Hating Grayson ✓

49

When I was bullied in the third grade, she was the one who, not only reported my bullies to the principal, but she taught me how to stand up for myself.

When I fell off of my bicycle in the fifth grade whilst I was learning how to ride, she was the one who placed band-aids on my knees and assured me that I can do it.

I could always count on her.

But now...

Now she was cursed the cancer.

I wish I could say for certain that she would pull through this, but life is mysteriously unpredictable.

If god existed, he would be cruel to take my mother from me.

I love my father a lot, my brother too. I may sound like a bad person for saying this, but, without my mother, I don't think I could survive that.

My mom has always been my comfort person.

"There's my little Dally." She says when I enter her hospital room.

My dad was at home sleeping and Mitchell was out, so I had ordered an Uber to get here.

She's smiling at me. It's the kind of smile that has always reassured me that everything would be okay. That, no matter what happens, she would always be here to make it better.

But nothing was okay. My mother had cancer, and no matter how much I prayed or manifested that she would be okay, there's just no telling.

There circles beneath her eyes, and as she tries to sit upwards, she's straining. It made me sad to see her in this state.

"Hi mom." I say, taking a seat beside her bed, fighting back tears.

She doesn't need to see me cry.

She can't see me cry.

I must be strong.

And as my father always said...

Men don't cry.

"Shouldn't you be at school?" She wondered, her voice is faint, distantly so.

I inhale a breath through my nostrils before releasing. "I don't ever wanna go back there." I tell her. "I can't."

"What's up?" She shifts slightly in her bed.

I am silent for a moment as I contemplate wether or not I should tell her. I decided not to.

She has more to deal with.

"Nothing." I say.

She coughed, placing her right hand over her mouth before exhaling a calming breath. "Does this have anything to do with Grayson?"

Pardon my language, but what the actual fuck?

Does she know???

Shit!

Does that also mean that my dad knows?

FUCK!

Did Principal Baker inform them of the photo?

"Why would you think that?" I wonder, acting as if I had no idea what she was on about.

"I've been alive long enough to know when someone's in love." She says.

"I am not in love with Grayson." I say, defensively.

She inclined her head to the side. "I'm talking about Grayson being in love with you. I've seen the way he looks at you."

I scoffed. "He doesn't love me."

I mean, honestly, what is there to love?

"Why are you so sure that he doesn't love you?" She asked.