eternal flame - s. harrington

Chapter 24: Too Much Too Fast

"You're going to be okay by yourself, right?", my mother asked me for the millionth time.

"Yes. Promise.", I assured her. "I'll go to school, and then I'll come straight home. I'm probably just going to study and watch a movie, I'll be fine."

Mom nodded as she held her palms on my shoulders. "Good. You have all the phone numbers you need if you need to call, and I got a refill of your meds for you this morning.", she said.

I nodded, "Thank you, Mom."

"If you need anything and you can't reach me, call Karen, she promised to look out for you if anything happens, and if there's an emergency—", Mom continued her instructions and I interrupted her, "I'll call nine–one–one. I'm fine, Mom."

She screwed her eyes shut and took a deep breath. "Okay. I trust you.", she said as she let go of my shoulders and grabbed her bags.

That's when we heard a car honking from the front yard — it was Dad.

He walked into the house. "You ready?", he asked my mom who nodded as a response. "Okay, good.", he said.

Will walked into the living room with a huge backpack on his back. "Hey, buddy.", my dad greeted my youngest brother, who gave him a tired hello as a response.

"Okay, we're leaving now. Call if you need anything. I left some money on the table if you want to order a pizza, or something.", Mom said to Jonathan and I as Dad kept trying to rush her out the door.

"Yes, yes.", Jonathan said, "We'll be fine."

Mom nodded frantically. "Okay, good. Love you. Be safe!", she said as she walked out the door, where she turned back around and said, "And Grace, no drinking on your meds!"

I threw my hands up in confusion. "I don't even drink, Mom!", I laughed.

"Okay, good, just wanted to make sure—", Mom began again but was interrupted as my dad shouted from the car, "Joyce!"

"Go, Mom. Seriously, we'll be okay.", I said. She nodded again and we said our goodbyes before she finally felt okay enough to leave.

I watched from the window as my parents and Will packed themselves in to my dad's car and left the front yard.

I know I assured my mother I'd be fine, but as soon as I saw them leave, I couldn't help but feel a little bit anxious...

"She really worries too much, huh?", Jonathan said as we watched the car drive away.

I nodded and said quietly, "Yeah... She does."

I went to school, and had a pretty normal day there. We had a basketball game, which we lost, once again. I had a pop quiz in Spanish class, which I didn't score as high in as I normally would.

After school, I went straight home like I promised Mom, and decided to start studying like crazy. I went straight into my room and dug out all my textbooks and started going through them, making pages and pages of random notes I might need one day.

Studying didn't feel as natural to me as it used to. Usually I loved it — now it just felt like a chore I didn't want to do. But it was important to me, because without my grades, who was I?

I spent a couple hours studying before I heard a knock on my door and Jonathan walked in.

"Hey, I'm gonna go take some pictures of my car, you wanna come with?", he asked. I shook my head, "I'm good. I need to study."

Jonathan nodded lightly as he looked at me for a while, "You sure? I'm probably going to be out late. I don't know if Mom wants me to leave you alone.", he said, probably thinking I'd change my mind.