Chapter 7
“Give me a call when you get a chance, bye,” Matt said hanging up the phone slowly and staring at it.
“Who was that?” Jeff asked walking into the room and looking over at his brother.
“Em,” Matt said shaking his head, “I got her answering machine again. That’s the 7th message I’ve left in 4 days…”
“She’s been busy,” Jeff shrugged, “I mean, she did lose her boyfriend.”
Matt nodded as he cleared his throat, not wanting to talk about Shane again… it still hurt so bad to talk about. He stared at Jeff, not understanding how he could be carrying on with his normal life after everything that happened. He admired his brother, he was so strong when it came to tough times.
“So when are you leaving?” Matt asked.
“I’ve gotta catch a plane tonight,” Jeff said, “We gotta show tomorrow. You sure you don’t want to come?”
Matt shook his head and signaled to his arm in the sling.
“You should still come,” Jeff told him, “The guys would love to see you, are you sure?”
“I’m sure,” Matt said sitting down, “I just don’t think I can see any of them yet.”
“Are you still blaming yourself?” Jeff asked concerned as he sat next to his brother on the couch.
“It’s just that… I should have been paying more attention,” Matt said pulling his hair back into a ponytail, “If I… maybe if I’d seen the car coming… Jeff… I could have stopped it, it’s all my fault… I should be dead, not him… he didn’t deserve…”
Matt’s voice trailed off as his voice cracked and tears formed in his eyes.
“Matt, you can’t blame yourself,” Jeff said comfortingly as he pulled his older brother into a hug, “You heard the police, the man was drunk. There’s no way you could have avoided it, it was lucky you both didn’t die.”
“I should have died Jeff,” Matt cried into his brother’s shoulder, “It should have been me.”
*~*~*~*~
“You have 2 new messages…” Emily’s answering machine said as pressed the button. She sighed as she flopped onto the couch and listened to them.
“Emily, it’s your mother sweetie…” Emily groaned at hearing her mother’s voice, the last thing she needed was more sympathy from her, “Are you sure you don’t want me to come stay with you for awhile. It’s only a 6 hour drive, I can be down there by tonight if you want me to…”
“I don’t want you to…” Emily mumbled to the answering machine.
“I know you’re feeling lonely Em,” her mother continued, “Give me a call when you get in. I love you sweetie.”
Emily sighed as the message ended. She leaned her head against a pillow on the couch as she stretched out. She felt physically drained, emotionally exhausted, and just wanted to curl into a ball and sleep forever…
“Em, it’s Matt…” she heard Matt’s voice over the answering machine, “I’m just calling to make sure you’re ok, you haven’t returned any of my messages and I was worried. I think we need to talk Em. I really miss you and… I just want to talk to you…”
“I miss you too,” Emily mumbled into the pillow as fresh tears started to pour down her cheek.
“Please give me a call Em. I’m not going with the WWF so I’ll be here all week so call whenever you can. I really do miss you Em.” She heard the line go silent and thought he had hung up, but then heard him take a deep breath, “ Just give me a call when you get a chance, bye.”
She heard him hang up. She stared at the phone, wanting him to call again, just so she could hear his voice. She wanted to call him and have him come over and it could be just like it used to.
More tears started to spill down her cheeks. Shane was gone… it was never going to be like it used to.
Chapter 8
Chapter 6