Chapter 10

Present Day

It was a few days after the accident before Asher was alert enough to really grasp what had happened. The thoughts were jumbled up in his head and he wasn’t sure what was real. He knew he was in the hospital. Dean had been there, but not his father and not Mia and he knew why. First, he killed his own mother and then his father had thrown him out of the house. Then he had gotten drunk with Travis and now Travis was dead. They probably all hated him. He couldn’t fucking believe it. He wished that none of it was real.

When he had first woken up in the hospital a couple of days ago he had just come out of surgery. He had a dislocated shoulder, a broken femur, a few broken ribs and he’d lost his spleen and had a chest tube for a few days while his punctured lung healed. None of that mattered though when he finally got them to tell him what had happened to Travis.

A sheriff’s deputy had come in to talk to him and told him that he had been thrown through the windshield and landed about twelve feet in front of the car on the pavement. That would explain all of the cuts and abrasions on his chest and stomach and arms. Travis had been wearing his seatbelt. When they had impacted the tree, the car had crushed him, killing him instantly. The deputy had asked him if they had been drinking and Asher had told him honestly, yes. There was a part of him that was hoping they would arrest him, a part of him that needed to be punished for killing his mother and his best friend. The deputy said they knew Travis had been driving and since he was the one that caused the accident, there wouldn’t be any charges brought against Asher.

“Can you do me a favour?” he asked the deputy before he left.

“What’s that?”

“My mother died right before all of this happened. Can you call the mortuary for me and find out when her services are?”

“Sure,” the deputy replied with a sympathetic look in his eyes. Asher hated that. He didn’t deserve the man’s sympathy. He didn’t deserve anyone’s sympathy. A little while later the deputy came back and said, “It’s today son, in a couple of hours.” Asher started to climb out of the bed. “Whoa, I don’t think they’ve discharged you yet.”

“I am not missing my mother’s funeral!” He yelled a the deputy.

“Okay, stay in the bed for a second and let me get a nurse.” Asher watched the deputy leave and then he climbed out of the bed. There wasn’t a spot on or in his body that didn’t hurt, ache or throb. He could barely hold himself up as he searched the room for his clothes. He finally found the plastic bag that had his shirt and pants he had been wearing the day of the accident. He pulled the shirt on over his head and looked down at it. It had holes in it and it was all bloody. He struggled with getting his jeans on because he couldn’t bend over. He had staples in his abdomen and shoulder, stitches in his face and arms and chest. He was a fucking mess, but still better off than Travis and his mother.

He finally got his pants on and started looking for his shoes when the deputy came back in. “I thought you were going to stay put.”

“My mother is dead. I’m going to the funeral.”

“You can’t go looking like that.”

Asher looked down at himself again. He remembered his father throwing him out. He couldn’t go by there and change. He picked up the phone at the bedside and dialed Dean’s number. When Dean answered he said, “Man, I need a huge favour.”

**

Asher found out from Dean that Travis was being buried that afternoon as well, two hours after his mother. The county was so small; they were being eulogized and buried both in the same place. By the time Dean brought him some decent, clean clothes and he showered, he was too late for his mother’s church service. He got to the graveyard as the pastor was speaking. There were a lot of people there and he stood in the back where he wouldn’t have to endure their stares or worse yet, his father’s rage again. He knew that most of these people would be attending Travis’s burial as well. His church service should be over soon and they would bring his body out. Asher thought about Mia. What she must be going through? What did she think of him? It suddenly dawned on him that he had been in the hospital for three days and she had never come to see him. Her brother was dead and that was horrible but wouldn’t she have come to see him if she knew he was hurt? Jesus. What if she never wanted to see him again?

As his mother’s services came to an end and people lined up to file past the coffin and wish his father well, Travis’s family arrived for his burial. Asher didn’t see any of them at first. His eyes and his mind were focused on the box they were going to seal his mother in the ground in. He felt something on his arm all of a sudden and he turned around. It was Mia. He felt relief until he saw her eyes. They were like rivers of fire that dragged him under.

“What the hell happened, Asher? Why was Travis driving your car? Why was he drinking and driving? He never did that. Stacey said when she left him at Dean’s he was completely sober.”

Asher’s head was still fuzzy about the details. He wasn’t sure where to start. He tried by saying, “My mother died…”

Mia’s face softened. “I know. I’m so sorry for your loss. But Asher my family is devastated and we need answers.”

“We don’t need any answers! Right here is your answer!” Mia’s mother had arrived. “I told Travis and I told you too, Mia. He’s bad. I told you both he would get you into trouble but I had no idea he would kill your brother, my only son!”

Asher was looking at the two women, feeling like he was in a state of shock. Mia’s eyes were accusing and her mothers were full of venom. Meanwhile, his own mother lay dead four feet away. This was fucking surreal.

“Mrs. Halloway. I’m so sorry about Travis.”

She gritted her teeth and reached out like she was going to slap him. Mia put her hand on her mother’s arm and stopped her. “I hate you. You should have died and not my son!” she spat out. Asher looked at Mia again and wondered if she felt the same. He looked over towards his mother’s grave again, this time locking eyes with his father. He had never been in a place before where so many people despised him.

“I’m sorry,” he said as he began to backed away. He walked as quickly as he could across the grass of the cemetery. He could hear Mia and his father yelling his name. There was nothing more they could say to him that he wasn’t saying to himself. He had single-handedly destroyed two families in the space of one night. Asher had to get out of there and go where he wasn’t able to hurt anyone he loved ever again.