Angry at Love

chapter 22

<<<MILES>>>

The boy fell back limply after vomiting, then the jocks caught him.

The cheerleader was still raging about the barf all over her cute little dress, so she only looked up in surprise when she heard a scream.

The scream had come from the boy.

The jocks were staring at him, horrified at what they had caused.

He had started twitching, and the jocks dropped him onto the floor.

Now his small twitches were big, jerky convulsions.

They stared, unsure what to do with the boy at their feet having a full on seizure.

Then the boy started to drool, coughing.

This, or maybe something else, seemed to snapp one of the jocks out of the trance he was in.

And in turn, the other two snapped out of it too.

And they walked away.

They didn't say a word about it to anyone.

And the boy was left there alone in the hallway as he convulsed.

<<<CASEY>>>

Miles wasn't at school that day.

I looked for him all over, and asked around. But nobody knew anything.

He wasn't in any of the classes we shared, nor was he at our table or anywhere in the cafeteria, and I couldn't find him anywhere else in the school during lunch either.

Now, any other day I would've just shrugged it off and assumed he was sick.

But after what happened at his house the other day, I was worried.

There were also some weird rumours happening. There was an ambulance outside the school yesterday. And from that, rumours started.

One said somebody was stabbed. (huh? Wouldn't we know? Like be one the news or something?)

Another said somebody took their own life

Along with many many other absurd rumours.

But I was in the hallway when I heard a certain rumour.

I was walking from one of my classes to another, my textbook and binder in hand. A couple of girls were walking the other way, talking.

When they were almost out of earshot, I heard. "You know, I heard someone had a seizure. It's one of the tamer rumours around."

I had stopped dead in my tracks.

Then I came to my senses and turned, calling out. "Hey! What did you just say?"

"What?"

"What were you just talking about?" I tried again, trying to not sound so forceful.

"Oh. One of the rumours is some grade twelve had a huge seizure and they called an ambulance."

I felt the blood drain from my face.

The girl's friend gently asked, "Are you alright there, kid?"

I shook my head, backing away slowly.

Then I turned and ran.

I dropped my books because they were way too heavy to run with. And then I sprinted as hard as I could.

I got out my bike from the bike rack, thanking god or whoever that I happened to ride it today.

And then I pedalled as hard as I could. I cranked the gears almost all the way up, where I could go faster but I could also still actually pedal.

It felt like every second that passed was an hour. Tears streamed down my face, making me almost crash multiple times.

What if-

I shook my head hard. That's the last thing I should be thinking about. It's only gonna make my brain go into overdrive of thinking about horrible possibilities.

Even as I told myself that, my brain spiralled into the what ifs.

What if he got hurt during the seizure?

What if he was alone?

What if he hit his head really hard and went into a coma?

The possibilities kept getting worse and worse, more and more crazy the longer it took to get there.

When I finally managed to get the building into view, my legs were noodles. But I just pedalled harder. Harder than I thought was possible for my flimsy body.

I got off my bike and tried to get into the rack, but it just wouldn't go and it made me mad for some reason.

Giving up with a yell, I threw it to the ground and sprinted inside.

The receptionist didn't seem too surprised by my appearance. But I suppose she sees extremely stressed out people running towards her all the time with the job she works.

She started saying something, but I cut her off with, "Is Miles Summer here?"

She smiled and said, "I'll take a look."

She tapped some keys and my leg started bouncing almost violently.

She looked up and, still smiling a fake smile, said "Yes. He is here. He is going to make a full recovery, he will need to stay here for the rest of the day today and possibly tomorrow, as they are running some tests still. You can go see him in room 342, visiting hours close at 6 pm."

I nodded to her my thanks before hastily running up the stairs.