A hospital bed was the first thing Milford thought of when he woke up. But it was not so.
Although he was laying down, he wasn't tucked into any covers. There wasn't any IV attached to him. He had simply overreacted.
Milford turned to his right and saw a blonde kid coughing uncontrollably and a more pale, obese one with a bucket on the side of his bed.
"Of course I'm in the school nurse's office," he thought stupidly.
Whoever had brought him there, he didn't know.
"Excuse me, nurse? Who brought me here?" Milford asked the nurse. "Oh, well, some student by the name of Jim Miller admitted you here when he noticed you unconscious in the bathroom during class," the nurse explained shortly.
"I feel fine. Can I go back to my classroom now?" Milford asked impatiently. "If you must," the nurse said, sounding bored.
He got up and walked towards the nearest clock. 11:37 a.m. He was later than expected. Milford ran down the halls leading to his classroom.
When he walked in, he witnessed everyone staring at him. Jim was looking at him with the most confused face out of them all. Milford couldn't blame him. Jim did find him lying unconscious in a bathroom stall during school hours, so he had to report him to the nurse's office. But why did he find him in those conditions? That was the question. And if Milford couldn't explain without being completely embarrassed, then that was a huge problem in their friendship. Jim might've suspected something like depression, but that was unlikely because they knew each other well as friends. Milford wondered if he would tell Max and Tyler about this.
Slowly and awkwardly, Milford sat down in his chair next to Jim. "Um, thanks, Jim," Milford mumbled silently to them. "Eh, no problem," they whispered back.
Milford noticed that the movie had been ended and put back in its case about a half hour ago, from what he guessed. He had missed his fun, unfortunately.
Once the awkward silence ended, the Friday went on without any mishaps. It went blindly and Milford didn't remember any of it. Not even lunch. But, that didn't even matter, for the weekend was about to start in 5 minutes in the final class. Excitement poured around everyone. The whole class was talking about their weekend. Even Milford couldn't help blabbering.
But the final seconds were extremely tensious. Then the bell rang.
Being a kid knowing the weekend was right in front of them is an amazing yet anxious feeling. It's like knowing that it's Christmas morning, but you have to wait for your parents to get up.
Everyone was running. Everything was a blur. Soon Milford found he was outside sprinting towards nowhere. He didn't know where to go. Well, he knew he had to walk home, but he didn't feel like it. He wanted to go places. Places he didn't even need to go. He knew that he wasn't acting like himself for some unknown reasons, but whatever feeling was trying to control him, it didn't seem to care. In the back of his mind, he wanted to run to his parents and tell them everything that had happened in the past few days, but he was afraid that they would not believe him.
All this thinking and fighting inside his mind left him standing still, but stiff. In public.
Milford got a few looks from a couple people, but they shrugged it off and started to walk to their houses. Milford started to sweat. His veins were clearly visible and bulging out. It was scary.
His heart pounded.
For about ten seconds this lasted before he started to sprint the other way towards town. His parents didn't know that, but he wasn't worried, for his mind ignored the trouble that was in the back of his mind.
Yes, they would ground him for sure, but everything he saw was blurry and he could not concentrate on anything.
The part of his mind that Milford could control was frustrated.
He didn't know how, but the next time he saw clearly he was in the city of Warwick in the middle of the night where few cars were driving.
He couldn't think.
How were his parents reacting to this? What had he had been forced to do? Were his parents even awake at this time of night?
Slowly Milford walked around the city sidewalk. He had not been planning to go anywhere of interest.
He checked his pockets. No money. Well, he knew he wasn't going to stay anywhere. Could he find somewhere to rest? He didn't even know the direction his parents' house was, so he was stuck.
They hadn't given Miford a phone yet, so he couldn't simply call them and get out of here. He wanted to cry in his own selflessness.
He wandered for at least ten minutes, all the shops about to close.
Then he couldn't take it anymore.
Milford wanted rest. He wanted to sleep in a garbage can, or a ragged carpet in the middle of an alleyway, or somewhere. Anywhere.
Then with the last strength he had, he ran towards a Burger King entrance, forgot the objective, and saw nothing more than the starry sky.
