Through Chaos As It Swirls//Coldplay

Chapter One

"I'm dying" said my voice into phone.

"Reese, baby, what's going on? Are you okay?"

My mother seemed very concerned. She was a rather careless woman. A big reason why I live with my dad after the divorce. My dad is hardly any better. After my mom walked out, he turned to alcohol and it seemed like he was never around.
That's because he wasn't. He was out with friends trying to numb the pain away. However, what I had just said did capture my moms very short attention and it should of. My words she heard made her assume that soon, I would no longer be relevant to existence, and she was assuming correctly, or maybe she just didn't understand so I repeated.

I'm dying mom." There was a moment where the only sound came from her breathing.

"What do you mean?" She sounded worried.

"I just came out of the doctors office today. Remember the pains in my chest I had earlier? Well now we know why they were there. I have lung cancer. They gave me a few months to live. A year at most."
This was news that family shouldn't tell each other over the phone. Especially coming from a son to his mother. But I knew she wouldn't come to me if I had begged her to. I haven't seen her for a few years now.
Still the static silence lingered over the phone. I had figured she was at a loss for words.

"Mom?" I waited a little longer for an answer.

"I..I'm sorry Reese. I don't know what to say."

I heard her crying and it gave me a strong feeling inside that scram at me. It had asked me why I even bothered to dial in the first place. Outside of my dad forcing me to, she would have never known and lived her life on without me if I never called. I wasn't worth much to anyone really.
"Mom, I said I was dying. I didn't say I wanted to live. Stop crying."
She cried harder which started to annoy me because she never cared. If she did, maybe she wouldn't have completely disappeared from my life. I hung up and expected an immediate call back from her to say anything. Anything at all.
Hours passed and that call was far from coming my way. So it came to be that I would get a sleepless night knowing soon my eyes could close and never open again at any given moment.
That next morning, I woke up which now, I was a little more thankful than doing so any other day. The fact I even survived the night was just stunningly too good to be true.
But, after all, I still did have to wake up to the same life. Still had to walk the halls paranoid to see my bullies. I still get kicked around, spit on, beat up, people call me names, all your typical bully hobbies. Some think it's funny and join. Others think it just isn't right yet stay silent and thus my suffering flys under the radar of school authority.

Let me tell you a little about myself. My name is Reese Casson. I'm 17 years old and a senior at Walford High. Yes, you read correctly. I'm a senior. Supposed to be ruling the school picking on some freshmen and sneaking out late to go to parties with my friends. Rather, I still have bullies and the last party I went to was my sisters. She turned 6 that year and well, a bunch of kids ten plus years younger than I am don't exactly click with me. Neither do kids my age.
I was always the outcast of any group. Don't speak unless spoken to kind of thing. I am socially awkward. I'm never invited out by the guys. I'm no star athlete nor a know it all smart guy. I'm not your Prince Charming. Girls aren't exactly lining up to kiss me but rather to just, well, they're not lining up to do anything at all. To the other sex, I don't exist. Never was a ladies man.
Thinking about it, I was never a people man to begin with. There's not much to know about me. My only friend has 6 strings. What keeps me away from others? It's not that I isolate myself. It's just that people aren't fond of me. Is it my freckled face? My hazel eyes covered by bottle caps for glasses? My Pale skin and hair? My abnormal scrawny little body? God knows what it is but bottom line, I'm a nobody to everybody.
Anywho, I rolled out of bed and went straight into the shower just like any other morning. Dried off. Slid on my jeans and t shirt. Grabbed my backpack which was hardly full of anything, and walked out the door.
As I was walking, a car passed by me on the streets. That may sound completely normal to you but where I'm from, there's not a soul to be heard. This car was playing that same song that's been making its way around almost every radio station. I could hear it through the open windows. I didn't think much of it at first until a second and third car passed me playing the same song. At that point I had to know what this song was but before I got the chance to find out, I had arrived at school.
Despite me being told I would no longer be alive soon, it was almost like the world didn't care. Like it didn't even know and it decided to give me a day I've had before. My first period was boring as usual because there's not a single person who pays attention in senior math. We all got the feeling that just because we're seniors, we're already done with school and don't need to do anything anymore. That goes for second period chemistry, third period literature, fourth period history, 5th period Spanish and 6th period home room. Nobody feels a need to spend a single second actually paying attention. A teachers worse nightmare. Yet, my worst nightmare is during breaks and passing periods. I'm so scared of running into the wrong people I just often find myself alone like I had said already. I've gotten used to my only company being a guitar. I just sit alone and play away. It's probably my only skill.
After that long day, I found myself lying in bed asking God to help me. And if he wasn't going to save me, I pray he let me at least slip away at ease painlessly. I was so scared of dying because nobody knows where we go. Despite all these rough patches in my life, I do have faith in a god but I still am scared. Who wouldn't be? Death is not anyone's friend. Last thing I could remember was asking for change and make these last few months a life worth living.
The next morning was again the same old thing. Wake up, shower dress, and out the house I go. Except on the way to school, a familiar car passed by me playing that song that's everywhere. Except this time, the car pulls over to my right on the curb. The darkly tinted windows rolled down and a man with sunglasses sits there with a smile. Dark blond wavy hair and white skin. I stood speechless and the silence was broken by the sound of his voice.
"Hello" said the man
"Uh..hi" I try and inch my way away from the car until he took off his glasses and held out his hand.
"Name's Phil. Phil Harvey"
I look at his hand which is expected to be shaken.
I grab his hand.
"Reese. My name is Reese."
"Good to see you little guy. You have an amazing day alright kid?"
My force of habit leaks out and replies
"Yes sir."
"See ya around kid" He put his sunglasses back on and drove away.
That was odd for someone to notice to me. Especially when it's a stranger who said hello to me in his car. I shook it off and went about my day. The strange part was that this Phil guy had said hello to me the next day and then the next day. It was becoming a normal thing. To be totally honest with you, it was making my days a little lighter. Everything was going fine until today after school, my phone rang. I saw it was from my dad and answered.
"Hello?"
"Reese you are in very big trouble young man. I need you here now. We need to talk."
"What happened dad?"
"Come home NOW"
I hung up. I couldn't think of anything I had done or anything I didn't do I was supposed to. I was scared so I decided to stay out a little longer. I went to rosewood park and saw a man sitting on a blanket leaning on a tree next to a radio. That song was playing. I was listening to it until I couldn't help but notice who was sitting next to the radio. It was Phil. All my life I felt like I was always in the wrong place at the wrong time but something about him sitting there made me feel like this was different.

"Reese? That you bud?"
"Hi Phil"
"Come here come come"

I walked towards his direction more comfortably this time. He seems friendly.

"What's up man I didn't get to see you today."
"I was late today that's why. I didn't go to first or second period"

Now that's why my dad was probably mad. He probably found out.

"Hey you can't be doing that man."
"I know, hey um what you listening to?"

I had to ask because I've heard this song a lot lately and haven't heard its name. He looked at me and smiled

"What this song? This is Us Against The World by Coldplay."
"Coldplay?"
"Yeah great group of guys. You'd like them."

I sat silent listening to the lyrics. They were truly beautiful.

'the tightrope that I'm walking just sways and ties the devil as he's talking with those angel eyes' I was getting lost in it.
I suddenly had no absolute control of myself as the song played and I started to cry.

"You okay?"
"what?" I wiped the tears out of my eyes with my shirt.
"Are you okay?" He asked again this time looking at me.
"Yeah yeah I'm fine. I need to go now. Thank you."
He sat confused as I got up
"Well alright kid. See you around"

I knew what was waiting for me at home but I just didn't care. I wanted to go home and try and learn this song on my guitar because it was really good. Sure I had to get through my dad yelling at me, beating me, and the crying but when it was all over, it was definitely worth it. I listened to Us Against The World, then fell into Coldplay's hits, and it eventually led to me wanting to hear every song they ever wrote. Phil was right. I did like them. The only thing I could remember before falling asleep was 'through chaos as it swirls, it's us against the world.'