That Person Would Be You

Chapter 8 - Lily

It had been a week since mum had called me asking if I had heard from Drew that day. I hadn't why was she asking? There had been a suicide bomber in Mogadishu, another one, and a lot of people had died. It was probably nothing she just wanted to make sure he was alright. I sent a text message to the family's group asking Drew how was everything. I didn't get an answer. 

The next day mum called again and I told her that I still hadn't heard anything. Everything would be okay, it had just been a day. We didn't hear from him every day after all!

It had just been two days, you know how he's forgetful, he probably was just too lazy to reply. But I knew he hadn't even opened the message. I checked. 

It had been three days if something had happened they would call us.

It had been four days, they'd call us if there was anything bad.

Five days. They'd call us.

Six days. Did you get a call?

Still nothing, right? Still nothing. And I checked facebook, but messenger told me that neither him or James had been online for the past week.

A week! It had been a week since I had more than two hours of sleep in a night. It wasn't that I didn't try, it was just that I woke up with nightmares about Drew and James. The first two nights I tried to fall asleep after waking up, only to either not even be able to sleep or to just wake up a few minutes after with another nightmare. I had given up on sleeping almost. I woke up with a nightmare, usually as, in the nightmare, the phone rang or with my mum crying and struggling to get words out between sobs. I woke up, usually sleeping less than two hours a day, and went directly to my desk and started getting ready for the classes of the day. It wasn't very useful because I was so tired I could barely pay attention or retain any information both when I was studying and when I was in class. I went for breakfast at about 7 in the morning but almost always ended up having just tea or some juice because even just looking at the food made me feel queasy.

One more day. No calls. Not from Drew, not from anyone. It was probably nothing, we told each other. And yet I still couldn't sleep and the little food I ate felt like it might come back out. Sometimes it did.

Another day without calls and I was going to bed, feeling like utter crap, dizzy and tired and like I might faint. My brain wasn't really working properly anymore. I read something and it just stayed with me, not in a good way, not in a now-I-know-this way, but in a I-can't-stop- reading-it-even- though- I-put-down-that-book-hours-ago way. I didn't know what to do. I know I needed rest but I couldn't sleep and I know I needed food but I couldn't eat without feeling like I might throw up, I needed news from my brother and his mate but I couldn't contact them. Actually, I couldn't contact Drew. I realized now that I didn't even have James' number. Drew, on the other hand, had about a million missed calls and a billion messages saying how worried we were. That he needed to call us. No matter the time, no matter what, just call us when he can.

I was walking to class and then I just wasn't. As simple as that. I couldn't remember it. There was no premonitory feeling. I was just walking and then I woke up, in the middle of the floor, with a bunch of people around me and as someone carefully took his arms from under me, laying me on the floor. Seeing as I wasn't feeling any soreness on my head this guy probably caught me when I was falling. What a knight in shiny armour. "I'm okay. It's probably just my blood pressure or something like that..." I say to the people around me. A guy reaches out to help me sit up and then stand up. Now I was feeling dizzy.

"I think you should probably sit down." The guy said, probably because I was holding on to him so much. He was right. I felt like I was about to fall again. I nod and he starts walking with me to a bench close by.

"Your phone fell off!" A girl called out as she ran to give me the phone, not that she had to run at the pace I was going at, a slow walk would do fine. "A guy called Drew is calling."

"I need to answer it!" I say turning around, or at least trying to because I was holding onto a guy and he didn't know we were turning so... Also, trying to turn made me dizzier so then I had to hold onto him even tighter.

"Look, I think maybe you should focus on seating down first." He says, clearly tired of my shit. "Maybe take phone calls later."

"No, you don't get it. That's my brother he was deployed, we haven't heard from him in over a week. I need to know if he's ok." I say and as he registers it his face goes from irritation to apologetic in a second. I wasn't one for sharing my personal life with strangers but I couldn't find it in myself to care. He quickly grabs the phone without ever letting go of my arm, thankfully and picks up turning the camera toward me.