Heartbreaker In Disguise

Chapter 24

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Chapter 24

WHENEVER TIMES WERE BAD, avoidance became my only armor against reality.

I carried everyday as if nothing was happening. As if I didn't rush out of school everyday to make it quickly to the hospital. Nobody knew about my dad except for Eva, who was the one who gave me a ride to the hospital from David's party.

It turned out that my dad had acute pancreatitis, an inflammatory condition of the pancreas. It happened for multiple reasons, the doctor claimed. In my father's particular case, it was a caused by stones in the gallbladder. In short, a stone got stuck in the bile duct and caused a back flow of bile into the pancreatic duct, which was very painful and in some cases even deadly. However, that only happened to 10% of the victims.

My dad's days were mostly spent under morphine effects or simply groaning and moaning because of the pain. I would usually sit next to him and just make him some company, because he could barely talk unless he was given something for the agony. He was banned of food, which was probably one of the worst things my dad could go through, in all honesty, and only family was aloud to visit given he was still in ICU.

It had been a few days since he was admitted into the hospital, where I'd actually spent an entire night in, which led me to lacking sleep so much I started falling asleep in classes and to not being able to concentrate on anything whatsoever.

Classes passed by rather slowly as my eyes dropped every two seconds. I would start resting my head on my hand and covering myself with a book so that hopefully the teacher wouldn't notice as my eyes would finally give in and sleep would consume me.

However, not this time.

"Carls." David whispered.

I blinked a few times and turned towards him, attempting to scare the sleep off my eyes. I raised my eyebrows expectantly, waiting for him to speak.

We hadn't really spoken since his party. I'd been so busy and distracted I had practically forgotten about everything that had happened that night and never really dealt with it. On the other hand, I could tell it was killing him. He would near me everyday after the last class but I would dismiss him quickly and would rush out of the school since I started bringing a car. He would always stare at me hurtfully, but I really didn't have the time and, even if I did, couldn't deal with it at that moment. It really hurt me to see him like that and to stir in pain like I was doing, but I really couldn't.

It was selfish, but my dad's condition was of upmost importance and everything else, including my usual teen drama, simply seemed utterly petty.

Hence, David could wait.

"What?" I replied.

"We need to talk."

I swallowed, I wouldn't be able to avoid him this time. However, just as I was about to respond, the teacher hushed us. David stared annoyingly at him, but quickly returned to his attempt of speaking to me as soon as he turned around.

"You've been avoiding me since the party."

I sighed and started shaking my head, "I just can't deal with this right-"

The teacher hushed us again and glared at us with fury. I muttered a hushed 'sorry' and tried to pay attention to the board.

"Caroline-"

"David, I just can't, okay?" I insisted, suddenly irritated.

He backed away, looking hurt and I turned back around. Pms, stress, lack of sleep and last period really weren't a good combination... but it still didn't reason my harsh response.