Butterswap

12

I was woken up by the consistent ringing of my phone.I blinked a few more times to get my bearings right again. I looked at the caller ID. I furrowed my brows in confusion.

"Hello, father."

"Holland, what is this about you quitting university?"

I sighed, I shouldn't have answered the call. I looked at Keenan who was now awake and listening in to our conversation.

"It wasn't an accident, I've quit the course. I can't do it."

"What do you mean?" He bellowed and I could feel his fury. In a sick way, I enjoyed his attention. Believe it or not, this was the second time in my whole life he'd called me. The first was to demand why I'd failed my module.

"I won't study law."

There was pin drop silence.

"Holland. Believe me when I say I'm going to cut all your credit card lines. Don't you dare come back home without your re-enrolment receipt."

I hesitated.

"Father, why don't you go back to doing what you are best at? Ignoring me."

I ended the call and flung my phone at the wall. The screen cracked and I saw a piece of glass flung towards the television. It was burning a hole in my heart. I gasped as I clutched my chest. This time, the pain was numbing and there were black and blue spots appearing in the corner of my eyes. I could register the panic in Keenan's voice. It was a faint echo and I couldn't quite hear properly. I wheezed, trying to get as much oxygen in my system. I couldn't quite do so.

"Medicine." I whimpered as I gripped the sheets tighter. The pain was near unbearable, like shop daggers jabbing me repeatedly.

Keenan already had the correct pills in his right hand, a glass of water in the other. I don't question how he knew.

"Here."

I took the medicine and downed all the tablets in one go. I breathed deeply, trying to calm myself down. Everything returned to normal after three minutes twenty one seconds. I didn't notice the tight grip I had on Keenan's forearm, probably cutting off his blood circulation.

"Are you feeling better now?"

"You know about my condition?" I asked, although I couldn't remember when I'd told him.

He nodded silently.

"So you also know I'm dying soon."

He nodded again, not meeting to meet my eyes.

"Why don't you want to tell them about your condition?" Keenan asked softly as he patted my back.

"It doesn't feel right telling my family about it. Like somehow they'll be disappointed that I have this shitty disease. I don't know, really. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do."

Keenan kept quiet.

"I would like to know about it, you know. If I were your family."

"But you're not." I said sharply. "You don't know what they are like."

"You're right. I'm sorry."

"No, it's alright. Let's head out for lunch." I got out of bed and went to get ready.

We took a cab to a mall near the airport and entered the huge shopping paradise. The cold mall gave us refuge against the high temperatures outside. I almost moaned in ecstasy at the cool temperature.

"Oh, so this is the legendary aquarium in a mall." Keenan commented.

"I wanted to be a fish after I watched 'Finding Nemo'." I told him absent-mindedly. We walked along the huge glass aquarium that outlined the mall. There was something extremely calming about watching fishes in the aquarium. After this morning, I really needed this. I turned to Keenan and gave him a small smile.

"Thank you for your time. This adventure."

"It's really no problem, I really enjoyed every moment with you." He grinned and poked my forehead.

"Though I wanted our adventure to be longer than it is now, though I still have a thousand and one things I wanted to do before I kick the bucket, like for example swim with wild dolphins," I was rambling on now, "you heard my father this morning. I'm afraid I don't have much more money left since he's going to cut off my line. Hell, he probably already cut it off. Thank god I purchased a two way ticket, if not, we're going to get stranded in Dubai."

"Lady Luck is shining on you."

"I don't think so. I'll have to go back soon and face them." I sighed, my chest constricting in fear.

He looked down between us, before taking my hand in his.

"Thank you for your friendship."