Before My Eyes

Cliffmill Sixth Form College

"Just give my Mum's files! This is a fucking joke." My legs cling to the synthetic waiting room seats. The nurse standing in front of me's face has turned pink and she's beginning to look flustered.

"I'm sorry, but you're under 18. We can't allow you to see them. I'm going to have to ask you to leave if you keep cursing." Her black hair has been pulled into a tight bun, stretching on her forehead.

"Can you please just get someone who might actually listen to what I'm saying?" She rests her hand on her hip and her eyes twitch a bit. "I'm the only family my mum has. I just want to see if you're doing everything you can to save her."

I don't take my eyes off her as she shuffles from her right foot to her left, her white plimsolls being peeled off the linoleum flooring. She looks to the side as if to see if anyone was immediately standing there so she wouldn't have to walk to get someone.

She sighs grumpily, "Fine," and slouches off down the corridor perpendicular to the waiting room. I look opposite me and see a boy. He seems familiar and I realise that I saw him come out the lift on Monday when I first visited my mum.

He stands up and walks to the scratched lilac chair one seat away from me. We sit in silence and I feel his eyes watching me. His arms are rested on the backs on the chairs on either side of him, his hand inches away from my shoulder.

Still pissed off with the nurse, I turn to him and snap, "Can I help you?" He just smirks back at me through his tousled hair falling over his face.

"Am I not allowed to sit next to a pretty girl?" He turns more towards me slightly.
"Ah I'm really not in the mood." I try sighing obviously so he gets the message to stop trying to talk to me.

His smirk spreads into a cheeky grin and he immediately replies with, "Really? I'm always in the mood." With that he gets up off the chair, chuckling to himself, and walks out of the waiting room.

***

Having seen my mum, but not her files, I'm finally able to leave the hospital. The fresh breeze outside feels amazing on my skin compared to the clammy air of the ward. I turn left in the direction of the train station and spot the same boy on the corner of an alleyway opening onto the main road. He's smoking a roll-up, his head up. Still blowing O's into the air, he looks back at me and our eyes meet in recognition.

"How's the mood now?" He shouts over, grinning like he had been doing earlier. I walk over, take the cigarette from his lips, inhale on it and blow the smoke out to the side. "Better, actually."

Still grinning, he says loudly, "Good!" He takes my arm and starts briskly walking along the main road, laughing and pulling me with him. I pull him back slightly and frown. "Come on, we've got somewhere to be." "What? Where?" He just smiles and carries on dragging me along.

Just as I start beginning to walk at his pace, he turns to me. "Oh, I'm Teddy by the way."
"Mali."
He smiles goofily, "Nice," and turns back.

We approach an underground station after a few minutes and he slows down as we walk in. "Alright go in front of me." His voice is hushed slightly. Something about him compels me to do as he says without questioning it. We wait like that in the midst of the busy queues, waiting.

When we get to the barriers he pushes me slightly ahead and taps some card on a pad on the side. "Okay, go go go go." The doors fling open and we both hurry through. Once we're on the other side, he asks me for the time. "4.50." He then turns starts sprinting down the escalators, sometimes looking behind him to see if I'm still there. I walk quickly after him.

"Are we in a rush or something?" "Nahhhh, I'm just trying to burn some calories." He starts laughing and shouts back, "Obviously dipshit."

We have to shove our way to the bottom through the long line on the right side of the escalator of impatient workers. He turns and jogs onto one of the platforms. I walk to where he's standing. "Can you tell me where we're going now?"

He shifts his gaze from the tube schedule to me, looking slightly out of it, smiles and says, like it's the most obvious thing ever, "School."

***

"Okay stay here, they're coming out in 3 minutes." I groan, wanting to know so much more, as he runs over to his college gates. The sign on the railings outside reads: 'Cliffmill Sixth Form College. A school for intelligent young adults." Someone has scribbled on top of the words, so they're barely legible.

I look over to him and see he's gesturing for me to come. We walk through and he guides me to behind a hedge to the side of some wide stone stairs leading to the main doors. He's smiling giddily and peering around the edge of the bush.

A boy comes out and looks around himself nervously. Teddy hisses at him, beckoning him to where we're standing. "Casp! Casper!" The boy's eyes widen excitedly and he sprints over, trying to pull up his baggy jeans as he does so. He's also grinning madly like Teddy and narrows his eyes, wondering if he should know me or not.

"Casp, Mali. Mali, Casp. How long?"
"Probably now." He's laughing hysterically. "Ted, two of them drank the water. Two!!!"
Teddy laughs hard, while I just frown, completely unaware. I then join them in peering around the side of the hedge. Five boys saunter out of the doors and stand around on the terrace bit before the stairs.

"Wait.. What the fuck!!" One of them's eyes widen and he starts screaming with laughter, pointing at the another's crotch. They all join in and carry on jeering. "You've got a fucking hard on!"

Casp and Teddy try to stifle their laughter and I just stand there shocked. Suddenly the boys start cackling again and I look again to see two of them covering their boners. "You faggots! You fucking faggots!Did Mr Williams make you excited or something?"

By this point, Casp and Teddy are practically crying with laughter. Laughing too, I ask, "You did this?"
Casp turns to me, his face plastered with an wild grin. "Fuck yes, bit of Viagra never hurt anyone, especially a group of mugs like them."

The boys who had been spiked burn bright red in the face and waddle over to the top of the stairs. Suddenly, Casp jumps out from the hedge and screams, "FUCK YOUUUUU, SHITHEADS."

Teddy grabs my hand again and we sprint out of the school gates, all three of us laughing hysterically now. I hear the boys cursing and running after us.

We sprint all the way to the tube station, with the boys not far behind us. Casp confidently jumps over the ticket barrier and runs down the escalators.

Teddy does the same, but turns around to me reaching out his hand. "Got it?" He says, grinning, as I climb over the barrier, surprisingly with more ease than I had thought.

I can hear the ticket man curse as the boys do the same and sprint down the empty escalators, just metres behind us. Casp has already disappeared into a carriage on the tube stopped on the platform. He's beckoning hysterically for us to come. Teddy makes it on, but the doors start closing as I run onto the platform.

His hand reaches through the closing doors, grabbing me and pulling me through. We spill onto the empty carriage, all laughing breathlessly on the floor and looking out at the boys pounding on the closed carriage doors.