Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2001 06:47:15 -0700
From: Alex Bright <adisoc007@msn.com>
Subject: Broken Facades Chapter 24

Broken Facades
By Alex Bright
Chapter 24
Fasten Your Seatbelts


Brad

As I ran out of the bathroom I felt like I was going to throw up and pass
out. When I went outside I quickly rushed over to the side of the building
and lost my lunch in the grass. I fell to my knees, the floodgates suddenly
opened. For three years ... three years ... I had to deal with the pushing,
the glances, the whispering, and lately the physical abuse. And why?
Because of a rumor started by my best friend, someone I thought cared about
me. How could he, I wondered. Suddenly I started to feel dizzy, then
darkness.

"Brad, Brad...Brad, sweetheart. Please wake up!"

"Alisa..." I called out as I opened my eyes to find her holding my hand in
a dimly lit room. I was lying on a bed.

"Brad, Oh my god, thank god you're awake." Her eyes were red from crying.

"Alisa? Oh Alisa," I said as I tried to get up to hug her. Suddenly
everything started spinning followed by a sharp pain in the back of my
head.  "Ouch," I said as I grabbed my head and fell back onto the bed.
"Alisa what happened? Where am I?"

"What happened? You don't remember? Brad, you passed out in front my 5th
period building and the school called the paramedics. We're at St. Luke's
Hospital. Your mom and dad are on the way. We were so worried."

"My head is still spinning. How long have I been laying here?" I asked as I
reached for her while trying to get up.

"For about almost an hour. No, don't move," Alisa said as she got up and
called for the Doctor and Alex. "He's awake everybody .. he's awake." A
Doctor and a nurse quickly entered the room followed by Alex.

"Hey sleepy bear," Alex said as he walked over to me and grabbed my
hand. "I told you he'd be ok," He said to Alisa as I looked at him. His
eyes were red too.

Looking over at Alex and Alisa I could see the concern on their faces as
clear as day. After 15 minutes, 15 tiresome minutes of being poked and
prodded I started to become impatient. I could feel my anger returning as
the doctor and nurse continued their examination of me.

"Well everything seems to check out ok."

"Good, so can I get the hell out of here then?" I asked with a slightly
irritated tone in my voice.

"Wait a second champ, I would like to hold you overnight for observation,"
The doctor said, trying to lighten the mood when he saw that I was becoming
upset.

"Ah man...Great! There goes the game and the dance," Alex said looking very
disappointed.

"Good, I don't want to go anyway." Alisa and Alex looked at me then each
other, puzzled but not saying anything. I could feel my anger starting to
return "Thanks, but no thanks on the overnight," still with a tone of
irritation in my voice. I started to get out of bed

"Whoa there champ! I think the reason you passed out was due to some sort
of anxiety attack brought on by stress."



Now the champ thing was starting to piss me off. "And you had to go to
school to make that brilliant observation?" I asked as I started looking
for my clothes

"I think you may also have a slight concussion," He said. He could now tell
that I was a little past upset.

"Oh goodie," I said to him, still searching for my things. "Where the hell
are my clothes and can someone get this fucking thing out of my arm?"
Alisa's and Alex's mouths were now wide open. They couldn't understand why
I was so upset

"Brad, can I call you Brad?" the doctor asked, realizing how upset I was.

"What you can call me is a wheelchair so I can get the hell out of here," I
yelled while trying to put on my pants.

"Did anything happen to upset you today?" he asked.

"Gosh Doc, what makes ya think that?" I yelled again.

"Bradley, what is wrong with you? He's just trying to help you," Alisa said
as she walked over to try to calm me down.

"Yea buddy, and I thought I needed help with my anger. Bear just breathe,
buddy," Alex said, smiling at me trying to calm me down.

"Well I just want to get the hell out of here and be alone with my
girlfriend! Is that too much to ask for?" I asked him. As I reached for
Alisa's hand I could feel the tears forming.

"You know what? I see that you're upset and I don't think I am helping the
matter," the doctor said gently.

"Ya think?" I said sarcastically, cutting him off.

"So, I'll just wait until your parents arrive and talk to them," he said as
he walked out of the room.

"Bradley you're being an asshole," Alisa said as she let go of my hand

"Dude you're really pissed for some reason," Alex said as he started to
laugh. "Remind me never to piss you off."

"Alex, this isn't funny," Alisa said, now starting to get upset
herself. "Sweetie, why don't you want to go to the game or the dance?"

"Yea, I mean Justin ..." Alex started to say, but I cut him off.

"Don't you ever mention his name to me again! Fuck Justin! He's the one who
started the rumor!"

"He what?" Alex stammered, looking like he suddenly felt ill.

Alisa

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!" was all I could say as I looked at
Alex. He looked like he was about to pass out. No wonder Brad was so
upset. I started to walk over to Alex and try to keep him from either
falling down or running out of the hospital room to find Justin "Oh my god,
how did you find out?"

"I overheard him and Tony in the bathroom," he said as tears started
rolling out of his eyes. I could see his anger reaching its peak because
with his tears came no wails.

Then I slipped. "You weren't supposed to find out....Shit!" I said as I
closed my eyes, knowing that I had just messed up. Alex then snapped out of
his trance and now grabbed me.

"Alisa?" Alex said quietly looking shocked.

"You...you knew?" Brad asked as he grabbed the IV and pulled it out of his
arm. He started to slowly walk over to me. I could see his tears stop
suddenly.

"Alisa, you knew...how?" Alex asked as he started to loosen his grip on me.

"I...I found out three days ago," then my tears started "I went to ask
Justin if he had talked to you lately and that I wanted to talk to you. He
got upset after I wouldn't tell him what I wanted to talk to you about. We
argued about why we all broke up. He said something about me running away
and turning my back on my friends, and me being the reason why we broke
up." By now I was fully in tears and crying.

"I got angry with what he said about me and called him a hypocrite. I told
him that I unlike him I would never have outed my best or turned my back on
him when he needed me. He asked me what was that supposed to mean. I told
him that I knew that he was the one who started the rumor about you...I had
realized for the past few months that I missed you so much. I just wanted
to find out the truth, just ask you if it were true. Because I loved you, I
always have loved you, ever since we were little."

"Alisa you knew and didn't tell us?" Alex asked.

"I know, but I saw how it upset not only you and Brad were, but was Justin
too." Alex then let me go and started to walk to the door but I got in
front of him "Alex please." I said crying "Justin is so sorry, and now that
we're back together everyone is happy. Look at yourself. Do you want to
throw all that away?"

"Alisa move...please," Alex said flatly.

"No Alex, I'm not going to, not until you remember the promise you
made. Remember the promise to all of us, to me, to Brad, to Justin?"

"FUCK JUSTIN! FUCK THE PROMISE!" then Alex got real quiet "It's just a
piece of plaster Alisa," he said with tears rolling down his cheek.

"What are you going to do Alex? Go and beat the shit out of Justin? Your
best friend?" I asked as I stepped close to him then started to hit him,
all the while crying. I hit him over and over, then finally quit and pulled
him into a hug.

"Alisa don't," Alex said as he stepped away from me. "Right now I ...I..."

"Alex, please," I begged him, but he gently moved me to the side and walked
out the door. I turned around to face the music with Brad. As I turned I
saw the blood on his arm from where he pulled out the IV. I reached out to
him, I needed to feel him to show him that I loved him, I knew that if I
could just touch him everything would be ok, as I was just about to touch
his face he jerked away from me and turned around.

"Alisa, I don't really want to be around you right now," he said with his
back to me, and then started to walk back to his bed.

"I said I was sorry!" I yelled, "Why can't you forgive me?" When he reached
the hospital bed he crawled in and laid down with his back to me.

"Alisa, pleases leave," he said. I could hear the pain in his voice.

"Ok...I'll leave," I told him quietly, still crying. "But I want you to
know that I'll be waiting for you. If I have to wait another 3 years I
will, because I love you Bradley Theodore James Westrick, I love you." As I
started to walk out, Brads parents came rushing in.

Brad

"I love you too." I said in a whisper

"Alisa, what happened? Why are you crying? Where's bear... where's Brad?"
my mother asked hysterically as she and my father entered my room.

"He's ok, he's...going to be ok.," I heard her say as I turned around just
in time to see her run away, leaving my parents with puzzled looks on their
faces.

"Bradley....Bear," my father and Mother called out to me as they approached
the bed that I was laying on.

"Mommy! Daddy!" I returned their call and reached for their arms, crying
like a baby.

Justin

The walk to my car was the longest walk I had ever made. My mind, my body
ached, but not from being hit. The pain was from everything being numb; my
whole world had just been ripped from me. I still had the ice pack in my
hand and started to place it on my face, taking a quick glance in my side
mirror to check the damage to my face, when suddenly Alex was behind me.

"Alex," I said quietly as I turned around, his eyes telling me he
knew. Without him saying a word I saw the disappointment and betrayal in
his eyes.

"Alex, please let me explain," but before I could say anything else he
started yelling.

"Explain?" He said sarcastically as he stepped up close and grabbed me by
my shirt with both hands, shaking me and pushing me against my car. "You
want to explain to me? How are you going to explain to me? Better yet how
are you going to explain to Brad why you, his best friend, would tell
everyone in school that he was gay? This I gotta hear,"

"Explain to me how a person, a person that you love more than a brother,
could start a rumor like that. A rumor that not only alienated him from
everyone, but also caused him to get picked on and beat up by every asshole
in school." I tried to look away but couldn't. I saw the tears welling up
in Alex's eyes.

"Alex I'm sorry. I didn't mean for Bear to get hurt."

"Shut up! Don't you ever call him that again; only his friends can call him
that! Look at the pain that you caused us Justin. What would have happened
if Brad couldn't take all the abuse? What if he tried to kill himself
because he wasn't strong enough to take the beatings and the verbal abuse?"

"I'm sorry," I said. I started to cry after I realized what Alex said could
have happened.

"You're sorry." He said now crying, "Hey everybody, he's sorry," he said,
letting go of me and looking around and yelling in the parking lot. "He's
sorry, so I guess now everything is ok now. The great Justin Kemper is
sorry and we can just go back to being friends again, right Just? Well
Justin, it doesn't work like that. You fucked up big time, and that's not
even the best part. Not only did you put another dagger into Brad's back,
but you also managed to rip his heart out by dragging Alisa into your
little lie. I guess you didn't care that by asking her to not say anything
when we found out it would caused another separation, but I guess that you
wanted that all along. You ...Never ...Cared!"

"That's not true," I said with tears streaming down my face. I grabbed his
arm and tried to look into his eyes and show him how much I was hurting. "I
only need you listen to me and then let me talk to Brad to clear
everything..."

"I don't want to hear it," he said as he pulled away from me "The only
thing you need to do is stay away from Brad, Alisa and me," he said as he
leaned up close to my face. I could see the hate building in his eyes.

"Alex, please?" I said as I tried to reach for him, only to have him pull
away from me.

"No, it's over. You stay away from us or so help me god....Justin, so help
me god! " he said. Then he turned around and ran out of my life.