Chapter Thirteen: What You See



Brian paced the halls, his hands dug deep into the pocket of his ruffled jeans. He saw Kevin approach, Nick behind him, but made no attempt aside from a feeble smile, to acknowledge them.

“You okay?” Kevin inquired, his muscular physique towering over Brian
“Yeah, I'm fine” Brian sighed
Piper’s parents had arrived, his mother particularly distraught, early this morning, and were in Piper’s room at the moment, Brian felt it necessary to leave them alone.

“Gee’s what happened?” Nick muttered, peering into the room
“I pushed her over the edge’ Brian whispered, dropping his head and sniffing briefly
“Brian, this wasn’t your fault” Kevin announced, looking tired from the previous night’s fly down from LA
Brian smiled bleakly, the kind of smile that replied yes I did
“She’s going to be okay right? Cause she promised to tell me the secret in picking up chicks” Nick smiled subconsciously trying to lift the somber mood – he hated hospitals.
Brian ignored him, taking a stance in front of the window that looked into Piper’s room. Her parents were talking, it seemed Mr. Charmers kept surveying his watch, well Mrs. Charmers seemed frantic about something. Brian sighed as he drew his eye back down to the bed. He almost could see her waking up, smiling, saying it was all some big April fools joke her and Nick cooked up. But she never said that, she never woke up, and hell, it wasn’t even April.

“Leah, I have a court appearance” Robert Charmers announced, angrily studying his watch “and so do you” he added with a poised tone
“So you’re just going to leave our daughter here like this?” Leah snapped, his face makeup-less and drawn, severe even
“What do you want me to do?”
“Show some goddamn consideration”
He raised his hand, “You don’t need to yell” he gruffly muttered
“Piper tried to kill herself” Leah remarked, as though she truly couldn’t believe it. Last time she’d ignored the fact it was a direct attempt at killing herself, she brushed the knife incident off as an accident and that Piper never really meant to hurt herself. Everyday she struggled to maintain that perhaps Piper wasn’t sick after all, that this was all just a teenage stage she was going through, just Piper’s attempt at maintaining her popularity. Every day Leah dealt with strange looks from people who knew her as Piper’s mother, strangers asking if she’d tired hypnotherapy, tough love, boot camp, and nameless other things people ‘were sure would help’. She cringed every day she say her daughter, because before her eyes one of her most precious things was dying and there was so little she could do.
“I know Leah, I know” Robert huffed, spinning his body around to face away from Pipers bed
“They don’t know if she’ll regain consciousness, and if she does its possible she could be brain damaged” Leah repeated the doctors words solemnly
“I know that, I know all of that I just-“ he paused and shook his head
“What?” Leah urged
“I just wonder if maybe we should let her”
“Excuse me?” Leah choked on his words
“Piper obviously wants to die, what’s the point in prolonging something”
He knew the words coming from his mouth were seemingly cruel, but that was how he saw it. He saw no reason to force her to live.

Leah reached around and slapped Robert across the cheek.
“I want you out of my daughters life, and out of mine” she hissed, her venomous tongue scathing at his remark
“You have a practice and another son to care about, I just think –“
“OUT! Get OUT!” she screamed

Brian backed away from the window, the two voices raising loudly through the room. He reached for the door and pushed it open. The two arguing stopped and looked across at him.
“Piper may not be awake, but they believe that people can hear them, so I suggest you keep that in mind” he said stiffly, he couldn’t understand these people, he knew this must be upsetting, but it was now more than ever they needed to join rather than argue.

Robert grunted to himself the pushed his way out of the room. Leah stood face the window, tears glazing her eyes over.
“What do you think? Do you think I should give up on Piper?” she sniffed
“No, I don’t” Brian replied
“He’s right though, it seems pointless to make her live when she doesn’t want to”
“She does want to live Mrs. Charmers, she just needs to find a reason to”
“And where do I pick up one of them/” a small smile peaked across her face, not happy, just different
Brian shrugged softly.
“She’s popular, or at least was, that should be enough. she had a great boyfriend, she was head cheerleader, granted her grades weren’t the best, but I was going to get her a tutor, she’s pretty, we give her all the material things she wants, she had friends, I don’t see why this had to happen, she had no reason to be depressed, she had all of that”
Brian sighed, he finally saw what Piper had been seeing all that time.
“Those thing are merely superficial, Piper never wanted any of that, at least none of that made her happy” he breathed deeply, he wanted to be honest, tell Pipers mother something Piper could never bring herself to say “in fact it was all those things that did this to her, don’t you see? She never wanted to be popular because that meant so very little, she desperately wanted to be loved not because of what she was, but because of who she was, she never got that, so she never loved herself enough to see what she was doing would kill her, until it was too late, Ana had already taken hold”
“Piper was always loved”
“Did she know that?”
“Are you questioning the way I raised my child?”
Brian remained silent, but stood his ground.
“I gave Piper everything she wanted”
“Except perhaps what she needed, reassurance of unconditional love, something money cant buy”
Leah looked at him half angry half bewildered, she walked passed him and slammed the door behind her. Brian slumped down into the chair he knew he’d spent the night in and watched Piper motionless body.




Chapter Fourteen
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