Chapter 1
Matthew Henderson and Aiden Jackson were as close as two friends could be. Maybe their love for each other ran a little bit deeper than it should, but they had their reasons for that. Losing your parents in an accident is a dramatic event at any age, but at the ages of only ten and thirteen, as these two boys were, can have life altering effects.
Not only were lives taken that Godawful night; Aiden, the younger boy, had such severe injuries from the car crash, he ended up in a coma for three whole weeks. The doctors had been astounded Matthew had only ended up with a few scratches and bruises. But these were still the worst weeks of Matthew’s life; Matthew, who never left his best friend’s side. It didn’t matter how many times someone tried to take him away from Aiden, may it be for food, a shower, or some time to sleep, Matthew would kick and scream until his lungs hurt. Then he would kick and scream some more. He wouldn’t stop until whoever person gave up and he was back by Aiden’s side. Holding the sleeping boy’s hand and never letting go.
This was a lot to handle for such a young boy, but Matthew didn’t care. In fact, he didn’t know anything else. All he knew was that they’d both lost their parents on that devastating day, he wasn’t going to loose his bestest of friends as well. “You’re gonna get through this,” Matthew whispered with trembling lips to the comatose boy. He reached out a hand and tenderly swiped away some dirty strands from Aiden’s face. “You hear me? You’re gonna get through this. And I’m gonna be right here.” He stood up and pressed his lips on the young boy’s forehead. “I’ll never leave you, Jay. Never.”
It felt like a miracle the day after when Jayden finally woke up. Nathan had never cried so much in his life. And he never would. Well, maybe expect for a few more occasions. Together, they cried for the loss of their mothers. They cried for the loss of Nathan’s father. But most of all, they cried with relief that they still had each other.
Extensive examinations had been performed on Jayden from the moment he’d been ushered into the emergency room and throughout his stay. From MRI’s to only God knew what those machines were called. God and maybe the doctors, Nathan added in a secondary thought. Thankfully, the doctors could find no terminal head injury and no other broken parts except for the right leg, which’d been broken at two different locations, and a sprained wrist. Jayden had been lucky, indeed. Of course not as lucky as Nathan, who’d managed to get out scotch free, but lucky nevertheless. However, the broken leg forced Jayden to stay in bed for another two weeks after he’d woken up, but he didn’t need to worry, Nathan was with him every day. And when it was time for physiotherapy, to rebuild the muscles not only in his leg but throughout his body, Nathan was with him every step of the way. Always with encouraging words around the corner. Ever the supporter.
Jayden was old enough to know that Nathan should be in school. That his friend had missed weeks of it. But he rather had Nathan with him, and so he spoke nothing of it. Neither did Nathan. Even though the older boy had a hunch he’d have to repeat a grade, there was no place else he’d rather be than by his friends side.
During those endless days spent at the hospital, days working with physiotherapy and nights holding onto each other, talking, crying, and on some few occasions even laughing, neither had spoken of what would happen to them once Jayden would be released from the hospital. Why was simple, because neither knew. There we’re no longer any parents that could come and pick them up.
Jayden had grown up with a single mother, also known as the best friend of Nathans’s mom, since she’d decided to bear a child with the help of a clinic because she’d reached the age of 35 and Mr. Right had apparently been in no hurries of finding her. However, his grandparents were still alive, old, but alive. As for Nathan, his grandparents on his mother’s side, who’d been an only child, were long gone, and his father had grown up in foster care. For him, there really were no relatives left.
One evening when Jayden had fallen asleep extra early after a particularly hard meeting with his physiotherapist, Nathan had received a visit from Jayden’s grandfather, Mr. Harold Jackson. Mr. Jackson and his wife, Mrs. Florence Jackson, had visited the boys at the hospital every day since the accident. The loss of their only daughter had been as painful as one can only imagine. And even though Harold Jackson hadn’t always seen eye to eye with his beloved daughter, why the rush of having a child before you meet a man, he loved his grandson more than life itself. He didn’t have the heart to see Jayden, nor Nathan for that matter, to grow up in foster care. So even though he was in his senior years and was far more suited as the children’s grandfather rather than a parental role, Harold and his wife, Florence, had decided to seek custody over Jayden and Nathan. This was the least Mr. Jackson could do for his late, beloved daughter. This was also the reason for his visit that evening. “Nathan, do you know that Jayden will be released from the hospital within a week or two?”
Nathan nodded his head. “Thirteen days.”
“Do you know what will happen after that?” Nathan looked over at his sleeping friend, his brows furrowing in concern. This was in fact a subject he’d spent many sleepless nights worrying about. But he never showed it during daytime. He didn’t want to burden Jayden with that sort of stuff. All he knew was that he wouldn’t leave his bestest friend, no matter what. “Nathan?”
Nathan shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Yes, well, Florence and I have been talking, and, well...” Mr. Jackson drew in a deep breath and took the young boy’s hand in his. “We would very much like it if you and Jayden came to live with us.” The young boy’s eyes snapped over to the old man’s wrinkled face, feeling like his heart stopped beating altogether. He opened his mouth, then closed it again. He could hardly believe what he was hearing. “What do you say?”
A lone tear travelled down Nathan’s face and came to a stop at his trembling lips. Breathing suddenly seemed difficult. “You serious? We can both stay with you?”
A gentle smile grasped at Mr. Jackson’s chapped lips. “Yes, both you and Jayden.”
Without hardly realizing it himself, Nathan broke into a gut-wrenching sob and crashed his small frame into the older man, who almost stumbled back from the force. Mr. Jackson was quick to wrap his arms around the young boy, only now realizing the heavy weight he must have carried since the day of the accident. He was mad at himself for not having realized this sooner and reassuring Nathan and his worries. The poor boy must have needed to grow several years within the time span of just a few days. “There, there,” he whispered into the sobbing boy’s hair. “Everything will be alright.” He pulled Nathan closer to him, not caring of all the tears and snot that smeared over his thousand-dollar suit. All he cared about were the young child snoring softly in the bed next to them and the older one clinging onto him like his life depended on it.
Who knew, maybe it did.
After Jayden was released from the hospital, they moved into Mr. and Mrs. Jackson house. With the help of the older couple, the two boys got to decide what they wanted to keep from their respective old homes and what could eventually be sold off. Once finally emptied, the houses were sold. Mr. Jackson had long pondered over whether that had been the right decision or not, but neither boy had dared to step a foot in the houses they’d grown up in, nowadays only connecting them with painful memories. The future they’d been promised wiped clean and replaced by something else, somewhat patched up, but still quite broken.
