And today I learned, that it is, in fact, a dark world.

Chapter 4~Answers

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~CHAPTER 4~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     This morning I had to get up at dawn so I could take a shower and get to school. I never went to the store a few days ago, I just drove home. So for that reason, I had to wake up earlier than usual this morning, and go to the grocery store. When I brought the groceries home, Shawn had left for work, so I just put away all the perishable items and left for school. I arrived about ten minutes later and didn't wait at all. I just walked into school and headed straight for the biology room. When I arrived at the biology room, Daren was already there, to see him there, to see him being so lonesome, just sitting there all alone. Immediately I felt terrible. Why'd I just run away from him like that? Then I remembered what he'd said. The words that made me cry. The words that made me drive away in a rush. Suddenly, I didn't feel as terrible for Daren. I knew I'd have to face him eventually, so I walked up to him, took my seat, and said, "She died."

     "What in the world are you talking about?" he replied.

     "That's why I was gone. My mom died."

     "How-" He never got to finish his sentence because I automatically interrupted and said,

     "She was stabbed four times." Just thinking about my mother made me want to cry until there was more water on the Earth than the Earth could hold, and that's just what I did. I cried. Right there in homeroom, In front of everyone, all of them unknown to the truth about my mother, wondering why it was that I was crying. Yet, there I was, cradled in the arms of the person I least expected to be cradling in. Then I told him why I'd gotten so mad at him, the other day that I just drove off.

     Mr. Celestin came in and saw Daren and me. He immediately barked out that Daren and I had to go to the office for PDA. I honestly did not care. Not one bit. If I got a detention, fine. If I got Saturday school, fine. If I got suspended, fine. If I even got expelled, I wouldn't care, but my mom would. So I had to hope for the worst and the best at the same time because I have to think of my mom.

     We left the principal's office with only one detention, so I should say that I expected worse. It only took us about 20 minutes to explain the situation, another 20 minutes for the principal to decide on our punishment, and finally, another 10 minutes for us to figure out how long we were in there. After we figured all that out, we headed to our first period to get our stuff and then headed back across the school to second period. The walk was mostly just quiet. Neither of us really had anything to say, or so I thought, until Daren blurted out, "We should ditch. How about you fake a stomach ache and then five minutes later, I'll fake a terrible migraine. Then we'd just go home with our homework."

     To which I replied, "My dear friend, I'm now almost positive you belong in an insane asylum."

     "Pshh! Fine. Whatever. I'm ditching no matter what, so either come with me, or stay behind in classes no one knows you in." he stated.

     That comment proved a good point, so five minutes after Daren left for a migraine, I left for almost puking. We reunited in the parking lot outside of school. Of course we were on the side without any windows, but I told Daren just to jump in my car anyways. "So what should we do?" I asked.

     "Hmm. Well... No... Maybe... No.......... I'm sorry, but I have no freaking idea." he answered. I quickly jumped on the phone and called Shawn, who answered quickly when I asked him if he had to work tonight. He'd said yes, so then I figured Daren and I could just go to my house, so I asked him, "Do you just want to go over to my house for a little bit?"

     "Sure why not." Daren said, answering my question. I, for once since my mom died, felt like I could be a regular teenager. I felt like this had always been my life, but it'd really only been about 3 weeks. At this moment, I knew everything was going to be okay. Sadly, not to my knowledge, it would not be okay.