The Strength of Us

Chapter Twenty-Nine - That's A Lie If I Ever Heard One

Chapter Twenty-Nine - "That's A Lie If I Ever Heard One"

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The surgery was a success, and Mr. Hooke is going to be fine.

The tumor was benign; they caught it at a good time and everything seemed to be working out. If they had waited any longer to take him to the ER, there could have been a lot more complications.

They got it early on and solved the problem with hardly any issues. He's been released from the hospital, and has been at the Corton Rehabilitation Center that's in a different building, next door to the hospital.

Corton is the biggest, most well-known hospital in our area. They took care of Oliver's dad after his accident and did a pretty damn good job of putting him back together. Now it's not so much as "putting him back together", but making sure this problem doesn't happen again.

He doesn't need to be in rehab long either – it hasn't even been a week since his lung collapsed, and they're expecting him to be back home within the next couple days, depending on his progress. I couldn't be happier at the fact that he's okay, and the rest of my friends feel the same way.

But there's still one person that won't change his mind.

I woke up with a shiver on my living room couch, not even remembering falling asleep in the first place. Leaning up, I looked around and saw that it's still light outside. I scrambled to find my phone, which was hiding under my thigh, and pressed the lock button to light up my screen.

Two texts from Alex, some notifications on Facebook, and that's it.

I sighed, running my fingers through my hair. It's Thursday evening after school the following week, and nothing has changed since Oliver shut me out on Saturday. I've been giving him his space though, because his attitude hasn't changed. He's a stone-cold, emotionless skeleton that goes about his day like anyone else. Just a lot quieter.

It's 5:47 according to my phone, and my dad should be home by now, but the house seems extra quiet. As I'm thinking about where he could be, I heard the lock on the front door click before the door opened. What sounds like two guys enter the house, laughing about something as their footsteps echo on the floor. I sat up completely now, raising my eyebrows in question and waiting to see who it is.

Then Alex comes walking in with a grin on his face, my dad right beside him.

"Oh, hi," I smiled at them.

"You weren't answering me and I figured you were either asleep or in the shower, but on my way over here your dad came home," Alex explained, taking a seat next to me on the couch.

"Yeah sorry, I really don't even remember falling asleep here," I shook my head with a laugh. "It's kind of late for you to be getting done work," I commented to my dad.

"I've got a really big case I'm working on with Sharna, but hopefully by next week we can get back to working normal hours," he sighed, squeezing the bridge of his nose with his index finger and thumb. "I'm going to make something for dinner. Alex, do you want to stay?"

"Sure," Alex chirped. My dad smiled in return, and then left the living room. "You talk to Oli at all?" I shook my head and frowned a bit. "He'll come around."

"I know," I mumbled.

"Don't worry about him too much," he breathed, leaning back on the couch and wrapping his arm around my shoulders.

"I'm not," I lied. He's all I've been worrying about.

Alex chuckled at that and I rested my head on his shoulder, looking up at him. "Steve, that's a lie if I ever heard one," he told me.