Skin and Bones

I wake up with a sharp pain stabbing at my right side. I quickly roll onto my left side, before I sit up. I whine lowly from the pain.
I slowly lift up my shirt and look down as more and more pale, disgusting, wrinkled skin gets exposed. Once my shirt is above my ribs, my eyebrows twitch upwards shortly from shock.

My pale skin is colored now – painted with blue, purple, red, orange and yellow. Some of it even looks green.

I let go of my shirt with my one hand, and bring my fingertips to the colored skin.
I wince.
It must be from when I fell on the stairs.

I swallow down my tears and bring down my shirt again. I try to take in a deep breath, but the pain cuts it in half.

I look out my window and see nothing but clear skies – not one cloud covering the perfect blue color.
The sun is pretty far up. I’m definitely missing school right now – missing Gerard.
He’s probably trying to call me – even during class. He’s already worried about me, and when I didn’t show up at school this morning he’s probably going out of his mind.

I swing my legs over my bed and tear my duvet away from my body. The cold air against my neck and the hard floor beneath my feet brings reality with it.
He doesn’t care.

I get up and turn around – walking over to my window. The blue sky grows larger as I walk closer to my the window with the leaking edges and cracked, white paint. When I reach it, I look down and see the empty pavement of the driveway.

Mom’s out.

I look across the street and up over the roof of the beautiful house. Dark clouds are lurking in the horizon – approaching quickly. I sigh. I’m actually glad I’m not in school, ‘cause then I’d have to walk home in the rain.

I look over to my closed closet-door.
I should at least tell Mikey I’m okay.
I walk over to the wooden door and slide it open. I kneel down and rummage through the clothing at the bottom of my closet.

I find my phone and quickly press the button to turn it on. I enter the password as I make my way over to my bed.

I’m about to throw myself on my bed, when I remember my bruise. Instead, I slowly and carefully crawl onto my bed and lean my back against the wall.

I look at the screen of my phone as I wait for it to figure out that I’ve actually turned it on. It’s always so slow.

When the screen goes black, my stomach drops.
They haven’t texted. They haven’t called. They don’t care.
I take in a deep breath before I lift my head up and turn it to gaze out of the window. The dark clouds have moved a lot in just a few minutes. They’re close now.

Suddenly my phone buzzes in my hands, and I look down at it in shock.
‘1 new message’
‘2 new-‘
‘3 new messages’
‘4 new messages’
And it just continues. I stare at it – my eyes growing wider, my eyebrows rising further and my jaw falling lower with each message that enters my phone.
It finally stops.
’14 new messages’
The little red phone at the top of the screen is blinking – signaling that I’ve got at least one missed call.

I just stare at the screen. I’ve never seen this before. The largest amount of ‘new messages’ I’ve ever had was 2, which was when Mikey was being impatient one time.
I press open.
‘Gerard, Mikey, Gerard, Gerard, Gerard’
I keep pressing down – reading those two names over and over again.
5 from Mikey, 9 from Gerard.
Does this mean that he cares about me?

A warmth spreads through my body and settles in my chest, neck and face.
He likes me?

I quickly text Mikey that I’m not going to school today because I feel sick. It’s only a partial lie.
After that I think long and hard of what to write to Gerard. His messages were a lot of ‘where are you’ and ‘I miss you’, so I wanna write something back that kinda sound like that, but not the same of course. I don’t want it to be colder, but I don’t want it to be too much.

I look out the window. The black clouds are hanging heavily above my house – covering the blue sky completely.
I sigh.

‘Hey. Sorry I haven’t answered. My phone is crap. I’m skipping school today, cause I felt kinda sick. Nothing bad. At least I get to stay dry. I’d rather be with you, though. Have a fun day at school!’
I read it over a few times – especially the last bit. Is it too much? Should I change it? Is I wanna be with you more than I miss you? It is. I’m basically saying that I wanna be his boyfriend!
But I do.

Suddenly I hear my mom’s car pull up in the driveway, and I panic.
I press send.
I gasp and stare at the phone.
‘Message send’

The car door slams shut, and I quickly turn off my phone and run over to my closet to hide it.