Stepping Out Of The Shadow

Chapter thirteen

Dylan's point of view

The next few days were filled with darkness looming over me, my mind blank. Finally when I pried my eyes open, it felt like I've been sleeping for centuries and centuries, I felt old and weak. My head was pounding like someone was thumping it with a hammer. A groan escaped my lips and then suddenly everything comes flooding back to me and a tear rolls down my cheek. I quickly wipe it with the duvet that's over me. Wait. A duvet? Last time I remembered, I was in a hospital bed. I felt something attached on to my wrist and saw a wire stuck on to my wrist with a bit of masking tape, the wire was attached to a machine that was beside my bed and it showed a picture of a skull, my skull maybe? Oh, I'm in my room, I look around the dark place and faintly see the outline of my poster of John Lennon. He was such an inspiration.

Suddenly I felt movement beside me and I jumped. I was just about to scream when someone said, ''Dylan? Are you awake, dear?''. The voice sounded very familiar and then I realised that it belonged to my dad. Instead of replying ''Yes'' I groan, unable to form words from my mouth. ''Oh Dylan!'' my dad exclaimed and hugged me tightly. ''Thank god you're okay!'' he exclaims still hugging me tightly. ''H-h-how long h-have I been -a-asleep?'' I manage to croak. ''Oh you've been asleep for a week, dear! We've worried sick!'' my dad exclaims between sobs. A week?! No way... ''I have?!'' I exclaim, surprised. ''Yes, honey, we thought you'd never wake up...'' he trailed off. ''Well I'm awake now!'' I say, trying to lighten the mood to cheer him up. ''Yes, thank god you are. I thought I'd lost you'' he says. Then my mind trailed back to Esme. ''H-how's Esme?'' I manage to choke out before tears formed in my eyes. ''Oh, honey, she's in a coma, they're trying to make her all better'' my dad replies. I nod my head, well at least she isn't dead, I think. Somehow, I am relieved to be informed that my sister is still alive, yes she's in a very critical condition, but she's still alive, there's hope.

''I missed you'' I mumble to him. ''I missed you too, dear'' my dad replies. I know I said that he's not all that nice to me, but he does care for me though. He gets up and says, ''Well it's early in the morning, I'll leave you alone to get changed and I'll tell the cook to make some pancakes, yeah?''. ''Sure, dad'' I reply, smiling. He smiles and leaves my room. I sigh and get up, my headache is really bad. I fish out some fresh underwear, and my school uniform and stumble in to the bathroom. I strip and step in to the shower, the luke-warm water running down on my body. I scrub my head with shampoo, getting all the dirt out. After than I condition my hair and scrub my body clean with the body wash. After 15 minutes of scrubbing and cleaning when I was satisfied that I was all clean, I stepped out of the shower and dressed myself. I dragged the hair brush through my long, wet hair and lightly blow dried it, not bothering to straightening it or anything. I grabbed my phone and rushed downstairs and in to the kitchen.

I sit down on the bar stool, and Gary (the cook) sets a plate full of chocolate flavoured pancakes in front of me, my favourite. ''Thanks, Gary'' I say, politely. ''No problem, Dylan. How are you feeling?'' Gary asked, concern showing in his eyes. I liked Gary, our cook. He was kind and chubby, he was also very funny. Yes I know, we're quite rich, but I don't care. I'd rather live in a normal house than live in a big mansion, like ours, that looks a miniature of a palace. This is partly the reason why I never let anyone come to my house from school, Except for Elecktra, of course. Not that I'll have anyone to invite over, from school I mean, everyone either ignores me or hates me. ''I'm better, thank you'' I reply. Everyone at school can't ever believe that someone as pretty, cool, popular as Elecktra would be best friends with me, the nerd who gets As and A*s in everything, and who also is a big social reject. I eat a pancake, it tastes so nice. I savour every moment of when I had that pancake in my mouth, so delicious. I look up to see it's 7:50. I quickly down the remaining pancake and grab my bag. Just as I'm about to head out of the door, my dad asks, ''Are you sure you're well enough to go back to school, Dyl?''. I nod my head, ''Yeah, dad, I'll be fine. Plus I've already missed a week of school and I have to catch up and stuff, I don't wanna be left behind with school work, you know how I hate that'' I say. ''Okay, dear just be careful and call me if you feel ill or anything, yeah?'' he ordered. I nodded and headed for the front door. ''Bye, dad, love you'' I say before stepping my foot out of the house. ''Bye, sweetie'' I make out before I shut the front door behind me.

Instinctively, I plug in my earphones and listen to ''Drunk'' By Ed Sheeran. I just got in time for the bus to arrive and hop on it, taking a seat near the front. I look out of the window for several minutes when I hear someone yell, ''DYLAN!!!'' and feel two pair of hands going round my waist, nearly knocking me out of my seat. After a lot of struggling, I turn my head to see Hayden's face buried in my neck. ''H-Hayden... l-let go o-of m-me...'' I choke out, he was literally squeezing the remaining life out of me. He squeezed a little more tighter before loosening his grip on me. I breathed out, like I was being suffocated for hours and hours. ''Don't ever hug me like that'' I say, rubbing my waist, where his arms were, squeezing me. He just chuckles before saying, ''You're okay!''. ''Yeah! I am!'' I exclaim, faking his enthusiasm. ''How do you do?'' he asks. ''Better than before, I guess'' I shrug. ''I'm just glad you're back! I missed you, you know'' he says before hugging me once again, but not so tightly. I smile and look out of the window. The bus stops and we hop off, making our way to the main entrance of school.