Shards fell and luckily I was wearing pants, but they fell at my feet. I kicked off the shards and brushed them off as I stood. Looking up I saw Intratcher lying on the ground and rubbing his head. It took me a few seconds to process that my pushing...
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Winter break officially started this Monday for teenagers in our county, everyone except for me. Not as if I was being held at gunpoint. My scores on the midterms were, although not limited to, horrible and disappointing. It upset my parents more than it would've upset me in a million years. I just wanted to give up, but after my mom was placed in the hospital, school fueled me. I had to skip the last few days of school before break so I could see my mom.
The night she got in the car crash, we couldn't even visit her because it was past the visiting hours. In the gloom, we ended up dozing off on the chairs outside of her room. Even on the rough foldable chairs in the pale hallway, my dad couldn't look at me. Odd enough, he fell asleep before me. I was left with the faint beeping of the machines and the cries of families in another world from mine.
Across from me was another father and son. The man was asleep like my father, and he had a natural tan, clearly not from our state. He had a dirty white tank top and a bright blue durag, his thin arm around who I thought could be his son. In comparison, his son had dark hair instead of the man's dirty blonde complexion. He also looked years younger than me; Maybe 14. His hair was cut to a buzz but he kept running his hand through it as if there was something there as he stared at me. I just stared back, the tick of the clock making me go crazy.
After a while, I glanced at the clock to see it was 1 AM, and I cocked my head back, shutting my eyes. Exhausted, I slicked my hair back with my palm. "Want to walk a lap?" The boy asked, making me jerk considering it was the first new sound I heard in hours. I also didn't expect him to have an accent that I couldn't even decode.
Hesitating, I looked over to my dad. He sleepily mumbled gibberish beneath his breath and his head rolled in the opposite direction. Looking back at the boy, my voice croaked, "Uh—sure why not." Standing up made me dizzy and embarrassingly I almost sat back down after getting up.
He chuckled, spun his wallet from out of his jeans pocket, and pulled out a ten. "I'm Oscar, you?" Oscar nodded, looking both ways as if he was crossing the street.
"I'm Tampcent," I told him as we began walking down toward the vending machines. "It's a family name." I had to reassure people since some always reacted oddly any time I told them my name.
"Well Tam, I guess it's safe to assume you weren't expecting to be here tonight?" Oscar laughed, nodding the clip from his wallet toward my black pajama set and I blushed. "Man don't sweat, I wasn't planning on this either."
Scruffing with my hair, I asked Oscar, "Back there, was that your dad? I'm here with mine too, although his fondness for me is shockingly lower than the low it's usually at." I fiddled with the cloth in my pocket.
"No, that's not my dad actually. We're close though." He laughed again and I tilted my head. I noticed his tongue was pierced in the middle, and it reminded me of Intratcher. "My uncle and I live with him, he's been harboring us for a few months; since we came to America. I've known him since I was little though, he's been friends with my uncle. Life is a little rough for everyone right now."
