Emergency Take Two

Patrick gently pulled me out of the club and down the side walk. “Are you ok?” I looked up at him and smiled. “Aren’t you getting tired of asking me that question?” He smiled and wrapped an arm around my shoulder. “No. I like knowing you’re ok.” He said. I smiled. “Well I’m ok. I’ve had worse before” I said. The last part came out much quieter but when he looked down at me I knew he heard. “What?” I shrugged. “It’s nothing really. There was just this one time, the last time I was at a club with my friends, this drunk guy cornered me. Thankful before anything to bad could happen Matt found me” I said. It was a long time ago. It honestly didn’t matter, but I still didn’t like clubs very much. Just something about them made smart people morons.

We walked back to the hotel talking about random shit and walked to the door. Patrick looked at me and I blinked. “I don’t have my key. It’s in Jamie’s room” I said. “Me either” I smiled slightly. “Well…” I said I grabbed his hand and walked over to the stairs and took my heels off. I walked up the stairs and looked at him. “Oh come on. I’m not gonna kill you. I just want to show you something” I said. He smiled and followed me and grabbed my out stretched hand. He laced our fingers together and I smiled and we climbed the stairs all the way to the roof. I pushed the door opened and Patrick laughed. “What?” I asked looking back at him. “The door clearly said Do Not Open” He said I shrugged. “Oh, I didn’t see it.” I said.

I walked over to the latter and started climbing it. I got to the top and motioned for him to follow me. He climbed up the latter and I smiled looking around at all the lights of the city. “Wow” I nodded. “It’s beautiful isn’t it?” I asked. “Yeah, it is” I looked back at him to find him looking at me. I smiled and sat down on the edge of the little ledge and He sat next to me. “You know, when I was a little girl, I’d always look up at the stars and wish I’d find a better life then I had. A life where my parents didn’t drink and didn’t fight, one where they actually cared about me. One where my brother wouldn’t argue with them and then leave me there. Then when I got a little older the wishes changed. I wished that I could find someone who would be perfect for me and love me I wished my brother would come back and my parents would leave. I hit 16 and gave up on wishing my parents would care and concentrated on passing school and getting the hell out of there. I didn’t really wish on the stars anymore.” I looked at him and ran a hand threw my hair. “Then, on my 18th birthday I wished my brother would come home. But I didn’t think he’d come home in a box.” I said.

I wasn’t sure why I was telling him this, but I think it had something to do with the fact that I didn’t tell him that much about me but he told me so much about him. “A week after his funeral I got a letter and a little box from him. He had sent it the day he dies. It was a letter he wrote telling me that he loved me and when he got back in a few weeks he was going to take me away from the god awful place called home and help me live my dream of being a wrestler. But he never got to. After he died I left. Haven’t been back since.” I said. He looked over at me and I looked out at the city. “What was in the box?” I shrugged. “I don’t know. I never opened it. It’s at my house. In the little table by my bed. I never had the courage to open it. I haven’t really accepted the fact that he is actually gone. And I know that once I open that box. I’ll cry. And I’ll cry a lot. And once I start, everything will rush in at once for my entire life and I’ll have a break down. And I’m not particularly looking forward to that.” I said. He wrapped an arm around my shoulder. “How about, I do it with you? I don’t have any house shows and neither do you, that way, you won’t go threw it alone” I bit my lip. “I don’t know Patrick.” I said. “Why not Chase?” I bit my lip and looked at him. “Because I’m scared”

He looked at me and I ran my hand threw my hair again. “My brother was…really good at knowing me. Knowing just what I needed right when I needed it.” I said. Patrick wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me close to him. I leaned my head on his shoulder and smiled. “Why are you so nice to me Patty Cakes?” I asked. He laughed. “Cause you’re an amazing girl and I like getting to know you. Every time I’m with you I find out something more. I feel like I’m the only one who gets to see what you’re like under that tough girl shell of yours” He said. I smiled. “You are.” I said simply. Before he could say anything his phone rang. He sighed and answered it and I slowly ended up falling asleep while he was talking to whoever he was talking too.

When I woke up I was in a car. I had a mini panic attack before noticing Patrick was driving. I settled down for a minute before begin confused. “Where are we going?” I asked. “St. Louis, Missouri” He said. I nodded before looking at him again. “Why?” I asked. “Well, to open the box your brother sent you” I looked at him. “I hope you’re ready for a lot of tears Mister Martin” I said. He smiled and I shot up. “Where’s Bubbles?!” I asked. Her head popped up from the back seat and I took a deep breath and lifted her up and hugged her. I noticed my iPod plugged into the stereo and smiled. “Like my music?” I asked. He laughed and nodded “Some of it.” I listened and smiled. “This is my favorite line!” I said he looked at me and I sang along. “I start to feel sick and I say my name is pogo you wanna jump on my stick? Boing!!” I said I laughed and clapped. “I love this The Midnight Beast” I said. He laughed. “I can Tell” I smiled.

We made it to my house about 9 hours later, why he wouldn’t let me drive I will never know. I pulled my keys out of my bag and opened the door. Bubbles ran in and straight to her bed and pulled out a bone. I shook my head and set my bag down. The first thing I did was go to my room and change I went to walk back downstairs when Patrick grabbed my hand. “Oh I like you’re room” I smiled and he walked over to the end table. I bit my lip and sat down on the bed. I crossed my legs and he set the box in front of me. I bit my lip ad he sat behind me and I slowly pulled the bow off the top. I went to take the top off and froze with my hand an inch from it.

My hand was shaking so bad. I slowly pulled the top off and noticed a spiral notebook with a posted note on the top. “Sorry I took this, Wanted something to remember you while I was gone” I read out loud. I grabbed the notebook and opened it and felt tears fall from my eyes automatically. “It’s my journal. I looked every where for this damn thing for years. It has, poems and songs and drawling in it. Random quotes and pictures.” I slowly opened it and a some pictures fell out the top. The first one was a picture of me and my brother and I felt tears fall down my face. I looked at the next one and bit my lip. “I looked everywhere for these pictures before I left” I said. I looked at the next one and felt a small whimper escape my lips. I didn’t know if I wanted to look at the rest. I looked at the fourth one and laughed slightly. “He had to literally hold me there for Matt to take the picture” I said.

Patrick wrapped his arms tightly around me as I looked at the fifth one and leaned back. “I remember this, mom and dad were arguing so bad. Craig had come home from soccer practice right as I had ran out the door. He ran after me. I don’t know how but I was always faster then him. So I made it to the forest and when he found me he had Matt with him. They took me out for ice cream after to just keep me away from the house until our parents passed out” I said. I flipped to the next one . It was taken the same time as the one before, and so was the next one . I moved to the last one and automatically felt tears fall down my face. “This was 6 months before he died. After his break when he was going back. I set the pictures down and opened my old journal to the back. It was full. “He wrote in it” I said quietly. “There’s more in the box Chase” Patrick said. I reached in and pulled out a handmade journal and held it close to my chest.

I flipped threw it to see it was empty then went back to the old one. I opened it up to my last page and smiled at the one sentence. “I’m going to miss him.” There was a little poem underneath it in Craig’s hand writing. “The path between us may change threw life. But the bond we have is forever strong. I miss you and love you sis” I stared at his hand writing for a long time before setting the journal down and standing up. “Chase?” I didn’t look at him. Instead I took off down the stairs and out the back door. I ran out into the forest and before long I just dropped to my knees as tears flowed from my eyes and sobs escaped my lips. I felt familiar arms wrap around me. “It’s ok Chase” Patrick said. I shook my head. “How could he have left me like that? How? He was all I had! He left! And he’s never coming back! I hate him for leaving me!” I said. He pulled me into his chest and tightly wrapped his arms back around me. “He left me all alone.” I said. “You’re not alone Chase. You have Jamie, and Lauren and Josh and Tommy. And Matt. And you have me” I looked up at him and he wiped the tears off my face but more just replaced them.

I took a while for me to calm down and when I did Patrick laced his fingers threw mine and we walked back to the house. We walked back up to my room and I laid down on the bed with Patrick and I leaned my head on his shoulder as I grabbed the journal again. “Sometimes being a brother is better then being a super hero ~ Marc Brown” I smiled “He is my hero.” I said. I felt Patrick run his hand threw my hair as I turned the page. “First a brother, then a bother, now a friend. ~ Unknown” “There is no love like the love for a brother. There is no love like the love from a brother. ~ Astrid Alauda” I read. I smiled slightly and kept reading. After a while Patrick took the book and started reading too me until I fell asleep. My dreams were full of memoires of my brother.