Among the Living | Completed

Chapter Seventeen: What Came Before

***Edited version #1***

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Monday, February 11th, 2013

Dellan awoke reluctantly to the sound of his phone's alarm blaring on the bedside table near his head.  He turned off the alarm and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

Why does school have to start so early?, he lamented. He begrudgingly lifted himself up, taking note of the morning wood that, without fail, greeted him each day.  He sat at the edge of his bed still half asleep.  He needed to get up now if he wanted enough time to shower.  If he wasn't out of the bathroom in time, he was sure Linn would let everyone in the house know with her complaining.

Dellan relished the feel of the warm water pattering against his skin as he tended to his morning condition.  He sighed as he felt the tension release and rested his forehead against the cool tile wall of the shower.

I should hurry up before Linn comes knocking, he thought to himself and quickly finished up.  A few minutes later as he was getting dressed, as if on cue, he heard Linn's rapid taps on the bathroom door.

"Hurry up," he heard his sister's groggy voice muffled from behind the door.  

Dellan pulled his shirt over his head quickly and opened the door, greeted by Linn brushing past him and making sure to shoulder him as well to convey her annoyance.  

"You're always making me late," she muttered.  Dellan rolled his eyes; he was fairly certain she could manage to make herself late whether or not he used the bathroom before her.

He grabbed his school supplies from his room before bounding down the steps to the kitchen, where his mom and mum were breakfasting.

"Good morning, honey," his mum said in a bright tone before returning to the book she was reading over her cup of coffee.  His mom gave his arm a squeeze in acknowledgement as he walked past the table on his way to the pantry.  She was reading the newspaper, brows furrowed as she read the front page.

"Looks like there may be a new respiratory illness spreading around," she announced, "hopefully it won't be too serious and die down like the H1N1 pandemic did."  Dellan listened halfheartedly as he poured himself a bowl of cereal, more focused on the anxiety that was building inside of him at the prospect of another dismal day at school.

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"I need to stop by the carnation table before we go to lunch," Riley announced as he approached Dellan by his locker, "Rose seems like the type who would like that, right?"  

Dellan looked at his best friend's contemplative expression.  Dellan wondered why Riley always expected him to give relationship advice.  He, of all people, would know that Dellan had absolutely no experience with dating.

"Um, sure," Dellan replied unenthusiastically.

Who wouldn't like to receive a flower on Valentine's Day?, he thought.  Dellan himself despised Valentine's Day.  It reminded him how painfully hopeless he was when it came to attracting the opposite sex.  His friend, Riley, on the other hand, had been fortunate enough to get a girlfriend earlier that school year.

A part of Dellan also envied girls, whom society had arbitrarily deemed were the appropriate recipients of flowers, remembering the one time in middle school when he'd been surprised to receive one from 'a secret admirer'.  He had secretly loved getting the carnation, its petals had been a beautiful mix of mottled peaches and pinks, but the boys in his class had mocked him relentlessly for it.  After all, boys weren't supposed to get flowers.  It was too girly.