Books to Blades

Tyler 🏒

"Good morning Tyler Sweetie, it's time to wake up," my mom says.

I then wake up heavily in a cold sweat, my clock reads 5:13 am. I look at the same door frame I swore I saw my mom in. But this time she was gone, which wasn't new. The same reoccurring dream where my mom is waking me up for school. But it hits harder when your mom is actually 6 feet deep in the ground, in the middle of a park.

Laying in the dark silence, I roll over to grab my phone. At the top a text from my best friend Ryan.
-------------------------
Ryno- Ryan
Fry Ty- Tyler

Ryno
Yo Ty
Wanna go to this party next
Saturday, your girl is gonna
be there
1:36 a.m.

Fry Ty
If she's gonna be there
then heck yea
5:15 a.m.
-------------------------

After responding to Ryan, I couldn't fall back asleep. A million thoughts going through my head, school, hockey try outs coming up, friends, girls, just anything and everything.

My alarm went off at 6:00, meaning it was time to actually get up. I then got up and threw on my uniform, quickly put on deodorant and made my way downstairs.

On the couch, my dad fast asleep with his arm fallen on the floor. Needles and syringes all over the coffee table, along with pill bottles.

Walking towards the kitchen, I notice my sisters lunchbox still had yesterdays left overs in it. Noticing she only ate one half of the sandwich and the apple, leaving the other half of the sandwich, granola bar and fruit snacks. I made her a new sandwich while eating the remainders of the last sandwich for my breakfast. While also making Charlotte's breakfast, by cutting up a banana and apple.

The clock over the stove read 6:20, meaning I had to wake up Charlotte if we wanted to leave on time.

"Char, breakfast is ready," I say touching charlottes shoulder.

"Ty, can I sleep for one more minute, please," char replies as she pulls the covers to cover her.

"Char, your gonna be late for school and mom wouldn't be happy to know your skipping school"

"Moms not here" as char sniffles and tears roll down her cheeks.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned her," I whisper as I hug her.

"I miss her so much Ty," she says as she cries in my arms.

"How about I take you to get coffee before school, but we have to hurry"

"Really?" She says before she springs up and goes to her closet.

As she was getting ready I gathered my things while also packing the rest of Charlottes bag and putting them in the car. Charlotte then came downstairs and few minutes later, eager to get her coffee. I then go through the drive thru at Dunkin getting her whatever the coffee she wanted before dropping her off at the middle school.

Walking into school was just like any other day, all the same people asking me about the party on Saturday. You know like everyone asking you how you are on a surface level but don't care enough to listen about your home life, not like I want to talk about it anyway.

Lunch time rolls around and all the hockey guys sit at the table near the windows in the back corner of the lunch room. Of course the same topic being the party and how they all are gonna bring their girl, find a girl there or both.

The rest of the day was just the same as always. After school, I picked up charlotte from school and went home. Walking in, seeing how my dad was still sleeping in the same spot. Checking his pulse to make sure he was still alive.

"Hey char, how about you go upstairs and start a movie in my room, let's have a movie night tonight," I yell as charlotte was hanging up her backpack.

"Okay, I'm gonna put on To All the Boys I've loved Before," Charlotte yells as she's going upstairs.

While Charlotte was going upstairs, I started cleaning up all the pill bottles, needles and syringes off the coffee table. I don't want Charlotte to ever find out about what our dad has been doing to cope.

The rest of the night was pretty chill (I fell asleep during the movie).