Other Side of the World

He sat on the bed with a book opened in his lap. He stopped reading half an hour ago as he tilted his head up, looking at the scenery outside and rubbed the back of his stiff neck. Nathan felt a creeping sense of déjà vu. He was at this position so many times, it was hard not to. But for the past few months, he had Haley consistently bugging him around, until she moved to Australia. As hard as it was to admit, he felt a sense of loneliness.

“…you should let him stay away from that girl,” he heard his mother said angrily just outside of the room. His father replied calmly but with a perturbed expression, making his mother exploded, saying, “Why? What do you mean why?! He came back with a fucking hole in his already fucked up lungs!”

As amusing as it was, Nathan hated it when his mother was like that.

Nathan turned his attention back to the window. He had been giving Haley messages upon messages, but none of them got through. And she never picked up his calls. He leaned over his phone, pressing a button so that the screen would light up.

No messages.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

“Please, it’s all that I could get!”

“Well, it’s not enough now, is it?”

His breath was reeking of alcohol, Liam noted as he cringed at the putrid smell. He couldn’t believe he was thinking about that when he was half-bleeding to death. He couldn’t even believe his senses were still working, as he was sure he was going blind right now.

“I—” he began to defend himself, but the breath out of him was forced out as another blow connected to his guts. Liam groaned, his hands flailing around to remove his father’s fist from his body. He wanted to fall down and die already but his dad took him by the throat and slammed him for what seemed to be the umpteenth time against the blood-stained wall.

“Did I say you can talk? I swear, all you good at is being a piece of shit,” his father said with a dangerous edge to his voice.

He couldn’t breathe. His fingers scratched vehemently at his father’s hand, but it wouldn’t budge.

“P-please,” he managed to stutter out with a croaky voice, a prickling pain spread throughout his chest, desperately yearning for air. He was going to die.

He was going to die.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

“He liked biscuits, didn’t he?” Belle said, carrying a batch of cookies that she bought. Haley frowned. He did seem reluctant to eat the cookies that her aunt made. It was almost insulting. But in the end, he took more of it and took off with the entire container.

“I don’t see why you should apologize,” Haley said, shaking her head. “To him, I mean. Shouldn’t you apologize to Aaron?”

“Yeah well,” she said, after much deliberation, “Aaron is the type of person who rarely gets angry, but when he does, it’s really scary. So I thought, I’d make a good impression on Liam and when Aaron sees how good I am to his best friend, he’d automatically forgive me!” She said with a huge grin, as if she concocted the greatest plan ever. It was so childish, Haley couldn’t help but to laugh.

“I think it’s much easier to just apologize to Aaron. Is this his house?”

“Yep,” Belle said, popping the ‘p’ as they stopped in front of the gate.