I shifted uncomfortably in my seat as I listened to the half of Uncle Blaze's conversation that I could hear. It wasn't that I wanted to listen, but delaying hearing the news wouldn't do me any good. Might as well rip off the bandage fast and all that. There was no hope in me that the news could turn out to be good. Uncle Blaze wasn't trying in the slightest to hide the stress in his expression. He knew I was there, but at the same time he was so intently talking to Uncle Eden that it felt like he had forgotten about my presence anyway.
"What about that experimental stuff they gave her before? The first time she had it?" Uncle Blaze asked, daring to sound optimistic.
That optimism soon crashed as Uncle Eden denied whatever Uncle Blaze was hoping to get from the suggestion. He went back to mumbling out more "Mmms", "Yeahs", and dismal "Okays." I was sick of hearing them, for I just wanted to know the truth. An idea of what was going on had already formed in my head. It wasn't a difficult deduction to make given how Uncle Eden had rushed mom to the hospital with symptoms of a familiar illness she had gotten from time to time. Finally, another minute later, Uncle Blaze confirmed the basics of what I imagined. The phone call was ended, and he turned to me with a sigh.
"It's pneumonia."
My sighed matched his, and we both looked at each other sadly.
"They can do something about it though, right? This isn't exactly the first time mom's had pneumonia, so surely they know exactly how to deal with it?" I pondered.
"I wish that was the case. It feels as if they have to come up with a new solution each time for how to make it go away. Old medicines seem to stop working, and it's like the illness gets stronger every time it occurs. Ethereal being pregnant severely complicates things further as well." Uncle Blaze revealed grimly.
"The pneumonia could hurt the baby?" I asked reluctantly.
"Yes, and in a very bad way. It could trigger an early labor- not to mention how it could also encourage deformities even at this later stage. If the situation isn't watched closely, the poor thing could come out with all sorts of crippling disabilities given how intense Ethereal's pneumonia can get."
"But there has to be something they can do." I repeated desperately.
"They're considering all the options. The doctors have gotten Ethereal's fever and other symptoms to stabilize for the moment, so we have a bit of breathing room. The best we can hope for is that the safe medicines that won't hurt the baby will do the job, because the situation will otherwise get even worse from there."
"You're not saying the baby might die, are you?"
The question filled with dread slowly rolled off my tongue.
"It's not like that's not a possibility, but it's a highly unlikely outcome, thankfully. I meant more along the lines of them actually having to force an early labor or simply risking some damage being done in order to guarantee both of them making it out of this."
That was not the kind of news I needed that day. It had been frustrating enough seeing all my efforts to help mom had been useless. She kept getting sick again after the holidays, and she followed a downward spiral path since then. There had been a few days after another stay in the hospital where things were looking up, but then the gagged coughing starting. Specks of blood flew out of mom's mouth during a coughing fit that left her unable to breath. That had been when Uncle Eden took her down to see her doctor, and Uncle Blaze let me know that the hospital was where mom was going to have to remain for the vast majority of her pregnancy. It was a safer environment for her even if the pneumonia went away without problems.
After sulking for a minute downstairs, I shuffled up to my room. I was exhausted without being tired, and part of me wanted to rip all my books of my shelves while the other part just wanted to sink into the floor and a dazed unconsciousness. I ended up pretty much going with that second option. Being able to at least make it to the couch, I closed my eyes and rested as a buzzing overtook my head. My life was now seeing it fit to counter the great first ten years I had had with unceasing turmoil. None of us could catch a break anywhere, and those burdening feelings of grief and pity I felt back towards when dad originally disappeared were beginning to seep into my chest once more.
I sucked in a sharp inhale when I found that something was seeping out of me too. My eyes were growing wet, and tiniest of tears welled up on my lashes. My chest was tightening while my heart began racing before I could realize what was happening. Despite knowing that having another good cry was well within reason for my situation, I fought the surge of emotions. I feared that if I started to cry that a sobbing mess was all I would be for a long while to come. Uncle Blaze and the other adults had so much stress to deal with already. I didn't want them to worry more than necessary over a simple cry session of mine. They would probably make the problem to be a bigger matter than it really was. I wasn't in the mood to try and convince them I wasn't that down that I needed to see a therapist or something.
Fighting a real battle with my tears, I was more than glad when my phone suddenly began to ring. The caller ID showed the call coming from Uncle Eden's house, so I assumed it was either Hunter or Rosemary.
"Hey, Coal. Are you free?" Rosemary asked, "Or have you gotten that cold that's passing around like everyone else has got?"
"No, I'm good."
"Would you be interested in coming over and doing something then?" she requested.
"Sure. I need something to do." I agreed.
Rosemary was not kidding when she said that everyone had a cold. This seemed like this was one of those winters where something was going around and avoiding catching it was next to impossible. All of my siblings and all of my friends were in bed recovering from the nasty sickness.
The end of January weather wasn't too bad. Snow naturally remained on the ground, but the temperatures had spiked in the past few days. It was warm, but still cold enough for winter coats and the like. Thankfully, I was able to ride my bike to Rosemary's house though. Walking wouldn't have been that bad on the way there, but it would have become quite the chore once I heard what Rosemary wanted to do.
"You really want to talk a walk all the way into the city, especially when it's so foggy? I'm okay with a walk in general, but that's really far." I pointed out with a small grimace.
"We could find something fun to do in the city though. There's nothing exciting open in this area, and we don't want to stay in the house with mom and Hunter sneezing up a storm." Rosemary countered.
"If you want to go to the city that badly, we could find someone to give us a ride. I know Aunt Lia and Aunt Sunflower at least aren't sick. Heck, we could even just get a taxi or take this bus." I suggested.
"I'd really rather walk. Please, Coal? I want...to talk to you and stuff too."
Rosemary's voice softened, and she looked so solemnly eager that I was left with no choice.
"Alright." I caved.
Rosemary immediately brightened up. She smiled a great smile and practically jumped for joy. I was barely given the chance to lock my bike on their rack before she grabbed my hand to lead me onwards. I would have also suggested we ride my bike to the city instead, but that would still be a long journey. I was bound to get exhausted with Rosemary's extra weight, and lugging the bike around on the streets was a headache I didn't want. So, walking it was. Rosemary's giddy attitude continued on for three blocks until I started conversation between us.
"What did you want to talk about?" I wondered.
The smile slid off Rosemary's face, although she didn't grow despondent. She let out a little exhale and tried to hold her head high.
"I mostly wanted company. The trial is exactly one week away now." she responded.
"Getting a little nervous?"
I wasn't shocked in the slightest this was what had come up. The moment of reckoning was truly almost here. In a week's time we would be finding out where the court thought Rosemary belonged for good. It had been what Uncle Eden had come to vent about to mom until her growing immensely more sick prompted them towards the hospital.
"More than a little, definitely," Rosemary chuckled slightly, "But, I'm not so nervous about the outcome. I'm more concerned about the proceedings of the trial itself. I don't want to mess anything up, but I'll be getting a law guardian who should prevent me from saying anything stupid that could work things in the wrong direction."
"What a law guardian?"
"It's an attorney who's going to barter on my behalf. The one I'm getting will be coming around tomorrow to speak to me. I get to tell him what I want and where I think I belong, and he'll interview mom and dad in order to get to know them better. He'll relay my wishes in court, and since I'm younger than thirteen he'll throw in his own unbiased decision on what he thinks is the best decision based on what he's learned about both parties. Given how much of a mess my birth mom made, I'm sure he'll side with mom and dad keeping me."
"That's good then." I nodded.
The two of us kept on walking, and Rosemary kept right on talking about the case and all its intricate details. I didn't mind too much at first, but as the minutes passed I found my head hurting. The more I fought off the pain, the harder it pressed against the inside of my skull to burn with a vengeance. I wanted to support Rosemary. I couldn't imagine how hard it was to be in her position. I didn't know if I would be able to handle it as well as she was handling it. However, those minutes kept on going with her talking about nothing else but what would be happening in a week.
"I...I really don't know what to do about my birth dad," Rosemary continued the revelation she had just admitted to about being interested about him, "I don't care about my birth mom. I don't want to see her again. I really don't. Yet, my birth dad...from what I've seen he doesn't seem to be doing this for the wrong reasons. He does seem to genuinely care. I can't help but feel as if there was something more to why he wasn't around before. Of course I don't want to leave, but...I wouldn't mind at least getting to know him more. Maybe I do want him to be part of my life. On the other hand, the last thing I want to do is upset mom and dad. I don't want them to feel as if they have to compete with him, and I don't dare try to talk about it to them now on the chance it could sway the case. I seriously wonder what I should do."
She wasn't expecting an answer. Not at that moment anyway. Rosemary was kind of rambling quite a bit. She was speaking everything on her mind aloud just to get the thoughts out. Even if I did respond, she went right back to what she wanted to say. That was how it went when I tried to change the topic as well. I had thought hanging out with Rosemary and having fun would be a good way to have us distracted from our troubles. Not only was she burying me with the weight of hers, Rosemary constantly mentioning Uncle Eden made it impossible for me to forget about mom and how her condition could turn dire in a split second.
I wish I could say I dealt with the complication maturely and rationally, but that surge of emotions I held back before returned to bite me. My headache was stinging, my frustration at everything was mounting, and twenty minutes of non-stop venting from Rosemary in the cold snow was not the medicine I needed, especially when I couldn't get a word in edge-wise. Finally approaching the city, the hypothetical question she had been asking for a while turned into an actual question.
"I'm seriously at a loss for what to do. Mom and dad have told me to be honest with them, but I have a feeling this wasn't what they was talking about. Should I tell them now? Should I tell them later? Should I tell them at all? Coal, what should I do?"
"I think you should feel lucky." I snapped bitterly.
Rosemary, who hadn't noticed I had stopped walking and was already several feet behind her, slowed before stopping and turning in confusion at the unanticipated harshness of the comment. It was clear from the expression on her face that she thought I was making a joke she simply wasn't getting.
A frown of even deeper confusion settled on her when it sank in that I wasn't joking and that the glare I was sending the ground was real.
"What?" Rosemary questioned in her uncertainty.
"I said that you should feel lucky," I continued in the same sharp, tart tone, "Your birth mother might be a piece of work, but you've got two dads and a mom fighting tooth and nail because they want you so desperately. You have all those people caring about you. A lot of kids would give anything to have one person in their life like that, and you're complaining about having three of them."
Glaring even deeper down to my side, I felt like running away. My last words had quivered as my throat had grown tight. I grew dizzy as my head pounded, and I didn't dare try to see what expression Rosemary wore now as that wetness of my eyes from before returned. I inhaled and held my breath so she couldn't hear how it shook. Each second that passed was one second too long. Rosemary simply needed to rebuke me like she should so I could have an excuse to leave. However, she did not see it fit to do that.
"Coal, what's wrong?" Rosemary asked with true concern instead, having the intuition to see past my cold exterior.
"I guess you haven't heard where your dad's at now," the words, now saddened more than angry, rolled off my tongue instantly, "He had to rush mom to the hospital. She was coughing so hard blood was coming up. The doctors diagnosed her with pneumonia. They're saying she probably won't be able to come home until after the baby is born- if it's ever born at all. There is the slight possibility of it dying. It becoming disabled or crippled is the more likely result if the pneumonia doesn't go away quickly enough. Even if it escapes all that, Uncle Blaze was hinting at the fact that it'll have to be born pre-mature no matter what, and that risks hurting it too."
More stiff silence followed, and I was glad when Rosemary broke it quickly.
"I'm sorry," Rosemary apologized, and when it was accompanied by a somber chuckle I finally glanced her way again, "I keep talking to you about my problems because you've been so good at understanding, but I forget that you have your own hard battle to fight. I'm really sorry to hear about your mom. That's not what any of you needed to happen right now. I don't know if I can help, but I'll do what I can."
"I just want to forget about it all for a while," I mumbled guiltily, "My mind's going crazy since I can't stop thinking about it. I want to be distracted."
"Let's stop talking about both our worries then and do something fun. Being distracted sounds good to me too." Rosemary, chipper as I probably wouldn't have been if I was in her position, said as she once more took my hand to get us moving again.
I was able to apologize a few minutes later, although Rosemary insisted she didn't need one. She could understand the weight of my burden thanks to the weight of hers, and she also revealed with a sheepish smile that the reason none of us had seen her snap like I had was because she had been saving that solely for Hunter, the trooper that he was. My mood perked up as our conversation was able to turn more light-hearted by poking fun at ourselves. I did manage to forget about my troubles somewhat as well when we reached the activity center. Rosemary and I snatched a lane at the bowling alley upstairs, and from then on pretty much all I heard was her making even more fun of me.
"I forgot how terrible you were!" she laughed unnecessarily loud as I only managed to knock two pins over on my first frame.
"S-shut up," I grumbled in embarrassment, "I can't be amazing at everything, you know."
"That doesn't mean you have to suck so badly." she bantered back.
"You do better then!" I huffed back, folding my arms and stepping back to let her take her turn.
I stood there feeling both confident and worried. Rosemary surely couldn't be that good. But, what if she was? She didn't look as if she was going into it.
"Why on earth are you carrying it like that? You got the lightest ball." I remarked as she walked with her ball as if it was a hundred pound bomb that would go off at the slightest touch.
"I know what I'm doing, two-pinner." Rosemary jibbed.
That was all I could get out of her. I attempted to break her concentration by teasingly mocking her, especially when she placed the ball down at her feet to roll it like a toddler would.
Quite honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect. Things were definitely going to go one way or the other. Unfortunately, Rosemary's bowl did not work in my favor. She pushed her ball forward with a determined shove. It rolled straight with surprising speed before curving at the last second to hit the pins at that perfect sweet spot. I held my breath in reluctant anticipation while Rosemary held hers in excited anticipation as the one pin left standing teetered to and fro. My prayers that it would hold quickly went unanswered. Another pin still slowly rolling towards the back bumped it just enough to give Rosemary a strike on her first try. She jumped, arms raised, with a cheer.
"Did I show you, or what?" she taunted with a wicked grin.
"Now you're going to have to keep doing that to prove it wasn't just luck." I argued back.
Sadly, I could not speak when the game was over. Rosemary got three more strikes and almost the rest of her frames were spares. My score...was thirteen.
Rosemary felt so bad for me that she offered to get me a loser's snack. Having no reason to object to that, we returned our balls to the rack and merrily chatted as we made our way to the cafe on the first floor. We would never make it there though. Spotting someone outside the window, and our own curiosity, got us caught up in something we shouldn't have gotten involved in. Rosemary was ahead of me on the stairs. I nearly walked right into her when she suddenly stopped.
"Oh, Mal." I said in observation when I mirrored my cousin's gaze out the window.
Malachite was indeed walking by, and he trudged forward with such determination it was clear he was on a mission.
"He's going to cause trouble again." Rosemary revealed in frustration.
"Yeah?"
"He said that he was going to be hanging out with Cyclone all day. The fact that he appears to be alone here in the city must mean that he was lying."
"He definitely was. Cy is just as sick as Azure is." I told her.
"Mind if we run after him? If we have the chance to catch up to him before he gets away, why not take it?" Rosemary suggested.
"Let's go then. I'd like to give him a piece of my mind. I still can't believe he's making so much trouble with your case right upon us." I agreed eagerly.
Unfortunately, Malachite was a speedy one. He didn't notice us following him, but he moved and occasionally jogged down the sidewalks as if he knew someone was after him. Rosemary and I desperately tried to catch up. However, he would turn a corner and seemingly teleport a ridiculous distance away before we could even get close to the same corner. Our long walk and the energetic game of bowling tired us out, so our attempts at running to shorten the distance didn't amount to much. All the two of us could do was barely keep Malachite in sight as he unknowingly led us to a remote and rather deserted section of the city.
Another turn around the corner had us completely losing Malachite. We wondered if he had slipped through one of the doors or gone into one of the shops as Rosemary and I hesitantly searched street after street and corner after corner and found nothing. The idea that Malachite had caught onto us and knew how to give us the slip was settling into our minds when, defeated, we walked down one particular street to find a bus stop only to hear rough shouting and laughing in the distance instead. Rosemary and I glanced at each other as we knew it was better to avoid such sounds in the city. That is, we were planning on avoiding the commotion until we heard Malachite's voice in the mix. Well, it wasn't him exactly talking as it was him letting out pained grunts. A frightened Rosemary clung onto the back of my shirt as we timidly peeked around the wall where the noises were coming from. Malachite was at the end of an alley that dead-ended, and it was instantly clear he had gotten himself into a pretty bad argument with the three other guys who were there.
"You seriously have some nerve!" the blue and gray boy, who looked to be the leader of the others, laughed condescendingly, "Poor little boy who has a rich family that cares about him thinks he has the worst life in the world! You make up problems in your head just for the sake of saying you have a troubled life, and then you come here all high and mighty acting as if you know how this works! Get cocky with me, and you'll regret it!"
Malachite mumbled something we couldn't hear, and it clearly wasn't any words of subservience given how the purple and yellow guy holding him down slammed a pretty hard punch into his cheek. Rosemary was already shaking, and I couldn't deny that my hands were shaking a bit too as I went to quietly pull my phone out of my pocket to get some help.
However, my fingers fumbled the phone to let it drop right into the snow seconds later. I didn't even bother to hastily pick it up though. My focus snapped to the dark development going on with my cousin and the ones he had gotten in trouble with. The leader apparently did not like whatever Malachite had said. Slowly but smoothly, a gun was pulled out from beneath his jacket. He aimed it Malachite's way, and that was when my hands went useless on me. The blue and gray guy knelt down and tauntingly moved the gun at and away from my cousin's head.
"To shoot or not to shoot," he mocked, "It all depends on how you want this to play out. You spoiled brat can keep playing the tragic tough guy role, or you can beg for forgiveness for trying to tell me what I should do. If your apology is good enough, I'll even let you walk away with no hard feelings. You'll get out of a position in our business that you have no right to be in, and I'll never have to look at your ugly face again."
I held my breath as I waited. Nothing came out of Malachite's mouth. It seemed as if he was trying to say something, but Rosemary and I were too far away to see exactly why he was struggling to get anything out. The passing seconds felt like an eternity, and it must have felt that way to the leader too.
"I'm telling you to apologize now!" he barked, "If you don't want me to blow out your shoulder or worse, then you better start groveling!"
Rosemary failed to grip my coat hard enough when she went to hold me back as I bolted forward. My mind was wondering what the hell I was doing, but my muscles aching to stand still no longer sent me running. The guy holding the gun got dangerously closer to Malachite when he still didn't say anything, and that meant the gun got way closer too. There was no way for me to know what would have happened otherwise, but I was not going to stand by and do nothing on the chance that I could do something to stop my cousin from being severely wounded or even killed. None of the boys noticed me until I barreled into the blue and gray boy with a stomach-turning crunch. He cried out in alarm, surprise, and pain as both of us crashed into the snow. The gun slipped out of his hand, and the shock had him motionless. I, meanwhile, started scrambling to my feet as that would be the only thing to let me keep my slight advantage.
"Coal!?" Malachite remarked in horrified amazement as he registered my abrupt arrival.
Using the brief second I had, I hurriedly motioned for him to do something. The other two boys in the trouble troupe were stunned by my appearance as well, so this was his only chance for trying to regain his footing. Malachite was thankfully smart enough to instantly get the message. His elbow was sent slamming into the purple and yellow guy's cheek. Malachite leapt to his feet as his opponent tried futilely to gain control. However, he was no match for Malachite now that he had an equal chance. That was one person mostly out of the way. I was left to deal with the wrath of the other two.
The older red boy lunged at me. Quite honestly, I have no idea how I dodged him. I spun, bent down, and leapt forward, and I might as well have gone invisible given the look of confusion of his face. Not that that did me much good. The leader, fighting to get a hold on me, missed me as I moved but still got a hit on me anyway when his arm accidentally smacked across my cheek. It stung something terrible, and my nose burned frustratingly warm. The leader shoved me into the snow while I was recovering, and he gave me a good kick to the stomach when I clenched his jacket as I fell to half bring him down with me. He scowled at me viciously, but his attention returned to his purple and yellow companion who was being hit quite hard by Malachite. The leader dug his gun out of the snow, and my heart dropped a thousand miles.
Having trouble breathing and needing to cough a dozen times, I ignored it all as I scrambled to do anything I could. Getting entirely on my feet was next to impossible. However, I was able to get some sort of balance by catching the leader's leg as he rushed forward. Him falling forward, the gun flying out of his hand again, pulled me up. It was only a momentary gain, for my shaking breaths trying to steady themselves had my legs weak and collapsing underneath me as I sunk back into the snow. I regained energy with each deep inhale I took, but I didn't get many of those. The air in my lungs vanished when I heard struggling shrieking.
In my struggle with the blue and gray boy, I had forgotten about the red guy. I had thought things were too simple. Being right was horrible, because he had slipped off to find what I had half forgotten about. The red guy had spotted Rosemary somehow, and he carried her towards the commotion when pulling her along proved too problematic.
"Let me go!" she cried out in terrified anger.
She gave it her all in fighting back against the guy holding her. She kicked, punched, and bit him, and he had an extremely difficult time keeping her under control. Rosemary managed to smack at him enough to allow her to drop to her feet. That led to the red guy burying his hand angrily in her hair and her yelping in pain.
"DON'T TOUCH HER!"
Malachite' roaring belt made everyone jump. The leader had been ganging up on him along with the purple and yellow guy when I hadn't been watching, but having Rosemary literally dragged into the mess changed the whole situation in a split second.
Malachite fought with a crazed rage that terrified even me. It was if he was suddenly an expert in every form of martial arts known to man. He sunk his fist into the two boys closest to him so powerfully and so rapidly that within seconds they were running away in pure fear. The one that got the worst of it was, of course, the guy holding onto Rosemary. Malachite ran after him with a scary, seething passion. The red guy was pummeled, beaten, slammed, kicked, and any other adjective like that you want to use. Malachite kept going after him every time he tried to stand. The two others would be quickly hit down in similar manners if they attempted to help. The result was that all three of them were stuck cowering on the ground having no choice but to crawl further away before Malachite allowed them to stand and run away in terror.
I being stunned still, Malachite walked past me to gently lift the gun out of the snow. He made sure the safety was on before gingerly sinking to his knees as the adrenaline quickly wore off. Fighting the intensity of the situation that determined I remain frozen, my feet dragged as I moved over to him. A cry escaped my lips now when he unexpectedly grabbed me into a tight hug like one he had never held me in before.
"You IDIOT!" the half yelled into my ear, "What the hell did you think you were doing!?"
"Helping! He had a gun pointed right at you! What else was I supposed to do?"
"He was never going to shoot me! It was just a tough act. You made everything a hundred time worse running in and persuading him to actually use it!"
Malachite rebuked me harshly, but he held me even tighter. His heart raced liked it was going to explode, his arms shook, and he held his grip around me as if letting go in the slightest would mean I would disappear forever.
"Seriously, what kind of idiot are you, Coal? Who just jumps into something like that where everyone you're fighting is twice your side?" he continued with a pitiful chuckle, burying his head against my shoulder.
"Mom has always said that I have no sense of self preservation." I answered with a sad, weak laugh of my own.
Malachite let out a weird frustrated but amused sigh, and he slowly let me go. Somehow, I was beginning to feel better when Rosemary lunged forward the second I was out of the way to shove Malachite on his backside.
"What's wrong with you?!" she shouted at him.
She was shaking too, and I swore murder was lurking beneath the venomous glare she sent his way.
"We wouldn't have gotten involved in this if you hadn't started it in the first place! Do you really not care about me?! There's only one week left until the case, and you're getting mixed up in horrible stuff right and left! I didn't want to believe mom and dad when I overheard that they feared you were switching from alcohol to drugs! That better have not been what this was about!"
Malachite couldn't say anything, and he cast his gaze guiltily to the side when I had no choice but to frown at him too hearing that.
Rosemary's scowl deepened, and Malachite turned submissive and sad in a way that was wholly unlike how I ever thought I would see him.
"You're the worst! The absolute worst!" Rosemary raged at him, her yelling voice rough, deep, and dark, "I was trying to be patient with you because I understand the kind of background we came from, but that guy was right- you're nothing but a spoiled, selfish asshole! You have no idea how excited I was when I learned when mom and dad wanted to adopt me that I would be getting older brothers. I had just wanted one, but I would be getting two. You though, you're the exact opposite of everything I wanted! You could very well be the reason why I'm dragged away from the rest of the family I love and shipped off to live with the woman who left me with a man who hated my existence and abused me and beat me because of that! I don't care about you anymore anyway, but if we lose the case because of you then you can count on me hating you for the rest of my life!"
Rosemary's voice rose and fell in pitch as her voice trembled drastically. Bitter tears wet her eyes, and after a second of more furious glancing at Malachite she began angrily kicking snow at him.
"I can't stand you! You're just...seriously worthless!"
When she ran out of snow to kick, Malachite's shin took one deft blow before one final enraged glare was sent his way. Then, without warning, Rosemary turned on her heel and ran out of the alley.
For some reason, I was compelled not to follow right away. I think I was curious as to what Malachite's reaction would be. Having been wearing a somber, calm expression during Rosemary's tirade, he sighed massively and sunk his head into his hand when she was out of sight. None of his typical anger was anywhere to be found. Silence passed between us until he chuckled pitifully again.
"I've really done and done it, haven't I?" he spoke softly.
"Yup. Pretty much." I had to agree.
"I wonder if there's even anything I can do or can get her to help her forgive me this time around," he mumbled miserably, "Any ideas?"
"Well, you're almost eighteen? Why don't you grow up?"
"Yeah. I think that's a good idea," Malachite nodded slowly, "It's...about time I did that. For Mary's sake, and for everyone else's too. I don't want what you warned me of to come true. I don't...want to be alone."
Some sympathy kicking in for him, I ruffled his hair. Malachite laughed a little more then, and he motioned down the alley with his head.
"Go on and hurry after her. You know she's fucking scared out of her mind," he instructed before carefully picking up the gun, "I'll take care of this. Bring it to the police saying I found it or something."
Rosemary hadn't gone too far. She was waiting for me by a fountain and large artistic structure in front of some resort hotel. Pacing rapidly, she launched herself at me when I got close enough. She was crying her eyes out, and I was clenched onto with an iron grip.
"I'm mad at you too!" Rosemary let me know, "You are an idiot! Why would you just toss yourself into something so dangerous like that! I really need you, you know?!"
"I'm sorry," I apologized, petting her hair, "I didn't mean to scare you or get you involved. I'll try not to do anything like it ever again."
"Good! Because...because..." she sniffled, "You definitely have to be there for the case. You have to be."
"I promise I will." I responded whole-heartedly.
Rosemary nodded weakly, and I held her for the long while it took for her to start calming down before we walked hand-in-hand to once more find a bus stop.
And, unfortunately- frustratingly infuriatingly unfortunately, I wasn't able to keep that promise I made. My curiosity about how I managed to escape the bad cold being passed around was satisfied. I wasn't somehow immune to it. I simply caught it at the point when everyone else was recovering from it. My fever was high, it was hard to breath, my nose was entirely clogged, and I had gone through two boxes of tissues before that morning was over. I fell over once as I tried to sneak out, but even with my quivering legs I almost made it to the door.
"Coal! Stop this!" Uncle Blaze rebuked me, this having been the third time I tried to leave for the courthouse on my own.
"I have to go!"
"There's no way you can go being so sick like this. They wouldn't let you in anyway!"
"But, I have-"
"No." Uncle Blaze denied more firmly.
He didn't yank me hard at all when he pulled me back as I made a valiant effort at lunging forward out of his grasp, but my strength was so lacking I completely fell backwards thanks to the force. Uncle Blaze quickly grabbing me to hold me up was the lone reason I didn't plunge entirely to the floor.
"Sorry, kid," he apologized, I think for both making me trip and for having to stop me, "But you know when I called Eden earlier that he said Mary understood why you wouldn't be there."
"But-"
"Coal." Uncle Blaze sighed in exhaustion.
I gave up. My ill body was quickly losing the last of the strength it had, and I also couldn't bother Uncle Blaze any further. He had been banned from seeing mom as the rest of us had been since we were passing the cold around like crazy, and that meant he had been working tirelessly to take care of all of us while trying to send whatever support he could send her way too. I had a feeling Uncle Blaze was beginning to show the symptoms that it would be his turn to battle the cold as well. I let him help me stand again and lead me up the stairs to my room. I dirtied several more tissues with my snot before the medicine I had taken not too long ago finally kicked in. My senses were swept away as I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
It was late afternoon by the time I woke up, and the medicine and the sleep kept my body cooperating long enough for me to escape back down the stairs. Unless something had gone strangely wrong, the case should have been over. Instead of being at the courthouse to support my cousin and her family, I had slept through the whole proceedings. My timing was right on point though. I didn't even have to walk down all the stairs, for Uncle Blaze was pacing about the first floor as he spoke on the phone. I could hear just enough of the voice on the other end to know who it was. It was Uncle Eden.
"Uh-huh. Oh. I see."
Painfully short and uninformative sentences like that were what I had to listen to. It didn't help that the serious expression Uncle Blaze wore wasn't encouraging in the slightest. I gripped onto the stair rail with all my might. My palms sweated so badly, and I held my already limited breath.
"That's how it happened then, huh?" Uncle Blaze finally spoke a proper sentence, and my heart raced when he sent me another glance because I knew the all important reveal was coming, "Well, we all knew it was going to be a crazy day. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I'll talk to you then, Eden."
I didn't like the sound of that, and my heart sunk when Uncle Blaze ended the call to give me a stare I couldn't read. He took a deep breath before speaking two terrible words.
"They lost."
"You're not saying the baby might die, are you?"
The question filled with dread slowly rolled off my tongue.
"It's not like that's not a possibility, but it's a highly unlikely outcome, thankfully. I meant more along the lines of them actually having to force an early labor or simply risking some damage being done in order to guarantee both of them making it out of this."
That was not the kind of news I needed that day. It had been frustrating enough seeing all my efforts to help mom had been useless. She kept getting sick again after the holidays, and she followed a downward spiral path since then. There had been a few days after another stay in the hospital where things were looking up, but then the gagged coughing starting. Specks of blood flew out of mom's mouth during a coughing fit that left her unable to breath. That had been when Uncle Eden took her down to see her doctor, and Uncle Blaze let me know that the hospital was where mom was going to have to remain for the vast majority of her pregnancy. It was a safer environment for her even if the pneumonia went away without problems.
After sulking for a minute downstairs, I shuffled up to my room. I was exhausted without being tired, and part of me wanted to rip all my books of my shelves while the other part just wanted to sink into the floor and a dazed unconsciousness. I ended up pretty much going with that second option. Being able to at least make it to the couch, I closed my eyes and rested as a buzzing overtook my head. My life was now seeing it fit to counter the great first ten years I had had with unceasing turmoil. None of us could catch a break anywhere, and those burdening feelings of grief and pity I felt back towards when dad originally disappeared were beginning to seep into my chest once more.
I sucked in a sharp inhale when I found that something was seeping out of me too. My eyes were growing wet, and tiniest of tears welled up on my lashes. My chest was tightening while my heart began racing before I could realize what was happening. Despite knowing that having another good cry was well within reason for my situation, I fought the surge of emotions. I feared that if I started to cry that a sobbing mess was all I would be for a long while to come. Uncle Blaze and the other adults had so much stress to deal with already. I didn't want them to worry more than necessary over a simple cry session of mine. They would probably make the problem to be a bigger matter than it really was. I wasn't in the mood to try and convince them I wasn't that down that I needed to see a therapist or something.
Fighting a real battle with my tears, I was more than glad when my phone suddenly began to ring. The caller ID showed the call coming from Uncle Eden's house, so I assumed it was either Hunter or Rosemary.
"Hey, Coal. Are you free?" Rosemary asked, "Or have you gotten that cold that's passing around like everyone else has got?"
"No, I'm good."
"Would you be interested in coming over and doing something then?" she requested.
"Sure. I need something to do." I agreed.
Rosemary was not kidding when she said that everyone had a cold. This seemed like this was one of those winters where something was going around and avoiding catching it was next to impossible. All of my siblings and all of my friends were in bed recovering from the nasty sickness.
The end of January weather wasn't too bad. Snow naturally remained on the ground, but the temperatures had spiked in the past few days. It was warm, but still cold enough for winter coats and the like. Thankfully, I was able to ride my bike to Rosemary's house though. Walking wouldn't have been that bad on the way there, but it would have become quite the chore once I heard what Rosemary wanted to do.
"You really want to talk a walk all the way into the city, especially when it's so foggy? I'm okay with a walk in general, but that's really far." I pointed out with a small grimace.
"We could find something fun to do in the city though. There's nothing exciting open in this area, and we don't want to stay in the house with mom and Hunter sneezing up a storm." Rosemary countered.
"If you want to go to the city that badly, we could find someone to give us a ride. I know Aunt Lia and Aunt Sunflower at least aren't sick. Heck, we could even just get a taxi or take this bus." I suggested.
"I'd really rather walk. Please, Coal? I want...to talk to you and stuff too."
Rosemary's voice softened, and she looked so solemnly eager that I was left with no choice.
"Alright." I caved.
Rosemary immediately brightened up. She smiled a great smile and practically jumped for joy. I was barely given the chance to lock my bike on their rack before she grabbed my hand to lead me onwards. I would have also suggested we ride my bike to the city instead, but that would still be a long journey. I was bound to get exhausted with Rosemary's extra weight, and lugging the bike around on the streets was a headache I didn't want. So, walking it was. Rosemary's giddy attitude continued on for three blocks until I started conversation between us.
"What did you want to talk about?" I wondered.
The smile slid off Rosemary's face, although she didn't grow despondent. She let out a little exhale and tried to hold her head high.
"I mostly wanted company. The trial is exactly one week away now." she responded.
"Getting a little nervous?"
I wasn't shocked in the slightest this was what had come up. The moment of reckoning was truly almost here. In a week's time we would be finding out where the court thought Rosemary belonged for good. It had been what Uncle Eden had come to vent about to mom until her growing immensely more sick prompted them towards the hospital.
"More than a little, definitely," Rosemary chuckled slightly, "But, I'm not so nervous about the outcome. I'm more concerned about the proceedings of the trial itself. I don't want to mess anything up, but I'll be getting a law guardian who should prevent me from saying anything stupid that could work things in the wrong direction."
"What a law guardian?"
"It's an attorney who's going to barter on my behalf. The one I'm getting will be coming around tomorrow to speak to me. I get to tell him what I want and where I think I belong, and he'll interview mom and dad in order to get to know them better. He'll relay my wishes in court, and since I'm younger than thirteen he'll throw in his own unbiased decision on what he thinks is the best decision based on what he's learned about both parties. Given how much of a mess my birth mom made, I'm sure he'll side with mom and dad keeping me."
"That's good then." I nodded.
The two of us kept on walking, and Rosemary kept right on talking about the case and all its intricate details. I didn't mind too much at first, but as the minutes passed I found my head hurting. The more I fought off the pain, the harder it pressed against the inside of my skull to burn with a vengeance. I wanted to support Rosemary. I couldn't imagine how hard it was to be in her position. I didn't know if I would be able to handle it as well as she was handling it. However, those minutes kept on going with her talking about nothing else but what would be happening in a week.
"I...I really don't know what to do about my birth dad," Rosemary continued the revelation she had just admitted to about being interested about him, "I don't care about my birth mom. I don't want to see her again. I really don't. Yet, my birth dad...from what I've seen he doesn't seem to be doing this for the wrong reasons. He does seem to genuinely care. I can't help but feel as if there was something more to why he wasn't around before. Of course I don't want to leave, but...I wouldn't mind at least getting to know him more. Maybe I do want him to be part of my life. On the other hand, the last thing I want to do is upset mom and dad. I don't want them to feel as if they have to compete with him, and I don't dare try to talk about it to them now on the chance it could sway the case. I seriously wonder what I should do."
She wasn't expecting an answer. Not at that moment anyway. Rosemary was kind of rambling quite a bit. She was speaking everything on her mind aloud just to get the thoughts out. Even if I did respond, she went right back to what she wanted to say. That was how it went when I tried to change the topic as well. I had thought hanging out with Rosemary and having fun would be a good way to have us distracted from our troubles. Not only was she burying me with the weight of hers, Rosemary constantly mentioning Uncle Eden made it impossible for me to forget about mom and how her condition could turn dire in a split second.
I wish I could say I dealt with the complication maturely and rationally, but that surge of emotions I held back before returned to bite me. My headache was stinging, my frustration at everything was mounting, and twenty minutes of non-stop venting from Rosemary in the cold snow was not the medicine I needed, especially when I couldn't get a word in edge-wise. Finally approaching the city, the hypothetical question she had been asking for a while turned into an actual question.
"I'm seriously at a loss for what to do. Mom and dad have told me to be honest with them, but I have a feeling this wasn't what they was talking about. Should I tell them now? Should I tell them later? Should I tell them at all? Coal, what should I do?"
"I think you should feel lucky." I snapped bitterly.
Rosemary, who hadn't noticed I had stopped walking and was already several feet behind her, slowed before stopping and turning in confusion at the unanticipated harshness of the comment. It was clear from the expression on her face that she thought I was making a joke she simply wasn't getting.
A frown of even deeper confusion settled on her when it sank in that I wasn't joking and that the glare I was sending the ground was real.
"What?" Rosemary questioned in her uncertainty.
"I said that you should feel lucky," I continued in the same sharp, tart tone, "Your birth mother might be a piece of work, but you've got two dads and a mom fighting tooth and nail because they want you so desperately. You have all those people caring about you. A lot of kids would give anything to have one person in their life like that, and you're complaining about having three of them."
Glaring even deeper down to my side, I felt like running away. My last words had quivered as my throat had grown tight. I grew dizzy as my head pounded, and I didn't dare try to see what expression Rosemary wore now as that wetness of my eyes from before returned. I inhaled and held my breath so she couldn't hear how it shook. Each second that passed was one second too long. Rosemary simply needed to rebuke me like she should so I could have an excuse to leave. However, she did not see it fit to do that.
"Coal, what's wrong?" Rosemary asked with true concern instead, having the intuition to see past my cold exterior.
"I guess you haven't heard where your dad's at now," the words, now saddened more than angry, rolled off my tongue instantly, "He had to rush mom to the hospital. She was coughing so hard blood was coming up. The doctors diagnosed her with pneumonia. They're saying she probably won't be able to come home until after the baby is born- if it's ever born at all. There is the slight possibility of it dying. It becoming disabled or crippled is the more likely result if the pneumonia doesn't go away quickly enough. Even if it escapes all that, Uncle Blaze was hinting at the fact that it'll have to be born pre-mature no matter what, and that risks hurting it too."
More stiff silence followed, and I was glad when Rosemary broke it quickly.
"I'm sorry," Rosemary apologized, and when it was accompanied by a somber chuckle I finally glanced her way again, "I keep talking to you about my problems because you've been so good at understanding, but I forget that you have your own hard battle to fight. I'm really sorry to hear about your mom. That's not what any of you needed to happen right now. I don't know if I can help, but I'll do what I can."
"I just want to forget about it all for a while," I mumbled guiltily, "My mind's going crazy since I can't stop thinking about it. I want to be distracted."
"Let's stop talking about both our worries then and do something fun. Being distracted sounds good to me too." Rosemary, chipper as I probably wouldn't have been if I was in her position, said as she once more took my hand to get us moving again.
I was able to apologize a few minutes later, although Rosemary insisted she didn't need one. She could understand the weight of my burden thanks to the weight of hers, and she also revealed with a sheepish smile that the reason none of us had seen her snap like I had was because she had been saving that solely for Hunter, the trooper that he was. My mood perked up as our conversation was able to turn more light-hearted by poking fun at ourselves. I did manage to forget about my troubles somewhat as well when we reached the activity center. Rosemary and I snatched a lane at the bowling alley upstairs, and from then on pretty much all I heard was her making even more fun of me.
"I forgot how terrible you were!" she laughed unnecessarily loud as I only managed to knock two pins over on my first frame.
"S-shut up," I grumbled in embarrassment, "I can't be amazing at everything, you know."
"That doesn't mean you have to suck so badly." she bantered back.
"You do better then!" I huffed back, folding my arms and stepping back to let her take her turn.
I stood there feeling both confident and worried. Rosemary surely couldn't be that good. But, what if she was? She didn't look as if she was going into it.
"Why on earth are you carrying it like that? You got the lightest ball." I remarked as she walked with her ball as if it was a hundred pound bomb that would go off at the slightest touch.
"I know what I'm doing, two-pinner." Rosemary jibbed.
That was all I could get out of her. I attempted to break her concentration by teasingly mocking her, especially when she placed the ball down at her feet to roll it like a toddler would.
Quite honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect. Things were definitely going to go one way or the other. Unfortunately, Rosemary's bowl did not work in my favor. She pushed her ball forward with a determined shove. It rolled straight with surprising speed before curving at the last second to hit the pins at that perfect sweet spot. I held my breath in reluctant anticipation while Rosemary held hers in excited anticipation as the one pin left standing teetered to and fro. My prayers that it would hold quickly went unanswered. Another pin still slowly rolling towards the back bumped it just enough to give Rosemary a strike on her first try. She jumped, arms raised, with a cheer.
"Did I show you, or what?" she taunted with a wicked grin.
"Now you're going to have to keep doing that to prove it wasn't just luck." I argued back.
Sadly, I could not speak when the game was over. Rosemary got three more strikes and almost the rest of her frames were spares. My score...was thirteen.
Rosemary felt so bad for me that she offered to get me a loser's snack. Having no reason to object to that, we returned our balls to the rack and merrily chatted as we made our way to the cafe on the first floor. We would never make it there though. Spotting someone outside the window, and our own curiosity, got us caught up in something we shouldn't have gotten involved in. Rosemary was ahead of me on the stairs. I nearly walked right into her when she suddenly stopped.
"Oh, Mal." I said in observation when I mirrored my cousin's gaze out the window.
Malachite was indeed walking by, and he trudged forward with such determination it was clear he was on a mission.
"He's going to cause trouble again." Rosemary revealed in frustration.
"Yeah?"
"He said that he was going to be hanging out with Cyclone all day. The fact that he appears to be alone here in the city must mean that he was lying."
"He definitely was. Cy is just as sick as Azure is." I told her.
"Mind if we run after him? If we have the chance to catch up to him before he gets away, why not take it?" Rosemary suggested.
"Let's go then. I'd like to give him a piece of my mind. I still can't believe he's making so much trouble with your case right upon us." I agreed eagerly.
Unfortunately, Malachite was a speedy one. He didn't notice us following him, but he moved and occasionally jogged down the sidewalks as if he knew someone was after him. Rosemary and I desperately tried to catch up. However, he would turn a corner and seemingly teleport a ridiculous distance away before we could even get close to the same corner. Our long walk and the energetic game of bowling tired us out, so our attempts at running to shorten the distance didn't amount to much. All the two of us could do was barely keep Malachite in sight as he unknowingly led us to a remote and rather deserted section of the city.
Another turn around the corner had us completely losing Malachite. We wondered if he had slipped through one of the doors or gone into one of the shops as Rosemary and I hesitantly searched street after street and corner after corner and found nothing. The idea that Malachite had caught onto us and knew how to give us the slip was settling into our minds when, defeated, we walked down one particular street to find a bus stop only to hear rough shouting and laughing in the distance instead. Rosemary and I glanced at each other as we knew it was better to avoid such sounds in the city. That is, we were planning on avoiding the commotion until we heard Malachite's voice in the mix. Well, it wasn't him exactly talking as it was him letting out pained grunts. A frightened Rosemary clung onto the back of my shirt as we timidly peeked around the wall where the noises were coming from. Malachite was at the end of an alley that dead-ended, and it was instantly clear he had gotten himself into a pretty bad argument with the three other guys who were there.
"You seriously have some nerve!" the blue and gray boy, who looked to be the leader of the others, laughed condescendingly, "Poor little boy who has a rich family that cares about him thinks he has the worst life in the world! You make up problems in your head just for the sake of saying you have a troubled life, and then you come here all high and mighty acting as if you know how this works! Get cocky with me, and you'll regret it!"
Malachite mumbled something we couldn't hear, and it clearly wasn't any words of subservience given how the purple and yellow guy holding him down slammed a pretty hard punch into his cheek. Rosemary was already shaking, and I couldn't deny that my hands were shaking a bit too as I went to quietly pull my phone out of my pocket to get some help.
However, my fingers fumbled the phone to let it drop right into the snow seconds later. I didn't even bother to hastily pick it up though. My focus snapped to the dark development going on with my cousin and the ones he had gotten in trouble with. The leader apparently did not like whatever Malachite had said. Slowly but smoothly, a gun was pulled out from beneath his jacket. He aimed it Malachite's way, and that was when my hands went useless on me. The blue and gray guy knelt down and tauntingly moved the gun at and away from my cousin's head.
"To shoot or not to shoot," he mocked, "It all depends on how you want this to play out. You spoiled brat can keep playing the tragic tough guy role, or you can beg for forgiveness for trying to tell me what I should do. If your apology is good enough, I'll even let you walk away with no hard feelings. You'll get out of a position in our business that you have no right to be in, and I'll never have to look at your ugly face again."
I held my breath as I waited. Nothing came out of Malachite's mouth. It seemed as if he was trying to say something, but Rosemary and I were too far away to see exactly why he was struggling to get anything out. The passing seconds felt like an eternity, and it must have felt that way to the leader too.
"I'm telling you to apologize now!" he barked, "If you don't want me to blow out your shoulder or worse, then you better start groveling!"
Rosemary failed to grip my coat hard enough when she went to hold me back as I bolted forward. My mind was wondering what the hell I was doing, but my muscles aching to stand still no longer sent me running. The guy holding the gun got dangerously closer to Malachite when he still didn't say anything, and that meant the gun got way closer too. There was no way for me to know what would have happened otherwise, but I was not going to stand by and do nothing on the chance that I could do something to stop my cousin from being severely wounded or even killed. None of the boys noticed me until I barreled into the blue and gray boy with a stomach-turning crunch. He cried out in alarm, surprise, and pain as both of us crashed into the snow. The gun slipped out of his hand, and the shock had him motionless. I, meanwhile, started scrambling to my feet as that would be the only thing to let me keep my slight advantage.
"Coal!?" Malachite remarked in horrified amazement as he registered my abrupt arrival.
Using the brief second I had, I hurriedly motioned for him to do something. The other two boys in the trouble troupe were stunned by my appearance as well, so this was his only chance for trying to regain his footing. Malachite was thankfully smart enough to instantly get the message. His elbow was sent slamming into the purple and yellow guy's cheek. Malachite leapt to his feet as his opponent tried futilely to gain control. However, he was no match for Malachite now that he had an equal chance. That was one person mostly out of the way. I was left to deal with the wrath of the other two.
The older red boy lunged at me. Quite honestly, I have no idea how I dodged him. I spun, bent down, and leapt forward, and I might as well have gone invisible given the look of confusion of his face. Not that that did me much good. The leader, fighting to get a hold on me, missed me as I moved but still got a hit on me anyway when his arm accidentally smacked across my cheek. It stung something terrible, and my nose burned frustratingly warm. The leader shoved me into the snow while I was recovering, and he gave me a good kick to the stomach when I clenched his jacket as I fell to half bring him down with me. He scowled at me viciously, but his attention returned to his purple and yellow companion who was being hit quite hard by Malachite. The leader dug his gun out of the snow, and my heart dropped a thousand miles.
Having trouble breathing and needing to cough a dozen times, I ignored it all as I scrambled to do anything I could. Getting entirely on my feet was next to impossible. However, I was able to get some sort of balance by catching the leader's leg as he rushed forward. Him falling forward, the gun flying out of his hand again, pulled me up. It was only a momentary gain, for my shaking breaths trying to steady themselves had my legs weak and collapsing underneath me as I sunk back into the snow. I regained energy with each deep inhale I took, but I didn't get many of those. The air in my lungs vanished when I heard struggling shrieking.
In my struggle with the blue and gray boy, I had forgotten about the red guy. I had thought things were too simple. Being right was horrible, because he had slipped off to find what I had half forgotten about. The red guy had spotted Rosemary somehow, and he carried her towards the commotion when pulling her along proved too problematic.
"Let me go!" she cried out in terrified anger.
She gave it her all in fighting back against the guy holding her. She kicked, punched, and bit him, and he had an extremely difficult time keeping her under control. Rosemary managed to smack at him enough to allow her to drop to her feet. That led to the red guy burying his hand angrily in her hair and her yelping in pain.
"DON'T TOUCH HER!"
Malachite' roaring belt made everyone jump. The leader had been ganging up on him along with the purple and yellow guy when I hadn't been watching, but having Rosemary literally dragged into the mess changed the whole situation in a split second.
Malachite fought with a crazed rage that terrified even me. It was if he was suddenly an expert in every form of martial arts known to man. He sunk his fist into the two boys closest to him so powerfully and so rapidly that within seconds they were running away in pure fear. The one that got the worst of it was, of course, the guy holding onto Rosemary. Malachite ran after him with a scary, seething passion. The red guy was pummeled, beaten, slammed, kicked, and any other adjective like that you want to use. Malachite kept going after him every time he tried to stand. The two others would be quickly hit down in similar manners if they attempted to help. The result was that all three of them were stuck cowering on the ground having no choice but to crawl further away before Malachite allowed them to stand and run away in terror.
I being stunned still, Malachite walked past me to gently lift the gun out of the snow. He made sure the safety was on before gingerly sinking to his knees as the adrenaline quickly wore off. Fighting the intensity of the situation that determined I remain frozen, my feet dragged as I moved over to him. A cry escaped my lips now when he unexpectedly grabbed me into a tight hug like one he had never held me in before.
"You IDIOT!" the half yelled into my ear, "What the hell did you think you were doing!?"
"Helping! He had a gun pointed right at you! What else was I supposed to do?"
"He was never going to shoot me! It was just a tough act. You made everything a hundred time worse running in and persuading him to actually use it!"
Malachite rebuked me harshly, but he held me even tighter. His heart raced liked it was going to explode, his arms shook, and he held his grip around me as if letting go in the slightest would mean I would disappear forever.
"Seriously, what kind of idiot are you, Coal? Who just jumps into something like that where everyone you're fighting is twice your side?" he continued with a pitiful chuckle, burying his head against my shoulder.
"Mom has always said that I have no sense of self preservation." I answered with a sad, weak laugh of my own.
Malachite let out a weird frustrated but amused sigh, and he slowly let me go. Somehow, I was beginning to feel better when Rosemary lunged forward the second I was out of the way to shove Malachite on his backside.
"What's wrong with you?!" she shouted at him.
She was shaking too, and I swore murder was lurking beneath the venomous glare she sent his way.
"We wouldn't have gotten involved in this if you hadn't started it in the first place! Do you really not care about me?! There's only one week left until the case, and you're getting mixed up in horrible stuff right and left! I didn't want to believe mom and dad when I overheard that they feared you were switching from alcohol to drugs! That better have not been what this was about!"
Malachite couldn't say anything, and he cast his gaze guiltily to the side when I had no choice but to frown at him too hearing that.
Rosemary's scowl deepened, and Malachite turned submissive and sad in a way that was wholly unlike how I ever thought I would see him.
"You're the worst! The absolute worst!" Rosemary raged at him, her yelling voice rough, deep, and dark, "I was trying to be patient with you because I understand the kind of background we came from, but that guy was right- you're nothing but a spoiled, selfish asshole! You have no idea how excited I was when I learned when mom and dad wanted to adopt me that I would be getting older brothers. I had just wanted one, but I would be getting two. You though, you're the exact opposite of everything I wanted! You could very well be the reason why I'm dragged away from the rest of the family I love and shipped off to live with the woman who left me with a man who hated my existence and abused me and beat me because of that! I don't care about you anymore anyway, but if we lose the case because of you then you can count on me hating you for the rest of my life!"
Rosemary's voice rose and fell in pitch as her voice trembled drastically. Bitter tears wet her eyes, and after a second of more furious glancing at Malachite she began angrily kicking snow at him.
"I can't stand you! You're just...seriously worthless!"
When she ran out of snow to kick, Malachite's shin took one deft blow before one final enraged glare was sent his way. Then, without warning, Rosemary turned on her heel and ran out of the alley.
For some reason, I was compelled not to follow right away. I think I was curious as to what Malachite's reaction would be. Having been wearing a somber, calm expression during Rosemary's tirade, he sighed massively and sunk his head into his hand when she was out of sight. None of his typical anger was anywhere to be found. Silence passed between us until he chuckled pitifully again.
"I've really done and done it, haven't I?" he spoke softly.
"Yup. Pretty much." I had to agree.
"I wonder if there's even anything I can do or can get her to help her forgive me this time around," he mumbled miserably, "Any ideas?"
"Well, you're almost eighteen? Why don't you grow up?"
"Yeah. I think that's a good idea," Malachite nodded slowly, "It's...about time I did that. For Mary's sake, and for everyone else's too. I don't want what you warned me of to come true. I don't...want to be alone."
Some sympathy kicking in for him, I ruffled his hair. Malachite laughed a little more then, and he motioned down the alley with his head.
"Go on and hurry after her. You know she's fucking scared out of her mind," he instructed before carefully picking up the gun, "I'll take care of this. Bring it to the police saying I found it or something."
Rosemary hadn't gone too far. She was waiting for me by a fountain and large artistic structure in front of some resort hotel. Pacing rapidly, she launched herself at me when I got close enough. She was crying her eyes out, and I was clenched onto with an iron grip.
"I'm mad at you too!" Rosemary let me know, "You are an idiot! Why would you just toss yourself into something so dangerous like that! I really need you, you know?!"
"I'm sorry," I apologized, petting her hair, "I didn't mean to scare you or get you involved. I'll try not to do anything like it ever again."
"Good! Because...because..." she sniffled, "You definitely have to be there for the case. You have to be."
"I promise I will." I responded whole-heartedly.
Rosemary nodded weakly, and I held her for the long while it took for her to start calming down before we walked hand-in-hand to once more find a bus stop.
And, unfortunately- frustratingly infuriatingly unfortunately, I wasn't able to keep that promise I made. My curiosity about how I managed to escape the bad cold being passed around was satisfied. I wasn't somehow immune to it. I simply caught it at the point when everyone else was recovering from it. My fever was high, it was hard to breath, my nose was entirely clogged, and I had gone through two boxes of tissues before that morning was over. I fell over once as I tried to sneak out, but even with my quivering legs I almost made it to the door.
"Coal! Stop this!" Uncle Blaze rebuked me, this having been the third time I tried to leave for the courthouse on my own.
"I have to go!"
"There's no way you can go being so sick like this. They wouldn't let you in anyway!"
"But, I have-"
"No." Uncle Blaze denied more firmly.
He didn't yank me hard at all when he pulled me back as I made a valiant effort at lunging forward out of his grasp, but my strength was so lacking I completely fell backwards thanks to the force. Uncle Blaze quickly grabbing me to hold me up was the lone reason I didn't plunge entirely to the floor.
"Sorry, kid," he apologized, I think for both making me trip and for having to stop me, "But you know when I called Eden earlier that he said Mary understood why you wouldn't be there."
"But-"
"Coal." Uncle Blaze sighed in exhaustion.
I gave up. My ill body was quickly losing the last of the strength it had, and I also couldn't bother Uncle Blaze any further. He had been banned from seeing mom as the rest of us had been since we were passing the cold around like crazy, and that meant he had been working tirelessly to take care of all of us while trying to send whatever support he could send her way too. I had a feeling Uncle Blaze was beginning to show the symptoms that it would be his turn to battle the cold as well. I let him help me stand again and lead me up the stairs to my room. I dirtied several more tissues with my snot before the medicine I had taken not too long ago finally kicked in. My senses were swept away as I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
It was late afternoon by the time I woke up, and the medicine and the sleep kept my body cooperating long enough for me to escape back down the stairs. Unless something had gone strangely wrong, the case should have been over. Instead of being at the courthouse to support my cousin and her family, I had slept through the whole proceedings. My timing was right on point though. I didn't even have to walk down all the stairs, for Uncle Blaze was pacing about the first floor as he spoke on the phone. I could hear just enough of the voice on the other end to know who it was. It was Uncle Eden.
"Uh-huh. Oh. I see."
Painfully short and uninformative sentences like that were what I had to listen to. It didn't help that the serious expression Uncle Blaze wore wasn't encouraging in the slightest. I gripped onto the stair rail with all my might. My palms sweated so badly, and I held my already limited breath.
"That's how it happened then, huh?" Uncle Blaze finally spoke a proper sentence, and my heart raced when he sent me another glance because I knew the all important reveal was coming, "Well, we all knew it was going to be a crazy day. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I'll talk to you then, Eden."
I didn't like the sound of that, and my heart sunk when Uncle Blaze ended the call to give me a stare I couldn't read. He took a deep breath before speaking two terrible words.
"They lost."
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