Know by Heart (boyXboy)

Chapter 32 - The Other Deeley

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It’s Wednesday, Zack was forced by his mother to go to school after the school rang her to check on Zack on why he wasn’t in school for the past two days. Now Zack has no choice but to go to his classes. He doesn’t have any legitimate excuse for being absent that day so there were no extensions given for all the activities and quizzes he missed, though he doesn’t seem bothered even by a little bit. All he can think about if whether there was a progress on Travis state, if he is finally up and awake.

He is physically present at his classes but mentally wondering about. He did a sloppy job at his works and didn’t pay much attention to his lectures. After being called out most of the time, he took the initiative to listen to his last classes, thinking it might help him get his mind of Travis for a while. It worked for a moment and then lunch came. During lunch, he didn’t meet up with Gab and Kyla, instead he went up the roof top and stared blankly at the sky. Few minutes passed and he heard the metal door open. He instantly jumped up thinking it might be the janitor, if it was, he’ll definitely be sent to the principal’s office.

 “Calm down, it’s just me” it was Jason, he closed the door behind him at quietly as he can and sat next to Zack.

“What are you doing here?” asks Zack

“I should be the one asking you that” he chuckled. “I saw you come up the stairs, so I followed you”

“Any news about Travis?”

“nah, haven’t heard a thing, the whole school is buzzing about it though” It’s true, every conversation that Zack manage to hear was about Travis. “It was way worse yesterday, it was the topic of the class even” Jason added.

They were silent for a while “I was going to see him after class, want to come with me?” Zack’s face light up a bit, and that’s enough for Jason to confirm he’d come. “I’ll see you after class then” he said before standing up.

“thanks” Zack smiles and Jason heads back down.

Gab was worried about Travis but was more concerned with Zack sitting beside her. They haven’t talk since last Friday. She knows talking about Travis right now would do nothing good for Zack, and she isn’t that good at comforting other people, so she just gave Zack time and let him be the one to talk about it if he ever wanted to. By the time classes were over, Zack raced to the parking lot to meet up with Jason. True to his world he was waiting by his red ute.

They arrived at the hospital and by their luck, neither of the Travis’ parents was there, but instead they saw a younger version of Mr. Deeley sitting by the corner reading a book. “Hello” Jason greeted.

The guy lifted his head and a smile stretched on his face. He exactly looks like Travis’ dad, Zack thought. “Hi Jay, how are you”

“fine thanks” Jayson responded, “oh and this is Zack” he stepped aside

“so you’re Zack, I’m Trent, Travis’ brother. Please come in and have a sit”

They took a sit by the foot of the bed. Zack was still wondering why Trent looks glad to meet him. He must not know about him and his little brother and Zack is pretty sure all this happy acquaintance will lead to shunning when Trent finds out the truth.

“how’s Travis?” asks Jason

Trent cleared his throat before speaking “well the doctor said, everything is going good, except for the fact that he’s still haven’t woken up. They had just brought him back from another scan of his brain to check its function and other changes” he stated calmly.

“so Zack” says Trent and Zack turned his head to him. “How long have you and Travis been together?”

Zack was surprised by his question, and the fact the he knows and didn’t go ballistic like his father. He looked at Jason, and the boy looks interested as well to Zack’s answer. “I..w-e...” he stammers “more than a month now”

Trent nods and seems intrigued, while Jason tries to calculate the time frame, “wait, was it before or after Harold’s party?” asks Jason

“after” Zack mumbles.

“how come you’re OK with this? Your dad doesn’t agree at all”

“He’s a very traditional man and becomes all religious when it comes to situation like these, even though he only attended mass like eight times.” he shifts to place the book down. “Travis here-” he pats Travis hands “showed me a sketch you draw, and I’m really impressed by your skills. Also I notice how he talked about you, that’s when I began to have suspicions, and when my mom told me about you yesterday”

“you were here yesterday?” Jason interrupted and Zack just nods, he looked at Trent and the man raises his eyebrow “oh, sorry” Jason apologized for interrupting.

“anyway, that’s when I knew” he grins, which weirdly resembles Travis’. He stood up from his chair and walked over the two of them. “I’m feeling a bit thirsty, you guys want some coffee? Or soda?”

“no thanks I’m cool” answered Jason

Trent turns to Zack “how bout you?”

“uhm, sure”

“come on then” Trent gestured Zack to follow “be right back Jay, call out when the doctor comes, ok?” Jason nodded and the other two went out the door.

Zack was holding his steaming hot coffee while Trent was lighting a stick of cigarette. They are outside of the hospital now, near the back at the smoking area.

“smoke?” asks Trent offering Zack some cigarettes.

“no thanks, I don’t smoke” he replied

“good, and don’t start. It’s hard to get rid of it when you get used to smoking” Trent blows off the smoke out before taking a sip of his coffee. Zack moves aside to avoid the direction of the smoke being blown away by the wind.

Out of the blue, Trent began chuckling on his own; Zack on the other hand was trying to figure out why. “sorry, I was just trying to picture how dad reacted when he found you and Travis in his room”

Zack’s face reddens as he recall that day.

“I bet he looked like he saw a ghost”

“actually, he’s looks like he was taking a dump, face was all red, eyes popped out and screaming like a banshee” says Zack and Trent bursts into laughter. His laughter was contagious that Zack began laughing too. He continued describing Mr. Deeley and Trent was laughing non-stop.

When they both settled down, Trent assumed with his questions, this time about Zack. They exchanged questions and answers until Trent checked the time on his watch.

“We should better go back, Jason must be furious we took almost 20 minutes”

“Ok” says Zack

Trent and Zack entered the main door of the hospital through the elevator up to the 3rd floor. Along the hallway, they saw Jason running towards them with a huge smile on his face.”

“what?” asks Trent.

“he’s awake! Travis is awake!” he was gasping for breath “I was looking all over for you guys, come on” The three off them entered the room and was surprised to see Dr. Gavin talking to Travis who was lying still but his eyes were open.

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