Chapter 9: Friend or Foe

The school doctor came quickly, I stood back and let them handle Mitch, knowing that I wouldn't be of any help. I walked up the stairs and approached the only two people I've seen with my best friend before she fell down. My other two best friends.

"What happened?" I calmly asked them, refusing to believe that they did it to her, intentionally or not but before they could answer me, a girl from the crowd shouted something that made my heart sunk and my blood turned ice cold.

"YOU GUYS SHOULDN'T HAVE PUSHED HER!" yelled the girl, followed by a series of other inaudible remarks from the crowd below.

My eyes started to water, my mind went black. I stared at the two of them, I felt like I didn't know the two of them, they felt like stranger to me. Denise was saying something to me but all I heard was muffled buzzing noises, all I could think of was Mitch's face while lying on the ground with blood on her head. How could they do that to her? We were friends, almost siblings. We were supposed to have each other's back but this happened.

I couldn't restrain myself anymore, I grabbed his collar and pulled him closer to me. Denise tried pulling me, trying to pry me off of Miggy. I let go and was about to punch him in the face when Denise seized that opportunity and got in between us, luckily, I was able to stop my fist from hitting her as she stood in front of me.

I looked at her and I suddenly felt sad about everything. Tears that formed in my eyes started running down my face, so I just decided to walk away from where we were. I went straight to the infirmary, but the nurse told me that Mitch was already taken to the hospital. They already informed her parents about the accident and being her closest friends and students directly involved in the accident, the three of us were excused from afternoon classes and was kept in the same room. We were interviewed at different times. I narrated to my adviser everything that I know, pleading after for them to tell me what Denise and Miggy said, but she refused, so I really have no idea what they said that day.

As our parents picked us up, I was begging them to go straight to the hospital, but they declined, assuring me that we would visit Mitch as soon as she was transferred to her own room.

"You also need to rest, Shin. It won't make things better if we would go there at your state right now." Explained my dad as she was pulling out of the school's parking lot. After that day, everything was different especially for the four of us. We went our separate ways, it was like we didn't grew up together, like we were never friends.

Mitch was comatose for 1 month, her body was function well, but she wasn't waking up. I went to the hospital every day to see her and take care of her, but the two of them never visited her even once, and that added to my anger and disappointment towards them.

A part of me wanted to believe that everything was an accident just like what my parents told me after they talked with Denise's, Miggy's and Mitch's parents. They knew the four of us very well, all of them practically watched the four of us grew up. They couldn't imagine that anyone of us would intentionally hurt another. For them, we were still that tight group of inseparable friends, but the four of us knew otherwise. Nothing is going back to the way they were.

Us being friends, doesn't change the fact that they were the only two people with Mitch when she fell. No one saw exactly what happened other than the three of them, there are always two sides of the story, they told theirs, but Mitch is still in no condition to tell hers.

The three of us took the rest of the week off of school after that incident, and everything took a turn for the worse when the three of us came back to school. While I earned sympathy from other students, Denise and Miggy became the target of bullying. Rumors spread out in our absence and a lot of people hold the two of them accountable of what happened to Mitch.

There were rumors that Denise stole something from Mitch, Mitch found out and confronted Denise and that caused the fight that they were in before Miggy interfered. I ignored everything they asked me about this, I never confirmed anything, but I also couldn't bring myself to deny and defend Miggy and Denise.

Miggy was constantly getting in fights with the group of guys that the two of us always fought with, even with the knowledge of this happening I found myself walking farther away from the guy that was once a brother to me. Denise on the other hand was getting constantly picked on by other girls that turns into extreme pranks most of the time. Miggy despite his own problems, was still always there trying to protect her.

I tried my best to not get involve in their affairs, but it wasn't easy. It was instinct for me to stood up for my friends, that thought was always at the back of my mind. There are times that I just couldn't stay away, especially when it was Denise. I warned her a couple of times about pranks that I heard about from other people's word of mouth. She would always just smile at me and say thanks every time that I talk to her. Neither one of us would bring up Mitch's situation through those conversations, both of us know that I was just being civil with her for old times' sake.

When Mitch finally woke up, she still rested for a week before going back to school eagerly. She still has a broken ankle from the fall, but everything seemed fine other than her slight memory loss. She couldn't remember anything that happened that day, so when she got back to school, she was overwhelmed with all the attention people were giving her. Not to brag or anything, the four of us are few of the popular kids in school, so we weren't totally new to the limelight, but this time it was truly overwhelming. Add to that the confusion she had when she noticed that Denise and Miggy were keeping their distance.

I told her what happened, and she just couldn't believe it, she refuses to take that story as the truth. She tried reaching out to the two of them, but they just remained civil towards the two of us. I guess they also don't know how to handle the situation. Maybe they were starting to feel guilty towards her, so they remained distant to her. Eventually, she stopped trying push herself to them and just accepted how we became. That we would never be the same.

Me and Mitch tried our best to help them from a distance because that's what Mitch wanted when she found out that Miggy and Denise were getting bullied. No matter what she said, denying the allegations against the two, her story was set aside because she couldn't remember anything from that day. So, we settled to just helping the two of them. Eventually, the bullying died out and everything became quiet again. Not until one Friday afternoon, when Denise rushed to my classroom, panicked. She went straight to my desk, still catching her breath.

"Shin, please. Miggy needs help." She said in between deep breathes, desperation dripping from her voice.

"What happened? Where is he?" I asked her. Panic starting to rise in my chest. I would be a hypocrite if I would say that I have no ounce of care for him. He was still the closest person I had to a brother and I don't want anything bad to happen to him in spite of everything that happened between us.

"Third floor. Science Lab. I heard Maximo threatening to meet him there or else he'll do something to me. Please Shin. We both know how dangerous Maximo could be and Miggy is still not recovered from his beatings last week." She begged me.

I immediately stood up from my seat and run as fast as I could to where Denise said they would be. What she said was news to me, I didn't know that Maximo was still giving Miggy a hard time. I thought all the bullying had already stopped. I guess I was wrong.

As I got to the third floor, I saw, right away, two other students there. Maximo's posy was blocking the door to the Science Lab. They were older than us, so they are feared by most students, but not me and Miggy. We've already encountered him on a few occasions, but those times he both had a fighting chance because we had each other, but now he might have saw Miggy as an easy target now that he's always alone.

"Move." I simply said as I got to the door. The two of them might follow Maximo around and bully other people, but they are nothing without him. They shared a look between them, but I grew impatient. I yanked one of them away from the door and went inside.

Maximo had Miggy by the collar on top of a chair near an opened window. They were both startled when I opened the door and looked at my direction. Maximo was so shocked that let go of Miggy so quickly that Miggy lose his balance on top of the chair, I ran as fast as I could to grab him, but I was too late. He fell through the opened window. I was so stunned that I couldn't move. Maximo run out as fast as he could out of the room followed by his goons, leaving me alone still stunned.

When I regained my sense, I quickly ran out the room and down the stairs to check on Miggy. Please be okay. Please Migs hold on. He has to be okay. Those were the only thoughts that were running through my mind. When I reached the entrance of the building, people were already starting to gather around the place where Miggy was supposed to be. I saw Denise from a far and I knew that her expression reflected mine. We both pushed ourselves towards the front of the crowd and saw the scene both of us never expected to see.

Mitch was standing in her crutches, things scattered around her feet. She was in front of a body lying on the floor with blood oozing from his head. Denise and I moved quickly towards the center where the two of them are. Me going straight to Mitch and Denise to Miggy.

I hugged Mitch and cover Miggy's body from her then turned her around to completely change her line of view. When we turned, I had a clear sight of Miggy and Denise, Miggy laid there unconscious and bloody while Denise lifted his head and placed it on her lap crying her eyes out. She was screaming at everyone to call the doctor, but in less than a few seconds the school doctor and nurses were already rushing towards Miggy and I suddenly felt Mitch's weight on me, she fainted.

The ambulance also reached the school fast and the four of us were taken to the hospital. We were admitted quickly in the Emergency Room. Miggy and Mitch were rushed in carried in stretchers while me and Denise got our vitals checked. When they didn't see anything amiss with the two of us, they made us wait for our parents in the waiting lounge.

"I was too late." I said without even thinking, tears starting to form in my eyes again.

"Calm down Shin. They're going to be fine." Denise tried comforting me as best she could, but I couldn't shake the feeling that it was my fault.

"What happened?" She asked calmly and I told her what happened in the classroom.

"It's not anybody's fault. Nobody wanted this to happen. You know that, right?" she said stroking my back while trying to suppress her own tears. We stayed there waiting until our parents came. We immediately told them what happened when they asked us, not leaving any detail out of it. They wanted to send me and Denise home, but we both refused. We haven't even heard anything about Miggy and Mitch, we at least wanted to know if they were okay. Our parents agreed and allowed us to wait a bit more.

Mitch woke up thirty minutes after our parents arrived, the doctor said that she was in shock by what she witnessed. We waited and waited, but no news regarding Miggy came. The doctor just said that he was under emergency operation, we waited for more than two hours when, finally, the doctor came out. We were all quiet, all ears for everything that he will say.

"Family of Mr. Miguel Santiago?" he asked and Miggy's parents rushed towards him.

"How is my baby doc?" asked Miggy's mom.

"He's in a stable condition ma'am, but he is under comatose. He has a severed head injury acquired from the fall and is on life support at the moment." Miggy's mom lost all the strength in his legs and almost collapsed on the floor, thankfully Miggy's dad caught her.

Every day I visited him, wanting and wishing for him to wake up. Feeling sorry and guilty that I wasn't fast enough to save him. Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months until one day when I arrived at the hospital Miggy wasn't there anymore. I asked the admitting and learned that he was discharged overnight.

I went home broken hearted after the hospital staff refused to tell me where Miggy was transferred. As I went home with my heart dropped in my stomach. My mom was waiting for me in the living room when I came in the house. She stood up and came towards me handing me a piece of paper.

"Your tita Martha wanted to give you that." She said then kissed me in the forehead and caressed my cheeks.

"It's not your fault baby. Don't beat yourself too much." She said as I leaned in her hand. My mom has a way of calming me like a puppy and I'm just glad that she will always be at my side. I nodded to her and she smiled at me as she leaves me in the living room heading to their bedroom upstairs. I opened the paper she gave me and it contained a letter from tita Martha, Miggy's mom.

"Hi Shin, sorry if we didn't tell you guys about leaving. Me and your Tito Manny decided to move to the states with Miggy to help him recover faster. Don't worry we won't give up on him or on anyone of you. You have been a great friend to my baby boy, all of you had. You were like a brother he never had, and I'm sure he wanted you to know that. I hope you'd meet each other in the future. Take care always. We love all of you.

-Tita Martha"

When Miggy's parents and the school refused to give a comment regarding the issue, the media just released news about the incident with a leaked medical report. All of Miggy's injuries sustained with Maximo's beatings were also included in the medical report, all the media coverage concluded it as an attempted suicide caused by severe bullying.

After that, Denise also didn't come to school. She disappeared without a word. Then rumors were spread that she voluntarily dropped out of school. Our parents settled the media matters and took down all the articles about that issue. After the day Miggy fell from the building, Mitch's memory was once again lost. She couldn't remember what happened that day either so both our parents decided for us to also take a break from school and we both took therapy sessions together.

The two of us became closer than ever. Eventually our parents decided to transfer us into a different school the following year. We took the final exam of the year, just to not be held back a grade. Both our families also moved to houses just besides each other and Mitch and I transferred to the same school and started a new. And I haven't heard from neither Denise nor Miggy ever since.

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"That's the whole story." Shin looked at me after finishing the story that I always wanted to hear, but instead of clearing everything, it just gave me more questions to ponder about. I. honestly don't know how I feel about everything that was revealed tonight. I looked at the guy beside me and he has a serious look on his face. Then I remembered something.

"She's back." I just uttered under my breath.

"Who?" Shin asked with confusion on his face.

"Denise. I knew she looked familiar. I already met her again." They both just looked at me with curiosity. Then I told them how I bumped into Denise. We exchanged looks and I knew that the same thoughts are currently swimming inside our heads. Denise. She's somehow involved in all of this.

"But something doesn't seem right. She would never harass you like this." Said Shin, defending our old friend.

"The Denise I know would never do this to us. You know that Mitch." He added.

"But that's it Shin. The Denise we know ten years ago, would never do that, but it's been ten years. A lot of this could happen in ten years" I rebutted. I look at Vin to look for support and he also has the same doubtful eyes that I received from Shin.

And now I'm starting to doubt those words that left my mouth just moments ago. Could Denise really be the one behind all of this? Shin was right, the Denise we know couldn't even hurt a fly, but I don't even know if I knew this Denise as well as I think. Are you the same friend I had ten years ago? Or a foe that wants to be my down fall?