Angel Academy

Chapter Five

Corbin's POV

 The light streaming in through the window blinded me, and I rolled over, throwing my arm out in search of someone, anyone. All I got was a wet hand and a tail thumping on the dresser. When I opened my eyes, they looked into a pair of amazing blue ones. 

"Stache?" I sat up, and the old dalmation wagged his tail some more. "What are you doing here boy?" Stache tilted his head to the side and perked his ears a bit, unable to hear me; he had been born deaf. "Well, come on." I patted the bed and he slowly jumped up, crawling to lay on his back beside me. I rubbed his belly and frowned a bit. The once dark moustache that used to be right under his nose, the reason he got his name, was beginning to turn white and blend in with the rest of his fur. 

"It ain't Stache anymore. His name's Captian now, like I wanted to name him in the first place." I looked up to see Jeff, my uncle, standing in the doorway with a hand on top of his walking stick. His moustache had thinned out, and he had no hair anymore. His once 300 pound body was now less than 90, and I could see every bone jutting out from him. He used to be tall, but old age and the cancer had shrunk him down to just under 6 feet. 

I frowned. "You can't just change his name. He's had it for 14 years now."

Jeff snorted. "It's my damn dog, if I want to change his name I will. 'Sides, he won't even know it's changed." I glared at my uncle, annoyed with him already. Out of no where, he pulled out a kerchif and began coughing nastily into it, bending over and really letting it out. When he straightened, and before he could put it away, I saw the red dots of blood on his kerchif. "Where's your mother?"

I shrugged. "Probably still passed out drunk as fuck in her room. She almost went through an entire bottle of jack before I came home." Throwing my legs over the side, I stood up and stretched before throwing on a shirt. I slept in pajama pants because the one time I didn't, my mother had walked in and thrown the blankets off me and then proceeded to dump ice cold water on me. 

Jeff grunted, clearly not surprised and jerked his head down the hall. Stache was up off the bed and down the hall before you could say "Let's go boy". I followed my uncle down the hall and to the kitchen. I opened the fridge and poured myself some orange juice without offering Jeff any. He just walked into my house after 13 years, and I was not about to give him any hospitality. As I drank my orange juice, Jeff stared off into space absently turning his wedding ring on his finger. I never noticed until now, but he had kept Niamh's mom's ring. They had almost gotten married, but her mother chickened out on the day of the wedding and left my uncle standing alone at the alter.

"Well?"

"Well what?" I asked.

Jeff glared at me. "Are you gonna go wake your mom up or do I have to?"

I shrugged. "Why do you want her up. Thought you two hated each other?"

"You're right, maybe I should leave." As he turned to leave, my mother's door opened and she walked out.

"What do you want Jeff?"

Jeff seemed taken off guard by my mother's sunken look. "Dr. Houston asked me to check on you seeing as she's too busy to make a house call herself." Jeff wrinkled his nose like he smelled something bad, which he did; my mother hadn't showered in a while and I'm pretty sure she threw up this morning by the smell eminating from her. "Seems you haven't been taking care of yourself." Mom flipped him off and walked to the cupboard over the sink for an aspirin. Jeff watched her a few moments before speaking up. "How bad is it Chelsea?" Mom shrugged. Jeff sighed and glowered at her.

"Doctor says she has a few years left," I said.

Mom turned to me. "That doctor's full of shit. I feel fine. I'll live to be a hundred!"