A Different Descendant: Freshman Year 1

Chapter 8

     “You’re not Henry. You’re just a soulless freak that no one will ever love.”
    Those words hurt. They went straight through my chest like a bullet. If I were a shooting target and Freya was someone undergoing arms training, with those words, she hit bull’s-eye and the bullet still went right through me.
    ‘Soul-less huh? No one’s ever said that to me before.’
    My back still on the ground, her words before she left the hallway replayed in my head. The more they replayed in my head, the more it hurt.
     ‘Why do her words hurt?’ I asked myself.
As I lay on my back and thought about her words over and over, someone came in through the school’s entrance. I didn’t bother standing up.
    “You okay?” the person asked.
I shifted my eyes to look at my mother who was standing just in front of my immobile body.
    “What are you doing here?” I asked as I forced my body into a sitting position.
    “You weren’t home yet. Thought I might as well check up on you,” she responded.
The hall way went quiet again. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t help but think about the words Freya said earlier. It hurt. It wasn’t like when I lost my old man, but it did hurt.
      “Are you okay?” Mom asked as she sat on the floor next to me.
     If anything, at that moment, I just wanted to talk to her. Usually when I had problems similar to this, the first person I would turn to would be Alexis. But this time, my mother was the person I needed to speak with.
     “Um-can I ask you something?” I began.
     “Of course,” she replied.
     “I need you to be completely honest. Give me the blunt truth,” I added.
She sighed.
“Henry, I’m your mother. Whatever is on your mind, just say it. I will listen and keep it real.”
Taking a long deep breath, I spoke;
“Am I soulless?”
“What?! No. You’re not soul-less. Who said that to you?!” she asked, raising her voice defensively.
“It doesn’t matter.”
    The hallway went silent for a while again. It didn’t feel weird that my mother and I were sitting on the floor in front of the entrance to a school. My mind wasn’t anywhere near thinking about what is and what is not weird.
    “You miss him huh?” she said, breaking the silence.
I raised my head to look at my mother who was staring into empty space.
    “Yeah,” I said softly.
She went quiet again. Then after a few seconds of silence and breeze, she spoke again.
    “He was like your best friend,” she smiled.
    “He was my best friend,” I responded, amplifying the word ‘was’ and the hallway went silent again.
    “Do you want to know a secret?” she asked.
    “Is now really the time?” I asked.
    “Yes, it’s um-.”
She didn’t finish her sentence when she paused. Like she thought twice about what she was about to say. She was thinking so hard that she totally forgot I was there.
    “Well?” I called, bringing her back to earth.
    “Right. Sorry about that. The secret is something I promised your dad not to tell you or your sisters.”
    “Are you going to tell me or what?” I asked impatiently.
    “Right. The secret is-”
    Anxiety started to well up inside me. Like troubled waters, my stomach turned. I wondered to myself; ‘What is this secret that she seems hesitant to say?’
    “You were your dad’s best friend.”
    My face went blank, and the level of my longing to know what secret she kept dropped below zero.
    “I’m being real. I just didn’t want to say it so as not to create any need for jealousy among you three. I love you three more than anything,” she said.
    “Hm-hm.”
    “Back to the main topic. Henry, you don’t have to keep everyone away from you just because you lost someone as important to you as he was. We were all broken when he passed. You were broken the most. But you can’t hold that in and deny the many wonders around you. There are lots of good people out there and you can’t keep hurting yourself Henry.”
    It wasn’t the first time she gave me that kind of lecture, but that evening, it just hit different.
    “I mean you’re talented, smart, and very handsome,” she said, tugging at my cheek playfully.
    “And everyone wants to be friends with you. You can’t keep denying yourself the wonderful people you have around you. Yes there are many that are downright annoying and yes you will encounter many of them. So just embrace the world around you and you’ll see how much better things can get for you.”
    I stared at her and admitted to myself that she was right. Maybe I had been seeing things with blurry eyes.
    “You’re probably right. Thanks mom.”
    “Sure thing,” she replied and pulled me in for a warm cozy hug. The warmth of a hug from my mother was one of a kind. The same warmth gave a different comfort each time.
    “Now let’s go. I don’t know about you, but it is pretty weird sitting on the floor at the door with my son at the high school I graduated from,” she said.
    “Yeah. But first, I have to get to the NHC,” I said.
NHC stands for Noriah Health Care. Few years ago, Starling City together with Mystery Falls had some sort beef with Central City and Briarwood.
My father together with two of his colleagues and the backing of the Mayor before Daphne’s father established four hospitals with my dad as the head of all of them. That was a while before he got married to my mother. When he passed, they fell into the hands of my mother.
The Collins family has been doctors for as long as I can trace my family history. 
    “What for?” she asked as we both stood up.
    “A classmate of mine is in the hospital. She’s getting discharged tonight, but I haven’t gone to see her. Hopefully she hasn’t left yet.”
    “Oh yeah, Yamanaka’s daughter”
    “Yeah”
    “Then let’s get going.”
        ****************
    Mom drove me to the hospital. I had her stop by a flower shop so I could get some flowers for her. It was a rather good thing to bring flowers for someone in the hospital.
    When we got to the hospital, mom told me what ward she was in. I hurried towards her ward and practiced what I would say in my head.
    When I got to the door of the ward she was in, I could hear Erica talking to the rest of her group of friends. As I heard them talk and laugh amongst themselves, I started to feel the backlash of what I said to Freya.
‘For what’s worse, she might have told them,’ I said to myself.
    I shook away those thoughts, closed my eyes, took in a deep breath and knocked.
    “Come in.”
I opened the door slowly and walked in. I closed the door behind me and held the small bouquet of tulips in my hand and looked at all of them in the room.
    Erica was on the bed with a blanket over her lower body. Freya sat on the bed next to the pillow. Elizabeth and Daphne sat at the foot of the bed, while the others stood around the bed.
    “Henry!” Erica called out with a glee.
    “Hey. How are you feeling?” I asked and walked towards the bed.
    No matter how hard I tried to ignore the state of the room when I entered, I couldn’t help but notice the way the all looked at me. Like I was someone they hated.
    “Never felt better,” she smiled.
    ‘She seems really happy I came,’ I said to myself.
    “I’ll take those,” she said, stretching out her hands to collect the flowers.
    “Thank you Henry.”
    “You’re welcome.”
    She kept staring at me and smiling. It was starting to get a little contagious that didn’t know when I smiled back.
    “Erica, I have to get going now,” said Daphne, breaking the silence
    “Oh. Well goodnight then. Thanks for coming,” said Erica.
    “Sure thing,” she said and left the room.
    A few seconds later;
    “Erica I have to go too. I promised my mom I’d be back early tonight,” said Elizabeth.
    “Um-okay then. Goodnight Liz.”
    ‘No doubt, Freya already told them,’ I said to myself.
    After Elizabeth left, all of them besides Freya who just walked out of the room with an angry look on her face, all gave a reason or the other why they had to leave.