What Am I?

Chapter 8

" Doctor, this is definitely not a mild case."

"I know Dylan. But as I told you, it can't be cured, we can only reduce it."

Dylan was quite shaken after what had happened the previous night. He didn't know what do to, whom to tell. The only person who knew about him was Dr. Frazer. It was a deep secret which he had buried inside himself.

"When are you going to tell your parents?"

"I don't even know if I'm going to tell them."

But he knew that he would eventually have to. They would come to know one day, through him or otherwise, but he would prefer them coming to know through him.

Dr. Frazer looked at his watch and said, "Since you're going to school, you should get going. You've already missed the first lecture."

"Hey Dylan! Why did you skip biology?" asked Alex.

Dylan didn't answer but kept walking forward.

"You good bro?"

"Ya totally."

Though Dylan knew everyone at school, they felt like strangers...people he had never met before. The world seemed different, everyone felt different.

He wanted to stop thinking about it. He wanted things to just move how they had to, good or bad. He wanted to be alone, just by himself, without people asking if he was alright every time he behaved unusual.

"Dylan? Dylan?"

"Ya!"

"What's the matter babe? I've been observing you for a while now. You're always by yourself, not interacting with anybody. You hardly even meet me. Is there-"

"Andrea can you not talk for some time!?" he screamed.

Andrea was taken aback by his aggressive response, and so was everyone else. He had never spoken to her in that tone. The tears coming down her cheeks looked like rain on a dusty pane.

Dylan got up in anger and left. His friends had seen him angry, but not to this level that he misbehaves with Andrea in front of everybody.

"What was all that about?" asked Reece.

"Andrea wait!" said Emma as Andrea went running to the washroom.

"That's it. This is no way to behave. I need to give him a piece of my mind." said Max.

He looked for Dylan all over school. He finally found him sitting in one of the empty classrooms. Max had too noticed that Dylan hadn't been himself for some time now. He went up to him and told him that the way he behaved with Andrea was not at all acceptable.

Dylan was already in a bad mood and so he took off on Max.

"Stop telling me how I have to behave, especially with my girlfriend! You're telling me how I should behave with Andrea when you yourself have no respect for your girlfriend. You just keep finding girls to flirt with-"

"That's enough Dylan!"

"So you bloody well get lost if you don't want anything to go wrong with you!"

And just then, Dylan involuntarily punched Max in the face with his left hand. The two of them had never raised their hand on each other. It was so sudden that Max took a second or two to realise that Dylan had punched him.

Dylan looked at his hand in shock and then at the blood dripping from Max's mouth. He immediately regretted what he had done, but he couldn't help it.