The Boy With BlAIDS

The Know

"Excuse me, but I was wondering if you had any updates on Demetrius Key's condition? I've been waiting several hours already to hear anything about how he's doing, and so far no one has told me anything—"

"Mr. Coffey, as we have already informed you multiple times, once we have an update on Demetrius's condition, we will inform you and Piper Key right away. You coming to ask me every twenty minutes does not make the process go by any faster, sir." The hospital receptionist looked quite bored with his job, like dealing with hysterical people who have lost someone important to them in their lives every day isn't exciting or fun. "Now if you would, can you please take a seat?" The man gestured towards the waiting room behind us, which was barren besides from Piper Key, Demetrius's mom. Even with her there, though, the room seemed empty as she looked off in the distance with an empty look in her eyes.

Clenching my hands together in a tight fist, I walked slowly over to Piper and took a seat next to her. She didn't acknowledge me as I sat down, she just kept staring at one of the many abstract paintings hung around the waiting room, like the bright colors on the painting would distract people in the room from how sad and depressed they felt about whoever they were waiting for.

"Piper?" I asked cautiously, turning to look at her. After a moment's hesitation, I leaned forward and rested a hand on her knee. "Are you alright?"

She jumped, flinching away from my touch, glaring at my hand as if I was trying to kill her with it or something. "Am I okay? Did you really just ask me that, Kristian?" Piper spat, her eyes filled with anger and the undertone of pain.

"It was really more of a formality than an actual question, I know that you're not actually okay. I'm not okay, and he's your son," I mumbled, looking down at the ground, feeling horrible for offending her. Demetrius already told me that his mom hasn't been doing that great since his dad died, and now I had to go and offend her by asking if she was 'okay' when her son was now also in the hospital, in an undetermined condition that we were awaiting to hear more about.

"Kristian?" Piper suddenly inquired, not looking away from the painting still. She looked really tired, now that I stopped to really look at her and study how she'd changed since I'd last seen her about a year ago. Underneath her eyes she had puffy gray bags, her hair was graying in several places, and she was developing several new wrinkles that weren't there a year ago. Was stress really causing her body to change this much?

"Yeah?"

"Has Demetrius been acting odd recently? Anything that he did that might explain what's wrong with him?" she inquired, her voice filled with a level of emptiness, despair and monotony that made my heart drop to the floor to hear her so upset and ready to give up.

"Outside of being really tired recently from work and school, I haven't really noticed anything off about him," I answered, shaking my head. "When he passed out it took me completely by surprise, I almost didn't even know how to react."

"Thank you for being there for him when me or his father couldn't be, Kristian. It means a lot to me, and a lot to Daniel too, I'm sure." My whole face flushed and turned a bright red as I looked away, trying to hide it.

"Really, it was no problem," I assured. "I'm always going to be there for him, for the rest of our lives."

Piper finally looked away from the painting to look at me with a curious look in her eye, furrowing her brow. "The rest of your guys' lives? That's a pretty broad thing to say when you're both only seventeen, don't you think?"

"Wait . . . you mean Demetrius didn't tell you?" I questioned, confused. Did Demetrius really not tell his own mother that he was buying a ring for me and that I got him one in return? He didn't even tell her that we were now engaged? Sure, his mom does seem very stressed from losing her husband, but not telling her about her son's soon-to-be husband seems a bit ridiculous, right?