My Brother, The Dentist

Chapter 20

Today was the planned day for Adam to re-fit my braces. It was the day I'd been dreading since I returned back from the hospital the night of my accident and Sam had informed me of the plans he'd arranged. Adam was a nice enough guy, but I was use to Sam being my dentist, not Adam!

Straight after school was over, I took it upon myself to walk to my brother's dental office (as much as I didn't want to). I entered through the front doors and waltzed straight over to the front desk, but to my surprise it appeared Jasmine wasn't working today. Yet, as I turned around to take a seat in the empty waiting room, I saw Adam dawdle out from around a corner, and make eye contact with me.

"Ah Billy, you're here!" he exclaimed, pointing towards my direction and making his way over to me. "Come straight through" he said whilst smiling warmly.

Without any words, I followed Adam through to his room, and he closed the door behind us.

"Put your bag anywhere you like Billy, and then take a seat for me, if you'd be so kind."

Adam smiled the whole time, obviously wanting to make me feel comfortable. He knew for a fact I hated visiting the dentist, and Adam was a newbie to my usual procedures.

Even though Adam had given me instructions, I couldn't seem to follow them. My feet seemed cemented to the floor, I just didn't want to move.

"Are you alright, Billy?" Adam asked, frowing at me confused.

I quickly snapped out of whatever situation I was in and nodded my head swiftly.

"Err.. yeah.. completely fine" I smiled half-heartedly.

I cautiously lowered myself into the chair and took a few deep breaths. 'You'll be alright Billy' I kept saying to myself in my head. 'You'll be alright'.

"Okay then bud, just going to lower the chair now" Adam informed me. He lowered the chair very slowly, then prepped himself, gathering his tools and pulling on a pair of gloves, whilst I anxiously waited in the chair. After a few seconds, he rolled his stool over to me.

"Are you not putting a mask on?" I asked.

"I only do that if Sam's here, otherwise I don't care" he laughed. "Unless you want me to?"

Quick as a flash I told him 'no', to which he gave me a big thumbs up.

"Okay bud, firstly I'm just going to take a look at your teeth, just so I know exactly what i'm doing. Is that okay?" he asked, comfortingly, mirror in hand.

I nodded my head.

"Awesome bud. Can you open your mouth for me please?"

I tried to open my mouth, but my body just wouldn't let me. It was as if my lips had been stitched together! After a few seconds of starring into Adam's eyes, I finally managed to open my mouth a minuscule amount, to which Adam gently assessed my teeth. He was so much more careful than Sam and didn't pull my lips as much! After a few minutes, he removed his mirror from my mouth and informed me he was about to start applying the brackets. I kept my mouth open whilst he changed tools, yet as he was about to glue on the first bracket, I swiftly placed my hands over my mouth and clenched my eyes shut tight.

"Billy?" Adam said, extremely confused. "What happened? Are you okay? Did I hurt you?"

I shook my head back and forth speedily gesturing 'no', then hopped out of the chair.

"I'm sorry Adam!" I said, as tears filled my eyes. "I just really don't want braces again!"

"Why's that?" Adam asked me, putting down his tools and looking at me inquisitively.

"They hurt! They're annoying! They're an inconvenience and I don't want to keep coming back to this place! I hate it here!" I began to raise my voice as I spoke, so Adam insisted that I needed to calm down.

"Billy, come sit on my chair" Adam said, standing up and rolling the chair over to me.

"No, Adam" I exclaimed, backing away from Adam. "I won't let you put braces on my teeth. I'm sorry Adam."

I felt genuinely guilty for putting this on Adam. He didn't deserve my annoyance, he deserved better than this. But, there was no other way of getting across my desires. I had to say it as it was.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to do, Billy" Adam said, beginning to look very awkward. "I mean, it's out of my hands on what to do actually. Are you sure you don't want me to put your braces on?"

I stared at Adam blankly for a few seconds, then aggressively nodded my head.

"Sorry Billy, but I'm going to have to get Sam. There's nothing else I'm able to do."

"What, where is Sam?" I asked, beginning to get anxious.

"In his office, filling in important paper work" Adam informed me, whilst pulling off his gloves and chucking them in the bin.

"Adam! Please don't get Sam" I begged, as a tear began to slip down my face.

"I'm so sorry Billy."

Adam looked devistated, and as if he could cry himself. He could barely even make eye contact with me anymore.

"Adam. Please. Don't" I begged again.

Adam headed towards the doorway to retrieve Sam, but I blocked the way and pushed him back into the room. Tears began to stream down my face. Adam didn't show any slight forms of aggression back to me, but unfortunately, he managed to squeeze past me, and paced down the corridor towards Sam's personal office. I ran back into the room, closing the door behind me, and hid behind the reclining chair, out of sight.

I knew Sam was going to be disappointed in me. Not just disappointed, but angry too. An angry Sam was never a nice Sam. Adam was too much of a kind guy; Sam never would've let me get away with not having the braces. And that was the reason why I was so worried for Sam's arrival to the room!

About twenty seconds later, I heard the door open and footsteps entering the room. Then, I heard Sam's voice;

"Where is he, Adam?" Sam said. He sounded angry.

"I don't know" Adam replied shakily. "He was here when I left."

I held my breath, trying not to make any noise. But my sniffling gave away my position. I looked up slightly to see Sam looking down at me, with his arms crossed and an angry expression covering his face.

"Billy, what do you think you're playing at?" he asked with an annoyed tone.

I stood up from the floor, and slowly backed away from Sam, tears still slowly dripping down my face. Adam was stood in the corner of the room, looking down at the ground like a puppy who'd ripped up a cushion. Guilty.

"Well..." Sam droned. "Are you going to answer me?"

I sniffed a few times, then replied with a simple, "I don't want braces Sam."

"Why?" Sam bit back.

"Isn't it obvious why?" I fired back, with a sarcastic tone.

"Billy, they're good for your health. I wouldn't tell you to get them if it was pointless. Come on look, take a seat in the chair and Adam will do it nice and quickly. Or I'll do it if you like? What do you say?"

Sam began to make me angry. I shouted, "I said NO Samuel!"

"Billy Chespin, don't you dare shout at me!" Sam shouted back.

Had Sam forgotten about everything he'd said to me yesterday? About kindness, respect and love? I knew he never meant it when he said it! Of course he never meant it! How could I've been so stupid to believe him?! To think I trusted him made me feel like the biggest fool in the world! i***t.

I looked at Sam with teary eyes, then at Adam, and then I legged it out of the room. Through the doorway, through the hallway, through the waiting room, through the front doors, into the car park and down the street; where I kept running and running and running and running and running...

~Sam's POV~

I watched Billy run from the room, tears streaming down his face.

"Should I go after him?" Adam asked hectically, prepared to follow after Billy.

"No, he'll come back" I replied through the anger in my mind.

"Sam. He has a broken arm. It's in a sling. He could hurt himself!"

"Seriously Adam, just leave him!"

I then left the room and headed back to my office, where I closed the door behind me, took a seat at my desk and wacked my head onto the table.

Why did Billy have to be like this? Why couldn't he just be a normal thirteen year old who obeyed their elders?

All of a sudden my phone began to ring. I quickly sat up in my seat, cleared my throat and answered the call.

"Hello?........ Oh........ Right........ Okay....... I see......... Well, thanks for getting in touch.......... No......... Alright........ Goodbye."

I slammed my phone down onto the desk and began to cry tears of sorrow. Tears rushed down my face and wouldn't stop. Ever so quickly, I rushed out into the corridor and found Adam leaning up against the wall. I scampered up towards him and he looked at me with worried eyes.

"Sam? Sam, mate? What is it?" he asked frantically, grabbing hold of my wrist to pull me in close.

"They called me, Adam. It's bad news. I can't believe it. What am I going to do?" I cried, sliding down the wall and landing on the floor.

"Sam. We will find a way around this, okay? I promise you." Adam reached down and pulled me into a hug, in which I cried into his shoulder. "Remember, Billy gets a say, right?"

I nodded my head. "But after this incident, who knows what he'll say.

Adam" I sobbed. "You must go find Billy. Take him to your house. Explain what you must. Please will you do this for me?"

Adam looked at me, sorrow in his eyes, and gently nodded his head before clenching his car keys from his pocket and running out in into the car park; leaving me all alone, sobbing in the corridor.

~Billy's POV~

I noticed I wasn't being followed or chased by anyone, so I slowed down to catch my breath. I found myself at a park, so took a seat on a bench facing the road, with cars slowly driving by. I'd calmed down a lot and was no longer crying, yet I had no idea what I was supposed to do now. I'd left my backpack in Sam's office, so had no food, water, clothes, anything! Except my phone which was always kept safe in my left trouser pocket. I'd even left my blazer at Sam's office, so would start to get chilly soon.

I looked at my phone to notice I'd had a call recieved from an unknown number, yet I chose to dismiss it. I sat on the bench for about an hour, until the sun began to set and the moon arose, causing for a colder scenario. I began to shiver, crossing my arms tightly to keep myself warm. I looked down at my phone again to notice the same unknown number had tried to call me multiple times again. Without a figure of an idea on what to do, I called the number back, hoping it'd help me out in some way.

Adam answered. I was hesitant to speak to him, but decided there was no other way of getting out of this mess. I needed the help. He asked me if I was okay and where I was, then told me he'd be by to pick me up in five minutes.

And funnily enough, five minutes later a car pulled up at the edge of the road with Adam in the driver's seat. I stumbled up from the bench, opened the car door and jumped inside, slamming the door behind me.

"Alright Billy?" Adam asked with a croaky tone in his voice.

I simply shrugged my shoulders and plugged in my seatbelt. I felt very ashamed of what I'd done, yet was more than grateful to Adam for helping me.

"You're going to come round my house Billy. Is that okay?" Adam asked, his eyes on the road.

"Why?" I quickly responded in a panic.

"Just... to... errr... talk" he answered, going slightly red in the face.

"Won't your girlfriend be there, though?" I asked, trying to find an excuse to just go home.

"Oh... errr... she broke up with me a little while ago now" Adam stuttered, looking slightly awkward.

For the rest of the journey to Adam's house neither of us spoke any words. I just watched the world go by out of the window, rethinking everything I'd done.

When we arrived at Adam's house I followed him through the driveway, and watched him open his front door without needing a key, which I found very suspicious. When we entered through the front door, I noticed many bags in the hallway, along with Sam sitting on the steps, with tears in his eyes.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked angrily, extremely confused.

"Billy, come take a seat and we'll explain some things" Adam said shakily, placing his hand on my back and leading me through to his living room, where all three of us took a seat.

"Now something has happened Billy, and you need to be really brave about this" Adam continued, whilst Sam sat with his face in his palms.

"Unfortunately Billy, Sam has lost the rights of your care; meaning, he's no longer your official guardian."

"What?!" I shouted, jumping out of my seat to stare at the both of them. At my immediate reaction, Sam began to sob into his palms.

"But... but... why?" I asked, loosing my breath.

"I know it's a huge shock, Billy. It's been an ongoing thing, and I'm not lying to you one bit when I say Sam hasn't fought and fought so hard. But they've just decided he's not fit to be a guardian with his lifestyle, which is complete and utter crap!" Adam stated.

"Sam?" I whispered, slowly walking over to my brother who still had his face in his palms.

He slowly raised his head up to look up at me, his eyes blotchy red from the tears. Without a second word, I jumped into his arms and hugged him tight, not wanting to let go. Ever. He gripped me tight, snuggling his head into my shoulder, beginning to sob again. Never had I seen Sam like this in my life. I managed not to slip any tears, I wanted to be brave, for Sam.

"Sam, things happen for a reason. That's something we both agree on. Maybe there's a good reason for this. Maybe things will work out." I whispered into his ear.

"I don't want you to go" he sniffled, hugging me tighter than before.

All of a sudden, there was a knock at the door. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Adam get up to answer it. I heard a few mumbles coming from outside the room, then Adam came back into the room followed by a random lady whom I'd never seen before in my life.

"Guys, this is Linda" Adam said. "Linda.... from the orphanage."

Sam and I both looked up quickly to focus our full attention on Linda.

"Hi" she smiled at me. "You must be Billy?"

I hesitantly nodded my head, not trusting this lady one bit. Sam slowly lifted me up from his lap, stood up from the seat and wiped his eyes with his hands.

"What are you here for?" he asked Linda, with a rude expression in his voice.

"I'm actually here to take Billy with me" she admitted in a clear voice, no hints of sympathy at all.

"No! Please don't!" Sam roared, pulling me towards him and placing his arms round my shoulders. "I can't let you take him! I've done nothing wrong! I take good care of Billy!"

"Mister Chespin, I'm sorry but there's no other option now" Linda stated, calmly.

"I know what you people are like!" Sam continued to shout. "The more children you take, the more money you make! You sick-minded freaks!!"

"Sam, mate, calm down" Adam muttered, walking over to Sam and rubbing his back.

"No! This is bullshit!" Sam yelled.

"I'm sorry Mister Chespin. Billy, are you ready to go?" Linda said.

"No he's not! Billy doesn't want to go! Do you Billy?" Sam shouted again.

"I don't want to go, no. But maybe it won't be so bad" I admitted, looking up at Sam then slowly walking over to Linda. "Sam, I don't want to leave you. Not one bit. But there's no other way this will get resolved, I might as well just go."

Sam burst into tears once more, then ran towards me and pulled me in to a tight hug.

"I love you so much Billy!"

"I love you too Sam."