Save Me

Ten

It’s been three weeks since I’ve arrived here in Wilmington, North Carolina. And I guess I have to admit, my life here didn’t suck or anything. I basically managed to live the life I’ve always wanted, simple, easy and without the Andrews power haunting me. But don’t get me wrong, I do miss the power and hold I used to have over people, but I wouldn’t trade this simple and ordinary life for anything in the world.

It was Saturday and I was working my shift at the JMechanic, the local mechanic shop that was passed down to Scott by his father. It’s history was actually pretty impressive. It just started at the Jacoby’s garage, well, their grandfather’s garage. He was just fixing his own car when the town mayor’s car broke down in front of their home. He ended up fixing it. Word spread out about how he was so efficient and after a few months, he managed to buy a lot and built an actual mechanic shop there. He passed it on his eldest son, Scott and Denise’s father. But after the accident, no one could run the shop since their kids were still in school. So Robbie and Gerry stepped in, running the shop till Scott finished college and passing it to him, the respective owner. Scott’s younger brother, Raffy also helped out.

“You heard the news bro?” Scott said, wiping his hands clean from the grease of the car he was fixing.

I pulled out the tire of the shop I was working on, “What news?”

“The Andrews kid. The one who was missing,” he said and I felt my heart skip a beat at the mention of myself, my old self, “He’s dead.”

The world seemed to stop and the time seemed to halt too. The air in my lungs seemed to have been taken out of me, nausea took over, my head was spinning and I felt like my entire world and being just flashed before my eyes and that I was absolutely going to die in a minute.

“You okay Falen?” Scott asked. When he called me Falen, I was brought back to who I really was, the guy that I was pretending to be, the guy I was living as, the guy that this town knew about. I wasn’t Seth Andrews, here, I was Falen Rose.

I nodded lightly, “Yes. How’d they find out he was dead?”

He shrugged, “They saw his car at the borderline of Georgia. It was blown up to pieces. The fire swallowed Falen, I guess.”

“Was there a dead body?” I asked. My family wasn’t stupid, especially my father. They wouldn’t just believe that I was in that car when it blew up.

“Yes,” Scott said softly, as if seeing behind all my façade.

I shivered lightly, “Poor guy.”

“He was a jerk,” Scott mumbled.

I turned my head and felt like lunging at him for saying that, “What do you mean?”

“Well, that’s what Cam always say.”

I did not see that one coming.

“Huh?”

He shrugged, “Cam hates the guy’s guts you know. It all makes us wonder if she actually knows him but of course, we doubt it. Cam just isn’t the type of girl who’d go to Seth Andrews’ environment.”

I could see his point, but I still didn’t understand why Danielle hates me, “Why does he hate him?”

“I dunno,” Scott replied, grabbing a wrench in the toolbox, “See Cam’s the type of person who hates people who pretends to be someone they’re not, who is a total jerk, who prefers to break a girl’s heart because he thinks it’s so cool. And all of those things, she saw in Seth.”

“But she doesn’t even know him!” I cried.

“Do you?”

I was silent for a moment, thinking of a best response, “No. But we share a common friend. He said that Seth wasn’t that bad, he’s just misunderstood. He said that Seth had a valid reason why he did what he did.”

Scott nodded, “Well, tell that to Cam.”

“Why does she seem to be so uptight all the time?” I said, finally asking a question that has been on my mind on numerous occasions.”

Scott looked at me and chuckled, “Cam’s been through a lot. It’s not exactly easy to explain but she didn’t live the perfect grand kind of life in high school.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s a long story,” he said.

“We have time.”

He sighed but then began, “Cam kind of had it all at the start of high school. I guess it’s because when she finished junior high, she found friends she thought would always stay by her side but she was wrong. The change in high school became too hard for her to deal with and then you add the change in her friendship with different kinds of people. It took it’s toll on her.”

“What happened?”

“She was broken. She had so many friends in high school but after a course of a few months in there first year, they all changed. And Cam was living too much into the past and wanted them to change back to who they were before. But they couldn’t, they wouldn’t. And Cam was so depress that she chose to hurt herself. She couldn’t accept the change. She wouldn’t adapt to it. And her friends, they didn’t help her understand or help her with her depression. They just left her.”

“So they’re no longer friends?”

Scott sighed but shook his head, “Even if Cam’s the person who holds grudges too long, she’s always up for second chances. So now they’re still friends. Just not that tight anymore.”

And it made no sense at all. It wasn’t like I knew Danielle inside and out but for the few weeks that I had gotten to know her, it was obvious that she wasn’t the type of girl who welcomed pain or hurt. She was headstrong, kind in her own way and she was the type of girl that whatever you see her as, is really who she is. You get what you see.

“And she never fought back?”

“She did,” Scott said, “But she wasn’t prepared in all of the battles.”

“Did that break her?”

“Yes, but not that much,” he mused, as if he thought back to those time, to that year or years, “Cam’s the type of girl that would often pretend that she was okay rather than explaining to everyone else. But when she was in college, four years ago, that’s when it all happened.”

“What do you mean?”

“She had a boyfriend. Will Marshall,” he replied, “Will’s actually a pretty cool guy. He once came down here with Cam. And yea, he’s DJ’s dad.”

“Lemme guess, he wouldn’t accept him?”

“We all thought he would,” he said quietly, “He was just the guy who would take full responsibility for a mistake. But something went on with him and Cam, and he left her furious. Cam was so hurt, so broken than any of us had ever seen. We wanted to hunt down Will for hurting her but he already fled the state. Last I heard he’s in Asia.”

“He’s a prick.”

“I guess he was.”

“But how did Danielle stand back up?”

“I guess Cam finally realized that it wasn’t only her from then on. She had a kid. She never thought of aborting it. She kept it. She studied online for her degree; she tried her best to be better. And thank God that she did.”

“Was she really that depress?”

Scott looked distant for a moment and from time to time, I catch him wince. He must’ve been remembering all the bad memories that happened to his childhood friend. He closed his eyes for a moment and then looked back at me to continue the story of the mysterious girl who almost killed me.

“She wouldn’t eat for two weeks. She locked herself in her room. Patrick had to break down her door to get her out. She was just way too depressed for any of our liking. And she never went out of the house. She just stayed where she was, at their home. And when she did go out, we never knew where she goes too.”

“Didn’t you try following her?”

“I did,” he replied quietly. It took him almost five minutes to reply and then I knew that he hadn’t told anyone that he did so, “We had agreed that we’d let her be, let go to wherever she went. But well, I just couldn’t help myself and follow her. I guess I was really curious as to what she does.”

“Did she find out that you were following her?”

He shook his head, “No. She just sensed someone was following her but she didn’t know it was me. Before I knew it, I lost track of her.”

It was silent between us and we continued on with our work. But my mind was preoccupied with so many things. Like my death. Seriously, my family wasn’t that stupid enough. And what would I be doing in Georgia? Well, I am here in North Carolina and it’s also a place where I never imagined myself being in. Although my best friend was from the South and we often planned coming down here but that never really happened.

I sighed, thinking about my family made me feel guilty. They all thought I was dead. The last time I saw them was on TV a few weeks back. They were in search of me, all of them. It broke my heart to imagine how they would be holding up with my death when Adrian only died last year. Mom must be locking herself up and tearing herself down. It was how she handled Adrian’s death. But then again, she had Joseph and I know he’ll do anything to be there for her.

And my brother, Collin would be so daze right now. I remember he was so lost when Addie died. All he kept mumbling was Addie and he wouldn’t sleep because he’d be searching for him like a little kid in search of his beloved puppy. I didn’t want to bring him with the same pain again, and with his mental stability, who knows what he’d do now. We were lucky last year that he didn’t run away or anything but just locked himself in his room with video games.

Caryle and Kathryn. Well, I haven’t seen them handling this type of situations before because they weren’t really close with Adrian before. But they were close with me. But then again, Joseph was there. I know he could handle his little girls and my mother well. He loved them.

And Dad? Good old Dad. Note the sarcasm. I’m sure he’s a train wreck by now. He lost another son. And his youngest son is mentally deranged. Now he’s left with no choice but his daughter. See, Dad is a huge sexist. But it made me wonder why he asked Louise to major in business when we all knew full well that she wasn’t going to even run the company let alone step foot in it. But that’s John Andrews for you, ladies and gentlemen.

“You going home bro?”

I looked at Scott and shook my head, I wanted to clear my mind, “Nah. I have somewhere to be.”

“Like a date?” he asked with a smirk.

I chuckled but shook my head, “I’m not that quick with the ladies, man.”

“Oh I thought you are quite the dashing ladies man,” he said and then furrowed his eyebrows, “God that sounds gay.”

I laughed and we closed up the shop. He headed for home and I headed to where the small lake in this place was. I’ve always liked lakes. I often hang out at the lake back at Australia. Yea, I don’t call Australia my home. Boston isn’t my home either. I guess I’m still searching for a place where I want to be, a place where I could just be me, a place where everybody would accept me, a place like home.

I threw pebbles on the lake and they started to skip. A few moments later, I started to angrily throw them at it. I was frustrated. Why was I born to this kind of life? Did I do something wrong in my past life for my present one to play out like this? Yes, I was born to a rich family but what would I do with all those wealth when I don’t even know how it feels to truly be a part of a family?

Don’t get me wrong, I love my Mom, siblings, half and full, Joseph and even Dad no matter how much he dictates my life. But thing is, we never really acted like a proper family. There weren’t dinner together and the only time we can share food together is during Thanksgiving. It’s like I was born in a deranged family. On the outside we were so prim and proper or casual and sweet, but inside the four walls of our home, that’s not it, it’s anything but. It’s different, and not a good kind of different, a bad different.

I let exhaled a deep breath, feeling my heart tighten with all my thoughts and mental images of the memory I have of my family.

Sometimes, I just want to scream.