Liam glanced down as his phone vibrated gently on the desk by his hand. The display lit up with a text from his mother.
Caspin's in hospital
An ice cold dread shot through his body and settled as a hard lump in the pit of his stomach.
Grabbing his phone he got to his feet.
"I-I need to go to the bathroom!" he exclaimed. The teacher turned away from the blackboard, eyeing him lazily.
"It can wait, Liam. Sit back down." She said.
"It really can't!" Liam cried and then bolted for the door, ignoring his teacher's protests and threats of detention.
He ran through the empty halls toward the main exit. By the time he reached the bicycle sands his heart was pounding wildly and his breaths had been reduced to irregular gasps. But he pressed on, throwing himself onto the bike and speeding off toward the hospital.
Cool wind whipped his hair back as he haphazardly rode through town, and not ten minutes later he arrived, completely out of breath and sweating like mad, at the hospital entrance.
He discarded the bike by the door and ran inside, pulling his phone from his pocket to text his mom.
I'm here. Where are you guys?
The reply ticked in a moment later;
What do you mean 'you're here'? It's a school day, you should be at school.
Liam pulled a hand through his hair in frustration at his mother's reply. Did she really expect him to sit put and do nothing after receiving such a message?
Mom. He wrote and sent the message. The reply came faster than he'd expected.
Right. Sorry. I need to sort out a few things here first. Can you find somewhere to sit and wait for me?
Liam bit his lip, typing the reply.
Ok
He didn't want to. He wanted to demand that she came and got him right away. But he understood the situation and went over to the waiting room to sit.
The TV in there was on, showing reruns of some old sitcom Liam remembered from a good ten years back. He hadn't found it funny then, and it was even less so now.
He stood up and went over to turn the TV off. There was no one else there to complain if he did, so he might as well.
After returning to his seat he pulled out his phone again and pressed a thumb against the home-button. His mind was wool. He couldn't think of anything but his baby brother.
Caspin had been sick for a long time. His whole life, in fact. So visits to the hospital weren't a rare thing. But it always left that sickening jolt of panic lingering at the back of Liam's mind whenever his brother was admitted. What if this was the time he wouldn't come back home? Liam wasn't ready for that. He doubted he'd ever be ready for that.
He stared blankly at his phone as the display slowly faded to black after being idle for half a minute.
Liam wasn't sure how long he'd been sitting there staring at his black phone when his mother came to pick him up. At first he didn't register her entering the room and it took her five tries before he finally looked up.
She held out her hand.
"Come on, dear."
Liam took another moment to react and let his mother pull him to his feet.
