The Choice of Twilight

Chapter 3: The Fallout

Time marched on. Ty read in many stories that time healed everything. So far, it was doing a poor job of doing anything other than bringing his inevitable return to school closer at an alarming rate.

He looked at the time on his phone. Noon. And he had not yet moved from his bed.

The phone buzzed suddenly, and Ty lost his grip on it. He leaned out a tad too far and toppled onto the floor, landing on top of the cellphone. Each ring brought a stronger rumble, digging it deeper against his back.

He rolled off of it, swore to change the vibration levels on the stupid thing, and flipped it open. It was Anna. He answered it on the last ring.

"Please tell me you weren't still sleeping."

"What? No, no-what gave you that idea?" He rubbed his aching back, realizing he could use his little fall as a cover up for still being in bed. "I, uh, just dropped my phone, and it took me a while to get it. That's all."

"Really now." She was totally unconvinced. "Then how come you didn't answer your doorbell?"

Before what she had said could really kick in, the door to his room flew open, revealing a smiling face that he had missed dearly. Ty picked himself off the floor and ran to Anna, hugging her without thinking twice about it.

"Whoa!" She laughed, as she put her phone into her pocket and hugged him back. "Did you miss me?"

"You have no idea."

It was at this point that the shock and happiness from her surprise arrival began to wear off and the reality of what he was doing began to sink in. He felt his cheeks turning red and wanted to be out of the hug right this instant, but he didn't want her to see his embarrassment.

While he debated what to do, seconds passed, enough to turn their hug into an awkward one. Anna broke it first, pulling away from him. Ty tried to turn his head away, but, to his surprise, Anna was blushing a little, too.

"Um...so, how are you here? I thought you still had another day?"

"Yep! I did, but I talked them into coming home early. My grandma wasn't happy about our visit being cut short, but she understood when I told her about your grand-" She stopped mid word.

"Yeah..." Ty could feel tears building up. How many more did he have inside of him?

"I'm so sorry, Ty."

Anna hugged him again and the tears spilled over.

#

The next day, Ty returned to school...and it didn't get any better. His experience that first day pretty much summed up the next three months. Only with the added pressure of quizzes, tests, and the biggest load of homework Ty had ever seen.

In elementary school, they did everything in class and took home some work sheets, studied on their own before tests; that was it. Now, the teachers made them read all their chapters at home only for them to discuss it later in class the next day. Ty did not learn anything from the teachers. They sat behind a desk and handed out the tests.

He was once a perfect student, now B's were his absolute best, lower scores far more common.

The only good thing about school was that it kept his mind off of his grandfather. As long as he remained busy and miserable, he did not have time to dwell on what he had lost. But, when there was no work to be done and he was alone...everything came back, all at once. Most nights he did not sleep, he sat and stared at the ceiling, tears trickling down the side of his face.