She kissed the scars on his skin.

Chapter 9

I wake up the next evening a couple of hours before I'm due in work and I promptly throw up. Not the greatest start. I'm sick again a few times over the next hour so I ring up and tell them I'm too ill to come in. I crawl back into my bed and promptly fall asleep again. When I wake up at 3am I feel fine. It must have been food poisoning. I know I can't go into work incase it's something else though, so I grab a magazine out of the pile on my table and flick through it. I'm bored. I don't have any social network accounts. After school and college I promised myself the bullies wouldn't be able to find me so I never got Facebook, Twitter or anything else. I flick the TV on and find a documentary about penguins so I watch that. I fall asleep partway through and wake up the next evening. I haven't been sick again since so I ring work and see if they think it's safe for me to come in. They agree I can being as they are still short staffed. I change into my uniform and walk the short distance to the hospital. I stash my stuff in my locker and go to see Tony, the same as always. I open the door and he's not here. All his personal belongings have gone. I feel my eyes fill up with tears before I bolt to the staff toilet. What the hell happened? Did he die? Did he wake up and get moved? I feel sick again and promptly am. Stress this time maybe? The nurse in charge hears me and when I emerge she pats me on the back and tells me to go home. I nod, too upset to concentrate anyway.
As I am leaving the hospital grounds I hear lots of whooping noises behind me. I turn to see three men high fiving each other. I find a small smile appearing on my face at their happiness but another round of tears fill my eyes and I find myself stumbling slightly. I feel a pair of arms catch me as I try to stay upright.
"Thank you" I mumble as I regain my footing and start walking off.
"Are you ok?" I hear one of them ask me. I shake my head as the tears flow and start walking away. I can't do this. I just can't.