Right Uppercut

Chapter 11

My head felt heavy when I woke up the next morning. The phone was ringing and I grudgingly rolled out of my messy bed, still in the clothes I wore last night. I hated the sound of the phone ringing, never mind when it wakes me up in the morning.

“Hello?” I said into the receiver, my voice broken from sleep.

“What happened to you last night?” Mitch’s voice demanded from the other end. “You just disappeared, I looked everywhere for you; no one knew where you went. I was terrified!”

I let him go on his mom-like rampage before responding. “Something happened. I looked for you, but I couldn’t find you. I mean, getting water doesn’t usually take twenty minutes.”

He sighed. “I met someone, Daphne!”

Then the conversation took a lighter turn, back to him. I guess he met someone from the swim team, who he was pretty sure was gay and interested. Things seemed to be looking up for him.

“That sounds nice,” I replied emptily. I didn’t feel like I had the energy to be enthusiastic at that hour, in that moment.

“How did you get home, anyway?” He asked, remembering the original conversation.

“Noah.”

He squealed on the other end of the phone. “He likes you,” he sang.

I rolled my eyes. “He was just helping me out.”

“So what happened last night?” He said, serious now.

I was still in the stage of ignoring the facts, stuck in the dream world where nothing felt different or real.

“I don’t really know,” I answered. “I don’t think I’m ready to talk about it just yet.”

“With me?” He seemed shocked and I could picture him taking a step back, holding his chest.

“With anyone.”

The few beats of silence that followed felt awkward because neither of us really knew what to say. I looked at the clock on the microwave for the first time that morning. 8:43.

“Are you kidding me, Mitch?” I shouted. “Why would you call me before at least 10:00?!”

“I was concerned!”

“Couldn’t you have been concerned at a later hour, for the sake of my happiness?” I joked.

“Never.”

“Well, I need more sleep,” I replied. “So I’ll talk to you later. I’m gonna spend the day with my dad.”

“Okay, talk to you later,” he said quietly. “Promise?”

I knew that he was dying to know, as the best friend, why I left the party early last night. But at the moment, I needed to forget it.

Things felt different. I depended on Ethan’s presence more than I thought I did. He provided me with this outlet to release stress while making easy money. He held a place in my life that felt like a solution to all my problems, even for only a few hours. He was sweet at first, but he pulled away with time. I lost him long before last night.

“Promise,” I replied, not sure if I was being honest. I wasn’t sure of anything anymore.

***

Monday came too soon.

I spent the rest of the weekend with my dad, doing homework between his frequent naps. Every day that I saw him, he lost more weight. He was physically and mentally disappearing before my eyes. While he slept, he would mumble my mom’s name over and over.