John steps out into the cold air from the warm gym, with two things on his mind: What the hell is his name and what can he possibly want.
John looks for the boy and finds him sitting on a bus bench under a fading street light. He walks towards him and he looks up at John, raising his eyebrows as a way of saying hi, John returns the gesture.
"Sit if you want," He moves over and John slowly sits down.
"Would you mind if I smoked?" John looks over at him and notices his hand inside his jacket pocket.
"Uh, no. Not at all- go ahead."
He takes out a small joint and a blue lighter out from his jacket. John watches intently as he brings the joint up to his lips and lights it up. He inhales and slowly exhales, closing his eyes.
He turns to John and smiles, "I'm sorry, I need this to calm down, I have anxiety and-"
John interrupts him, "You don't have to apologize, I understand."
He turns back and smokes the joint again, "But- why did you want me to come out here with you?"
"Well I needed some company and you seem like a nice person to talk to."
"Oh," John turns to face forward he puts his hands on his thighs and slowly rubs himself up and down, trying to stay warm.
They stay silent for a while, as the stranger smokes his joint John looks up at the night sky and stares at stars. The boy looks over at John and looks up at the sky as well, "Beautiful isn't it?"
John nods, not saying a word. From the corner of his eye he could see the boy next to him put the half finished joint into a small tin. He was silently grateful, the foul smell was starting to hurt his nose.
"I'm Thomas by the way." He turns to John again and puts his hand out. John faces him and looks down at his hand, he grabs it and gives it a small shake.
"Nice to meet you, I'm John." He gives him a smile and Thomas returns it.
"Let's go in?" John nods and they both stand up, walking back inside the gym together.
"John?"
John shakes his head as he feels someone lightly tap his shoulder. He looks up at the young nurse.
"You can go see your mom now" She smiles and John stands up from the chair.
"Thank you," They exchange smiles and the nurse leaves the way she came. John walks down the hall until he sees another reception desk where his mom is, filling out some papers. She turns and smiles at him.
"Hi John, they told me you were looking for me? Is something wrong?" She asks as she brings him in for a hug.
"Mm, nothings wrong. Just wanted to come in and say hi." John mumbles against his moms scrubs, which smelled of metal, probably blood. It was gross, John hated that metallic smell- but it brought him memories of when his mom would come home from her shift when he was younger.
"At 2 in the morning? Did you really walk 20 minutes just to tell me hi? I mean I don't mind but you could've called you know?" John nods, he was still hugging her. His mom grabs him by the arms and pulls him away, making him look at her. "What's really wrong?"
John sighs, he tries to find a way to tell her.
"How do you feel when you get an easy surgery? Like an appendectomy?"
"I feel confident because I do the same procedure every time." She replies.
"So you feel comfortable with your procedure? Its familiar." John asks again and his mom nods in agreement. "Well what if one day they tell you to change your procedure? A whole new way of doing the surgery, how would you feel."
