Numb ~ Dreamnotfound

Chapter 27

The wake and funeral were scheduled on the weekend two weeks ahead. Nick's mom had been helping my mom a lot with planning everything and even financially.

For the weeks leading up to the wake, I felt normal. I went to school and still cracked jokes with Nick and George at lunch. I still hung out with George every chance that I got, and still was in love with him as ever.

Not having to sneak out was nice. It felt like a weight was lifted off of my shoulders the first time I was going over to his house and could just walk out the front door.

My mom sold my Dad's truck after I expressed how I would never want to drive it. I helped her clean it out completely which took a lot of effort, but the end result was definitely worth it.

It gave us some extra money in our pockets and one less thing to remind us of who it once belonged to.

I still had no phone, yet Nick let me borrow his laptop until I was able to get a new one. Countless hours of Minecraft with him and George made up for the fact that I had no phone.

I talked to the both of them through discord, which I hadn't used before. George introduced me to it and it was our most effective way of talking to each other outside of school.

My mom seemed to be doing alright too. She seemed happy, yet her quiet cries still seeped into my room on some nights. Sometimes I would go lay with her to calm her down, but most of the time she didn't want me seeing her like that.

Life finally seemed as though it was improving, except for the times when i'd remember that I actually lost my dad. As a person, I hated him. He was mean, abusive, and cruel. But as my Dad, I knew there would always be some form of love in me for him. No matter what he had done to me.

I'm sure that's how my mom felt about him as well. I didn't get the option of knowing him before he started to slip away, and from the stories my mom used to tell me, I would've loved him even more.

As soon as the news hit the school about my dad, teachers started to care more about me. They would check up on me, give me long extensions for work, and one even brought me cookies. My guidance counselor would call me into her office once a day to check on me.

Although I appreciated the effort to make sure I was doing ok, I hated it.

They only started to care once I went through a loss, not before when my life was significantly worse.

—

The weekend of the wake and funeral came up faster than expected.

I woke up on Saturday morning to see Nick sitting on my floor playing on the laptop he let me borrow. I gasped a bit, startled by his unexpected presence.

"Good morning sunshine." He said to me, closing the laptop and standing up. He was wearing a black button down shirt with perfectly ironed khakis. His mom had definitely ironed them for him.

"Why are you here?" I asked, sitting up in bed and looking at the clock on my nightstand. 10:24 am.

"My mom and your mom left early to the funeral home to get everything set up. So my mom left me here and told me to get you ready." He smiled, sitting on the edge of the bed near my legs.

"What time do we have to be there?" I questioned, standing up and stretching my arms above my head.

"12. It starts at 12:30. There's breakfast downstairs and an outfit on your moms bed for you." He said back, following me as I made my way out of the room and downstairs.

I ate the food that was left for me as Nick tried to sneak embarrassing pictures of me to send to George. He stopped once I threatened to pour my water on his head, claiming that he spent forever fixing his hair that morning.