Dart and Dash (14 page)

Chapter 27 – Dash

The wind was so cold, but I wasn’t; I didn’t feel anything. I stood there, staring at a pile of dirt. The brown and red soil that now encased my brother, my twin, my best friend.

The last four days were a blur. I felt like I was walking through a fog, and there was no one around me.

My eyes didn’t move from the freshly dug up earth in front of me. I wanted to scream. I wanted to fight. I wanted to cry. And all at the same time, I wanted to die.

How was I going to go on without Dart by my side?

“Dash,” Garnet’s voice was soft, and she laced her fingers with mine. “Everyone’s gone. Are you ready to go?”

I looked down at her, but I didn’t say a word. I’ve hardly said anything to her, or anyone, for that matter.

I turned back and saw Daisy leaning up against her car. Daisy’s red, puffy eyes were the most visible things on her face. I still can hear her screams in the hospital when they told us of Dart’s death.

“Dash, come on, let’s go.” Garnet guided me away from the grave and to the car. None of us could use Dart’s car; we couldn’t bring ourselves to get into it.

Garnet drove us home, and without a word, I walked across the street the moment she put the car in park. I sat on the couch and listened to the eerie silence around me.

I wanted to wake up from this dream now. I wanted my brother there. I’d do anything, or give up anything, to have him back. I felt one hot tear roll down my cheek.

I swiped it away and stood up. I headed to the kitchen, opened the cabinet, grabbed the bottle of tequila, and went to my room.

I paused at the top of the stairs. Dart’s bedroom door was still closed. I prayed that he would open it, and yell ‘surprise’, but that wasn’t going to happen.

I walked into my bedroom and sat on the floor leaning against my bed. I cracked the seal on the bottle and let the warm liquor burn down my throat.

The memories of us were flooding my brain, and I felt like I was drowning. I drank more, hoping that the liquor in the bottle would heal my broken soul.

My thoughts fell to the first time we played football. We were six, and I remembered Dart’s helmet was too big. Dad told him not to worry; he would grow into it. I laughed at the words now, taking another drink from the clear bottle. Dart was always the biggest cheerleader on the team. Telling everyone what a great job they’d done, to keep their head up, and help them with the play.

Yep, that was my brother.

The Saint.

And now he was gone.

I was alone.

“Dash,” I heard Garnet’s sweet voice. “I brought you something to eat.” She came into the room, sitting down next to me.

I took another drink, not speaking to her.

“I also brought you some water.” Garnet went to reach for the bottle of liquor, but I switched hands, keeping it away from her.

She dropped her hand, not pushing it any further. She began to pull the food out of the bag. She tried to hand me the sandwich, but I continued to stare straight ahead.

“Dash, you need to eat, at least a little something. Please,” Garnet was begging.

When I looked into her brown eyes there was only sadness.

“Go away, Garnet.” My voice was rough, because I hadn’t talked in so long. “Leave me alone.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Go away,” I yelled at her this time, trying to make her leave.

“I’m not going anywhere, until you eat. So knock it off.” She raised her voice to me.

I turned away from her and kept drinking. I wasn’t going to do anything but drink.

That was it.

Garnet stayed in my room, eating her food. She didn’t speak; she just sat by me. Once her food was gone, half of the bottle I was drinking from was too.

“I’ll leave this here. I need to go check on Daisy.” She touched my arm, but I jerked away from her. “I’ll come back later.”

I laid my head back on the side of the bed. The alcohol was making my eyes heavy. I closed them, hoping that when I opened them this nightmare really would be over.

~~

I felt as if the ocean was around me. The water was on my face. I moaned, feeling the sea swaying back and forth. It made my stomach turn and flip.

I was being tugged on. My eyes fluttered open; I could see Garnet trying to get me into the bathroom.

“You have to help me a little, Dash.” Garnet grunted. She got my face into the toilet, and I threw up all the liquor I had drunk.

A washcloth was on my neck. “We need to change your clothes and get you cleaned up.”

Everything was out of focus, and my head wouldn’t stay up. It was all fuzzy. “Dart. I need Dart.”

“Sshh, Dash, it’s going to be okay.” Garnet’s voice sounded sweet, almost angelic. “I’m here, Dash. Lift up your arms.”

I didn’t know if I did what she commanded, because everything went black.

~~

The pounding in my head woke me up. The sun was blinding me, which made me hurt more. I tried to roll over, but my muscles were so tight, I couldn’t do it. I realized that I was shirtless, and I only had my boxers on. I covered my eyes with my hand.

“Dash,” Garnet’s voice came into the room. “Are you going to class today? You already missed practice. I did try to wake you up.”

“Fuck football. Fuck school. Go away, Garnet.”

“No, you need to get up. There’s still time for you—”

“Go the fuck away,” I shouted, cutting her off, and making my head hurt more.

I heard her sigh. “I’ll come back after class.”

I heard her go down the stairs and the front door slam. My heart raced, trying to figure out what was going on.

That was right; my brother was still dead.

I pushed myself out of the bed, moaning at the muscle strain. When I looked around the room, it was clean. That must have been Garnet’s doing.

I walked over to the window and pulled the blinds shut. I was about to crawl into bed when I heard the front door again. I assumed it was Garnet, until a very sickly Daisy appeared in my doorway.

“What the hell do you want?”

She held up two bottles of vodka. “Garnet took away all of our alcohol; I thought I’d be nice.” She sneered at me.

“You’re drunk.”

“Yep, it’s the only way I could be if I wanted to come over here.” She handed me one bottle and sat down on the floor, next to my bed.

I followed her to the floor, taking a large gulp of the clear liquid. “I never thought you and I would be drinking together. Willingly anyway.”

“We’re dead, you know that?”

“Yep,” I drank some more.

For the next hour, we did no talking. The only sounds were the sloshing of the liquor in our bottles when we took a drink.

We looked at each other when we heard the front door. We knew it was Garnet. I saw the disappointment in her face, seeing the half-empty bottles in both of our hands.

“I see you two had a productive day. Did anyone decide to take a shower?”

We both remained silent. “Either of you eat, or do you plan on dry heaving on me again? Oh wait,” she snapped her fingers. “You both actually puked on me yesterday.”

We still didn’t talk.

“You know what,” she gasped, and a large smile spread across her face. She skipped over to us and fell on the floor. “I think we should just sit here and drink until our livers fall out. I mean,” she began a bunch of fake giggles. “Isn’t that what Dart would want? Dash, you don’t need to go to the NFL, and Daisy, you don’t need to be an RN. We’ll all just stay here and do nothing for the rest of our lives.”

I took a drink from my bottle, not looking at her. I could hear Daisy’s scraping her nails against the labels on the glass.

Garnet didn’t say anything else. She just got up and left.

Chapter 28 – Garnet

Even though I had my homework spread out on the dining room table, I wasn’t studying a word of it. My mind was on my boyfriend and my sister, who were both drinking across the street.

Damn, I need to go check on them. I tossed my pen down and ran over to Dash’s house. I knew they were grieving; hell, so was I. I cared for Dart, too. He was always kind and nice to me. I thought of him as a big brother.

As I walked into the bedroom, I saw Daisy was passed out on the bed, and Dash on the floor. Luckily, no one had thrown up on the floor like last night. Hopefully, they didn’t do it when I moved them.

If I was a real bitch, I would leave them both and let them drown in the pool of alcohol they’re swimming in. Sadly, I’m not that way. She was my sister, and he was my boyfriend. I needed to get them to re-focus on their lives, even if it was without Dart.

It was ironic, because no one had been able to tell me anything when Mom died, and here I was, preaching the same shit people told me.

I rubbed my temples. I knew that there was a long road ahead of all three of us. Even though, I was forcing myself to go to class, all I thought about was Dash and Daisy. I couldn’t get either one of them to talk to me except for a few sentences.

I knew one thing; Daisy couldn’t sleep here. If she woke up here, it would push her further into the drinking mode that she was stuck in. I took a deep breath and started pulling her out of the bed.

Unlike tugging on Dash, Daisy was a bit easier. I threw her around my shoulder, and kept telling her to walk. The stairs were the biggest challenge, but somehow we made it, and back to our house.

There was no way in hell I was going to get her to her bedroom. So I laid her on the couch. I retrieved a bucket and put it next to her. I got a washcloth, and I wiped her face with the cool, soothing water. Her face and nose were red from the tears she had cried. She hadn’t worn makeup since the day of the accident.

I stared at my big sister. It was hard to see her this way, but it was even harder realizing how she felt when she’d tried to help me.

This was going to be a very long road.

~~

When I woke up the next morning I put toast, a bottle of water, and some aspirin on the coffee table, and headed over to Dash’s house to check on him.

He was still on the floor in the same position he was when I left him last night. I kneeled next to him, softly stroking his cheek and jaw. Usually Dash had a sweet woodsy smell about him. Now it was masked from the stench of alcohol and not showering.

I did the same thing for him that I’d done for Daisy. I put everything in front of him and headed to campus.

Classes dragged by, and my worry for Dart and Daisy grew. My fear was they’d get alcohol poisoning or something worse. I did my best to push it out of my mind. I shook my head of all those thoughts. I hoped that they would see what they were doing.

I headed to my house first to drop off my books. When I walked into the house, I noticed that Daisy wasn’t on the couch, and I heard movement in the kitchen. Actually, I heard a lot of slamming from the direction.

“Where’s the fucking alcohol?” Daisy was yelling into each cabinet, as she opened and shut them.

“There isn’t any.” I informed her. I knew to get rid of it all when she was passed out.

“Fuck. You have no right, Garnet.” Daisy screamed at me.

“I have every right.” I kept my voice calm. “You’re going to die if you keep drinking like that.”

“Good, then this pain will go away.”

“Daisy,” I saw the tears streaming down her face.

“Shut up. You don’t know what I’m going through. I should have been with him. He asked me to go, but I didn’t because of some stupid fucking homework.”

She was yelling so loud, it was making my ears ring, but I didn’t make a move toward her, or say anything.

“Do you know what it’s like to lose your soul mate? I lost my whole world. I can’t even breathe without him. He was mine. He was everything to me. I was going to marry him. Our lives were just beginning.”

Daisy fell to her knees, sobbing. I went to her, wrapping my arms around her. She clung to my shirt, and I tried to soothe her, as much as I could.

“What am I going to do?” Daisy asked over and over.

I continued to rock her, holding her tightly. I wanted to tell her it was going to be okay, but I hadn’t wanted to hear that shit when Mom died, and I knew that Daisy didn’t either.

“Hey,” I pulled away, only a little bit. “Why don’t you take a shower? I’ll make us some soup and check on Dash. How does that sound?”

Daisy didn’t make a move.

“Come on,” I helped her stand up. “Take a shower, and then we’ll eat. Okay?”

She gave a slight nod.

“I’m going to check on Dash, and I’ll be right back.”

We held onto each other, until we reached the staircase. I watched her go up and shut the bathroom door.

I took a deep breath, and I headed across the street. When I opened the door, the odor in the house was even worse. I knew I would have to come over and clean soon.

When I reached Dash’s doorway, he was sitting against his bed, drinking from a new bottle. He was still in the same gray t-shirt and shorts that I had put him in a couple of days ago.

“Well, you should know that the whole block can smell your dirty ass.” I crossed my arms and leaned against the doorframe.

He took another drink from the vodka bottle.

“Did you know Edgar Allan Poe was forty when he died?” I walked into the room, and sat down in front of him. “There are many theories on his death, because he was found wandering the streets. There was no true record of his death either. I bet you didn’t know that? But, I always felt that he died of a broken heart. See after his wife, Virginia, died he spiraled out of control and could never get his life back together, and he died two years later.”

“Is this supposed to be a fucking pep talk?” His horse voice asked me.

“Nope,” I shook my head. “Just wanted to give a peek into your future.”

Dash stared at me, and I saw a shocked expression on his face.

I continued. “As I see it, if you don’t pick yourself up, everything will pass you by. College, the NFL, your life, all your goals.”

“You.”

I stopped. I hadn’t expected him to say anything like that.

“I learned something today.”

I waited for him to tell me what it was.

“I’m bad luck,” I heard his voice crack. “Everything I’ve ever loved has died. So, I’m like Poe, and you should leave now.”

Well, my analogy backfired. My hope was that he wouldn’t go down that road. I racked my brain for my knowledge of Poe’s history; since apparently that was the only thing he could hear.

“First, I’m not leaving. Second, you’re not bad luck. And lastly,” I leaned in closed to him, ignoring the pungent odor. “Poe didn’t have anyone to lean on, and you have me.”

Dash didn’t break our eye connect.

“Dart wouldn’t want you to throw everything away you worked for. You know that.” I searched his face to see if he was listening to me at all, but his expression was unreadable.

“I’m making something to eat for Daisy and myself. Why don’t you take a shower and come over?” I gave him a quick kiss on his stiff, dry lips, and I headed back to my house.