering. If it’s important, they’ll leave a message.”

“But what if it’s about Ry?” Monte persisted. They all stayed silent, listening to Max softly playing Something. They all knew he and Rylii had made that their song. Robert and Monte knew Max was in love with her despite not being able to be with her. Craig was still oblivious to what his sister had gotten into.

Craig put his phone on silent before turning back to the band. “Ignore my phone. And I’m sure Ry’s fine; she knows how to take care of herself. Now, let’s practice.”

A few hours later, they put their instruments down and called it quits for the day. When Craig picked up his phone, he saw that two different numbers had called him a total of seventeen times. He didn’t recognize either number, but listened to the single voicemail he had. The band watched as the blood ran from his face before running out of the room.

“Craig, what’s wrong?” Robert called after him.

“I have to get to the hospital,” Craig replied quickly before running out the door. His car was already halfway down the street by the time everyone else piled into Monte’s car.

Finding parking spaces was easy, and the guys joined Craig at the reception desk. “Craig, why are we here?” Robert asked. “Who are we here for?”

Nobody noticed Max fall into a seat in the waiting room. He knew who they were here for before he heard Craig shouting at the receptionist.

“I told you, her name is Rylii Bianca Mabbitt,” he shouted. “Now tell me where she is before I run down these halls looking in every room until I find my sister.”

“She’s in room 1753,” the receptionist finally said. “And I will have to ask you to lower your voice before I have to call security.” But Craig was already running for the elevator with Robert and Monte close behind. Max slowly trudged behind everyone.

They let Craig go into the room first. “She’ll be ok, Max, so calm down,” Monte said. “If she wasn’t, she’d still be in ICU.”

Max couldn’t say anything, afraid the tears would spill if he did. After a few minutes, he led Monte and Robert in to Rylii’s room. Craig was sitting in a chair by the bed, holding his sister’s hand as tears ran down his cheeks.

There were dozens of machines and wires around the bed, connected to one another and the almost unrecognizable patient. Max couldn’t hold his tears back any longer as he approached Rylii. She was thinner than ever, little more than skin and bones, and was covered in bruises and cuts. Both of her arms were wrapped in gauze, and dried blood caked one side of her head just below a row of stitches.

“I’m so sorry Ry,” he whispered. “This is all my fault. ”I should have protected you.” He broke completely as he knelt beside the bed, gently taking her hand in his.

“Max, what are you talking about?” Craig asked. “Do you know what happened?”

Max shook his head. “Not completely. But I have an idea. You never let us explain that day you broke Ry and I up.” Craig looked between Max and Rylii before letting Max explain.

“I wasn’t giving Ry those pills, she was getting them herself. I was getting her off them. She was addicted to pills, but with my help, she’d gotten off them. She was sick that day because of how long she’d been off them, and her body was going through that phase of withdrawal. She’d pulled out the remaining pills she had after I found her. I was going to have Ry flush those pills so she couldn’t be tempted, but then you came in.” Nobody spoke, and Craig stared at the ground, tears lining his cheeks. He nodded at Max without saying anything, urging him to continue. “I’m guessing she got back into pills, possibly more, and got into a fight over a bad drug deal, landing her here.”

“How did we not see this?” Robert asked. He and Monte were crying now too. “We should have known something was going on.”

Before anyone could answer, a doctor entered the room. “Ahh, which of you is Craig Mabbitt?” he asked. Craig stood up. “Glad to see you’re finally here. You’re her brother?” Craig nodded, wiping the tears from his cheeks. “And who are the rest of these gentlemen?”

“Our roommates. This is Robert, Monte, and Max, Rylii’s boyfriend,” he said. Max’s eyes widened when Craig referred to him as Rylii’s boyfriend. Did this mean he was forgiven?

The doctor nodded at them each respectively. “I’m sorry to inform you that Ms. Mabbitt looks better than she actually is,” he said, looking at his chart. Max fell to his knees, tears coming faster than ever.

“What happened to her?” Craig asked.

“She was found passed out on the side of the road early this morning. Someone called for an ambulance and she was brought here. We pumped her stomach and had to give her numerous blood transfusions. Almost all of her own blood had to be drained due to the high amounts of drug and alcohol content. Even before arriving here though, she’d lost a lot of blood. We haven’t identified everything yet, but we’ve found at least five forms of controlled substances in her body, as well as enough alcohol in her system to get someone three times her body weight drunk. That alone should have killed her. The beating she took should also have killed her. It’s a miracle she’s alive now, even with life support. She’s been comatose since she was picked up. The paramedics were unable to find a pulse and it wasn’t until she was taken into Urgent Care that we discovered that she was still alive.”

Max couldn’t look away from Rylii. He listened as the doctor explained that they couldn’t give her sedatives because of this, and she’d be in immense pain if she woke up. No, not if she woke up, when she woke up. She had to. Distantly, he heard the doctor leave, and a few minutes later, Craig and the guys left, leaving Max alone with Rylii.

He still hadn’t been able to stop the tears. Standing up from his position on the ground, Max leaned over and softly kissed Rylii. “I love you,” he whispered. “Please come back to me.” Max wasn’t leaving anytime soon, so he decided to take the chair Craig had been using earlier. As Max attempted to pull his hand away long enough for him to walk to the other side of the bed, he found Rylii’s hand holding on to his too tightly for that to happen. “Rylii? Ry, please wake up. I need you to come back to me.”

A smile spread across Max’s face as Rylii slowly shifted her head, as if trying to wake up. Before he knew it, he was looking into her eyes. In his excitement, he didn’t notice the doctors and nurses that had rushed in to the room.

“We’re going to have to ask you to leave for now, sir,” a nurse said, attempting to push him out of the room. Rylii still had a death grip on his hand, and Max didn’t want to leave for a second.

“No, I want to stay with my girlfriend,” he protested. The nurse didn’t give up. “You really think I’m going to leave the girl I love? I almost lost her because I wasn’t with her, and now I’m supposed to just walk out now?”

“She’s in capable hands now, I can assure you,” the nurse said. “I’m only going to ask you once more before I call security to have you removed from the building.”

Max looked towards Rylii once more. “I love you,” he shouted above the voices of the doctors in the room.

He saw Rylii meet his eyes and mouth “I love you too” before releasing his hand. The nurse wasted no time in pushing Max out the door.