My Sister's Keeper

Five.

The next morning, Damien sat at the dining table staring at the plate of turkey bacon and scrambled eggs his mother had fixed up for him, but not at all feeling any hunger to consume any of it.

He had managed to get back into his room without waking either of his parents, but whether any of them had woken up to check on him and not see him there had still been a mystery as neither one of them had made any effort to make it noticeable that they had.

"Damien? Aren't you going to eat, baby?"

Blinking himself out of his thoughts, Damien looked up to meet his mother's worried gaze as she stood across from him at the table.

He shook his head. "I'm uh...I'm not that hungry right now, Ma," he mumbled.

Regina's frown deepened as she sat down in a chair and said, "Are you feeling alright? You want some medicine?"

"I'm fine, Ma. Honest," Damien said. "I just don't feel like eating right now. That's all."

Regina nodded, though there was a certain look in her eyes as she began to speak. Before she could fully do so, however, the sound of the doorbell stopped her.

"I'll...I'll be right back," she said while standing up. "Why don't you put your plate away for now and go lay down in the living room? Just for today."

Damien nodded quietly and she left the room as he began to stand up with his plate in his hands to carry it to the microwave. He hadn't wanted to stay downstairs for the day, but the tone of his mother's voice told him he had no choice but to do so, so he had decided to listen to avoid any lectures that he could.

"Damien? Could you come here for a second, honey? There's someone who would like to see you!"

Furrowing his brows, Damien turned his head to the entrance of the kitchen before sighing softly as he made his way over to it.

Whoever his mystery guest had been at the door, Damien knew it had to be someone special for his mother to make him come and see them. Or maybe, it was another way for the woman to get him out of the house since it had been bothering her that he hadn't done so since the day he had gone out for a run.

Either way, Damien had no desire to see anyone, and as he was finally able to see who had been at the door, his mind hadn't been changed.

"Xavi?" he asked with furrowed brows. "What are you doing here?"

Regina scoffed under her breath and patted her son's shoulder, giving him a warning look as he turned his head to her.

"I mean...hey...what's up?" Damien then said while turning back to the boy at the door.

A small smile was on Xavi's face as he said, "Hey, Dame...I just wanted to see how you were doing."

He then looked over to Regina and said, "I wanted to see how you were both doing...I'm really sorry about-"

"That's very sweet of you, Xavi," Regina cut the boy off with a strained smile and turned her head to her son, who frowned at the look in his mother's eyes. "I'm just going to leave you two to talk, okay? Excuse me."

Damien clenched his jaw as he watched his mother rush off upstairs, and the sound of a door being closed in the distance caused him to sigh.

"Shit," Xavi mumbled. "I'm sorry, man, I didn't mean-"

"Don't worry about it," Damien said and shook his head. "She's fine, it's just...it's hard to hear her name still, you know?"

Xavi nodded. "Yeah," he said. "I know. I should've been more careful about that. My bad, bro."