THE JOCK JUST WANTS THE NERD [2]

38

||ETHAN||

Mommy...

Here, my father and I wept with undeniable worry, gazing over my mother who laid on the hospital bed in this very small room; nothing but the bed and a window. As I clutched her hand, the sounds of our sobs mixed with the monitor's declining beeping. The man stood beside me is strong-willed with kept emotions, but nothing had brought him down to such a mess like he is right now, staring at his dying wife. There was no chance, that crash had demolished some of her vital organs, resulting in a slow and struggling end while we watched.

It hurts...

It hurts so much...

A gentle hand was placed on my hand. I look up to my mother through my tears as she smiles at me. "I love you, my dear Ethan..." she could barely speak with volume. I hugged her hand, as I was so afraid to let her go.

"I-I love you too mommy..." I did my best to reply to her.

Her expression remains solace as she then turns to my dad, "honey... can you promise me something?"

My dad could barely look at her, his eyes were shut tight as his hands were so clasped into a fist that he could have pierced the skin of his palms with his fingernails. He had to muster all of his strength to face mom. "Please... take care of Ethan..." my mother asked.

He looks at her, and nods with a twinged gasp, "y-yes, I promise with all my heart..." he broke down as he let go of his tense hands to intertwine his fingers with his wife's. As I watched, my mother did her best to motion me to come closer. I did so, leaned in together, and had our final embrace together as a family. My mother then placed a kiss on my forehead. Then, I heard the faintest whisper, coming from mom. I could not tell what she was saying as she must be only directing it to dad. He listens closely then stands up in his best capable posture, "E-Ethan... your mother's thirsty. Can you get her a cup of water please? There should be a fountain out in the halls," my dad requested. With no hesitation, I nodded and immediately exited.

My legs trembled as each pace forward tempted me to collapse. I did find a water fountain in a minute, but I didn't have a cup to pour some in. Just then, a group of nurses and doctors came walking down the hall. I raised a hand to one of them that passed by, "e-excuse me, do you have a plastic cup? I need to bring water to my mommy."

The person looked at me with great sympathy and regret, "I'm sorry... but- that won't be necessary..." he frowned.

"What do you mean?" I stared with worry.

With his hand waving me to follow, I did so with confusion and we were returning to the room I came from. There, the group of doctors huddle around, a couple comforting my father aside. The same weeping came from him...

But the only difference was that the heart monitor's beeping had come to a stop...

-

I slowly opened my eyes. Another nightmare. I blinked a few times, only to realized that I had cried in my sleep. Steadily sitting up from my bed, I rubbed away the remaining dampness from my cheeks. My breath rattled and my hands shook. Those recollections return at the most unexpected moments. It always haunts me, it always does, and it always works. Yawning, I gave myself a little stretch. My eyes drifted to my window where the curtains blocked the sun light's entryway. Groggily getting up, I proceeded towards it and revealed the bright outside to embrace its warmth. I was sort of tired yesterday from walking around the mall with Jackson; which reminds me. I turned to my dresser to find my new phone on top that Jackson had indulgently given to me.

I showed it to my dad and told him about it. He was also pretty surprised as to why but later on approved of Jackson. "Gosh, that kid's got a kind soul," he said. My father and I spent a few minutes to get it prepared, switched cards, transferred numbers, and experimented on it for a while.

Here I smiled at my precious memento and turned it on. It's something that I have to get used to now. I thought that for the first action I should do, is send Jackson a greeting and thank you. I tried my best to locate the messaging app around all of these different icons. After a while, I found it and scrolled down the different people in my contacts until I settled with him. As the typing bar appeared, and wrote down my thoughts, "Hi Jack, I just wanted to say this again. Thank you much, I'm definitely gonna use my phone all the time now. I'll frequently message you as well! Hopefully, you can keep up!"

When I tapped the sent button, the speech bubble appears and labels it as delivered. My eyes wandered around the other functions it had. Intrigued, I clicked the camera button which then requested access. Seeing why not, I granted it and then switched over to my front camera which presented my face. This looked so fun, considering I could never do this with my old one! It's as if a whole new world is open to me. Aiming the camera to myself, I snagged a selfie and sent it to him.

As soon as that image was shared, he had already seen it and begun typing. The ellipse was taking an unusual amount of time, almost as if he couldn't bear to send his message. After half a minute, he sent emoticons that looked intricate and something I have not seen before when I used to use my old one, "(*~∀~*) <3" he said.

I cooed at how cool that looked, but before I could respond to it, he instantly deleted it after...

Oh, okay then.