A Time With You

Chapter 2: Sick From Home

Aiden

***

It's been a week, and every three scheduled days, a nurse would knock in front of our door carrying the same equipment and tools necessary for my therapy. It doesn't hurt when they inject it, but after a while, I constantly start getting tired and end up being sick for the rest of the day.

I'm currently cooped up in my room with my blankets, as I stared emptily at the bright sky from my window. The leaves of the trees were dancing back and forth with the wind, and I heard endless chirping noises from the birds outside.

I think I'm beginning to get used to the pain. At the very least I'm not coughing my intestines out.

"Aiden?"

The door to my room opened. And I turned around to see my mom carrying a tray with milk and a sandwich.

"Hey baby. Here, I brought you some snacks." She said. "I'm not hungry mom, you shouldn't have made these." I uttered with a groggy voice. My throat has been dry and sore since yesterday. Likely due to the side effects of the drugs I've been taking.

She set down the tray in my bedside table and sat on the mattress while fixing my pillows that were hanging on the edges.

"I heard from your Aunt Klare that Sian will be returning soon to take a short vacation. I'm sure he'll visit you right away when he gets here." Mom muttered gently to me. She rubbed my exposed hand with her thumb, and I don't know if she wants me to be happy or not with her news.

Sian was my brother's friend. They were both the same age, but Sian would always stick closer to me for unknown reasons.

"He doesn't have to come here. I don't want other people seeing me like this." Nothing will change if he comes here anyway. Will I get better? Definitely not. So why bother?

"Honey, are you still mad at him for leaving? I remember you two used to be close together. What happened?" I blinked innocently at mom and got edgy with her choice of words.

We did spend a hefty amount of time together when I was little. He would baby sit me with my brother when mom and dad were gone, but we barely even talked, it was mostly him always pestering me with his stupid questions.

"I honestly don't care about him that much." I took my hands back and stared again at the scenery outdoors.

"Mom, I want to rest, can you see yourself out." I said with a dead voice, hoping that she would get my message. I just want to be alone right now. Them badgering and prying into my personal space won't help me at all.

"I understand. Eat the food I made first before you sleep - okay?" She said before getting up and leaving my room. I didn't strain myself trying to reply to her and just continued gazing mindlessly, while resting my arms on the surface of the window, and laying the side of my head in my hand.

They say that God has his own way of showing us our purpose. I'd say the one who advocated that is a big fat liar and a nuisance. How the hell is this a message to begin with? So much inconvenience and pain is a requirement to find yourself? How moronic.

I wonder how the world would be without suffering. I bet it would be too boring. But that idea seems too far-fetched anyway.

"Hmmm..." I chuckled at my own thoughts and lay back down on the bed.

-

A few hours later. I was reading Pride and Prejudice when my brother barged in without notice and started rambling about us going outside.

"Please, let's go out, the weather's nice today." My brother kept insisting that we go to the lake so I wont get sick from boredom. Like is that even a real thing? Besides, I have my own haven that I go to when I'm in the mood.

"You go, I want to stay here." I replied to him with indifference, totally not swayed of the ditzy face he's making.

"Why are you even here? Don't you have work?" I asked him, and instead of being a doll that does what I want, he stood his ground and challenged my decision by folding his arms and tapping his boots on the floor.

I ignored him and flipped the page of the book I was reading and focused my attention to it.

Even though I am in this hell of a journey, I'm still currently undergoing counseling therapy. Which means I have to read emotional books for me to grasp the slightest idea of human emotions.

It's tiring, but at least I can discern them a bit from other's now. Like how I know that I'm irritated by how my brother is acting right now. Unlike before where everything is completely zero to me.

"You've been locking yourself up in this room for a month now. You should go out, the sun's not too high so it's good for you. And to answer your question, I'm on vacation for the next five days." He said smugly like there was actually something to be proud of.

"Research has shown that patient's should do less strenuous activities." I reasoned out, but he quickly refuted my statement and sat on my bed while looking at me like he was peeling my face off.

"Strenuous? You're over exaggerating. Patients like you should do light activities in order to gain enough strength. And I'm pretty sure you know that smarty pants." He countered and mocked me at the same time.

I'm so tempted right now to put him in a coffin so he can voice out his crappy ideas inside without me hearing it, and maybe I'll be kind enough to drill some air holes so he can breathe. And I'll probably just wait till someone sees him and lets him out.

"Hey-Hey! Snap out of it!" He flicked his fingers in my face and I peered at him cluelessly.

"Stop that, you're looking at me like you want to murder me." Now that's strange. He figured out what I was thinking.

"But nahhh, you love me too much to kill me." He said confidently, but boy he's so wrong with that one.

"Just leave me alone. One more pressing word from you and I promise, you won't get out of here unscathed." I said, but he didn't take me seriously.

"Aiden I want—"

"Oh my God. Will you please just get out already." I threw him the book in my hands but he skillfully evaded it.

"Ok-ok. I'll go." He hoisted his body up and raised his hands as if to surrender, and got out of my room with a slouched back, and closed the door.

"Buddy, umm... Sian will arrive next week to spend summer here. Do you perhaps want to see him?" He asked from outside, and I couldn't help but close my eyes in frustration.

"No." I curtly answered, then I heard him breath out heavily as he walked away, until it was quiet again. I leisurely removed my blanket and got off my bed, picked up the book that I threw and dusted it off a little with my hands and stored it on the shelf in the wall.

I'll finish reading it some other time.