How To Be Straight

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CHAPTER 15

      [ Derek ]

Calvin's mom was hurt, and I knew it had to be Frenchy's fault.

As soon as he called me to deliver the news, I pulled out of the girl I was doing at the time and rushed over to the local hospital. He and Frenchy were sitting patiently in the waiting room. There was obvious evidence that Calvin had been crying, but Frenchy didn't seem to have any emotions. He just stared straight ahead and he looked like he wasn't really fully there.

As soon as Calvin saw me, his ice blue eyes sparked with relief. He lifted himself from his seat and rushed toward me, throwing his arms around my neck and burying his face into my shoulder, whimpering to himself. In an effort to comfort him, I rubbed his back in small circles. "It's okay," I told him, "she's going to be okay."

Calvin continued to cry into my shoulder. I glanced at Frenchy, fully expecting him to give me a death stare, but he kept staring into space. "What happened?" I murmured in his ear.

He clutched onto me a little tighter. "I don't know. I thought she just had a cold but then she..." He couldn't finish because his emotions swept over him, and he started to sob profusely.

My hands trailed up his back to his head, letting my fingers get lost in the messy tangles of his hair. "It's okay," I reassured him. "She's going to pull through. I know it."

Calvin pulled away from the hug and stared up at me with bloodshot red eyes. "Yeah," he sniffled, "she will. Thanks."

I gave him a slight nod and helped him into his seat, just in case he decided to break down again. I sat down between him and Frenchy, but the foreign boy didn't seem to mind. Actually, it was starting to freak me out how he was just staring at the wall like a freak of nature. He didn't try to talk to Calvin and Calvin didn't try to talk to him. A week ago, they couldn't keep their hands off each other. What the hell was going on?

As the late hours of the night ticked by, Calvin had cried so much that he wore himself out and fell asleep on my shoulder. I didn't totally mind it, but it did make me wonder why he hadn't chosen to fall asleep on Frenchy's shoulder or why Frenchy didn't stare me down with deadly eyes when he did.

It was minutes past midnight when a doctor entered the waiting room, wearing an expression that was too unreadable to hold good news. I shook Calvin's shoulder to wake him up, and he made a few soft groans in response. I tapped him again. "Cal, the doctor's here."

He snapped out of his slumber almost immediately and jumped to his feet. I would be lying if I said I didn't miss the feeling of his head on my shoulder, but I quickly suppressed the emotion to give my full attention to the doctor.

"Is she okay?" were Calvin's first words.

The doctor smiled at him. "Yes, Calvin, she is fine. Your mother contracted a case of hospital-acquired pneumonia. It usually occurs in patients but there are rare cases when it can affect staff members. The reason why Claire was so susceptible to the disease, however, is because her immune system was very weak."

Calvin folded his arms in disapproval. "How? She never gets sick. She fights off colds like a superhero."

The doctor looked past him at me, and then sighed when he returned his tentative eyes to Calvin. "Have you known that Claire has been struggling with insomnia?"

"Insomnia?" he questioned. "What? You mean she doesn't sleep? Why wouldn't she be sleeping?"

"I was hoping you could tell me that, Calvin," he said, "but whatever the case, I have referred her to a specialist who might be able to help her. Until then, she needs all the rest that she can get. That means taking off work."