Oh Boy! (BL)

16 - Fractured (2/3)

Mom didn't return to her room; not on Sunday, not on Monda. I used Clara's phone to call the school. Trying my best to sound confident, I told them that I wouldn't be coming to classes that week due to "complicated family matters". Yeah, I know: Call me a diplomat...

The secretary wasn't happy about it and told me she needed to discuss the matter with my guidance counsellor. Let her. I wouldn't leave mom's side, no matter what.

I visited mom every day at the ICU. Through the wall made of glass, I talked to her until one of the nurses asked me to be quiet. After that, I kept quiet and just watched her sleep. I didn't eat, I drank coffee to stay awake and water whenever Lisa forced me to. And the day's monotony increased the emptiness inside me.

Matt stopped by after Lisa called him on day three. He didn't say a thing, just pushed a bag of books in my hand and pulled me into his warm embrace. In the stiffness of his shoulders, I could feel that there were a thousand questions running through his mind. Why hadn't I told him that Mom had had a stroke? Why did I always want to handle things on my own? Was there anything he could do to help me?

I was glad that he didn't ask those questions aloud, because right now, I had no idea what kind of answers I would give him.

Another day blurred into evening and I tiptoed past grumpy Gudrun into Mom and Clara's shared room where Clara was still typing frantically on her laptop. I wondered what was catching her attention so much that she'd been clinging to the device since this morning. She cursed when I put the water bottle Lisa had forced on me on the table next to Clara's bed. "What're you doing?"

She pushed one of the keys and lifted her eyes with an amused smirk. "I'm playing."

She...

I wanted to chuckle, but it got stuck in my throat.

I wasn't allowed to laugh. Not until Mom was getting better.

Letting myself fall onto the visitor chair that had now become my makeshift bed, I asked what exactly she was playing on her fancy laptop.

She rolled her eyes. "Standard stuff. Solitaire, Chess, Minesweeper." Her eyebrows wiggled when I just snorted. Who got that excited over Solitaire? "But right now, I'm trying this role-playing game."

When Clara turned the screen in my direction, the gold and black logo embraced in magical flames had two effects on my body. One, tears shot into my tired eyes. Tears of longing for a past in which quests in WizQ had been an effective way of escaping this mess called life. And two, it could paint at least the hint of a smile on my face, because WizQ would always feel like home. "Do you want me to help you?"

"You know this game?" She made wide eyes. "Ben couldn't stop talking about it the last time he was here! I thought..." Looking embarrassed she bit her lip. "Maybe, this way I can keep in touch with him, without his dad finding it out about it."

There was a hint of a dramatic backstory in her voice, but I didn't ask. Everyone had their own burden to carry, and if she ever wanted to tell me, I'd be here. But I wouldn't force her.

"Lemme see. What's your level?" I asked and leaned in closer to her so we could look at the screen at the same time.

"Um...eight."

Cute.

"But my pretty little Clover can't defeat the mean bridge troll."

I froze. "C...Clover?"

"Well, actually it's Clover1." She snorted. "BB already secured himself the best of all nicknames!" Clara caressed her keyboard with an absent expression on her face that told me exactly that her thoughts were with Ben.