Chapter 4 Alex

It's the last day of high school, how time flies. How did it get late so soon, it's night before it's afternoon, December before it's June, my goodness how the time has flewn. Dr. Seuss was wise but he's a racist so I don't know what to say about that. When I told Nick about it he broke down in tears. "How did I miss the signs?" He said his favorite character was racist.

I walk out of my room my mom already moving up and down looking for her purse meanwhile it's sitting on top of the couch staring at me. I smile and I quietly walk toward the couch picking the purse up and waving it for her to see.

"Oh, you're a lifesaver honey." She grabs the purse and turns to probably put some makeup on but then she pauses and she turns to meet my eyes. "Today is the last day of high school isn't it?" I nod and she puts her hands on her mouth, dropping her purse.

"Mom! No no, do not cry that's an order. You cried when I got accepted into NYU and that made me cry as well."

"I'm sorry." She says blinking countlessly for the tears to go back to where they came from.

"Don't be mom, we still have summer vacation to spend time together. I normally hate hospitals but I'm ready to spend time with you in the hospital."

"Oh, sweetie." She places her soft hands on my cheeks I swear her hands have been soft for as long as I can remember, those hands put me to sleep like it's doing now. "You know I love you right?" She asks.

"I love you too mom." Typical nice loving and cool mom who forces herself to listen to Travis Scott's music just so she can stay current. She still listens to Tupac who is way better than Travis Scott I wonder why people love him so much, the guy is basic.

My mom and I walk out of the house and at the same time Nick comes out.

"See you later Uncle Gray and don't forget to feed the cats again!" He yells closing the door and turning to look at us.

"Hey, dude," I say to him then he waves me off moving closer to my mom, he always does this. He thinks my mom deserves his praise and affection rather than I do.

"Oh, Julie you're looking hot today, walk with me." They cross their arms and they walk downstairs I roll my eyes and I follow them.

We say hi to our neighbors even Dolly who says hi to us and runs back into the house to probably throw up. We aren't supposed to but we laugh.

Now we're outside. Chicago has never disappointed me. It always greets me with a breath of fresh air and the feels of the cool morning breeze. I wave at Gustavo who is opening his restaurant and I say hey to Darla Stevenson who was kicked out of her house by her Christian parents because she told them she was gay. Poor kid. Just thirteen. Now she lives with her teacher Ms. Prescott who comes out of her house bag in her right hand and the other hand holds Darla's as to cross the road to go to the train station. Nick is the one that's meant to say hi to our neighbors but no he's busy talking about Tinder with my mom.

Nick is helping mom find a perfect match. "The man has to be a feminist, an LGBT supporter, should love kids, not too religious and he shouldn't support Trump," Nick said but it was really hard to find such a picture-perfect man and hot guy in his thirties.

Mom doesn't care about what they look like, it's by the impressions and descriptions they put on their profile that counts, and mom has seen a lot of disturbing things.

I just want a woman to choke on my dick.

Or

Fuck that gay shit

Or

I need a real woman no trannies, please.

Or

I'm looking for a pure relationship, sex would be considered once we get married.

The worst part was they were so handsome. But yet so dumb, I kinda feel bad for my mom. I know I wasn't so keen on the idea of her dating someone, but then I realized I was being selfish. She always wanted me to be happy so why can't I let her be happy?

We wave at mom as she got on a bus to head to the hospital. Sometimes I fear she would just walk away without coming back, not that she didn't want to but that something bad would happen, we live in a cruel world after all but my mom is a superhero she saves lives and superheroes barely die. It just me and Nick, I tell my mom I'm going to spend time with her summer vacation because Nick is never around he goes to Pennsylvania to see his grandmother, I had never seen pics of him and his grandma because he said she doesn't like pics which was something I believed.

"So I guess that was a failure again," I say turning to Nick who is smiling at me.

"Actually no, there's this cute Australian guy, well all Australian guys are cute. But then there's this guy called Christian who isn't a Christian thank God. He's hot as fuck, loves to cook, supports all women and he takes human rights seriously."

Wow, that was unexpected. I just stare at Nick who is grinning like he had won the lottery. The bus stops in front of us and we get in.

We head towards the back. A lot of people say hi to Nick. Believe it or not, Nick is actually popular at school. He became popular at the beginning of tenth grade when he fought Bryan Augustus. I wasn't there when it happened I was locked in the toilet by that idiot so I wouldn't do anything from trying to stop him from bullying Nick, a freshman helped me with the door and I ran out of the bathroom down the hallway going outside of school. I see that everyone is cheering for Nick and I see Bryan with a bloody nose. What had just happened?

I ran to meet Nick to see if he has the same bloody nose as well, but he was smiling proudly, no bloody nose, no black eye he was the same as he was since birth, bruiseless. I asked him what happened and he told me he was the one that gave Bryan the bloody nose. I couldn't believe it, I couldn't believe sweet human rights activist beat Bryan up. I thought I was dreaming. But I wasn't, ever since then everyone loved Nick and people saw Bryan as a loser but as sweet as Nick was he didn't want Bryan to be called that the rest of his high school life. Now we're friends with the boy who was once chubby but now he's Smokin hot. Nick's words, not mine. But Bryan isn't his type and of course, he would say that since he was always getting his heart broken by straight guys. But he hadn't announced that he had a crush since tenth grade began. Hmm how come I'm just realizing this now?

Nick always tells me about all his crushes but since sophomore year he just stopped.

We sit at the back of the bus next to Hilary Clinton, a gothic girl that talks to no one except Nick and me, how Nick manages to get people to warm up to him is still a mystery. Is it a gay thing? Hilary raises her head and she waves at us she's listening to metal I can hear it even though she's using headphones. We wave back with a smile but she doesn't smile back she just rests her head on the window. Maybe she smiled but it's not noticeable.

"She looks like someone with lots of secrets," Nick says out of the blue. Easy for him to say, sometimes I feel he's keeping secrets from me. From going to his grandmother's every summer, to winning a fight and not having a crush on anyone since the tenth grade. Maybe I'm just being paranoid. Nick would never keep a secret from me. Right?