The Bad Boy's Secret

~Chapter twenty three~

🙏🏻~🌸~☀️
Don't stop on
a difficult path, take it
one step at a time.

-Unknown
☀️~🌸~🙏🏻

They say that the more a person is accustomed to bad news, the better they are at adapting to such situations whereby a bombshell is dropped. Shock, fear, sadness; all common emotions one undergoes when on the receiving end of it, yet it never gets easier. It's how I felt back then, it's how I feel now.

Sick to my stomach.

"I d- but."

I mindlessly stutter, physically chocking on my words as I attempt to spit them out, each go failing as much as the last.

"She doesn't look sick." I eventually wheeze, squeezing my thoughts out, which sounds idiotic really.

My Mom didn't look suicidal, yet she still swallowed the pills that ended her life.

"I know." breathes Aidan, clearly agreeing with me. "Sometimes I look at her and convince myself the doctors made a mistake. But then, she'll have a bad day and it's like the universe is reminding me that we're on borrowed time."

At the mere mention of time, I snap my head up in a bone jerking motion and latch my frantic gaze into his, desperate to be proved wrong in my assumptions.

"Has she been given a time?" I ask, unsure I want to know the answer to my meddling question.

His emotionless eyes search mine in a desperate attempt to portray his feelings but in the end, I need vocal confirmation. Besides, his eyes are giving nothing away.

"Six to twelve months." he replies, not once removing his stare from me. "That was five months ago, now." he adds, destroying any ounce of hope I may have previously been clinging onto.

How on earth can this be happening? Jane is a good person; a lovely mother, a caring friend, yet she's destined for such an untimely death. It's bad enough to be leaving two fully grown boys behind but April, she's barely out of diapers and is about to lose her Mom at any God given moment.

"It's cancer. On the bladder." elaborates Aidan, suddenly grabbing my hand in an attempt to caress some feeling back into my numb limbs.

It doesn't help in the slightest and instead, find myself becoming lost in the heartbreaking news I've recently come to discover. I can't even concentrate on anything he's saying, let alone be the support he so badly needs right now.

"Kyle and Hayley moved back in to help out. My Dad, he works away a lot and while he wants to be there for her, he simply can't afford to leave his job."

Aidan's eyes are trained on mine, their dull brown colouring seeping into my skin, chilling me to the bone.

"April's too young and obviously I have school, so Kyle offered to move back in temporarily. He's between jobs at the moment and Hayley is able to work from anywhere as long as she has a phone and a laptop." he explains, hand still firmly gripping mine. "My Mom, she's trying to keep things as normal as possible up until the last moment but I can see her declining, Amelia. She's tired all the time and I hate not being able to do anything about it."