Dawnlight - WORK IN PROGRESS

4. Afternoon

It's been a week since I was taken to the E.R. after passing out. I don't remember much, but I remember waking up to seeing my mom profusely apologizing. We sorted things out. My mouth was swollen for days, but it's gotten better now. It'll probably leave a scar since I've been consistently scratching it.

My friends were so worried the next day, especially Owen and Cody. I still don't know why Cody was so relieved to see me. Honestly, I don't ever know what could possibly be on his mind, besides a constant happiness. He's so happy, just— all of the time, I wonder how he does it.

Things may have changed a bit, but not really. My mom finally agreed to lower the dosage for my medicine, but only if I actually started taking them. So I'm normal now, I guess. Hooray for normal Noah.

In the morning for school, Cody did nearly the same thing he did two weeks before; he came up from behind, wrapped himself around me, and scared the shit out of me in the process. "Noah, I'm so happy to see you! I brought an actual deck of cards to school today, so we don't have to only play Uno all of the time," He said, handing me a box of cards. I shook him off of me, like taking off some kind of Cody-sized jacket.

"I mean, cool, but you know that you can use Uno cards to play other games, right?" I replied.

"Oh— But like, this deck is so much cooler; It's from my dad's card collection, and he said that I could keep it," He clarified, "And on top of that, I just bought the new Splash-tunes' game! I know you like video games, so, you can come over and play them, I mean, if you want."

"Really? That's surprisingly thoughtful of you," I commented. I didn't know he played that game, let alone bought the new one. It's one of my favorites.

"Are you free today?" He asked, stopping and turning to me. He stared at me with wide eyes, as if he was practically begging me to say yes. I couldn't just turn down an offer like that, come on... but I was also hoping to have the Wednesday afternoon to myself.

I replied, "Yeah, I think so, But I have no ride to your place." His face immediately lit up. I think that even if I wasn't going to go, I would accept the invite anyways. Seeing him light up so quickly was cute.

"Oh, don't even worry about it. My house is a short walk from the school, promise," He added. I guess it was settled then. Finding a ride back home afterwards isn't very hard, anyway. Besides the fact that my mom now makes me bring my meds in case I stay the night somewhere, and texts me every day to remind me to take them, nothing was really bothering me right now. And that's saying something. I'm usually always bothered.

I turned forward, proceeding to continue walking to the school entrance, saying, "I'll see you then."

I heard a near-silent 'Yes!' come from the guy, as if he just succeeded in asking me out. I can't wait to kiss and hug him later, now that we're going on our first date. I sure hope he brought roses and candles.

—

Today was good. I ate properly. Although it annoys me, my friends have been giving me more attention lately since I told them about what happened last week. It's hard to hide a big, painful lip wound from your best friends anyways. I texted my mom about going over to Cody's, and she was fine with it as long as I returned before 8:00 P.M.. Hearing the autumn leaves rustle, I walked to the front of the school, where Cody said him and I would meet up. Surely enough, he was waiting.

"Hey, Noah! I forgot to ask, do you mind your clothes getting dirty?" He yelled, whilst running over to me, immediately catching to my curiosity.

"Uhhh —"

"Great," He interrupted, "It won't be so bad. Just follow me, I know a way to get to my house that's a lot faster."

I proceeded to follow him into a cluster of dry bushes, through the thorns, walking past a vanishing creek. I noticed the cars rushing along the highway ahead of us. I can't believe that Cody goes all of this way every day, just to go home. This felt incredibly new. Despite being a junior, I've never actually walked home before. My house is always quite far from all of the schools I've attended, but I wonder if Cody has walked home his whole life.