Hello readers. I'm not sure how many people will read this story, however I'm thankful for each and every person that does. I'm sorry if the first few chapters have been a little boring, but I felt like it was necessary to give a little background into the characters. Now, once we get into the meat of story, Vincent's actions will be justified (somewhat).
Chapter 2
Time heals all wounds
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Vincent awoke to the raspy sound of his own breathing. He stared at the ceiling for a moment as he cleared his throat of the mucus accumulated throughout the night. Slowly, Vince climbed out of bed and walked into the bathroom.
Dipping his head under the sink, he drank his fill of cold water from the faucet and slowly raised his head. Staring back at him was no longer a boy, but a young man that was more than just attractive. His light blue, azure colored eyes fit well with his shaggy, long blonde hair that was pulled back behind his ears. He had a thin face, but a defined jaw line with a minute amount of facial hair beginning to grow in.
His shirt was off, and you could see the countless number of scars that covered his chest and back. After several years of people asking where he got them, he decided that it was easier to joke around and started telling people that he, "Got them from a shark attack." People would always laugh and brush it off, but they'd usually stop pestering him with questions.
If you looked at his face for more than a couple seconds you'd see that one of his eyes was slightly closed more than the other. This was due to the fact that during his fifth surgery, the surgeon accidentally destroyed a bundle of nerves connected to his eyelid. Vince looked a little different than most people, however he was still a good looking kid.
At the end of all the surgeries, something else had happened within his body; his skin on the left side of his body was a slightly different color than the skin on the right side of his body. It was more apparent when he started to sweat; directly in the middle of his body you could see a line reaching from the top of his head down to his groin separating the two halves.
He'd told the doctors about it and went in for several check-ups. None of the doctors could pinpoint the problem, and they'd eventually given up and blamed it on the nerves that were destroyed.
"Vince, time to get up," he heard his dad yell up the stairs. His Father's name was Robert, however everyone called him rob. At most times, he was a serious man. He was a big guy, over six feet tall and still in shape from his days as a mountaineering guide.
His most impressive days were those in which he was a guide for climbers wishing to scale the tallest mountain on earth: Mount Everest. After several years of doing this, he met his wife, my mother Anne, and decided to stop mountaineering and settle down.
Today, he runs a small climbing gear store near the house and uses his fame and connections in the climbing scene to keep his business moderately successful. Vince helps him out every once in a while, which seems to be one of the few things that brings a smile to the man's face any more.
"Coming." Vince tossed on a pair of clothes and headed out the door. His school was only a short jog away, and it had become part of his physical therapy to run to school.
Of course, over three years he had already fully recovered and now he ran just to be in shape. He hated how weak he had become over the two years of surgery, and he never wanted to feel like that again.
Vince was seventeen now. Today was his birthday, and he wasn't quite sure how to feel. The past three years had been some of the hardest years of his life.
When he first recovered and had attended school, there weren't many people that were willing to come up and talk to him. He went to middle school with all of them, but seeing as he was in surgery for two years, everyone felt like strangers.
Becca, the quiet, nerdy girl had started to mature into a beautiful woman. Ethan, who used to be the class clown, was suddenly a sports nut and the star of the rugby team.
Then there was Jake; the only person whom Vince felt like he still knew.
Jake was always Vince's best friend. He was a goofy kid, always laughing and making jokes out of things. Sometimes it got annoying; you could never have a serious conversation with the kid about something that actually mattered. But when Vince had returned to school, he was glad that Jake hadn't changed over the years.
Jake was the only person that came up to Vince and acted like nothing had happened. Instantly, they were best friends again.
Over the past three years, Vince had slowly started to open up. Today, he had a small group of four close friends.
There was Jake, who was already mentioned, and there were two others: Valeria and Scott.
Jessica, whom everyone called Jess, had only recently started hanging out with the gang after her and Vince had a class together.
She was an absolutely gorgeous girl. She had dark brown hair, auburn eyes and a stunning body. He always wondered why she didn't have a boyfriend, but that question was answered when he overheard two guys talking about how "crazy" she was in the hall.
Scott was the final member of his group, and the most normal of them all. He was a big kid, two inches taller than Vince, who was 6'3". Saying that he was only two inches taller than Vince didn't give him justice, however.
Scott was not only 6'5", he was over two hundred pounds of pure muscle, which left everybody wondering why he wasn't on a sports team. Contrary to his looks, Scott was one of the most sincere kids Vince had ever met.
During the first week of school, Scott had came up and sat with him and Jake at the lunch table. He was kind of a quiet guy, but you could tell that he was smarter than he let on. He'd always laugh at Jake's goofy behavior, and soon it just became normal for him to sit with us at lunch.
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Today, Jake was being his usual self at the lunch table and was berating some poor freshman who had sat at "our" table.
"Who the fuck do you think you are, Rosa Parks?" He said with a slight grin to the younger boy.
"Uhm, sorry..." The boy, who had a confused look, scampered off.
"You didn't have to be so mean to him, Jake," said Scott with a hurtful expression on his face.
"Yeah Jake, you dick," chimed in Val from the side as she looked at Vince and gave him a wink.
Vince, not really knowing how to respond, simply smiled at Val and sat down. It seemed like Val liked him, and more than as friends.
He honestly had started to become interested in her as well. She was smart, funny and beautiful and seemed like a nice person. She was starting to openly give hints, but he wasn't really sure how to handle them.
After his surgery was successful, his father had crushed the little bit of hope he had for being happy. He couldn't really blame his father at all though, if he had waited and told Vince about the cancer any later, it would have been an injustice.
Nonetheless, hearing that his mother had cancer had destroyed him on the inside. If his father was a rock that he held onto in a river of sadness, his mother was the sun. She kept him warm; she was a fiery existence that constantly reminded him of the good things in life.
She loved to go to church on Sunday, and she would always drag me along when I was able to come. "How romantic." She would say, with stars in her eyes. "Imagine, Vince, just for a second, that there is some higher power out there that created us and protects us. Isn't that wonderful?"
As he cried in his hospital bed three years ago, her words were all that went through his mind. "Why does this have to happen to me?" He thought as tears flowed out from his eyes. After several minutes, sadness turned into anger.
Vince was mad. Why did this have to happen to him? Why did this have to happen to his mother, who had never done anything wrong in her entire life?
Why did this have to happen to his beautiful mother, the one who truly believed that a higher power looked over us and protected us. His teeth ground together and his hands were gripping onto the white bed sheets.
"Happy birthday, Vince."
Jessica's words broke him out of his trance and the horrible emotions of the past.
"Thanks, Jess." Vince said, somewhat glad that someone had said something, however, he was also kind of angry that he had to be remembered that it was his birthday. After all, today was...
"Hey, how about we give our birthday boy a day to remember?" Said Jake with a mischievous grin.
"Jake, plea-"
"Happy Birthday to you!" Jake said in an exaggerated, drawn out manner. By the second line, it seemed like all five hundred or so people in the cafeteria had started to join in.
By the, "Happy Birthday dear Jake," line, Vince wasn't feeling so good. His head was starting to spin and it felt like his heart was beating out of his chest.
*Doki*... *Doki*.. *Doki*. He couldn't take it any more. His heart felt like it was going explode. The rhythm of the mass of people singing 'Happy Birthday' was starting to sound like some sort of chant. Everyone, together, repeating the same words. The words seemed to harmonize with the beating of his heart, making him remember the last time he had felt his heart beat this hard.
It was bringing back memories that he had desperately tried to forget. Memories of his mom. Memories memories of her. The same white walls surrounded her: white bed sheets, white fluorescent lights. Even her skin looked as white as a sheet of paper. His poor mother, who used to be like the sun, had become like this...
He was starting to become angry, his grin quickly becoming a scowl. Vince was mad. He was mad at Jake for putting him in this situation. He was mad at the doctors for failing to fix him six times in a row.
He was mad that his mom had to deal with cancer. His sweet mother had to experience excruciating pain for nearly two years. The doctors were constantly shooting her up with medicine, even worse than the shit he had to deal with. Blood tests, pills, bone marrow transplants... Then came the chemo. Radiation burned into her skin and killed as many cells as they could. He had stayed at the hospital one night trying to keep his mother comfort, only to be awoken at night by her shrill screams.
She had to endure so much pain. Her screams that night were filled with pain that even Vincent could only imagine. He cried himself to sleep that night in the chair outside of her room; he was too weak and scared to console his mother. "I don't know what she's going through," he thought to himself at the time while sobbing. "No one can help her."
Over the next month, his mom went through the final stages of the chemo. He tried to be brave, but every time he went to the hospital he would feel nauseated and start puking. "She's a fighter," the doctors would say with some hope in their eyes.
It was exactly a year ago, when he got the call during class. "Vince, your mother needs you," he heard his father say over the phone. He ran from his school to the hospital as fast as his body would let him. Tears streamed down his eyes because he had heard his fathers voice.
It sounded defeated. His father, the proud and confident man who had conquered the tallest mountain in the world, sounded like he had given up.
In her room all you could hear was the steady buzz of the heart monitor in the corner. He was too late. It turns out the radiation had killed her before the cancer had the chance too.
Killed her on his birthday.
"Happy Birthday, Vince."
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