☁️Little Charlie☁️

CH 37

Alex very heavily valued the importance of honesty. He saw just how much lies could hurt, how much they could destroy. So, when he was eight, he made a vow to always try to tell the truth. It wasn't easy at times, and small lies like "What? No, your hair looks fine" slipped out here and there. But when it came to the important stuff, such as why he was currently hooked up to a heart monitor and on heavy supervision, he knew how important it was to tell the truth.

But when Charlie asked him what had happened, he went silent. How could he tell Charlie when he couldn't even admit it to himself.
He didn't lie, but he didn't say what was wrong either. Instead, he just argued that he would be fine. Charlie wouldn't let it go though. So he hung up the call while Charlie was mid-sentance, turned off his phone, and tried to go back to sleep.

He felt awful. He felt like dying. Charlie didn't deserve this.
But he just didn't know how to tell him. He couldn't bare the pain he would cause.

After Charlie tried to call back three times, he gave up. He brought the phone back to Katie and told her he would be gone for the rest of the day.
He then went straight to the office to make a phone call.

***********

"Hey bub" Mia greeted him when he opened the car door. "Are you alright? What happened?"

"It's Alex" He said climbing into the passenger seat. Mia, a little caught off guard (this was her first time hearing his voice), was quiet. Charlie looked over to her. "He's at the hospital. I have to see him. Can we please go?" He begged.

"Oh my gosh" Mia replied. "He's at the hospital? Why, what happened?"

"I don't know" Charlie said a little frustrated. "He won't tell me". He started to tear up. He wanted to kick his bag resting by his feet.

"Hey" Mia said putting an arm on his shoulder. "Take a deap breath" She said soothingly.
Charlie did as he was told and inhaled sharply through his nose before huffing it back out.
"It'll be okay. I'm going to call his mother to see what's up and we'll figure this out" She said fetching her phone out of her pocket.
She dialed in Heather's number, only having to wait two rings before it answered.

"Hello?" Heather answered. She sounded almost as tired as Alex.

"Hello Heather" Mia spoke. "Is this a bad time?"

"Uh, no I'm just..." She paused for a few moments. "Something happened with Alex and we're at the hospital"

"I heard, I'm so sorry Heather, Is he going to be okay?"

"Yes" Heather said. Charlie let out a sigh of releif. "He's just...having a rought time right now".

"I understand" Mia said. "Um, would it be alright if Charlie and I came up to see you guys? He's really worried about Alex and frankly I am too. He's a good kid. I'd hate to see anything bad happen to him".

"Um...well..." Heather hesitated. "I'd have to ask Alex but, he hasn't been feeling up for visitors. He wouldn't even agree to see the therapy dog they have here which shocked me because he absolutly adores dogs. He used to ask for one every year but..." She trailed off. "Um, anyway, I'll try to convince him. I'll call you back in a bit".

"Okay, thank you Heather" Mia said. "Take care now...bye"

She hung up and put her phone down in her lap. She looked over to Charlie who was chewing on his nails again.
"You wanna go get a present for Alex?" She offered.

Charlie looked over at her and smiled a little. "Really?"

"Yeah sure, what does he like?" She put her car into drive and started making her way out of the parking lot.