A Series of Unfortunate Events Part: 39

[After rendering Jason unconscious the nurse returns to the nurse’s station. She takes down a few notes and then dials an extension on the phone. She converses very briefly with someone on the phone noting that Jason was awake and has been safely incapacitated.]

2008

Nic stares down at the pocket watch in his hand. He could feel the ticking in his hand and is taking notice to the fact that his heart is beating at what appears to be exactly the same pace. It’s been exactly a week since the accident and he still stares at the watch for what seems like hours hoping that he could maybe roll time back just far enough to where he could remember what it’s like to feel again. He feels numbed almost to the core and can’t even remember what it was like to be angry sad or happy prior to the day of the accident. His arm is riddled with small wounds that are the telltale signs of his mental anguish as he has been cutting himself in an attempt to fell something more than the nothingness he has been experiencing since shortly after he watched Keisha die.

The house seems relatively unchanged since that day aside from the flowers scattered about and the disturbances caused by family friends attempting to clean up a little bit and being unfamiliar with the house.

In the doorway stands Stan Reicher, Candace’s good friend. He watches Nic as he sits on the couch and stares at the watch. He wants to give him all the space he needs but it is time to get a move on to the funeral.

“Stan” Nic speaks down towards the floor softly but just audible enough to startle Stan.
“Yeah?” Straightening himself out from a position leaning in the front entry doorway, Stan slowly starts to approach Nic.
“You loved her right?”
“Of course I did Nic. She was practically my best friend”
“But I mean, you loved her right?”
Stan sighs and sits down on the couch next to Nic. He too is now starring downward at the floor. His words tremble at the end of his sentence as he speaks.
“God. Was it that obvious?”
Laughingly, Nic replies
“Obvious was an understatement. You two were ridiculous how you played the role of being just friends.”
“I really thought she wasn’t into me to that extent and that I was playing off how much I cared about her well.”
“No man, you sucked at it. But so did she... Why didn’t you do something about it?”
“Ha, you want me to be your step dad or something?”
“Hey don’t mess with me on the father crap. I’m just saying it was obvious that you two had some kinda thing going on.”
Stan begins to loose his composure further as the two continue to converse.
“What did we do to deserve this? Why should we have to loose the ones we have loved the most in our lives.”
Starring at the watch in his hand, Nic chokes back his tears for the last time.
“Let’s go. We can’t sit here and hurt forever. That’s prolly the only thing my old man ever taught me.”