Chapter 3 Pain - I

I felt a slight rocking in my body, my mother's voice had concern, was it past school time and she was calling me for this? I opened my eyes with difficulty because of the sleep I was in and when I looked around it was dark, the day wasn't over or dawning, it had only been a few hours since I left school, straining with my wrist cut was the worst thing, it hurt like I had hit a vein, but I ignored the pain anyway and sat up looking incredulously at my mom and dad who were standing at my bedroom door.

一 Mom, what is it? My words came out almost in a whisper.

一 You're burning up in fever son 一 She touched me and next to her was the thermometer.

一 I don't think I am, maybe it's just hot 一 I tried to calm her down because she was desperate.

一 You're all sweaty, let me put the thermometer on you 一 She walked over to me quickly and put the thermometer on without me even noticing.

I looked at the time on the clock and after two minutes the thermometer beeped, I didn't let my mother take it out, I did it myself, and was surprised at the degrees it marked on it, I thought about the possibility of tetanus, but it was almost null since the blade was clean and not rusty or anything else that could cause it in me, but the answer I knew what it was, it was just an emotional fever, the result of a bad school day.

一 I'll be fine, Mom 一 I looked at the thermometer reading 39 degrees and tried to reassure her.

一 Here's the medicine 一 She handed me the small pill and a glass of water that I didn't know where it came from, but I didn't want to argue so I took it in a single gulp.

一 Very good, dear. Do you want to have dinner with us? 一 He suggested.

一 Thanks, but I'm not hungry, Mom.

一 If you need anything, just call me! She winked and walked out of my room.

I sat on the bed and sighed, I didn't want to be like this forever, I wanted to fight back, but he was clearly stronger than me, and still had the dogs on his tail, it will be almost impossible to touch a single hair on Mark's head, besides being a player, he is a fighter and someone like me is nothing compared to him. I took a deep breath and leaned forward a little and realized that the light in Emilly's room was on, sometimes I had a huge urge to ask why an apparently nice girl is doing with a guy like Mark, the answer was clear, girls will always prefer the wrong ones.

I picked up my cell phone and there were several messages from Brendon, apparently he was fine, he was the only one who didn't suffer so much with this, and I just wanted him to be in peace, because it wasn't him who blew up Mark's ball in the fifth grade and it was me, even though it wasn't on purpose, the guy holds grudges and resentments against me until the present day, and years have passed. I decided to ignore all his messages and lie down a little longer, I was not sleepy at all, and this time I would stay awake for a long time.

I turned on the television in my room and turned down the air conditioner, a random anime was playing on the television, which was news to me. I spent a lot of time watching other programs on TV and when I looked at the clock again it was already ten o'clock at night, I was hungry and I was sure that my parents had already left, so I didn't run the risk of having to answer some questions. I opened the door slowly and everything was dark, under my parents' door there was a crack of light, it was likely that they were watching a movie as they always did at night.

I opened the fridge door and found a chocolate cake, which by the way was already broken into slices to facilitate my work, I took a plate and a fork and served myself, chocolate cake was my mother's specialty, I was dying of boredom while eating the cake and then decided to answer Brendon's messages, maybe he wouldn't answer me at this time of the night, but I knew that unlike me, he hadn't slept in the afternoon, and bingo, as soon as I opened our conversation he was online. Unlike me, he had other people outside of school, people who were also his friends, and that made me happy, it would be selfish if I said I didn't want him to have other friends and somewhat toxic too, but in reality I wanted him not to be my friend, he was too cool to suffer next to me.

"Why are you up at this hour?" 一 I asked, ignoring his previous messages.

For now I'm not sleepy, but can I know why you are too? 一 Now it was his turn to ask me.

I fell asleep when I got home from school, and woke up a few hours ago.

"But are you okay?" 一 His concern was evident, but like every time I would lie again.

"Yeah, just a slight fever, nothing to worry about.

''So you're not going to school tomorrow, right?''

''Probably not.

"I don't want to be alone.

"If I'm not there you're fine, go without fear that no harm will come to you, I'm hanging up now.

I didn't wait for his answer and quickly turned off the internet on my cell phone, washed what I had dirt on, and looking out the kitchen window realized how beautiful the night was, and nothing better than to sit on a bench to watch it. My body was still warm, but if I went outside, maybe the cold of the night would regulate my body temperature, because I wasn't that bad. A shiver ran through my body as soon as I opened the front door, the street was not dangerous, it was a quiet street and sometimes some couples stayed on it until dawn, so there was no danger of being alone on it.