Chapter Thirty: Alcohol Poisoning
River Jenkins

I wish I could hide it, or even deny it, but the stupid smile never wanted to leave my face. I was walking home after comforting Sophia at her home when she broke down, but I still can’t get over the day we had, with all its ups and downs.

She is troubled, just like I am, and that’s why I wanted to do everything in my power to comfort her. Nobody deserves to be alone when they are going through some things, so I made sure she wasn’t, and I must admit that the talk we had somehow brought the two of us together—it’s like we share something.

We did share something: pain, loss, grief and guilt.

I didn’t just feel guilty for not being there for my family when he needed me, but I also felt guilty when I made Sophia feel even shittier than she already did.

I mean, walking with that kind of pain and guilt and grief wasn’t for sissies, but I just had to go and add to that pain by making her life absolute hell because I thought I was the only one who suffered in this world, but I was so wrong. My aunt was right when she said that I wasn’t the only one with a bad past, and if I just had listened to her at the time, I wouldn’t have made Sophia’s life hell. And to make matters worse, I still have her ring and I don’t know how I’m going to explain to her how I got it when I told her that I didn’t have it in the first place.

I felt guilty; the tightness in my chest was becoming too unbearable to feel.

I don’t have a choice but to keep the engagement ring until the right moment pops up to give it to her again, in a covert manner, like hiding it in her bag, or hiding it behind her nightstand.

“Fuck.” I shake my head, pinching the bridge of my nose out of frustration.

And what made me feel even guiltier than I already did was the fact that I could see the absolute heartbreak in her eyes when she asked me if I saw her ring that night when I found her in front of my house, and I actually smirked like an asshole at her. I smirked when she was slowly breaking down in front of me.

I truly was one heartless asshole.

I was no better than her damn mother.

Usually my feet would lead me to the barn, but tonight I decided against it and the next thing I know, I was taking off my boots before stepping into the house.

And when the door closed behind me… I felt it.

The atmosphere… It was odd.

My aunt and uncle were sitting on the couch.

My uncle was talking to her in a hushed manner, and my aunt looked just about on the verge of crying. Her hands were shaking violently as they were resting in her lap, and when she saw me, she tried so hard to cover that she was on the verge of tears by smiling happily at me and getting up from the couch.

She walked over to me, and before she could pull me in a hug, I pull away from her. “What’s going on?” I ask, seeing red almost immediately. “What the hell did you say to her? Why is she so upset?” I look past my aunt toward my uncle, who just shook his head. “Tell me.” My gaze softens when I look at my aunt.

“Tell him, Penelope.” My uncle says. “He deserves to know.”

“No!” My aunt yells at him. “That would only hurt him more.”

“Tell me what, Aunt P?”

My aunt turns around slowly, and tries to reach for my hand, but again, I pulled it away from her.

I know that look too well.

She was going to tell me something I’m not prepared to hear.

The atmosphere wasn’t just my gut telling me that something was wrong…it was the expression on my aunt and uncle’s faces too. The way my aunt was on the verge of crying and staring at her empty, shaking hands, and the way my uncle was seated sloppily on the couch like he just received some bad news. News they didn’t want to share with me, apparently.

“River…”

She opens her mouth to say something, but my uncle speaks before she got a chance to. “Your father wants to see you, River.”

I just stared at her… at them.

The air around me got thick. My lungs struggled to get air.

“Your father wants to see you.”

Six words. Six damn words knocked the air right from out of my lungs.

“I know that this is hard to hear… but he claims that he changed and that he wants to make amends to fix the broken relationship between the two of you.” My aunt says.

“He has cancer… Stage four.” My uncle says.

“I don’t fucking care what stage of cancer he has.” I tell the two of them, feeling my hands start to shake, just like my aunt’s did. My heart was just about ready to break through my ribcage. “That man is a fucking cancer.”

My aunt breaks out into a sob, but she still turns toward my uncle. “I told you to keep quiet! I told you not to tell him.”

“Just because he has cancer doesn’t mean that you have to see him.” My uncle says. “I wanted to tell you because you had a right to know that your father contacted us, and told us that he wanted to see you. To make amends.”

“I won’t see him,” I shake my head, “not even when he’s lying on his death bed.” I run my fingers through my blond hair, feeling the anger bubbling up inside me. “He can die alone for all I care.” I then look at my aunt. “He deserves to die alone for what he did to me and for what he took from me. From us…”

“River, he’s going to die.” My uncle says.

“He deserves what’s coming to him.” I tell him. “I hope it takes his life.”

I don’t wait for their reply.

I just storm out of the living room and run up the stairs.

Once I entered my room, I close the door behind me and sink to the floor to catch my breath.

I hear footsteps coming up the stairs and not long after my aunt’s knocks coming from behind the door I was currently seated against.

My ribs hurt with how rapidly I was breathing.

Hell, I was surprised I was breathing in the first place. When they told me that the man I used to call ‘father’ wanted to see me, the breath got knocked out of my lungs. Their words were like a blow to the gut, breaking all my ribs at once.

He still has an effect on me, even from prison.

I ignore her pleas to open the door.

• • •

Sophia Crawford

“What’s got you smiling like you’ve just won a million dollars?” Ana asks.

She completely pulls me out of my reverie an endless staring at nothing in particular and I feel my cheeks heat up despite it being super cold outside.

I may or may not have been thinking about a certain blond haired boy with gun-metal blue eyes, but not in a daydreaming, flirty kind of way… It just feels somehow refreshing to talk to him without us grabbing at each other’s throats every chance that we got. That, and the fact that Mr Ryan gave everyone extra time to do the assignments seeing that winter break starts next week.

River wasn’t unfortunately here to witness the good news.

“Nothing.” I tell her. “I’m just thinking about school and how it’s almost over. Not over, exactly… you know what I mean.”

I ignore the sideways glance she was shooting me as I take a big gulp from my water bottle Cole brought over a few minutes ago.

Ana knows I am lying but she never pushed me for more information. “And I can’t believe prom is in a few months, either.” She says before a big grin took over her face. “We definitely need to go dress shopping together! It’ll be fun.”

I nod at her.

I just wanted to drift the conversation away from River and how Ana almost found out that I was busy thinking about him.

“I wonder where River is today.” She says after a few minutes.

And we were back to the River thing.

“Same.” I mutter. “He probably just skipped again.”

I was relieved when she didn’t push about River, but I did wonder where he was though. I thought we were getting along well and that everything was finally going great between the two of us. I didn’t expect us to be the best of buddies, but it would have been nice to see him after the heart-to-heart we had yesterday.

I was nodding along to what Ana was saying when I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. I take it out and see that it was a message from an unknown number.

UNKNOWN NUMBER: Is this Sophia Crawford? I’m Myles, and River is here drinking himself into a coma. You need to get here ASAP. (If you’re not Sophia, ignore this message. Thank you very much.)

Myles.

I frown. I heard that name before.

Oh, that’s right. River mentioned him yesterday when he told me about the fight he had, the one that caused him to get a broken rib. His opponent apparently nearly kicked him to death. And that was definitely not a lie. When I was at his house for my grandmother’s birthday dinner his aunt was hosting for her, his entire side was bruised. His face was bruised. His knuckles were busted.

You know? The signature River look.

“What’s wrong?” Ana asks when she sees my frown.

I shake my head and quickly prop my phone back into my pocket.

“It’s my grandmother.” I lie. “I need to go.”

“Is she okay?” She asks when I was wiping the dampness from the snow off the back of my pants.

“Yes.”

I didn’t give her a chance to reply, I only stormed through the cafeteria doors without glancing back at her and Cole.

• • •

I open the bar’s door, feeling sceptical that I followed an unknown number’s location, but when I saw River half-sitting, half-lying on one of the stools, I know I haven’t been taken for a ride.

“Are you Myles?” I ask, seeing someone trying to pry a bottle of vodka away from River’s grip.

The guy I assume is Myles manages to take the bottle away from River, after spilling some of the contents onto the bar’s counter, but luckily it was away from River’s reach.

I stop dead in my tracks when I recognised Myles from the barn the other day, the first time I ever saw River fighting his scary opponent, Kane.

“Wait, I know you.” I slowly walk over to the counter. “You were at the barn.”

The guy nods, jumping over the counter before he makes his way toward me still standing near the bar’s doors. Luckily the bar was empty so that someone won’t notice a minor drinking himself into a coma and call the cops on him.

“That’s me.” He then smiles and extends his hand for me to grab.

I shake it.

If River talked about him before, I think Myles could be trusted.

Myles then sighs. “I don’t know what’s wrong with him.” Myles says, looking at River over his shoulder before he looks back at me. “I saw your number on his phone and decided to message you and not his aunt because he’d be in trouble if she found out about this. I mean, fighting is one thing, but drinking?”

I nod, remembering that River did enter his phone number into my phone right after I entered mine in his when he dropped me off at my house the other day.

“Please… just do something.” He begs.

“I don’t exactly know why you called me.” I tell him. “I mean… we’re not the best of friends.”

“Well, before he got this drunk, he talked about you like you were his friend. There really isn’t anyone else I could have messaged, so I messaged you.”

I nod again, slowly stepping past Myles to go to River. “I’ll try.”

I hear the bar’s doors opening, telling me that Myles left us alone to talk.

River’s hair was messy, even messier than usual.

When he turned around, his eyes were bloodshot red from drinking, and it also looks like he hasn’t slept in days. He looked absolutely terrible, to say the least.

“What’s gotten into you, River?” I ask him, sitting down beside him on one of the stools. “When’s the last time you’ve slept?”

He chuckles humourlessly and hiccups afterwards. “What’s with the m-many q-questions?” He drawls, his words coming out sloppily.

“Let’s get you home…” I tell him, trying to wrap my hand around his arm to lift him from the stool, but he barely moves.

He shrugs me off and reaches for the bottle of vodka Myles stashed under the bar but fails miserably when his fingers barely graze the bottle’s cap. River sighs in defeat and rakes his fingers through his already unruly hair. “I d-don’t w-want to go h-home.”

“Let’s just go please, River…” I beg, tugging his arm again but he just shrugs it off again. “You had enough to drink—”

“Who are you, my mom?”

“I’m just trying to help you before you really hurt yourself, or even drink yourself into a damn coma.”

“T-there she is…” He chuckles. “The n-nosy Sophia I know so well. Are you here to pry again, nosy Sophia? Try to get me to talk when I’m so d-drunk?”

“No.” I tell him, clenching my jaw together.

He was drunk and he didn’t mean the words he said.

“I’m just trying to prevent you from getting alcohol poisoning.”

“W-who cares?” He drawls, his breath smelling like alcohol washing over my face. “Maybe that’s how I’m supposed to die. Alcohol poisoning…” He then laughs, the sound piercing throughout the entire empty bar, even through the sound playing faintly through the speakers in the background. “That’d be a damn shame… Eighteen year old dies of alcohol poisoning.”

His expression then changes into something else. Hurt. “It’d be a much better way than how my family died… They didn’t deserve what happened to them…”

I flinch when his palm connects with the bar’s counter.

And again.

And again.

He’s so drunk I don’t even think he felt a thing when his palm started to bleed.

I slowly take his hand into mine. “You’re bleeding, River…”

“I’m fine.” He shrugs. “I’m used to it.”

He gets up from the stool and nearly face-plants if I didn’t catch him in time. I snake my arm around his waist, making sure that his arm was over my shoulder so I can keep him upright as I make my way to the exit of the bar.

Cold air washes over the both of us when we leave the bar.

Myles was standing against the wall, smoking a cigarette when he saw me struggling to keep River upright. He throws his cigarette to the ground, stomps onto it and helps me carry River to his truck.

“His aunt is going to kill him if she sees him like this.” Myles says, fishing his keys out of his pocket before he opened the back passenger door for River.

“He can come to my house.” I tell him. “My grandmother is usually gone during the day doing errands, so I think that would be the safest option… I can always tell Penelope that we’re busy doing the assignment together.”

Myles nods. “Thank you, Sophia. I appreciate that you came.” He smiles pensively at me. “I have seen him at his absolute worst,” he admits, “but I have never, in all the time I’ve known him, seen River like this before.” He closes the car door after we settled River into the seat and throwing the seatbelt over him.

He was passed out cold from all the alcohol.

Myles opens the passenger seat for me and I get in, but before he closed my door, he looked at me intently. “I am sorry for springing this on you, Sophia, but River talked about you like you’re the only person he trusts.” He says. “And I really hope that you can be the one to help him through this.”

“Me?” I ask with a frown.

Myles nods. “He told me that the two of you shared something.” Myles swallows hard, visibly. “Pain and grief…” He says. “And that you are the only one who can understand his pain because you went through it, too.”