b r e a t h e // phan

0.2

•phil•

About two weeks later, my physical condition hadn't gotten better. In fact, it got worse.

I could barely walk at a normal pace without feeling like my legs are going to snap off, or my lungs feeling like someone is crushing them with their bare hands. And, despite how much I eat on a daily basis, I got skinny. Like, really skinny. My entire figure was very bony and stiff, only adding to the "tall and lanky" appearance I already had going against me. People at school then started to tease me because they were fully convinced that I was anorexic, when in fact, I was the complete opposite.

My chest has been feeling like someone took a hammer to it over and over and over, not stopping until it moved to my back. I've been coughing like a freaking hyena- that is, if hyenas even cough. Do hyenas cough? Anyways, my rib cage will feel like it's caving in on itself every time I cough involuntarily, which happens to be around every ten minutes. Everyone that is in class with me when this happens probably either contemplates whether they'd kill me or themselves first.

I have been having trouble doing the most simple tasks. Simply lifting a heavier object or moving something that isn't even that large has been such a difficult job lately. It's like all the good strength flowed right of my body.

I don't know what's going on with me, but it's not good.

And when I woke up at 2:00 A.M. to cough up blood, it only confirmed my suspicion.

I had jumped out of bed, feeling a lurch in my stomach that slid towards where my mouth was. I plopped down on my knees before the toilet and put my hands on the sides of the bowl. Breathing heavily, I waited for whatever was in my body to come out, and I heaved it out, my chest almost throbbing from trying to cough it up.

When chunks of red splattered out of my mouth into the water, I decided I needed to tell my mother about my physical condition.

"Mum, I think I may be sick," I told my mum the next morning.

She put down the fork she was using to eat breakfast and turned to me, "this isn't another one of your tricks to get you to stay home from school, right? Because this plan has less... Expertise... Than some of the ones you usually do."

"I'm being serious, Mum! I've been getting very skinny lately, and I swear I've been eating and keeping it in, and my chest and back has felt like someone is slamming a sledgehammer to it repeatedly! Also, I can barely breathe!" I exclaimed.

She raised her eyebrow at me. "Really, Phillip? You can't joke about not being able to breathe in order to not go to school. You should know that by now-"

"I'm being serious. I also coughed up blood. Would you like to see it?" I asked seriously. I didn't flush the blood down the toilet, knowing my mum wouldn't believe me in the morning.

She squinted her eyes and her eyebrows screwed together in confusion. "Okay..." She left her breakfast and walked with me to my upstairs bathroom.

By the time we got to the top of the stairs, I was almost wheezing, grasping the handle on the side of the steps as I pulled myself up behind my mum. She saw this and rolled her eyes at me, thinking it was me acting, trying not to go to school.

She looked in the toilet and gasped. She knew that had to be me, as she is never in here, and my sister is only seven. Lydia wouldn't get that... Thing... that older girls get once a month.

"Alright Phil, you can stay home. But, if I find out you are faking it, you will be grounded. Am I clear?" She looked me dead in the eye.

I nodded. "Good," she replied, "I'll set up an appointment for the doctors for today. If you cough blood anymore, let me know and we'll see if we can't get you in any sooner."

Nodding once again, I walked into my bedroom as my mother went downstairs to finish her breakfast. I crawled into bed and wrapped myself in the blankets, slowly falling asleep once again.

If only I had known what the day would hold, I would have went to school and hugged everybody I have ever known.

•••

Just a short chapter :)))))

-kay xx