The Tide Began to Rise - 12. Chapter 12

I had started crying. When Brent’s mom showed up she had started comforting me. All the while I had a feeling that something bad was going to happen. That bad thing is what I started crying for. Brent’s mom had asked me why my mom wasn’t here. From the moment I heard the word mom, I was crying. Brie put her arm around me. I put my arm around her and I buried me head into her shoulder.

“What did I say?” she asked.

“His mom was killed.” Brent said.

When Brent said that, it made me cry even harder. I was hugging Brie hard. I was pulling her as hard as I could into me. I was hurting myself, but I fought through the pain. Brie didn’t even try and pull away. I don’t think she could have even if she tired. I was kind of happy the she didn’t. She probably would have hurt me.

After about 30 minutes of me bawling my eyes out, I pulled my face out of Brie’s shoulder. Everyone was looking at me.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“There was no way for you to know, unless Brent told you.”

“He didn’t, and again I’m sorry. I feel so bad for you.”

I decided to explain, as best I could, how everything went down. By the time that I had finished, she had tears in her eyes. Along with the tears, she a shocked, yet angry look on her face. From what I just told her about what “that guy” did to me and my mom, I don’t blame her. I can only imagine what she must be thinking. She was probably the same thing as everyone else. “How could a father do that to his child?” If she was like me, the she wants to kill him. I want him to suffer as much as he made me suffer.

I continued to talk. I told everyone how I felt for the past 3 years. I left out the part that I’m gay and that I’m in love with Brent. I don’t know if Brent’s mom knows if he is or not. I don’t think that it is my place to go around telling his secret.

As I was talking, I heard a knock on the door. I said come in; I was surprised to see Peter standing there when the door opened. I was speechless. I had no clue what to say to him.
“Hey Tyler, can we talk?” Peter said

I still couldn’t talk. I just nodded my head.

“We will go down to the cafeteria and get something to eat.” Brent’s mom said as she ushered Brent and Brie out of the room.

As they all left the room, Peter came in and sat on the chair. He just looked at me. Finally after 10 minutes or so I had had enough.

“Why are you here Peter?”

“I can’t visit my brother in the hospital?”

“Not when you could have stopped what was happening. How could you let it go on when you heard my screams? OH WAIT…… let me guess, you were in your room smoking. Getting high is more important then you own brothers and your mother’s lives. How could you even show your face here?”

“I’m sorry ok. When I heard you were here, I came to make sure you were ok. “

“DO I FUCKING LOOK OK? I’m lying in the hospital because the man I called dad, beat the hell out of me. And now you seem to care. When I’m seriously hurt is when you start to give a damn. That bastard made me feel like shit for 3 years. For 3 years you could have done something to stop him from abusing me. But you didn’t, you just let it happen. You let it get this far. Mom is dead because nobody stopped him. If it wasn’t for Brent, I would be to. It took a friend that I just made, to do what a brother should have done.”

“I truly am sorry Tyler. I know that I should have stopped dad. I know that you didn’t deserve any of it. Nobody ever does. I didn’t stop him because I was afraid…………………….. I was afraid that he would start doing it to me because I stood up to him. I know I’m selfish. I was thinking about myself and about my well being. I’m not a good brother.”

Peter took a long pause. He lowered his head and started to cry. I felt sorry for him. I am angry at him, sure, but still sorry that he is beating himself up about this.

“You deserve much better than the life that you have. You deserve better then what I’m going to be able to do while taking care of you. I’m sorry Tyler, but this is goodbye. I can’t look you in the face, and not want to kill myself. All I will be able to see is how stupid I was for not helping you when you really needed it. Goodbye, good luck, I love you Tyler.”

Peter stood up and walked out the door. He didn’t give me a chance to digest what he said.

“Peter wait” I screamed

He didn’t come back. I ripped all the cords and needles off and out of me. I slid out of bed. I fell to the floor. The pain was excruciating but I didn’t care. I started to crawl to the door. I kept screaming for Peter. When I reached the door, and looked down the hall, it was too late. He was already gone. Nurses were running down the hall to me room. I was crying so hard, by the time they got to me, everything was a blur. The nurses helped me up and back to the bed. They hooked everything back up. One nurse began to give me a lecture on why I can’t do what I did.

All I could do was start yelling. “Do you have any fucking clue what just happened to me? No you don’t. The last person in my family just walked out on me. Do you know what this is like? I bet you don’t. So don’t lecture me on what I can and can’t do……. Get the hell out of my room NOW!”

All of the nurses left. As the last one stepped out; Brent, his mom, and Brie came back.

“What’s wrong Tyler?” Brie asked.

“Peter just walked out of my life. He told me I deserve a family that can take care of me. He said that he wasn’t good enough. He was the last person in my family. My grandparents are gone, and my aunts and uncles don’t care. I have nobody left, I have nowhere to live. Knowing my dad, he will give everything over to Tristan.”

“Mom?” Brent said. He turned to look at her. He didn’t really have the sad puppy dog face, but he a look of caring and concern.

She seemed to think about it for a few minutes. Brent spoke up, “Common mom, he needs a place to live and people who care about him. We have more than enough room.” Then she smiled “OK, Tyler you will come and live with us. I will love and care you like you are my own son.”

Brent went to her and gave her a huge hug. After a while of talking, Brie said that she had to get home. Brent’s mom said that they needed to get home as well. When she said they, the reality set in that I would be alone in the hospital. Brent saw the change in my face.

“Mom, is it ok that I stay with him?”

“What about school?”

“Call and let them know what is going on. I will go and pick up our school work. It will only be until he gets out of here.”

“OK”

“Thank you so much Mrs. Macomb, for everything.”

“Your welcome Hun, and call me Julie.”

She gave Brent a hug and a kiss, and then left the room. Brie came over and gave me a hug and told me that she would see me tomorrow. I told her to let James, Jennifer, and Brad know what was going on. She told me she would let them know at school. She left the room as well.

That left Brent and I all alone. We turned the TV and watched NCIS. After a while I started to wonder if Brent’s mom knew if he was gay.

“Brent, I have a question.”

“Shoot”

“Does your room know you like guys?”

Brent hung his head. “No, and I can’t tell her. I’m her only child. If I told her, it would kill her. I can’t do that to her.”

“I can understand that. It’s your choice. I’m only out to you and Brie. My mom didn’t know………..” I trailed off.

We sat in silence for a while. About 8:00 pm a nurse came in and gave me some meds. I asked her to bring in a few more pillows so that Brent would be more comfortable. One of the pills that I was given must have been a sleeping pill. I was fading fast. Before I fell asleep I told Brent goodnight, and thanks for everything.

That sleeping pill worked really well. I woke up at around 9 in the morning. The only thing wrong was that I didn’t feel rested. I felt like I didn’t get any sleep at all. I looked over to the chair. It was empty. I figured that Brent must have gone to the school to pick up what homework we were going to have. When I get better, I will have to remember to give Julie the biggest hug ever. She is taking me in and allowing her son to be here for me.

I pressed the button to call the nurse. When one came in, I asked if I could get some breakfast. For the first time in the 3 years, someone asked me what I wanted. I had been out with friends, but this was different. Those times it was a group thing. This was me. I told her that I wanted eggs, hash browns, and pancakes. I thought for a minute. I asked her if she would bring two plates. She gave me a weird look. Maybe she thought that I was going to eat them both. No matter was she thought, she left to get the food.

About 5 minutes after she left, Brent came into the room with 2 books bags. One was mine, and the other was his. From the looks of the, they were FULL. I wouldn’t think that this early in the year we would be getting that much. It is only the 3rd day of school.

“Good morning sunshine, I went and picked up our homework. They decided to give us the assignments for the entire week. They didn’t know how long you would be out.”

“Ok, I was going to ask you why the bags are so full. I ordered us some breakfast. It should be here in a little bit. I got eggs, hash browns, and pancakes. You weren’t here so I got the same thing for you. When I asked here to bring two plates, she gave me a strange look. Maybe she thought I was going to eat both.”

“Yeah, because you’re so fat.”

“That was mean. I think I’m going to cry.”

“Aww Don’t cry. I didn’t mean it.”

“Ok, fine, I will let it slide this time.”

We talked until our food came. While we ate, we didn’t say a word. We just looked at each other. We smiled at each other. I think we are in that stage that everyone calls puppy love. At least that is where I see us. Neither one of us has asked the other if they will go out or date the other. So I guess we are technically flirting.

We finished eating, and put the plates aside we talked for a while. Brent suggested that we get to work on the school stuff. Yeah that is what I want to do, school work while I’m in the hospital. Eventually I gave in. Brent got over bags and pulled out our government books. We started to work. There was about 4 day’s worth of work, we got it all done with 3 hours. The reason that is takes so long in class is because the lectures.

Once we had government finished, we moved to senior exit. This class is supposed to teach us what life outside high school is like. The only homework that we had for that class was to write a paper on a life changing experience. That teacher is a bitch. As much as I didn’t want to, I decided to write about what had just happened. I figured that this would be the kind of thing that would be best to vent my feelings on paper. I started at the beginning. I told about how my life was before Tristan. I wrote how my life changed when he moved in. I wrote my feelings. As I wrote all of this, I cried.

We spent most of the day working on our homework. I was watching the time. I couldn’t wait until 3:30, when the rest of my friends were going to come by. I need to see their faces. As much as I love spending all this time with Brent, right now I need to be with as many people that care about me as I can. Just knowing that there are people that still care about me beside Brent and Brie. It’s great that they are here for me, but other people as well.

At about 3:35 James, Jenifer, Brie, and Brad came into the room. The moment that Jennifer saw me, she gasped, came over to me, and lightly hugged me. James came over and put a hand on my shoulder.

“How are you holding up bud?”

“I’m ok I guess. It’s been hard, knowing that I’m not going to be going home.”

“I’m really sorry dude. Brie filled us in on everything on the way here. I can’t believe that your dad was doing that to you. You should have told us. We would have gotten you out of there.”

“Then I would never see my mom again. At least when I went home I saw her every day.”

Brad hadn’t said a word. He just stood by the door, with his head bowed. I knew why.

“Fine Brad, don’t say hi to me.”

“I’m sorry dude. How are you feeling?”

“I’m in pain but the pills help a lot.”

We all talked for w while. Mostly about what happened with me. I really didn’t want to, but I figured that sooner or later I would need to explain it to them.

After a while, I started to feel hungry. “Hey guy, are ya’ll getting hungry, or is it just me?”

“I could eat.” Brad said.

“Same here” James said. Jennifer nodded her head in agreement.

“What do we want to eat? Brent asked.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I want Chinese.” Brie said.

“Ooooo that sounds good. Will you guys go on a run?” I asked.

They asked me and Brent what we wanted. I told them that I wanted sweet and sour chicken and two crab Rangoon’s. Brent told them to get him the same thing.

When everyone else left I looked at Brent and started to talk.

“When I can get out of here, I want to go to my house one more time and pack. I want you there to help me. I want your help with the actual work, but more so for the emotional support. I’m going to ask the others when they get back if there will help as well. So will you help me?”

“Of course.”

“Good.”

When the others came back, we ate and talked. I asked them if they would help me pack up my stuff when I get out. All of them said yes, except for Brad. He made up some excuse. I get the feeling that he doesn’t want to hang out with me anymore. Around 7:30 everyone decided to go home and let me rest.

The rest of the week went the same. The doctors started me on physical therapy. By the week’s end the doctors told me that I could go home. I was signed out on Saturday. I got my meds and wheel chair to use. I called everyone and told them to meet us at my house. As we pulled up to the house, I began to shake.