Radioactive - Book 1: Birth 🪼

Fifty One

Matt

"Oh my lord! What happened?!" Mom yelled as we walked into the hospital room.

Ramey's face was bruised and swollen, his eyes barely visible and probably made it hard to see. He had his arm in a sling and wrapped close to his chest to restrict movement. He tried to give this sad excuse of a smile that was really piss poor.

"I got into a fight with Girvan."

"How bad of a fight? Oh my god..." she said as she touched his face softly.

I moved out of the room and saw Dad talking to Girvan's mom. They were having a pretty intense discussion. I walked past them into Girvan's room. He was in the hospital bed crying his eyes out, his face almost as swollen as R's. He looked as beat up as my brother, which at least let me know that R fought back. I looked around the room and saw that one of the machines had a scan of a small bean with little nubs in a black bubble. I knew it was a baby... Was Girvan pregnant?

"Matt?" I looked over at him. "What are you doing here?"

"Wondering if R took it all or fought back. Looks like he tried but you still won."

Girvan looked away. "I didn't mean to..."

"How can you say that? You're the one who did it. You could have stopped yourself."

"Don't you think I would have if I really could?"

"Did you really want to though?" Girvan frowned. "He can't see because his eyes are so swollen. If you wanted to you, you wouldn't have hurt him so bad."

"You weren't there."

"I didn't have to be to see the damage you caused. I hate your friggin guts... You're a bad person, Girvan."

"I know..." he said, his eyes starting to tear up. "I know and I don't know why."

"I don't believe you and I never will."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I wake up with a gasp, looking out the window of the car. We're going average speed, so it seems; probably not to alert the police. The windshield wipers are going and I see it's raining. I look over at R and watch him for a moment. He's squinting to see through the rain and I watch him. He looks so normal, so... okay. No one would have ever known the pain and suffering he went through. He looks like a normal kid.

"You okay now?" he says with a glance to me. "You fell asleep almost immediately. Are you sick?"

"No."

"Are you over whatever issue you had with Girvan?"

"Fuck no."

"Mouth."

"Who cares? We don't have any parents anymore, so what's the point?"

"At least try to be civil... About Girvan-"

"I hate that bastard and you can't make me think otherwise."

"Why?"

"You know why. You heard us talking. I'm not repeating myself."

"I've already forgiven him; it wasn't even his fault."

"Oh. My. God! You're a fucking idiot! How can you just dismiss all the pain and suffering he put you through?" R starts to try and talk but I interrupt him. "No, let me rephrase that. I get why and how but you never seem to understand how everyone else has to see you suffer. You forgive and give of yourself to everyone, giving the benefit of the doubt to everyone and yet you don't care what it does to you! You're annoyingly selfless and it's a stupid redeeming quality."