"Cooper wait," I called running after him as mom fell into father’s chest and wept. Cooper turned the corner and lied flat with his back to the wall.
"Coop," I said. Then he lost it, he slid down the wall and began to sob. "Please stop," I said crouching down beside him. He ran his hand through his hair and pulled his knees up to chest. His blue eyes had never been bluer; they were like the clear sky of the first of autumn. I scooted closer to him as he put his face into his knees.
"I'm ok. It’s going to be alright." I said putting my hand on his back. His head jerked up and he looked at me. But he didn't see me, his face scrunched in confusion.
I can't feel him, but he can feel me.
He continued to stare at me, "cooper, I'm right here," I said. He swallowed hard and rand his hands over his face.
"Oh God. It’s been a while right," he was praying I gawked at him, "I don't remember why I have been mad at you all this time, but Blaine, he still loves you. Please protect him," cooper sobbed. "I can't live without him. Please. Just heal him. And love him. More than our own father does. God I'm sorry, I just want my little brother back."
I started to cry, "cooper I'm right here! I haven't gone anywhere please listen to me!" He wiped off his face and rose to his feet. He headed back towards the waiting room the same time the nurse came and got mom and father.
I trailed behind him confused on where they were going. Mom and father walked into a door and mom gasped. Cooper stopped at the door not even wanting to go in to see what mom was wailing about. I walked around him and stared at myself.
Well you can barely make me out. There were tubes shoved down my throat, an IV and a blood bag dangling with more tubes in my arms. My body was so purple and swollen it made me itch. I didn't look alive or even human. Most of my body was covered in bandages and casts. But if that’s me there what am I doing walking around.
I turned away from the gross site and saw mom weeping into dad’s shoulders. Father actually looked sad. He would never shed a tear but for once in his life he looked like he cared about me. I turned to the door; cooper still hadn't come in to see me. Quite frankly I didn't blame him a bit I was so ugly.
He slowly crept around the corner and his jaw dropped, "pretty bad huh," I said weakly. But he did enter the room; instead he turned around and started to leave.
"Cooper!" I called then remembered he can't hear me. I grab his hand but it’s like hold air. He stopped, looking at his hand in utter shock; he shook a thought from his head and continued to leave the hospital. I followed him all the way to the doors when I was just stopped, I couldn’t cross the door to leave, "Coop wait!" I tried again but it was like pushing against a glass wall.
Cooper was already a moving dot in the midnight sky. I was so confused; I just walked back into my room at sat opposite mom and dad. They looked remorseful, yet like they too wanted to just leave me...

I stared at the respirator all day, forcing myself to breathe the opposite of it. Mom left at noon for a meeting with her book club, she holds her president title a little too tight after all I am dying...
That was what I concluded last night, I'm Bruce Willis, or Patrick Swayze in ghost. Either way I'm dead. Father left last night, business trip to New York that he couldn't cancel on CFO hold so much power. It’s not like he is losing sleep over me. In fact I'm sure he is at a Hilton sleeping like a baby.
Coop, he's gone too, last night after he just ran off he never came back. I guess I was all alone, this was a new feeling to me, I always had at least one person by my side... holding my hand through all of it. I whipped the tear I hadn't noticed crawling down my cheek. I pulled my feet up to my chest and wrap my arms around them. I buried my face into my knees, and take a deep breath-- still opposite the respirator machine-- and let out a sob.
Stupid high school, my how world was ruined.
Heavily sluggish footsteps made their way down the hall then they stopped abruptly. I lifted my head a bit and saw cooper at my bedside. "Cooper!" I exclaimed sitting upright. He pulled a chair over to me and took my surprisingly UN bandaged hand. I hoped id feel it but I couldn't. But I remember what it felt like and it was worth it.
"Hey baby brother; you would not believe the morning I had. It took 3 different law offices just to draw up custody of you. Kathryn will get a surprise when she gets home. Then again, it was always Helen the house keeper that liked us the most." He smiled but it didn't quite reach his eyes, his eyes were more like a skeleton.
He also looked like he was doing it for me more than him. "I'm sorry I left yesterday. It was just hard you know I can't stand to see you hurt; I would rather be the one in this big white room. You don't deserve this. You have done nothing wrong; hell you've never been kissed." He shook his head and sighed. "I guess, I just, want you to know that even if I'm not here to hold your hand, I'm never really gone."
I stood up and walked over to him. "I know coop," I stared at him; he looked so aloof just sitting there. Mom walked into the room yelling it startled me, but not cooper, nothing scared my big brother.
“What the hell is this Cooper James Anderson?!” she said throwing paper in his lap. She always looked her prettiest mad. Naturally, she had fair skin and blue eyes that stared into our soul whenever we were in trouble. Her cheeks would tint pink in rage and lip would quiver while she spoke. Cooper once made a joke about it, I got slapped for laughing at her when she was yelling at me, but it was kind of funny. But the thing that made her prettiest when she was mad was the fact that her perfectly shaped eyebrows were showing emotion that she fails to convey during any other time.
“That would be a request of custody from the family court offices,” Cooper said cool as ice.
“You have a lot of nerve, I read this,” –“Congratulations, you can read,” cooper said under his breath— “You cannot get custody of your little brother, and as soon as Michael gets back he will have his layers look into getting a restraining order on you. You will never see Blaine again.”
Cooper stood up and skewered over the woman I call my mother and uttered, “Get out.”
She stared right back at him, they were scaring me, mom is known for slapping anyone who gets in her way, and cooper, well he is scaring me right now…
“Stop fighting please.” I begged looking up at them.
“You cannot have my son.” Mom said in a low lethal tone.
“You won’t even be around to take care of him, what do you care anyway? Aren’t you late for a spa day?” I knew it was coming as her hand raised and went flying across coopers face, he didn’t even wince as the pop echoed in the room.
“You are a horrible mother, and if you don’t sign the papers, I will show Judge Tracy all that you have done wrong, dad too, though I saw the devoice so I know he won’t have trouble signing.” Cooper said, he bent down to pick up the papers that scatted across the floor.
“You don’t know what your father and I are going through, and I will not sign my child’s life away to you. You’re still a child yourself. What makes you so sure you can take care of him?” mom stared at the bed, “You can’t afford his medical bills, hell that’s even if he wakes up.”
It hurt me when she said that, like I physically had trouble breathing. If I don’t wake up? I swallowed hard, “Cooper,” I said but fell to my knees. The world was spinning he was saying something to mom but I couldn’t hear anything but the beep. It was slowing down, each beep got weaker until it just stopped. I looked up at all the nurses and doctors around my bed trying to revive me but I just wanted to be with cooper, I stood up and ran out the room where he was being restrained by an officer as mom was staring into the room crying and shaking her head. I ran around the officer and I wrapped arms around his waist. “Please don’t leave me.” I beg closing my eyes hearing “Clear!”

I opened my eyes in my room, but I wasn’t alone, cooper was asleep in my reading chair holding my blanket and it appeared he was crying in his sleep. I must still be Swayze… . I climbed out of bed and walked out the room hearing mom and father talking in their room. I walked to their room and heard mom talking in a wretched tone.
“I think we should pull the plug.”
“Kathryn,” Father sounded concerned, “That’s our son, how can you even think like that?”
“Well I wouldn’t be going to court for custody if he was dead, cooper would leave us, we wouldn’t have to end.” Her voice cracking a bit.
“Don’t you see, it’s not who our sons are or what they do, it’s you. You are the reason I am never home. You have changed, and if you would just sign the damn devoice papers I wouldn’t have to worry about what you will do next to our sons.” Father said. “I'm leaving, I will help pay for Blaine but you are being cut off, I’ll be in Lima if anything important happens.”
Mom let out a sob, “I can change, Michael please don’t leave me.” There was a scuffle of feet and father’s voice was suddenly right next to the door.
“You have said that, I don’t love you anymore. Stop torturing this family, give Blaine to coop, he won’t be able to leave you the way I am.” The door opened and I ran to the bathroom to hide. Mom walked in the hallway and watched dad leave, she choked out a sob and fell to the floor crying.
Cooper came out just as the door shut, he looked at mom and walked over to her, “Mom, what is it?”
She looked up at cooper and lied, “Blaine is dead.”