Unsung Requiem by C.L. Stone

Lacrimoso

(Tearful)

Sang

The news headline that evening said that Victor Morgan, 17, was alone in a car crash heading home from a rock concert at the coliseum.

An ambulance on the scene claimed he was inebriated.

I sat down the next morning, exhausted, having stayed up all night for news.

The vision of what had happened was trapped in my mind, replaying over and over.

Victor, too high to drive, racing off down a two-lane road and crashing into a couple of cars when trying to pull over. He’d turned too far and overcorrected himself. The car had flipped, landing in a ditch off the side of the road, the only thing that likely saved our lives was that ditch had provided some protection in the way he landed the car.

When I returned to the car, there were ambulance and police.

I couldn’t go to him. I had no way to know, for such a long time, if he was even alive. I had to walk a good way away to eventually run into Mr. Buble with North, out looking for me, pulling me away from the scene. I had no idea how they knew… how they found me.

North went back for Victor and stayed with him to make sure he was okay and to go along to the hospital. Mr. Buble stayed with me and carried me off.

Too many witnesses.

And too soon, North was sent back. His parents requested no one else be around him. We had no choice.

We were lucky I hadn’t been caught in any of the photos, because one of the cars that stopped to report the accident was a photographer for the newspaper, leaving the concert early after covering the event.

And he had recognized the car and Victor instantly. There was no chance to hide this.

Inside Mr. Buble’s home, on one of the lower bunks in the upstairs FROG bedroom. Dr. Green sat down next to me. He was in a plain light blue T-shirt and jeans.

“We can’t help him at this point,” Dr. Green said, using a light to check my eyes. “Don’t blink.”

I tried not to, although I did a few times. He had checked me out last night, but he wanted to do it again. I had a brace on my wrist, for a fracture, and I was bandaged from cuts on my face and along one arm.

Dr. Green stayed with me most of the night. He’d given me medicine. He stayed by me, with the others coming to check on us while we were here.

He looked into my eyes, and when he stopped, he put the light away and checked around my head, gently massaging my scalp. “Any pain here?”

“No,” I said.

“You might later notice some aches,” he said. He shifted his hands to my neck. “Try turning…” He showed me how to twist my neck and look around, while he touched and massaged at my neck a little.

I was wearing someone’s black T-shirt and boxers, I wasn’t sure whose. I’d slept and really hadn’t slept at all. “When will Victor get back?” I asked him.

Dr. Green sighed and placed his hands on my shoulders. “Listen, pookie. Victor’s in a bit of a pickle. Nothing that can’t be handled, but for now, he’s with his parents. I think they had him sent home. A little early, if you ask me.”

I pressed my lips together, looking away from him.

“No, don’t pout,” he said, and he picked up my chin until I was looking at him. “It has to be that way. We couldn’t pull him from the car and not have him around, okay? The car was totaled. It would have been much worse if we had taken him out and left the car without a driver. Besides, we needed the ambulance. He was hurt. Unfortunately, the best place for him right now is with his parents.”

“Where they want him to be,” I sputtered, very unhappy with this.

He smoothed a hand over my cheek. “No, pumpkin. He was at the hospital and he’s okay, he’s just resting now. His insurance and his mother will do their best, but he’ll have to face charges…”

Charges! I reacted, pulling away from him, breathing in sharply. “But…” I couldn’t think of what to say.

That was it. His mom would prove she was right.

Was he out of the Academy now?

Would he have to stay with them?

Dr. Green shook his head, trying to reclaim me by taking my shoulders and holding to me. “Sang, sweetie, calm down.”

I breathed in deeply, trying not to panic.

“Do I look worried?” he asked. He looked me square in the face with those light green eyes, and a couple of locks of his sandy hair hanging across his forehead.

I shook my head slowly at his question.

“Do you trust me?”

I nodded.

“So if I said, don’t worry, should you trust me when I say that?”

I hesitated but then nodded slowly.

He smirked and then pulled me in for a hug. He kissed the top of my forehead and held me close. “Victor will be fine. Physically, he’s got a little bump on his noggin and a broken nose, and a few bruises. Nothing permanent. We should be grateful. Whatever happens with his parents, we’ll figure it out. It’s a better outcome than what could have happened. He’s alive. That’s the important part.” He patted me a little and then smoothed his palm across my back gently. “Now if you’re feeling it, get up and get dressed. We’ve got to join the family meeting downstairs.”

He tried to release me, but for the first time, I tugged him back.

I wasn’t ready to let go yet.

He chuckled, and then looked around the room, as if trying to double-check. “Lay back on the bed,” he said.

“Right now?”

“Just for a few minutes.”

I did, and he cuddled up beside me. He positioned himself so I could bury my head into his chest, and he sank his nose and lips into the top of my hair. He held me like that, just holding on and letting me feel comfortable next to him.

Like a security blanket.

For a long time, he just stayed with me, and I was listening to him breathing. He’d stayed close in the night but not this close.

He was comforting. He always was.

And then I remembered something.

“Dr. Sean,” I said.

He chuckled. “Yeah, pookie?”

I didn’t know how to say it, but I remembered something.

He’d sent a hand signal to me when I was still under control of my parents at my house. And I hadn’t known what he meant.

I did now.

And I showed him now. With my good hand.

The sign language for I love you.

My heart raced, despite the medicine in me that made me drowsy.

He looked at my hand, at my fingers. For the longest time he just looked at it.

Slowly, he raised his hand, and he did the same.

My eyes watered and I blinked. I didn’t want to cry about it.

I felt good.

I cared so much about them all. Victor. I wanted to tell Victor.

I lost my chance so often with him. Twice now.

I couldn’t miss my opportunities anymore.