Always

Part 10

That morning, my mom woke me up at 5:30.
"Ugh," I groaned as I rubbed my eyes, "what are you doing?"
"Aubrey, honey, it's Monday. You have to go to school." My mom said as she headed towards the door. There was no way I was going to go to school. I played along and got ready though, because what my mom didn't know couldn't hurt. I grabbed a granola bar and headed outside. I ducked around to the side of my house and called Cassie.
"Hey," I said when she picked up, "wanna go out?"
"Duh!" Cassie said with a laugh, "pick me up in 10!" I hopped into my car and drove to Cassie's. She lived in the next town over, so it wasn't far. She came out right away and hopped in the passenger seat.
"Where to?" Cassie asked, as she buckled her seatbelt.
"Panera then the mall?" I asked, "I need something to distract me from James."
"Perfect!" she squealed and we headed towards Panera bread.

After finishing off our mac and cheese from Panera bread, we headed to the mall. When we were there, Cassie and I went into every store we walked past. Cassie had about 10 bags by the end of the day, but I only bought a few things. I couldn't focus on shopping knowing that James was in the hospital.
"You okay?" Cassie asked, "Because you don't look too good."
"Yeah, Cass, I'm fine," I said, "I just need to see James."
I dropped Cassie off at her house and apologized for leaving, but she understood.
I quick texted my mom that I was going to visit James, and then drove to the hospital.

I went up to James' room and saw Mrs. Wyatt sitting there, silently.
"Hey, how's he doing?" I asked.
"Oh, hi Aubrey," she said, "not much has changed."
"Oh, okay," I said, with a note of disappointment in my voice. I was hoping he might be getting better, "How are you?"
"I'm hanging in there," she said, as she turned to face me. Mrs. Wyatt looked completely exhausted, I didn't blame her. "It's hard to be positive when your baby's in the hospital."
I sat down next to her and put my hand on her shoulder. I tried to comfort her as we sat there quietly. That is, until one of James' machines broke the silence.