Broken by Vic Johnson (accelerated reader books txt) 📕

I charge at him. He starts to say something but I don’t hear him in my rage. I punch him in the face and he falls to the floor. I punch him again and again and again. He goes limp and I stop. I have knocked him out. I take the shorts out of his hand and turn back to Beth. I shake her and call her name but she doesn’t move at all.

I quickly put her shorts back on and pick her up. I carry her down the stairs while shouting Charlie’s name.

He comes from one side and Brooke comes from the other.

‘Oh my god what happened?’ Brooke shouts running over. I don’t stop I just head for the door.

‘Caleb did this’ I say when I reach my car. Charlie opens the back door for me. ‘I’m taking her to the hospital, you two go get max’

They both nod and run towards Brookes car.

I place Beth on the back seat so she is lying down and then I run to the driver’s side and get in.

I speed off down the driveway and pull out onto the road. I want to go really fast but if I get pulled over with an unconscious girl in my car that is not going to look good. I drive faster then I normally would though.

The hospital is just round the corner now. Not far to go now. I look in the back seat to check on her so I don’t see the stop sign. I run it, its stupid and I have never run a stop sign ever. I look up to see the bus coming straight for us. I swerve but it hits us. Everything goes black.

‘Of course your son nearly dies and all you care about is his football career’ my mum says frantically but hushed at the same time.

‘That’s not all I care about’ my dad says in the same hushed tone. Why are they in my bedroom? Why does my arm hurt like a bitch?

I try to open my eyes but they are reluctant. Eventually I manage to pry them open. This isn’t my bedroom it’s a hospital. Why am I here? What happened?

‘Look when he wakes up you better not say anything about that stupid game because I will ban you from seeing again do you understand?’

‘You can’t ban me from seeing him’

‘Try me’ she says. I’ve never seen my mum speak up against him before. ‘Hey sweetheart how you feeling?’ she has noticed im awake. I try to speak but nothing happens. I clear my throat and try again.

‘I’ll get the nurse’ my dad says leaving the room.

‘Can I have some water?’ I ask. Although my voice is really low and croaky she understands.

‘I’ll find out’ she says and leaves the room.

‘Hey’ I look up and Charlie is stood at the door. He is in an army costume. The Halloween party, I remember that part now. ‘You look like shit man’

‘Thanks’ I say. My voice is getting better. ‘What happened?’

‘You don’t remember?’

‘I remember the party at Joe’s house right?’ He nods. Then it all comes back to me. ‘Beth’ oh my god Caleb and the blood and the bus. ‘Is she ok?’

‘I don’t know. Jessica won’t let any of us see her. Not even Brooke. It’s bad though. She is in a coma. That’s what I overheard her doctors talking about’

I try to sit up but I can’t it hurts too much. I try to put my hands to my face but only one comes. It is in a pot. That’s why my dad is worried; I have broken my throwing arm. My other hand in handcuffed to the bedrail.

‘What’s this?’ I say pulling at it.

‘Mate I am so sorry’

‘Tell me what’s going on’ I say getting really angry.

‘Jessica is blaming you for drugging Beth and beating her up. She has also told the police that you were most likely drunk when you were driving and that is why you crashed.’

‘What?’ I knew she didn’t like me but that was harsh. ‘It was Caleb that hurt her’

‘I know. Me and Brooke we told the police that but when they went to his house he told them you found him talking to Beth and flew into a rage and started hitting him. He said Beth tried to stop you but you hit her too’

‘I would never hurt Beth’

‘I know that and as soon as she wakes up she will tell the police what really happened’

‘This can’t be happening’ I actually wanted to cry. This was so bad. I could get into a lot of trouble here for protecting the girl I love. ‘I have to talk to Max’

‘I’ll see if I can find him’ Charlie said running out of the room.

My mum and dad came back with a nurse who checked me over and gave me some water. When she said I would be fine my parents said they were going home to shower and change and would be back in an hour. Apparently I had been asleep for over 24 hours and they had stayed here the whole time.

Not long after they left Max came in followed by Brooke and then some guy I didn’t know but I could guess he was a cop.

‘Hello Mr Connelly glad to see your awake my name is Detective Steve Prior’ I half smiled. ‘I just need to ask you some questions’

‘Ok’ I said.

‘We will wait outside’ Max says.

‘You can stay I have nothing to hide’ I say ‘but first please tell me how Beth is I’m going crazy’

‘They can tell you after’ Prior said. ‘Now what happened the night of the Halloween Party?’

‘Well I got there’

‘You weren’t originally going is that right?’ Prior interrupted me.

‘No Beth was grounded so I didn’t see the point. Then I found out she was going so I went and got a costume at the last minute’

‘The Batman outfit you were wearing?’

‘That’s right’

‘So what happened when you got there?’

‘I looked everywhere for Beth. All the downstairs rooms and the garden but I couldn’t see her. Someone told me she had gone upstairs with Caleb and this worried me’

‘Why did it worry you?’

‘Because she had embarrassed his a few month ago and he said he was going to get her back for it. She said he looked at her like he wanted revenge’

‘How did she embarrass him?’

‘He was bullying some kid and she punched him in the face’

‘Who was he bullying?’

‘Erm Frank, Frank Thornberry I think it is. Everyone just calls him Fat Frank’

‘Ok so you go upstairs and then what?’

‘I look in a few rooms and then I get to one that is locked. I broke it down and Beth was lying on the bed covered in blood. Her clothes were ripped and her shorts had been taken off.’ A single tear rolled down my cheek. If I hadn’t gotten there when I did.

‘Where was Mr Richardson?’

‘Caleb was on his knees on the end of the bed. He was crouched over her and he sat back when I went in. He had her shorts in his hand. I ran over punched him three times and knocked him out’

‘You admit you assaulted him?’

‘What would you have done?’

‘What happened next?’

‘I tried to wake her up but she wouldn’t. I put her shorts back on and then carried her downstairs.’

‘Why did you put her shorts back on?’

‘To cover her up’ he wrote something on his pad. ‘The car accident was my fault. I was looking back to make sure she was ok and ran a stop sign. I tried to swerve away from the bus but it hit us. I was trying to get her here and I was probably driving too fast. Are the people on the bus ok?’

‘It was just the driver and he got a mild concussion but he is otherwise fine’

‘Thank god’

‘Just for the record Detective’ Max said ‘I believe him. He would never hurt Beth’

‘But she was scared of him?’ Prior asked.

‘No she wasn’t’ Brooke said.

‘I have a statement from a Miss Maddison Scott that Miss Cooper was scared of you’

‘Maddie is my ex she will say anything’

‘Yeah she would and Beth wasn’t scared of him. She loved him. She was going to tell him that night’ Brooke said.

‘What?’ I said looking at Beth.

‘She told me on the way to the party that she was finally going to tell you. I don’t think I have seen her so happy’

In this the most horrible situation I have ever been in I was flying high. She loved me. Nothing else mattered.

‘Well Mr Connelly you are been charged with assault on Mr Richardson so as soon as you are discharged you need to come to the station for more questions. Obviously we need to speak to Miss Cooper too when she wakes up. Thank you for your time’ and he left.

‘Please tell me how she is’ I beg looking at Max.

‘She has a broken leg and a broken wrist. A few cracked ribs and a dislocated shoulder. They popped the shoulder back and have potted her breaks. The ribs will fix themselves. She hit her head pretty bad and had swelling on her brain so they put her in an induced coma to get the swelling down. It’s working but it’s really up to Beth when she wakes up’

‘When will that be?’

‘They don’t know. Could be hours, days, weeks. It all depends on her’

I should be there not chained to this bed. If she hears my voice she might wake up.’

‘Jessica has filed a restraining order’

‘What?’ I shouted

‘I know I know’ Max said sitting on the bed. ‘As soon as Beth wakes up she will cancel it you know that’

‘I need to see her Max please’

‘I’ll try Jack but I can’t promise’

‘I would never hurt her Max I love her she is everything to me. When I saw her lying there with blood all over her…..it was like a horror film. I thought she was dead. I’m just glad I got to her before he did something more serious’

‘You did get to her that’s the main thing’

‘But she is worse now because of me’ I would be sat next to her if I had just seen that stop sign.

Jack was beating himself up about Beth. It wasn’t his fault. If anything it was my fault. I made her go. I’m so obsessed with been at every party so I don’t lose my social standing that my best friend was nearly…..no I can’t get stressed. I need to be strong for them.

I was still in Jacks room. Max left about an hour ago.

Jackson was asleep. Or pretending to be so he didn’t have to speak to me.

‘Hey’ Charlie said from the doorway ‘You ok?’

‘Worried about them both’

‘Me too’ he sat in the other chair next to me. ‘Don’t blame yourself’

‘I made her go’

‘No you didn’t. Nobody makes Beth do anything’ that was true. It didn’t stop me feeling guilty though.

‘You should go home and get changed. Maybe get some sleep too’ Charlie said putting his hand on mine. He didn’t hold it just placed it on top. It was comforting.

‘No I want to be here in case anything happens’

‘I’ll call you straight