Hanging On

     Walking home has always been peaceful for me. I'm on my own, I make daily discoveries. Nobody is there to tell me what to do, and it's just me, myself, and I.

     I never really was a people person. I have a couple of friends, but if I were invited to a party, I'd most likely make an excuse for not being able to attend. People confuse me, a lot. They never seem to make up their minds. They either love you, or they don't. They either order a small drink or large. Sometimes they don't even know the difference between wrong or right. For me, I try to keep things simple, but even that's difficult for me.

     "I'm home!" I called out as I walked into our little, blue, one-story house.

     "How was school?" My green-eyed mother asked blandly.

     "Eh, Mondays." I shrugged. "You okay, Mom?"

     "Yeah. I'm just... thinking." She flipped through the channel guide.

     She's been thinking a lot lately. Ever since my seventeenth birthday, which was two months ago, Mom has been "thinking". It's worrying me, because she just hasn't been the same. If only my father were here to make things better. Although, I've never met him, I'm sure he's a great man. Mom told me that he passed while serving in the army while I was at a young age, but I have a feeling that she's hiding something. But I never bring it up, because I don't want to make things worse.

      "Well, I'll be in my room if you need me." I kissed her on the cheek and walked down the hall into my spacious room. I always kept my room clean, giving me something to do. I collapsed onto my cold, neatly made bed, and buried my face into my pillow. I picked myself up and grabbed my laptop off of my nightstand and placed it on my lap. I logged onto my desktop and smiled at my wallpaper. I smiled back at Jennifer Lawrence on my screen.

     I opened up my commonly used browser and decided to check my local news site to see what was going on in the town of Northridge, California. The main story read "2 Teens killed, 3 severely injured". I shook my head. What are people up to these days? I scrolled down the page and saw more tragic happenings, "Mother of 2 killed in a head-on collision", "Bank robbed, over 15k stolen". Seriously, what are people up to these days??

     After a few thirty minutes of fooling around on the internet, a headache approached me, making my head feel like it weighs a dozen pounds. Then I heard my black labrador, Peppie, trot into my room.

      "Hey sweetie!" I petted her head and rubbed her ears. I'm no puppy expert, but to me, it looked like she was smiling. My darling hopped onto my bed beside me and snuggled next to me. I shut my laptop and set it aside and decided to take a quick nap.

     In my dream I was walking through the halls of a spotless hospital. I wasn't sure why I was there. I didn't think I was visiting relatives, since I don't have any around here, besides my mother. The lights on the ceiling shone brightly while some flickered occasionally. The scent of floor cleaner and sickened patients filtered through the air, and distant audible beeps came from every which way.

     "Hello?" I called out, but it was only echoed through the hallways.

     "Hello?" I called again, projecting my voice.

     No response.

     I poked my head into the rooms, and the hospital beds lay empty, but for some odd reason, the heart monitors were up and running. I walked into one of the rooms and went up to the monitor. The lines moved up and down, and I glanced back at the bed, still no body lay there. I examined the tubes and wires, and they just hung from the machine, attached to nothing. I looked back at the screen, and the lines started to lose frequency. The heartbeat was moving much slower, and instead of mountains, there were now hills. I pressed my cold fingers to the screen and listened to the beep start to lose its steady pace. Then, the long beep told me that there was no more heartbeat; that there was no more roller coaster. Then I looked over at the white hospital bed, which was no longer empty.

      I was woken up by my mother knocking on my door, telling me that dinner is ready. I stretched like a baby dinosaur and made tiny moans. My headache still remained, but its gotten a little better. Peppie was no longer next to me. She probably went to the kitchen to eat her food. I lazily got out of bed and quickly fixed my overly-dyed hair. I walked into the kitchen, and Mom was just setting my plate on the table.

     "What did you cook?" I asked, still trying to fully wake up.

     "Teriyaki salmon with garlic potatoes." She responded.

     I nodded and took my seat across from hers.

     "You okay, Ky?" Mom asked as she wiped her hands with a paper towel.

     "Yeah, I just have a headache. But I'm okay."

     "Again?" A look of worry was painted onto Mom's face.

     "Yeah, Mom. But I'm fine." I brushed aside. I took some food onto my plate and started to eat quietly.

     Uncomfortable silence took place during dinner, besides the sound of Peppie eating loudly in the corner.

      "So, uh, how have you been?" I asked, trying to break the awkwardness.

     She took a while to respond, and she finally snapped back into reality and said "That's great, honey."

     I furrowed my eyebrows. "Uh, Mom, you okay?"

     She looked up and half-heartedly smiled. "Yeah."

     But then I saw it.

     On the lower right side of her jaw was a purple bruise.

     "Mom. What happened?" I asked demandingly.

     She quickly looked back down. "What?" She said, pretending I didn't see it.

     "No, Mom. I saw it. Tell me what happened."

     "Honey, it's just..." She started, but then she stopped and looked away, breaking our strong eye-contact.

     I got up and knelt down beside her and examined the bruise.

     "Who did this?" I asked firmly.

     Mom just shook her head and looked down.

     "Was it Mark Adams?" I assumed.

     She slowly looked up at me and nodded slightly.

     Mark Adams is my mom's douche bag boyfriend. To this day, I still have no clue what she sees in him. When they started dating, everything was nice and happy, but over the past few months, he's been treating her like a dog, and I can't believe they're still together.

     Anger swelled up in my chest and I stormed out of the dining room. I grabbed my jacket from the coat rack and my phone from my room.

     "Kyler, where are you going?" Mom croaked from the kitchen.

      But by the time she finished, I already slammed the front door, heading to Mark Adams's house.

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A/N

Thoughts?