Yellow (editing)

In Another World We Are Infinite

The first thing my dad did when he came to pick me up at the hospital was hug me. Which I did not expect. Before that I had been worrying my head off while sitting on the bench outside, listening to the ambulances zoom past every minute or so, and rehearsing my speech that would clearly explain everything that happened to me, to Egan, and most importantly, to Orenda. But, my dad didn't ask me about any of that. He just brought me towards him and gave me a big bear hug, and then guided me over to the car, where it was silent and frankly, a lot better than the waiting room.

After we had been driving for a few minutes, my dad finally said,"Mrs. Castellano told us everything." His voice was gruffer than it had ever been, and that was either because he hadn't shaved in forever or he was extremely upset with everything I had ever done. I think it was the latter.

I inhaled sharply, and acknowledged that I heard him.

"You had your mom and I worried sick," he said in a hard tone, and sighed, "I want you to apologize to your mother once we get home."

"Okay."

The entire car ride back from the hospital was so quiet that I almost forgot my dad was there. Not a single word was spoken, not even when my dad was jiggling the lock on our door, which was usually when he would crack a joke about how our house was so old that it was bound to crumble into the ground any day soon. Even then he didn't utter a word, and that was when I realized how much bad sneaking off to a party at night was.

"Finnegan!" My mom came rushing to me the moment the door was opened, and, like my dad, brought me into her arms. Her big curls tickled my face and I buried my head in her shoulder, which was kind of hard because I had grown to be taller than her. She smelled of her tangerine scented lotion.

"I'm sorry, mom," I apologized, still in her arms.

She just sighed and fixed my hair softly; not a word was spoken. She told me to go take a shower and clean myself up because I smelled like hospital, so I did just that. But before doing that, I went into my room (which smelled of a warm breeze because my mom had opened my window), took off my hoodie, threw my white cane aside, and plopped myself on my bed. It was infinitely better than the hard plastic chairs in the hospital waiting room. The breeze through my window blew onto me and ruffled my loose t-shirt comfortingly. I could finally calm down from the nervousness I had suffered through at the hospital, and it was the best feeling. I was just thinking about calling Egan - since he had told me to call him once I had gotten home - when the phone rang. That made me jump a little, but I didn't go pick it up because there were already footsteps thumping over to the sound.

"Hello?" I heard my mom say; her voice sounded muffled because she was in the other room. 

A pause.

"Yes, Finnegan is home now. We'll have a talk with him about his actions, yes." 

I started listening more closely.

"How's Orenda doing?" 

A pause. 

"Oh dear." 

A pause.

"We'll keep her in our prayers, definitely. Sorry once again." My mom stopped talking with Mrs. Castellano on the phone and switched to talking with my dad. Both included disappointed voices and my name popping up every once in a while. I decided that it was time to take a shower and eventually their voices diminished.

After I showered and had something to eat, we ended up having a long talk about how I was insanely stupid but impressively sneaky. My parents decided that grounding me was the perfect solution to my friend being hospitalized. And so I was not allowed to have social interaction (not that I had a social life before that) with my friends other than during school, and video games were taken away for two weeks.