Good Luck Anna

Commitments

A frantic knock at the door draws both our attention away from plotting murder, Edward gets to his feet, strolling across the room to it. "Is Anna here" Thomas's broken voice makes it to me, quickly I move to him.

Thomas is sobbing hard so I hold onto him with all my strength while he dissolves in my shoulder.

"I didn't know where else to go" His voice is raspy against my shoulder.

"It's OK Thomas, let's go to the waiting room." I keep my arm around his waist while closing Alex's door. We slowly make it to the deserted waiting room dropping into two of the uncomfortable plastic seats.

Thomas holds my hand while taking in long slow breaths until he calms down. "Gran died" is all he says before tears begin to leak from his eyes again.

You would think thanks to resent events I would know the perfect words to say to him but I don't. Instead, croaking out "I'm sorry" covering our linked hands with my free one.

We sit in silence for a while, I can't help but think he should be with his family right now not sitting with some random girl he met last week. "Would you like me to take you to your family, they must be worried about you."

A single loud dry laugh erupts from him. "Yeah, your gonna have to walk a fucking long way." When confusion coats my face he adds "they're still in London." I'm utterly gobsmacked how could his parents leave this kid here alone.

Thoughts of my shitty dad rush to the surface. Alex is eighteen and it is infuriating that he was abandoned but Thomas can't be any older than thirteen still classed as a child in every country. "What the fuck! You are way too young to be here alone. Why haven't they stayed with you?"

Now it's Thomas's time to look confused, "wait how old do you think I am?"

"Like thirteen at a push" the second the words leave my lips he begins laughing, its harsh and broken but I can't help thinking it's a beautiful sound. Life has been so devoid of laughter recently it's great to know it still exists.

"I'm Sixteen Anna" he continues laughing.

"Sheesh, that baby face of yours ridiculous, you're going to love that when your thirty and still look twenty-one." A smile finds its way to my lips while he gets himself back under control.

"To answer your question about my family, dad is probably working, and my mother didn't care about gran when she was alive so don't see why that should change now she is dead," he shrugs like it's no big deal.

"No offence but your mum sounds like a real piece of work"

My words have no effect as if I'm telling him things, he already is fully aware of. "Yeah, she is a cow. Baffling how my sweet gran managed to birth such a demon." I snort unflatteringly and the smile he gives in return lights up his whole face.

"Before she died gran arranged her funeral to be here. She didn't trust mother to not ship her back to England. I have no doubt when the news of this reaches her it will be all the excuse she needs to not attend the funeral." Thomas hesitates staring at our linked hands then adding "I was wondering of you are still here would you come with me?" Thomas looks desperate as he speaks.

"Surely she isn't that much of a bitch to miss her own mum's funeral?" The look in his eyes tells me all I need to know. Yes, she would.

"Work will probably be really busy and she won't be able to take the day off to travel over" he sniffs and shakes away the tears filling his eyes. "It will probably be next week, gran had everything ready to go... just waiting for her to die" those words break him, as he begins sobbing again.

I wrap my arms around him, only a monster would be able to say no in this state. "Of course, I will come to the funeral. Just got a new phone so you can text me the details."

The door to the left of us opens and a nurse peaks through, her eyes soften when they land on Thomas. She starts talking to him in French which he naturally understands and replies.

Thomas gives my shoulders a squeeze and rubs his eyes, "thanks Anna, really appreciate this." Then he leaves with the nurse.

Remaining slumped in my chair, too emotionally exhausted to move. We both might have money but doesn't stop our parents from being complete shit. Between his mum and my dad could they team up to be a super villain pair.

After a while of aimlessly wandering through the hospital playing with my new phone I decide to head back to Alex.

When I step into his room, Alex is alone. He is staring out the window and his chest rises and falls with hard shallow breaths. Walking around his bed I position myself in his line of vision, blocking out the rain. "Are you OK?"

Alex jolts back into the room "Yeah, yeah I'm fine" he answers way too quickly. Even if I was fooled by his obvious lie, his shaking hands would be a dead giveaway. Watching Alex struggle to reapply the mask for my sake is soul destroying. I want for him to be able to show if he is in pain but that's not going to get him out of this hospital.

The next few days are better Alex eats, walks and even ventures into the shower but he insisted on doing that alone with a closed door so I can't really comment on how he handled that. Unfortunately, when he left the bathroom, his eyes are red, he was even quieter than usual for the rest of the day.