Play the Game Boy (BWWM)

chapter 16

Faith

Restoring Brendan's image around town hadn't been as difficult as I assumed it would be. Although everyone and their mothers had expressed their distrust of the Wenthward heir the day he had been framed, Xander being revealed as the real culprit somehow shut down all previous concerns.

Since that whole debacle last week, Brendan had joined three anti-cyber-bullying organizations, became a spokesperson for BULLY-LESS, the face of their new anti-bullying campaign, and my very own personal chauffeur. He said I deserved it after getting him out of these charged allegations by proving Xander's guilt and involvement.

Normally I would have declined his offer, but nowadays, I didn't mind spending time with him. It was like the good old days —we'd talk about anything and laugh all the time. Having him as my pseudo-Uber driver wasn't that bad plus, I didn't have to pay him a dime.

He was driving me to work this morning, but the atmosphere in the car was depressing today, and it wasn't just from the Ed Sheeran track blasting from the radio. He had barely cracked a joke since he had picked me up, and he looked like he had barely gotten any sleep last night, judging by the subtle bags that lined his otherwise lively eyes.

We stopped into a Starbucks' drive-through and Brendan placed his order. When we rolled forward and he slid his window back up, I sighed out over-dramatically. He turned around to look at me, an eyebrow arched upwards.

"Mind telling me what's bothering you?" I asked.

He feigned surprise but I could see right through him —I had known the kid for far too long.

"I'm good Faith. In fact, I should be asking you this. You've not once complained about the AC being too cold, that's unusual."

I shook my head. "Don't try to switch the topic up on me. I know something's wrong Brendan. You can tell me anything."

He chuckled bitterly. "I will tell you everything, but only when you start telling me everything." I looked at him with a puzzled expression on before he clarified. "I heard the recording you sent to the police Faith. Xander said your mom was in the hospital and he paid her bill. You didn't tell me your mother was hospitalized."

I bit my lip. Uh oh.

"I can only be transparent with you if you are," he added, impatiently drumming on the steering wheel with his fingers.

"Look," I began, feeling my throat constrict. Damnit, why was Brendan right? I couldn't be entitled to know his truth if I couldn't even share mine with him. So I decided to be truthful. "I didn't tell you because I've learned that you can't keep secret. You told Chad about my family's financial problems, and I don't know, I felt like I couldn't trust you. But after this whole thing, I know I can trust you and so I'm telling you now. They found a tumour in my mother's left breast. Her best bet was to surgically remove it and so we opted for that, even though it was the costly option. I just wasn't ready to share this with anyone until I knew for sure that my mother was going to be fine. I wanted to come out with a success story, you know?"

Brendan wiped tears I hadn't realized I had shed and squeezed my hand.

"She still has some more tests and scans to run, but she's doing good right now," I croaked out and Brendan smiled in relief.