Rocket To The Moon.

Holy hell, this is one bitch of a headache I have. Ouch! What the fuck happened? My head is killing me!”

I opened my eyes and saw that I was in my bed. Rocket was sitting at the end of my bed, watching me intently.

“You’re awake” he said.

“Well done, Einstein. What the fuck happened to me?” I tried to sit up and felt a sharp pain sting the back of my head. I winced.

“You don’t remember?” he asked.

And suddenly, I did remember. I remembered everything, from meeting up with everyone on the beach, to the surf contest, to the show, to being dragged away by Tony Ellerby…and that’s where my memory stopped.

“How did I get here?” I asked, not having any recollection whatsoever of returning to my bed.

“You really don’t know, do you?” Rocket asked. I shook my head.

“At the party last night…” he began “You were kidnapped by some surfer dude. I forgot his name…?”

“Tony Ellerby” I said.

“So you do know?” Rocket asked impatiently.

“I don’t remember anything after being taken away from the party” I admitted.

“The fucker threw a rock at your head and knocked you out” Rocket explained. I felt the back of my head. It had been heavily bandaged, and was painful to touch.

“The stuff he was going to do to you…” Rocket clenched his fists “I don’t think I should tell you”

“Tell me” I ordered “I have a right to know”

“He was going to try and rape you” Rocket punched the bed as he spoke, his expression was one of pure anger.

I nodded, and felt my heart sinking to the pit of my stomach.

“Did he actually…?”

“No” he interrupted me, knowing what I was about to say. I felt relieved.

“I intervened and attacked him. Got a few bruises from it” he lifted his shirt slightly to reveal a horrible purplish-black bruise up the side of his stomach “But I was stronger than him. I broke his nose and he cleared off”

“But…how did you know that was happening if you weren’t at the party?” I asked.

“I was watching over you from the balcony” he admitted “Those kind of parties are dangerous. Anything could have happened to you. And when I saw you being carried away by that dumbass, I ran after you and hid myself behind a rock”

“He was watching over me? Holy crap…he really does care!”

“Umm…thanks” I muttered “Boy, do I feel stupid now. How long was I unconscious for?”

“A few hours” he said grimly “All that happened at 11pm…it’s 2.30am now”

“Three and a half hours…” I whispered disbelievingly.

“I think you’re alright though. I took a look at your head and it’s just a small gash the bleeding has stopped. And you’re clearly not concussed or anything so I think you’ll be okay. I’d recommend spending a couple of days in bed though just to recover fully” he said.

“But, Rocket…why?” I breathed.

“Why what?”

“Why do all this for me?”

“If I hadn’t have done this, you’d have been raped, and would be in a much worse state than you are now” he said bluntly.

“But…you were watching over me?”

He rolled his eyes and sighed “Can I let you know something?”

I nodded.

“Don’t overreact. I know what you’re like” he ordered.

I nodded again.

“Okay, I’ve lived with you for four years now. And during that time, you’ve kinda grown on me a little. Just a little. At first you were a total bitch, but now you’re okay. So, I’d be kinda bummed if anything happened to you” he shrugged nonchalantly.

“Wow…”

“Who are you and what have you done with Rocket!?” I blurted out.

“I told you not to overreact” he warned. I made an apologetic face.

“Rocket…” I began “Earlier today, you started to tell me something. Something important, but then we got interrupted. What was it that you were going to say?” I asked hopefully.

Rocket shook his head “Nah, I don’t actually think I was going to tell you anyway”

“Oh, come on! You can’t just say that! I thought you trusted me!?” I whined.

He rolled his eyes “Okay, fine, but the same rules as before apply”

“Of course” I agreed.

“Okay. So, you know my parents are dead, right?”

I hesitated a bit, before nodding. That’s not the kind of thing someone just comes out with so casually, and it’s not at all what I expected this to be about. This was going down on a very personal level for Rocket, and I was starting to have second thoughts about wanting to know it. The last thing I wanted to do was unnecessarily re-open a wound for him. But, being the extremely curious person that I am, I kept my mouth shut tight.

“Do you know how they died?” he asked. I shook my head. He breathed in deeply, as if preparing himself to speak.

“Four years ago, our house was broken into by a very dangerous man. I was asleep at the time, but he woke me up when he smashed the glass to our front door and unlocked it from outside. I went into my Mom and Dad’s bedroom and told them about what I heard, so they went downstairs to check it out. I followed them, even though they told me not to. When we got downstairs we saw him, he was wearing, like, a balaclava type thing so we couldn’t see his face, but he was grabbing every single thing in our house that was valuable and shoving it into a bag, most likely to sell it later on. So my Dad challenged him. He tried to snatch the bag back off him but the asshole fought back. Richard Fasely, that was his name.”

“I think I remember seeing him on the news” I said.

“Yeah. He did get convicted for this. But as I was saying, my Dad fought back, and before I had any idea what was going on, I heard two gunshots. Fasely shot my Dad twice in the chest. He died almost instantly. So that was when my Mom interfered, she also, stupidly tried to fight Fasely and he shot her in the head with his one remaining bullet. Because he didn’t have anything left to shoot me with, he just took whatever he had already managed to get his hands on and cleared off. I felt so helpless because I wasn’t able to do anything to stop him killing them. Even to this day, I blame myself, because I knew that if I hadn’t have told them about hearing him downstairs, this probably wouldn’t have happened, we would just have had our stuff stolen. And I didn’t do anything. I couldn’t do anything”

For one extremely bizarre moment, I thought I saw tears in his eyes. But I put that down to the lighting in the room.

“So, ever since that day, I’ve been trying to redeem myself by helping others as much as possible. You may think this sounds stupid, but it makes me feel a whole lot better knowing that I’m not completely useless. Remember that time on the beach when you lost me?”

I nodded, not noticing that my cheeks were wet with tears.

“I’d just saved a woman from drowning. Her surfboard got caught in a wave and she went under, I dived in after her and pulled her out, but not after I got kinda caught up in the current of the water and smashed my face into a rock”

“That explains the bruise we found him with…and why he was soaking wet!”

“That time I saved the girl from the pond in the park, the time I stopped that kid from being beaten up at school and ended up getting beaten myself, even just now when I saved you from that surfer bastard” he explained.

“What about the time you came home with that huge cut on your leg?” I asked.

“Oh yeah, that. Believe it or not, I’d just climbed down a steep embankment that a little boy had fallen down. He was unconscious on the train tracks at the bottom, so I had to carry him back up. There was a broken bottle and it caught my leg” he said “There have been loads of other times when I’ve done stuff like this and just haven’t told you” he admitted.

“Why don’t you tell anyone?” I asked “You’re a hero!”

“I’m not a hero” he insisted.

“But why not!?”

“Because I didn’t save my parents. I did nothing for them, so I don’t deserve any credit”

“Oh, Rocket…” I said sadly.

“Nothing I do seems to be able to make up for this empty feeling I have. I’m gonna keep going until I’m satisfied, but I have no idea how long that’s gonna take, because I don‘t think anything can make up for losing them. It kills me every day, and I lose tons of sleep over it. But it‘s something I‘ve learnt to live with”

“You’re gonna end up getting yourself really badly hurt…or worse!” I sobbed.

“Maybe so” he nodded “But to be honest, I don’t really care”

“You’re insane”

“I know. And I’m sorry for making you cry” he said.

“Huh?” I felt my cheeks with my hands and only just realised there was a wetness to them. He moved my hand, and wiped my tears away for me with his hand.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Are YOU okay?” I asked.

“No” he shrugged “But I’m used to it”

At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to give Rocket a hug. He looked like he needed one, but I restrained myself.

“Are you tired?” he asked.

“Not really…” I answered truthfully “Will you stay up with me?” I pleaded. I could tell that he was about to say no, I could see it in his expression, so I did my best ever puppy dog eyes. Surprisingly, he caved.

“Fine, I’ll stay up!” he rolled his eyes.

“Yay!” I cheered quietly, so I didn’t wake the entire house up.

“No one else knows about what happened tonight, by the way” Rocket said.

“But someone’s going to ask about why I have bandages on my head” I pointed out.

“That’s why I left my skateboard at the top of the stairs. You’re going to tell them that it was dark when you came in from the party, and you slipped on that” he said.

“I’ve never known you be so nice to me before…” I whispered.

“I’ve decided that you deserve it” he said.

“Rocket?”

“Hmm?”

“C-can I have a hug?”

“No”

“Oh well, it was worth a try” I shrugged. He shook his head and got up, about to walk away.

“I just want you to be okay” I whispered, on the verge of tears once again. He stopped walking, turned, and hesitated. Then, without warning, he dived back onto my bed and threw his arms tightly around me. I felt breathless for a while. And for a couple of worrying seconds I thought I might pass out from shock. I couldn’t believe this was actually happening. His embrace felt warm, and overwhelmingly comforting. I honestly wanted to stay in that position, in his arms, for the rest of my life.

“You don’t tell anyone about this” he muttered, still hugging me “Not even Gracie”

“Not even Gracie” I agreed.