In the Mind

Chapter 3: The Breaking Point

He closed his eyes and he forced himself to fall asleep. He turned over and covered his head with his pillow and faced down.

"C'mon. Fall asleep already!" Elijah said to himself in irritation. He sighed and turned to where he was laying on his back looking up at his ceiling.

"The one time I need to fall asleep is the one time I can't." Elijah complained to himself. He turned his head to look the clock which read "9:02".

After a long hour of staring at his dark walls and spacing out, Elijah finally fell asleep. Yet he didn't have any nightmares and he ended up waking up to his alarm clock.

"Wha???" Elijah started when he looked at his clock that said "6:31" and was beeping annoyingly.

"Shit!" Elijah quietly yelled to himself as he hit the stop button on the clock. He laid on his back and put his hand on his forehead.

"Is this what you're gonna do to me world?" Elijah said to the ceiling while slowly getting up. He sat on his bed and rubbed his eyes.

"Morning sweetie." his mom came into his room and sat down next to him. "Did you sleep okay?"

"Yeah. For the first time too." Elijah said tiredly.

"See? I told you they'd go away!" his mom said happily while getting up. "I'm making breakfast so I want you down soon."

"Alright." Elijah replied to his happy mom as she almost skipped out of the room. "Well she seems happy" Elijah thought to himself.

Elijah got ready and went downstairs for breakfast and felt energized for the first time. He was still disappointed that he couldn't find the creature in his nightmare, but the more he thought about it, the more he didn't much care for finding the creature. It got rid of his worst enemy and didn't even bother to hurt Elijah. He thought maybe it was on his and Noah's side. Elijah smiled at the thought and sat down at the kitchen table.

"Well aren't you a happy one?" his mom said smiling while putting the food on the table.

"I'm nightmare free, energized, and my bully is in the hospital. It's like my birthday!" Elijah said happily while taking a bite of his eggs.

"Oh yeah. Speaking of Liam, we're gonna go see him today." Elijah almost spit out eggs.

"What!" Elijah yelled. He was shocked that his mom would have him go see Liam.

"Yes. He's a kid just like you and it's only polite to see him in case he wakes up." his mom said in a strict manner.

"Mom. If he wakes up with me there, he'll probably scream at how much I'm a dork and strangle me." Elijah complained.

"Look I know he's your bully, but he's still in a coma." his mom said reassuringly, hoping Elijah would give in.

"Exactly. He's in a coma. So why are we visiting him again?" Elijah pointed out. His mom sighed.

"Do you really wanna not go that badly?" his mom asked him.

"Duh!" Elijah replied.

"Okay fine. We won't go okay?"

"Thank you." Elijah said relieved he didn't have to see Liam.

"I'm disappointed in you." his mom said looking at him and shaking her head.

"I don't care. There's no way in hell I'm seeing Liam." Elijah said unsympathetically. His mom shook her head and the two finished eating in silence.

"Bye Elijah." his mom said with a disappointed tone. Elijah knew she was still upset that he wouldn't see Liam, but he didn't care.

"Bye." Elijah waved at his mom and got on the school bus.

He entered the school with in a good mood. He got to his locker and grabbed his things without anyone ganging up on him. To his surprise, Noah didn't come to him and walk to class with him. Elijah didn't think of it as a big deal. He walked down the hallway and into class. He sat at his usual seat which was next to an empty seat that Noah generally sat in. Noah wasn't there either. "Where is he? He probably got sick. He's fine" Elijah thought to himself.
"Okay class, we're going to begin...." the teacher started.The first couple of classes were long, but Elijah's good mood got him through them. The bell rang for lunch and he got up and headed to his locker to put his things away.

"You're the reason he's the way he is. Aren't you?" a voice said to him from behind. Elijah closed his locker and turned around.
"Answer us." Dylan said next to David. They were unusually close to each other.
"Okay one, I have nothing to do with Liam. And two, you guys look gay when you're close like that." Elijah pointed out. Dylan and David looked at each other and quickly moved away.

"Oh c'mon dork. You know what you did, and lying to us isn't gonna get you out of us kicking your ass." Dylan said cracking his knuckles. By now, Noah would've intervened and yelled at Dylan, but he was still absent.

"Like I said, I have nothing to do with Liam." Elijah said getting irritated.
"You asked for this." Dylan said and the two guys started to walk towards Elijah. His eyes widened, then he darted across the hallway. Dylan and David followed him. Elijah ran into the cafeteria where a few teachers were so they would see Elijah getting chased.

"You are so-" Dylan was shouting when he realized Elijah led them to the cafeteria.

"Dylan! David!" one of the teachers yelled. "What are you two doing?" the teacher started to walk over to them. Elijah smiled and walked over to the lunch line.The school day ended and Elijah cruised out of the school still in a good mood. Dylan and David were given detention and Elijah got out of a fight. His day was going great and he felt like nothing in the world could ruin it.
"So you got Liam suspended, then got Dylan and David detention? You're so cool!" a Junior kid said to Elijah as he walked past him.
"Thanks." Elijah said happily. It was the first time someone other than a friend told him he was cool.

He strolled down the sidewalk heading towards his house. He was smiling while spacing out. His thoughts carried him to another world. A world where everything was perfect. Elijah walked up the steps to his house and came in.

"I'm home!" his voice echoed across the small house. He put his backpack down and entered the kitchen. His mom was sitting at the table with a disturbed look on her face.

"Honey sit down please." she said to Elijah nodding to the chair in front of her.

"Okay." Elijah shrugged and slipped into the chair. "What's going on?" he asked happily.
"Noah's dead."