My Star In The Sky

Chapter 7

I try to open the front door quietly without anyone hearing me, but the wind closes and slams it shut.
"Dylan is that you," my mom shouts from the bedroom.
Crap.
I tried to hurry and run up the stairs but my dad's office door was open.
"Your mom is talking to you," he says with his legs kicked up on the desk. He's never home early, but on this one day where I don't want him to be, he is.

A ton of emotions run through me. I feel angry and sad and embarrassed that I just let him beat me up. Without thinking I say to my dad, "Yeah no shit. I heard her."
He sits the book he was reading down on the desk. "Excuse me?"
When I don't say anything he says, "Look at me."
I don't know why, but I turned and looked at him. I had a black eye, busted lip, and a bruise on my cheek. My dad stands up.
"What the hell happened to you?"
My brother starts walking down the stairs. Crap. Now I feel even more embarrassed. I thought he was gonna laugh and make fun of me, but instead he looks furious.

"Owen. Go back upstairs," says my dad as he starts to lead me to their bedroom and closes the door. When my mom saw me, I immediately started to cry.

I'm in my parents bathroom while they wash me up. My dad had to put stitches on the side of my forehead. I look horrible.
"What happened Dylan?"
I wince when he puts another stitch in.
"I was jumped."
"Jumped?"
I nod.

They asked me a ton of more questions like "Who were these guys," and "Where did this happen," and "Do you know them?"

"They go to my school, but their juniors."
When my dad is done with the stitches he says "Go on up to your room kid. We're gonna have a talk with the school and-"
I cut him off.
"You don't need to do that. It's fine dad, I'll just avoid them."
"Avoid them? They can't control you, and you shouldn't be scared of them. Now go on."
He gestures to me to walk out of the bathroom and I do. I go to my room, close the door, and cry. I cry because my dad is right. I shouldn't be scared of them. I wish I were able to defend myself but it's hard when your best friend isn't by your side.

An hour goes by and I'm watching cartoons when my mom knocks on my door.
"Come in."
She walks in with a peanut butter jelly sandwich in her hand and says, "I made your favorite."
I smile. I feel terrible for saying the things I said to her. She's the best mom ever and I treated her like crap the other day.
She lays on the bed with me and plays with my hair as I munch away. We don't say anything for a couple of minutes and finally she asks me the question I've been avoiding: "What happened with you and Imani?"

I told her everything. How she doesn't love me. How she has a boyfriend. How I feel like I've ruined our friendship and what we had. She doesn't say anything, but the look of sadness is on her face.

"Maybe you should try and call her. See if you guys can work things out you know," she says softly.
I shake my head.
"She says that I worry too much about what she's doing and that I always have to know everything." I turn to look at her. "And maybe I was too much for her. I should just give her some space."

My mom nods.
"Don't worry Dyl. She'll come around sooner or later," she says. "And it better be soon because the cake is in the fridge and I don't want it to go bad."
She then stands up and heads for the door.

"Hey mom?"
She turns her head.
"Sorry for being a jerk."
She smiles softly and leaves.

╔══ஓ๑♡๑ஓ══╗

It's been a whole week. A whole week and me and Imani haven't said a word to each other. To occupy my time, I've just been reading and annoying my brother.

My parents have been getting along pretty well; or the arguing has stopped at least. I also went to therapy again and she gave me a few tips on how to not feel sad all the time and I've been doing that. The #1 thing was to write. Write. Write. Then write some more, and go on walks and spend time with family.

I've been doing that for 2 days and I can already feel it growing on me. My eyes and stitches are healing pretty well too. The bruising has gone away and it doesn't hurt when I shower.

One day after school, I was at the park, journaling and listening to music when I saw legs walking up to me. I look up and it's Imani. Her hair falls in loose curls and she's wearing shorts with a polka dot blouse. She's just standing there with her hands in her back pockets.I pull my headphones down around my neck.

"Hey," I say.
'Hi."
Imani sit's down across from me and we don't say anything for a few seconds. We're the only ones here, except for a few kids running around in the distance.

"Listen," we both say at the same time and then laugh.
"You go first," I tell her.
She takes a breath and says,
"I broke up with Charlie."
I try not to smile.
"And I'm sorry I flipped out on you last week. What you said was really sweet, and the untold truth is... I love you too."
She looks down at her hands.
"I've loved you since we were kids and I only got with Charlie because I was scared and didn't know what to do."

"What do you mean?"
"I didn't want to ruin what we have. What if dating doesn't work out for us?"
"But what if it does?"
"It won't Dylan."
"Why?"
A long silence followed and it was almost deafening.

"Because I'm sick," she whispers.
"Sick?"
Imani nods.

At that moment, I didn't know what I was thinking. My mind was racing with a bazillion thoughts. Maybe that was really why she was in the hospital
"Is it a cold, or?"

She laughs a little but then gets serious again.
"No. It's not a cold. Something's wrong with my liver. They say it's a disease."
I stayed quiet and allowed her to talk.
"Remember when I told you that I had to take a ton of medicine and stuff?"
I nod.
"Yeah. They were trying to cure it or at least make it better but..." Her eyes begin to water.
"They can't."

"What do you mean they can't?"
She wipes a tear from her eyes.
"They can't fix me Dylan and my mother can't afford to pay for it."

I look down, trying not to have a mental breakdown in front of her so I begin to bounce my leg.

"So what does it mean? Can you survive it?"
Imani shakes her head and this is the hardest I've ever seen her cry.