The Weekend
Just like I thought, I'm sick with a cold.
Late that night, it strikes like a right hook straight out of Fight Night. I wake up in a coughing fit. It isn't so much the Arbour Reservoir flooding my eyes as it is the swallowing. I'm an open mouth-breather, so I tend to swallow a lot for no reason. Every time I have to, it stings. The back of my throat is en fuego (as Daniela says in a crazy situation), like I've got a logjam of tiny, prickly needles stuck inside, rubbing up against my esophagus.
It...
It's...
"Stupid cough!"
Dad can hear me dying through the walls and comes to the rescue with a spoonful of rotten cherry syrup. The bottle cup alone is fuel for a nightmarish flashback. I remember why I hate colds. I like the part where they let me stay home, but I dread the syrup.
I shut my eyes and take it.
"Mm!"
"Chase, put your head back. Don't get all over..."
It's a crime to call this "cherry," let alone "cough medicine" when it makes me gag half of it up to relive the taste.
"Get some sleep."
After that? What sleep?
I'm off tomorrow, so a little late-night Paw Days doesn't hurt.
***
On Friday, it's weird getting up early when I hear Dad cracking the door open before work to check on me. I have a sudden urge to turn on the news, but the news isn't on for another hour unless I want it local. The local news sucks in the morning because it's weather, commercial, traffic, commercial, shameless plug for a later segment, commercial.
Comm...
Co...
Commercial, commercial, commercial!
Why are there so many commercials on TV, or am I seeing things? Since when did the greatest invention in entertainment mutate into this all-you-can-watch buffet of capitalism? It's even worse during sports. I've got Gumball quests to distract me when they're playing, but still.
Yes, I'd like a game with my hundreds of betting ads, please!
"Uh, isn't there something wrong here?"
I'm serious! Take the ads during the local news. Who in the Blue Hell (Chloe reference!) is going to see a car commercial and think...
"Ooh! Mommy needs that!"
...At five in the morning?!
"Hm..."
Great, I'm losing my filter. Now you know I'm sick. I'm getting as snarky as Max. Please ignore what I think or say.
"Maxy..."
The spring concert is tonight. Those pesky fifth-grade computers will learn the power of music whether they like it or not because doing so means 50 percent of their grade. I think I'm being groomed, but I guess it's okay because double standards.
Mrs. K wouldn't hold a cold against me, right?
"Right?"
There's the front door. Dad's leaving for work. I think I hear Mom. My throat doesn't sting as badly when I swallow, medicine's working. I stare out the window, watching the sunrise. Its twilight shades break through my room, triggering my routine. I don't have to wait for Mom to wake me up because I don't have to get up, I can rest.
YOU ARE READING
Castling: A Novel (NaNoWriMo21)
أدب المراهقينIt's a slice-of-life centered around "Chase the Ace," who finds himself changing schools against his will mid-year to help make the most of that brain of his. It'll be good for him, they say. He won't be so bored. He'll get to be with an old friend...
