Stay A Little Longer: A Short Story

•Five•

I scoff. It sounds kind of like a pig being slaughtered.

"That's a cruel April Fool's Joke, guys," I say.

"Hon, it's October. If anything it would be a Halloween scare," Mom says.

"Which," Dad butts in, "it's not. We're serious, Andrew. I'm sorry."

I fall silent. What? That's... not correct. They've got everything all wrong. The doctors simply just mixed up someone else's results with mine! Simple.

"No," I say.

"No?" JoJo mutters next to me.

"What-"

"What do you mean 'no'? WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN 'NO'?!"

"Joanne-"

"Don't fucking 'Joanne' me, Andy! YOU CANNOT JUST SAY 'NO' AND HOPE YOU AREN'T DEAD. BECAUSE, FACE IT, YOU'RE DEAD. I'M SPEAKING TO A FUCKING GHOST." A stream of tears stroll down her face as she screams at me.

"Joanne, that's not okay for you to say, apologize," Mom butts in.

"YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH, YOU DON'T KNOW HOW HARD THIS IS!" Joanne yells.

"How could you say that to your mother?" Dad yells to JoJo. He starts to blink.

All the while, I'm silent. I watch as my family gets torn apart because of me.

"APOLOGIZE TO YOUR MOTHER-"

"APOLOGIZE TO ANDY-"

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU WOULD DO THIS-"

I calmly open the backseat cardoor and climb out. The rain pours down over my head and in no time I'm soaked. I head in the direction of Greyson's house and don't look back.
////////////////////////////
"Who is it?" A booming voice yells from the other side of the large, wooden door. I knock again. This time, the door swings open. There stands Greyson's dad, Henry, with a steel baseball bat over his shoulder. When he sees me he rolls his eyes.

"HEY! KID! THERE'S SOMEONE HERE TO SEE YOU!" He shouts. He drops the bat and stares at me, hatred soaring like an eagle through his expression.

"Can I come in?" I ask.

"We've got enough of you people in my house. There shouldn't even be this many," Greyson's mom says from behind Henry.

There's only one, you useless piece of shit. I think to myself. I hate Greyson's parents almost as much as he does.

"Hey, Andy," Greyson says from the stairway leading downstairs. I smile at him and he pushes past his parents. He walks away with me without even saying goodbye-- they just slam the door behind him.

"I thought you were in the hospital," he whispers.

"I got out today," I whisper back.

"I missed you. You were gone for three days, y'know."

"I've heard."

"So, where are we going? Your place?"

"Nah. I snuck out of the car while my family was arguing about-"

I stop abruptly. I can't go any further.

"About what?" Greyson asks, grabbing my left hand.

"About... why... the hospital bill was so high even though all they did was give me a neck brace," I quickly recover.

"Hm. Was that all? I thought they would've done something more... like surgery."

"Whaaaaaaaat? Surgery? For my neck? Oh, stop being dramatic! They just... did some laser stuff."

Greyson glances at me. I force a smile at him.

"Uh-huh."

I can easily tell he's not game. I decide to change the subject.

"Let's do something fun," I suggest.

"Okay," he says, coolly.

"Like... the whole month. Let's treat this as if it were our very last days on Earth."

He pauses and stares at me.

"Are you sure everything's cool?"

"Y-yeah. I just... when I was in the hospital, I saw some people who... lost people they really loved because of their own ignorance to the situation."

Greyson nods and kisses me. I have to stand on my tiptoes to reach him, and I wrap my arms around his neck.

If only he knew that the people losing loved ones weren't the ones visiting...

...But the patients.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~Greyson~

I knew there was something up with Andy. His lies made sense, but he paused way too much, as if to think about what he was going to say.

As we walked in the mist of the evaporating rain, I started thinking. This... whole situation with Andy is really stressful. I can't really take it. Plus, the keeping secrets is not cool. I think I want to break it off with him. Or maybe just a little break.

I look over at him. His small frame, pale face, white lips... he wraps his skinny arms over his stomach and shivers. He's cold! I think to myself. I automatically shove off my hoodie and pull it over his body. His teeth stop chattering, at least.

I look away, ashamed of myself for thinking about leaving him. I can't break up with Andy. What the hell was I even thinking? He needs me! I need him. We can never be separated. By nothing. Mother Nature can suck my ass. Father Time can go screw himself. I will forever and always be with Andy.

I look back over to where he is. Well, was. I can't find him anywhere!

"Andy!" I yell. I just get an echo back. I start to panic.

"ANDY!"

"Over here, Greyson!" He yells. I know it's him, that cute little squeaky voice. I turn to where the sound is coming from.

"You little faggot," one of the football jocks, Kevin, says, pointing a finger into Andy's chest. "You got our star player expelled! Now, I'm gonna finish his job... in his words, 'I'm gonna fucking kill you'."

If only I knew that the last words I heard from my boyfriend that day were: "I'm sorry, I love you."

I would've prepared myself to kick Kevin's ass while I was still in control of myself.