The Beard

Chapter Twenty-Two

"Jesus Christ, Miguel." I slam my locker closed and look over at the grinning teenager. He has a terrible smile on his face, laughing at the fact that he had managed to scare the crap out of me.

He bends over and claps his hands, the sound getting lost under the chatting of students. "Priceless. Don't be mad that I finally got you."

I give him a look, narrowing my eyes and curling my lip. With a shake of my head, I zip up my bookbag and begin walking down the hall. This is the last day before the start of Thanksgiving break. I'm so happy to say that we'll have an entire week off before coming back and gearing up for finals. This semester has been absolute trash to say the least. Jenny, Micah, and I still have not spoken since the fallout at Jenny's sleepover. Sebastian has been successfully avoiding me, not that I've really been searching him out. After his confession, I feel as if I don't want to deal with him anymore.

Don't get me wrong, I still love Sebastian very much, but it's hard for me to fathom that he can harbor feelings for Cody and be in love with me. To me, love is about devoting yourself to your significant other. It's about being able to sacrifice your own happiness for that person because you'd rather see them happy than sad. Their happiness is your happiness. If you start developing feelings for someone else, then maybe you never loved the first person to begin with.

We're not even out of high school yet. People will always say that we're too young to experience love, but the heart doesn't lie. And speaking of Cody, I hadn't seen him around much. It's weird to me that this guy shows up randomly, but I can't even get a good glimpse of him at our tiny school. Fine by me, looking at him makes me feel an inexplicable anger.

"Emerson? You've zoned out on me. What's up?" Miguel places a hand on my shoulder. I hadn't even realized he was next to me this whole time.

"Oh...um, what time am I coming to your house again?" I ask, shooting him a small smile, hoping that will be a decent subject change.

Miguel stares at me with suspicion, his lips parted before he relaxes. "Come over around five, okay? My sister takes sleeps pretty early, around seven so we have dinner around six. I want you to meet her."

Miguel's smile falters slightly. A couple days after we met, I had told him about me knowing about his sister. At first he had been extremely defensive with great reason. But after a while, Miguel had calmed down and told me about his sister. She had been diagnosed at five with a brain tumor. It had been unexpected, but after a seizure, they had been referred to a neurologist to see why this had happened. After they had found a tumor, she had been immediately scheduled to start radiation to eradicate and somewhat prevent the formation of more tumors. After that, she had surgery. That was three years ago, but she still has to go for regular checkups to make sure nothing has returned.

"I can't wait to meet Sarah, I know we'll get along just fine." I tell him, placing my hand on his shoulder.

"It's not that." Miguel shakes his head, a glower on his face as he stares intently at the vinyl floors of the hallway. "Aisha's been having migraines. We're afraid it might be something more."

I watch as Miguel succumbs to his sadness. His shoulders drop and he lifts a hand to rub at his eyes, bringing attention to the bags that are under him. I feel terrible because I hadn't even noticed that he has been looking kind of bad. Miguel's skin is pale, which is an extreme change from his naturally tan, brownish skin.

"I'm so sorry, Miguel." I sigh, not being able to say anything else. Apologies don't exactly help though. "You know what, if anything, Aisha survived once and she'll survive again. She's an amazing little girl and you'll all get through this."

Miguel offers a small smile, a slight hint of emotion breaking through the sadness that had taken over his eyes. "Thanks, Emie."

My head shoots back in surprised. "You finally called me Emie."