A New Beginning: Chapter 6

Boykewich Family

"Ben? Ben...Ben are you up?" Leo asks as he shakes his son gently.

Ben shoots his head up but Leo cautions him to lay back down slowly. He looks around and he scrunches his nose up at the unfamiliar setting, "Where am I?"

Leo looks at his son as if he's crazy, "What do you mean?"

"I mean this isn't my room. Why am I not in my room? I was just crying over Adrian's well you know her...her death," he says as he sucks the inside of his cheeks to keep himself from crying, "and now I'm in this big white room. What the hell is this?" He wipes the dry tears off his face as he waits for Leo's response.

Leo looks startled for a second. He raises an eyebrow at his son, "Ben what are you talking about? Adrian's not dead."

"Dad stop trying to make me feel better," he says as he looks at his father angrily. How dare he try to lie to him to make him think that everything is ok. What kind of game is this?

Leo starts to chuckle, and Ben looks at his father as if he's just gone mad. He puts both of his hands up defensively, "Ben I swear I'm not lying."

Silence.

"You're seriously confused aren't you?" he asks.

Ben rubs his temples together as he feels a headache coming on, "Y-You're trying to tell me that Adrian's not dead? Dad she's gone. Rev. Stone held the funeral and everyone was crying. She even sent me a letter via email that said she was sorry."

"Son I'm sorry but you must have been dreaming," he says with a soft tone. Before they can say anything more Camille walks through the door, a sad smile on her face.

"How are you Ben?" she asks, looking down at him as if he was a broken toy.

"Camille what the hell is going on? Leo's trying to tell me that Adrian isn't really dead," he says in a rather frustrated tone. He just wants to get to the bottom of all of this.

Camille takes a seat next to Leo and then touches Ben's hand, "...Honey you're father's not lying."

"Oh come on! Camille-"

"Adrian did come close to dying though. Don't you remember? A couple weeks after she lost um-"

"Mercy. Our daughter Mercy," he states defensively.

"Of course Ben...Well Adrian was having a hard time dealing with Mercy. She went to the rooftop of a familiar building, well familiar to her at least. You happened to see her there. I don't know what you were doing out but thank God you found her. You tried to get her to stop and in the process you-"

"Being as clumsy as you are," Leo adds and Camille chuckles, "He said it not me. But you pushed her out of the way and then you fell down the roof yourself. I don't even know how you survived honey. The doctors said that this could have easily been your death, but somehow you made it alive with only a cracked skull, a broken rib, and a fractured leg. You're lucky. Anyway, a former friend of Adrian's, a girl named Lisa found your body laying there and she panicked and called 911. You've been here for a week now and have been flowing in and out of consciousness."

Silence.

It all starts coming back to him now. He remembers walking so late at night looking for Adrian. She wasn't in the condo and he'd called Grace and was informed that she wasn't there either. Adrian didn't have many friends, but he tried everyone that he knew she knew. When he doesn't know what else to do he starts looking in search for her. He checks the diary shack but she's not there. He even hits up a few places around there that she might be at. He thinks long and hard and that's when he finds one more place. He remembers Adrian telling him about going there whenever she thought of Antonio, and sure enough she was there.

"Adrian! Adrian! What are you doing?" he exclaims as he looks at Adrian. He's on the rooftop now and he's watching her as she dangles one foot over the rooftop.

"Ben! What the hell are you doing here?" she says with a fierce voice. She still doesn't look his way.

"What is this about? Are you - oh Adrian please don't do this!"

"I LOST HER BEN! I LOST MERCY! You should hate me as much as I hate myself right now," she screams.

"But I don't hate you Adrian. Please just, just move away from there it's dangerous."

She smiles as she feels the wind pick up, "Peace."

"Adrian what are you talking about?"

"That's what I want Ben. Peace from all of this. I just want to be free and this-"

"NO!" he shouts, moving towards her without even thinking about it. He pushes her down to the point where she falls to the ground. Only a fraction of a second later, he slips over his shoe and his body is sent tumbling to the ground.

"BEN! BEN!" she cries.

He gasps in shock as the image plays freshly in his mind. He remembers seeing Adrian so weak, and wanting to grab her and tell her that everything will be ok, and then one quick fall ruins everything. Slowly though, he starts to grin. There's still a chance. She's still here. She hasn't left me yet. And as Ben thinks about all of this, he realizes that he can't let what's happened in his dream happen in real life.

"I must have been dreaming hard," he thinks aloud.

Leo smiles and pats his shoulder, "Must have buddy. Your friends are out here waiting for you."

"Friends?" he questions. He doesn't have any friends.

"Henry, Alice, and Ashley are here right now. Amy and Ricky wanted to come but-"

"It doesn't matter," he says, waving his statement off, "Is Adrian here?"

"Yeah she's waiting outside with the rest of them," Camille answers, "Are you ok to see people right now?"

Ben nods, "Yes, but right now I only want to see Adrian. Can you tell the rest to go home? I don't want to be rude but just tell them I'll see them once I get out of the hospital."

Camille looks at Leo questioningly but he just shrugs, "You heard the man"

She walks out of the room and starts to look for Adrian.

Leo turns to look at his son. He's such a strong young man.

"You scared me you know that? And I don't get scared of much."

"How'd I scare you?"

"I thought you weren't going to make it."

The door swings open and in comes Adrian. She looks like a mess. Her curly hair is in a messy bun and her makeup is smeared She looks worn out, and tired, "Ben?"

Ben looks at Camille and Leo and he doesn't need to ask. Both of them exit the room. Adrian takes a seat next to Ben. He grabs her smooth hand and looks up at her with happy eyes, "I'm really glad you're here Adrian."

"Why? I put you through this. If I hadn't tried to-"

"Ssh," he whispers, "None of that matters anymore. The important thing is that you're here...with me, and we're going to be ok."

"So there is still a we?" she says, only smiling slightly.

"Yeah...there is," he responds.

"Ben-"

"Adrian I just had this dream that made me realize that I can't live without you, and I don't want to live without you. I don't want Amy, or Grace, or anyone else expect you. Try not to ruin the moment yeah?"

She chuckles and then moves closer towards him. She kisses him on the cheek but he keeps his grip on her, moving his mouth to her lips. They're soft and plump and Ben feels like the happiest man in the world.

Despite everything that's happened, and all of the pain that they're going through he's happy. It's going to be a struggle knowing that Mercy is gone, but somehow he just knows that he can get through it all, with Adrian by his side.

He's ready for a new beginning.

A/N: I guess you can say that I couldn't bring myself to kill him. I thought of a different ending, one where Ben would just have to learn to cope with Adrian's death, but then I just couldn't resist in making it happy. Epic fail lol. Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed.