STEPHEN

STEPHEN | 11

Dedicated to nonfictionsim because he's the ultimate rat :)

11

I had been on my way home from an appointment at the hospital, making my way home on the transit that smelled like a copious amount of people had recently been on it and still were. I had gone through another CT scan and was feeling tired from the long day in one place. I was doing better, they had said. It wasn't me overall. My brain was doing better they had said. I was lucky my brain had suffered only a small amount of damage. The brain itself could do many things, even reorganizing itself despite not having the cells to regernate. I went to ring Stephen but when he didn't answer, I rang my sister instead.

My 17 year old sister, the one who only shared our dad's nose with me and nothing more, picked up on the second ring.

"Hey." She said and with only one word, my mind was wracking with what was wrong on that bus ride home.

"What happened?" I asked.

She sighed into the phone and it was then I got her story of high school drama. Hearing my sister speak about the issues she had in high school that involved a boy, a boy I knew she had been obessing over since I was in high school, made me realize many things.

One, that I clearly have not spoken to my sister in a while because she was telling me things that have happened over six months ago.

Two, high school drama was the drama she would forget about and not even remember clearly in five years.

Three, that I remember worrying over things like friendships I knew would not ever last or how my hair would look like every single day going to that place she goes to now. And none of that shit mattered now.

I gave her an honest reponse, telling her to move on like I had done months before and with a promise I knew she would not keep, she told me she would. Changing the topic while I still had a long way to get home from the hospital, she let out an breath into the reciever. "So, what is going on in your love life?"

I didn't respond for a second, looking outside of the window where the rain was hitting the ground, the bus, everywhere. The sky above looked cloudy and gloomy. It only added to my tiredness from the long day at the hospital on a a day off from not just school but work as well.

My mind stopped wandering, remembering that she had asked me something. "Hmm?"

She repeated her previous question. "What is going on in your love life?"

I debated on whether I should answer her question. On one hand, if I didn't tell her about Stephen she was going to drag it out of me anyway. It wouldn't take long anyway. On the latter, if I did tell her she may do something like immediately tell our parents and that would lead to Geneiveve and I getting a visit from them to conviently 'drop by'. I didn't need that but I felt like it was going to happen anyway.

"There's a guy."

My sister made a sound of interest as another person walked onto the bus before it started moving again. "Name?"

"Stephen."

"How long have you guys been dating?" She urged, wanting to know as much information as possible by her tone.