Something New

Chapter 9

As much as I trusted Ms. O'Connors the second I walked into school I was itching to run back and check on mom. The images of last night kept replaying in my head and the sounds of my moms coughing echoed through my ears painfully.

Connor told Todd what had happened on the walk to school. I was too shaken up to lift my head let alone explain. The walk to school was quiet and full of sad tension. The rest of the day wasn't the greatest either. All my classmates could sense something was off. I had no energy to fake my smiles and part take in small talk. Everyone kept asking me what was wrong and trying to cheer me up. I couldn't even muster up the strength to get annoyed. I was a zombie.

It was last period and I couldn't even remember which class it was to be exact. I could hear everyone chatting and laughing and a few kids even tried including me in their conversations but I only grunted my responses and stared blankly at my desk. Today was long and torturous, everything seemed to zoom by but only because I couldn't remember what rally happened all I knew was that it was taking forever for the day to end. I could only focus on my mom and what she was doing; if she was okay. I would check my phone so often the teachers had threatened to take it away. I look up at the clock and realize there was literally only a minute left of class and I started packing up ignoring the fact that my teacher was telling me to wait. I rushed out of the classroom with my teacher practically chasing after me.

Then the end of school bell rang and I was running down the halls. I passed Todd and Connor walking out of their classes and they followed me not even bothering putting their books away in their lockers. My legs didn't slow down one bit even when Connor called out my name. Todd and Connor were actually having a tough time keeping up. I'm sure Lily would have come as well but her dad picked her up earlier that day to go out of town for their own family emergency. I made a quick note to ask about it after I was certain my mom was okay.

Right now I was speed walking down the side walk, I would have kept running but Todd and Connor had both lost their breaths and needed a slight break. Connor had to hold my hand to keep me from taking off. None of us talked. It was a very tense walk.

We made it to the corner of our street and that's when I finally had the strength to rip my hand from Connor's grasp. "Dustin!" Connor and Todd yelled in unison and then their foot steps pounded the pavement behind me. I hit the gate and it shot open, my legs flying up the porch and my hand twisted the door knob and I was in the house. I dropped my bag on the floor. My gaze wondered into the Living Room but mom wasn't there. That left only one place. I stopped for a split second to catch my breath. Mom seeing me frantic and wild would upset her.

As I took small tentative steps toward her bedroom door I could hear faint giggles and mumbling. I peaked my head in and saw my mom and Ms. O'Connor's with books in their laps. They had small smiles on their faces and every few seconds they would show each other a funny sentence or joke.

Loud stomps echoed through the house and mom looked up with wide eyes. She jumped slightly when she noticed me standing in the doorway. Ms O'Connor's smiled and put her book down. I look behind me to see Connor fast walking down the hallway. His hand reached out to grab my waist and then hovered for a second. Then it dropped to his side and he stood behind me. Peaking his head through the door as well. Todd was right behind him.

I looked back to see my mom smiling at the three of us. "I'm a lot stronger than I look boys, it's going to take more than a few coughs to get rid of me."

I knew mom was trying to be funny and sure it got a slight chuckle out of the other three but it only deepened my frown. How could she be making a joke out of this? She was coughing up blood for crying out loud. The fear in her eyes was genuine. I saw it.