Marcel Is Not His Name

Chapter Thirteen: Fighting the Past

Cassie ended up skipping school that day to go shopping with her cousin. She came over to my house at around 8 o'clock and brought me a big breakfast of pancakes, a fruit parfait and Voss water from our little local deli. Her and I used to go there almost every week for breakfast when we were little, they have the best pancakes. She didn't stay long because she had Katie, her cousin with her, but made sure that I would be coming to school tomorrow. Apparently it was awful without me. Little did she know how depressed I've been for the past week and a half. Only after a heavily weighted argument with my parent and my doctor, did I convince them that I was well enough to go back to school. But the only way I could get them to agree was if I promised not to take any tests or talk to my teachers about the work load I can handle until the concussion fully heals.

For the rest of the day I binged watched shows on Netflix and caught up on some work that Cassie brought over for me when she dropped by. Overall I was thoroughly behind in all my classes. I had at least ten pages of homework for each class, three essays to write, and four tests/quizzes to make up. I could already tell it would be a long week, but at least Cam said he and his driver would pick me up for school. Normally he would just drive me himself, but his car was still getting fixed, and he wasn't allowed to drive for another two weeks. I finished up what little I could do for tonight, and then decided that it was best if I went to bed early.

The next morning I woke up later than usual, and took two Ibuprofen tablets right away to take away some of the effects of my concussion. Downstairs I then made myself a blueberry banana smoothie and ate leftover pancakes from yesterday. I heard Cameron come in while I was upstairs finishing getting ready. When I came down, he was sitting at the counter and was on the phone.

"They're letting him come back to school after what happened?... Yes I understand that there's nothing I can do to stop the school from letting him back... Well does it really have to be today that comes back?... Yeah, I'm picking her up now. Isn't there some-" He cut himself off when he saw me. "Never mind. I'll have to talk to you later. Let me know if anything changes." And with that he put away his phone and walked over to meet me at the bottom of the staircase. "Hey,"

"Hey." I responded in a questioning tone. I'm pretty sure my head tilted to the left too. "What was that all about?" I pointed down to his phone which was now located in the front pocket of his khakis.

"Nothing you need to worry about. Just some stuff I had to take care of." With that he pulled me into a hug and I took in his sent. "I missed you at school."

"I missed you too, Cam." It was nice to be back to this -- back to normal. "Okay, let's go. The car must be waiting for us."

"Yeah. Hey, by the way we have to make one other stop before school. I told Brandon we could pick him up." As we walked to the limo I looked up at him. I was fine with stopping, but why did Brandon need a ride? Besides doesn't everyone know that Cam's car is wrecked? I guess it didn't matter. Maybe Brandon just needed a ride and Cam offered.

"Okay." I smiled, and he opened the door for me in the back of the limo car. He then made me scooch over so he could get in and sit. It wasn't that big and I knew already that things would get a little tight when we picked up Brandon. It was just like a normal car except there was a black glass window between us and the driver. When I was younger I would always be riding around in these things with my parents, because they were too busy to drive. Only during a few occurrences did I ride in a stretch limo, because those were exclusively for special occasions. Cameron's dad owned two stretch limos, though. One he kept here in California and the other at his home in New York City.

Brandon's house was just down the street from mine so it only took a minute to get there. He hopped in the car with a huge smile on his face, and bro hugged Cam as soon as he got in. The limo was flooded with a strong cologne smell the second the door was opened for him.