Take One Last Breath

..::Austin’s P.O.V::..

Yesterday had been complete and utter hell. Today, it was obvious there would be no difference. As I went for my alarm clock, I went flying over the edge, hitting my head on the shag rug, groaning in pain. This would only happen to me, with the exception of Kori. As I tried to sit up, burning pain shot through my body, and I lay back down as I started feeling lightheaded. I waited it out for a few more minutes, before re-attempting to sit up again. I used the bed for support as I pulled myself up, looking at it with a pout. I grabbed clothes from my dresser, a pair gray denim shorts, and an Avenged Sevenfold t-shirt. I dragged my feet into the bathroom, turning on the shower, happy to see that the water actually warmed up. I stripped off my clothes, throwing them into the dirty hamper, and walked into the warm water, letting it warm me up from the chill of the air conditioning somebody insisted on having on high as much as possible.

I dried myself off as I finished, pulling on my shorts, and my shirt, and wrapping my hair up into a towel. I quickly did my makeup – the same as I always did it – and examined my face before taking off the towel, and hanging it up on the hook screwed into the back of the door. I noticed the sound of the birds from hell was gone, so I peeked into to door leading to Kori’s room. I saw that it had been free of the turkeys, and cleaned up.

Knoxville was here.

I remembered that I still needed to rip his head from his body since I hadn’t gotten my chance to just yet. I put all of my things away, running my fingers through my damp hair, getting all of the knots out of the bleached ends of my dark brown hair, and slipped into my combat boots. I trudged downstairs, to see Knoxville, Bam, Hanna, and Novak in the den. I quietly walked down the stairs, much rather wanting to go unnoticed so I could go and check up on Kori in peace, but I had a strong doubt that that would happen. I walked around the couches as the four looked at me in silence, and made my way into the other room, where Kori was still passed out on the couch.

“Kori,” I said, shaking her softly so she’d wake up. She didn’t hesitate before she stuck the tazer into my side, sending the bolts through my body, quickly taking it away once she realized it was my. I doubled over from the pain shooting everywhere, only a whimper of pain going through my body.

“Oh fuck,” she said, placing the tazer on the side table, and helped me onto the couch, “I thought you were one of those shitheads,” she told me, and I glared at her.

“Do I look like one of those shit heads,” I struggled to get out, my side still stinging.

“I was asleep, Austin. I’m. Sorry,” she continued, and I waved her off.

“I just think you should bury that thing,” I suggested, resting my head against her shoulder as slowly, but surely, the pain died down a bit.

“I need something to go up against your dickhead cousin,” she said, and I groaned.

“This needs to stop,” I said, and I could feel her hair hit me in the face as she shook her head.

“This can’t end. He started it, and I’m going to finish it,” she stated, and I looked at her as if she had lost what she didn’t have.

“You know he can hire people to help him out, right?” I asked, and she nodded as she understood.

“I’m aware,” she said, and I stood up, nearly falling over as Kori shot up to help me, and I pushed her away.

“No really, this needs to stop,” I said before walking out of the room, going to sit with Novak and Knoxville.

“Morning, sunshine,” Knoxville smiled at me, and I glared at him.

“Shut your face, glitter dick,” I warned, and he giggled as he looked away.

“Morning, Austin,” Novak smiled at me, and I couldn’t help but smile back.

“You, too, Novak,” I said, looking at Bam, “So is this rampage going to end? Are you going to leave the only friend I have alone now?” I asked, and Bam thought about it before he shook his head.

“I haven’t even started yet, but I’ve got a few things in mind,” he said with a devious smile before he looked back at me, “She’ll wish she was never born.”

“And I’m going to make you wish the same if you don’t stay away from her,” I warned, standing up, “another heads up, she’s got that tazer basically taped to her hand, so I’d keep all of my distance.” I walked into the kitchen, following my growling stomach, and rummaged through the fridge.

“I can make you something if you want,” April’s voice came out behind me, causing me to jump into the fridge, knocking everything down. As I went to turn around, I slipped on the spilled milk, falling face first into all of the shelves, taking them all down. I could hear Bam, Hanna, Novak, and Knoxville laughing from the den, and I knew they had seen everything. I looked down to see the blood rushing out of my nose, “Oh, damn,” April said while grabbing a dish towel, and making her way over to me, helping me up, and steering me to one of the stools. I propped myself up on it, and she leaned my head back as she placed the towel to my stinging nose.

“This is just fantastic,” I mumbled through the blood and towel.

“Oh, hunny, I don’t think you should talk right now,” April said, “This looks pretty bad. Here, I’ll have to go get a few first aid things. Somebody come hold this towel for her, please,” April asked as she handed me off to somebody else. I saw Novak standing to the side of me, holding the towel up, the crow’s feet on each side of his face wrinkled up from smiling. It looked like there were almost tears in his eyes.

“I think you should stop laughing before I send your face down a journey in the freezer,” I threatened, and the smile on his face immediately vanished.

“Alright,” April said, coming back in, and started cleaning the blood from my face, “it seems to have stopped a little bit,” she smiled apologetically as she started cleaning the blood from around my nose. She closely examined my face, “it looks like it might be broken,” she suggested, and I whimpered as she lightly touched it.

“So let’s take her to the hospital,” Novak suggested.

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Aprill shot at Novak, causing me to giggle.

“You don’t have to, BAM, KNOXVILLE, HANNA, WE’RE TAKING HER TO THE HOSPITAL,” he shouted into the den.

“Oh fuck,” I said as Novak helped me off of the stool and towards the car. He helped me into the back seat of Bam’s Hummer as Bam and Knoxville piled into the front, taking off. I thought we all died at least five times on the way to the tall white building, and Bam took no time in taking me from the backseat and carrying me into the building bridal style, “there’s no way we’re related,” I muttered, earning a laugh from Bam.

“You’ve seen my parents, right? They had a DNA test on me,” he said, causing me to giggle.

“I’d do the same if I was cursed with having you for a child,” I suggested.

“No, this was last week,” he assured me as we walked into the doors of the emergency room. He put me down in one of the waiting chairs as he went to go talk to the nurse at the desk, handing her a few bills and she pointed towards the door, and seemed to be giving directions. They walked back over to me, and Bam picked me up again, following the directions the nurse had apparently given him through the two wide automatic doors, and to a room where a doctor had been sitting at his desk, “Hey, doc,” he said, placing me down on the examining chair.

“Hello, Bam,” he sighed, and they obviously knew each other, “What is it today?”

“Well, my klutzy cousin here took a nosedive through my fridge,” Bam informed the doctor.

“She was hungry,” Knoxville stepped in, “didn’t know what she wanted to eat, so she tried eating all of it at once.”

“Shut up,” I hissed at him, and he did that stupid giggle that he always does.

“I need you to examine her nose and see if it’s broken,” Bam finished.

“As long as I’m not examining the toy car that Dunn shoved up his ass,” the doctor muttered. I decided not asking any questions about that would be for the better. The doctor brought a bright light over my face, looking at my nose, slightly touching. The sting wasn’t as bad as it was before, “Well, it’s not broken. I assume if she just did this, it would still hurt,” the doctor looked up at Bam.

“Don’t look at me,” Bam backed away, “Ape was the one who suggested she broke it. And she’s the one who fell in the first place,” I glared at him.

“Well,” it’s not broken, just a little swollen. The majority of the pain should be gone by tomorrow,” he informed me with a smile, and I nodded as I got up, leaving the room with the three boys.

“Can somebody that’s not Bam drive home, please,” I begged as the light from the outside hit us, the sun bearing down it’s warmth.

“Alright,” Bam said, throwing the keys at Knoxville, “Johnny will drive,” I sighed in relief, then realized this had been a big mistake, and I was going to die on the way home. It was obvious Knoxville didn’t know how to operate a vehicle, since he spent a lot of the time driving down the long road on the left side, only bearing the right when another car was coming this way.

“YOU’RE GOING TO GET US KILLED,” I yelled from the backseat.

“Sit down,” Bam said from the passenger side of the front, “you’re going to distract him,” he made a motion for me to sit back, and Novak tried to calm me down, which wasn’t really working, as I kept freaking out. I buried my face into his side until I felt the car come to a complete stop, and I jumped out of the car, looking at both Knoxville and Bam in fear.

“You two should not having driving licenses,” I said, pointing at them.

“Well I don’t,” Knoxville said, before giggling and walking back into the house. I stared at him in disbelief before making my way into the house myself. I walked into the kitchen to see Kori clutching on to a cup, shaking in fear, her eyes wide.

“What’s wrong,” I asked, sitting next to her, and she slowly shook her head, “Kori,” I tried snapping her out of it, but she could only look at me.

“I..I killed a bird,” she said in disbelief, and my eyebrows furrowed together in confusion.

“You killed a bird,” I asked, looking at her strangely, and she nodded slowly, “how?” She looked at her phone, and I looked back at her, “you killed a bird with your phone?” I asked, and she nodded.

“DUDE, PHIL,” I could hear Bam shouting from the back doors, “PHIL, I FOUND A DEAD BIRD, COME WATCH ME RUN OVER IT WITH A LAWN MOWER,” he kept shouting, and Kori’s head immediately dropped to the granite of the counter top, and I rubbed her back in comfort.

©Shannon.