10- NEVER: HAS HE REMEMBERED ME?

ETHAN'S POV

"Do not be a coward, Reed. Hit him." Alejandro stands outside the ring, smirking; his body and lips are smeared with blood.

He licks the blood away and raises his brow at me in mockery.

I look at the man in front of me. He looks seven feet tall. He is huge and dripping with sweat. Urging me to fight him. He takes one step forward, and I take three backward. I am trembling. I am unable to breath. I am going to die today.

" Kill the mother fucker Reed or do you want to be a coward? You know what I do to cowards, don't you?"

My breath hitches as I observe a man saturated in blood, his upper nude body covered with bruises from Alejandro wiping him with a metal rod. Leonardo is dragging him away by his feet. Leonardo has fear in his eyes.

His hands are shaking but his face is—

I feel a hard punch across my face, and I collapse to the ground. I can hear people yelling and chanting 'coward' as I battle to keep my eyes open. I see the huge man I'm supposed to spar with before me. He is smiling and scoffing. I am bleeding and dying.

He looks down at me, and suddenly, he looks like my Calculus teacher. " Wake up boy, you are supposed to be in class."

Huh? 

" Ethan Reed!" 

My head snaps up from my desk when Mrs. Calculus's teacher shouts my name. I promised myself to make her name stick in my head since I was finally going to be great at her subject, but I kept forgetting. I do not know what is wrong with me. I do not know if I am normal again. 

I do not know if I am locked up in some sort of sleeping machine where I am dreaming and thinking I am alive, but I am actually dead, and I cannot breathe.

I cannot breathe. I cannot breathe. I need oxygen. I do not think it is oxygen I actually need, maybe something, just something. I just need to get out of here. Out of my mind. 

I want to cry. I want to scream. God, what is wrong with me?

" Your test results?" She looks impressed for some reason and then walks to the next person beside me.

I then realize I have been sitting straight and stiff and screaming in my head for ten seconds.

I run a hand through my hair and take the test paper. I look at it and I find myself surprised.

Twenty out of a hundred. 

I check the name on the paper and it says Ethan Reed. I got up to a twenty! I have never scored two digits before. I do not know how to feel. 

I look at the chair Violet usually sits in but it is empty. Even though she tells everyone it is because of her dog she is not coming to school, I know that is untrue. 

At this moment, I miss seeing her in school. I miss watching her through my side eyes walking into the class with that smile on her face. I miss listening to the way she breathes. The way she speaks to her friends. The sounds she makes when she is thinking about something.

" I got a hundred; what about you, Ethan?" Ashton asks grinning at me.

I show him my paper, and his eyes widens. He snatches the paper and scrutinizes it with his mouth hung open.

" This is... Ethan, I'm so proud of you!" He wraps his an arm around my shoulder and leans close to my ear. " Just one day and Violet's handling you pretty well, right?"

" Did I just hear you say Violet?" Someone says from behind. 

I do not move. I do not look back. 

"Ash, you should keep away from that freak; he is starting to rub off on you." Another person says.

Ashton says nothing again. He pulls his arm off me and settles back into his chair. He says nothing throughout the class and I am left in my thoughts again.

I have three hours left before I see Violet. Time is moving slowly and it kills me. 

When Calculus period is over, I turn to look at Ashton but he's talking to the girls that I think are Violet's friends. I understand that popularity is more important than friendship.

I walk down the hallway to my locker. My fists are clenched by my sides. My shoulders are taut. My eyes are looking at the ground. I listen to the murmurs of the students passing by.

I feel their eyes on me. I can hear them whispering things to themselves. 

" Beast!"

" Did you see what he did to Jacob's face?"

" Why is he still in this school?"

" Someone like him should be in hell, he doesn't fit in this world."

I stay in the library for the rest of the day. I stay by the window because it's my favorite spot. I can look outside and think. I can stare into the horizon and just dream of when life used to be... normal and good.

I can just sit here and imagine what the world used to be. Even though I never appreciated it, I want it back. I want it all back.

I sit straight when I see someone standing in front of the school gate. He is wearing a brown coat, his hands are in his pocket, and he is looking at me. He looks like me.

I rise up so fast that I smack my head against the wall in front of me, which I had forgotten about. 

Dad?

Has he finally remembered me? Has he come to see me? Everyone was wrong, he's alive. He's living!

I am overcome with happiness that I run out of the library. The bruises on my body hurt a lot worse when I run, but I do not care. I have to see him. I have to speak to him. It has been so long. So long. Very long.

He is still standing by the gate when I push open the entrance door. His back is facing me this time. 

I am wheezing and trying my best to laugh. The pain is unbearable but I have been through worse this nine years without him.

" Dad." I shout as I limp towards him.

People are staring at me like I have gone insane but I do not stop running till I am a good foot from him.

My legs are ten thousand pounds of steel and I cannot move again. I did not move because suddenly, the lamp looked strange.

I have been in my head for twenty seconds again as I am standing in front of Violet's house and staring at the bungalow while holding my bicycle.

Violet walks out the front door, and her aunt follows suit. Her aunt says something to me and I nod even though I have no clue what she is talking about. She speaks to Violet and then goes back into the house.

Violet is looking at me. I do not know if she's blushing or if it is just the heat from the radiation that makes her cheeks so red. I do not know if it is just me but she looks extra beautiful every day. 

She is smiling now. I can feel something crawling in my stomach.

" Hello to you too Ethan."