That'll never happen.......whoops, too late!

Prologue

Y'all, I wrote this story about a decade ago and haven't written in a while. So in hopes of getting inspired to write again, I'm going to do some major editing. While the general plot of the story will be similar, there are plenty of grammar fixes and plot modifications I'm going to make the whole thing more realistic. Hopefully, this will look less like a teenager with a lot of free time writing this when I finish. Thanks to all you are reading this.

"I'm coming as fast as I can," Cody said with his hands shaking holding the phone. He was at his friend Jason's party smiling, laughing and drinking when he got the phone call from the hospital. The nurse on the phone said, "She had another stroke and this is probably the end for her." His mother had a family history of Atrial Fibrillation and had been having strokes since she was 29. 

It was scary especially when the beta-blockers didn't work but didn't require a lot of maintenance after she got the pacemaker. Despite this, it always freaked him out when she had a stroke and had to stay in the hospital for a couple of days. She was a homemaker and didn't work since his dad was financially stable enough to support them. But the problems got worse about a year ago when she had her first transient ischemic stroke. They went to a heart specialist and he said that her condition was getting worse and instead of ischemic strokes every few years, she was getting transient ischemic strokes multiple times a year.

A few weeks ago she had been admitted to the hospital for observation and residence. Up until that night, Cody had spent all the time that he wasn't in the school in the hospital with her. Since today was a Friday night, she insisted that he go out and be a teenager because being cooped up in the hospital wasn't good for him.

Reluctantly Cody agreed and this is where he was currently. He rushed out of Jason's house almost tripping over his feet, loathing the cocoon of stale alcohol and sweaty, dancing teens. He ran out to his car, tears threatening to spill out of his eyes and down his face praying to God that he wasn't too late. After going almost twice the speed limit, he pulled up to the hospital and messily parked cursing himself for not staying there with her. When he finally got up to her room she was breathing unevenly and drifting in and out of consciousness.

Cody glanced over and saw his father holding his hand and looking more vulnerable and fragile than he'd ever seen him in his life. His mom noticed him and gestured for him to come closer. "It's time for me to now. You know I love you. You can and will do great things with your life. Make me and your father proud." Then she flatlined and all Cody could hear was incessant beeping as a nurse came in and called a code.

Moments later, the doctors came in and used paddles to shock her with Cody and his father sitting there helpless and unable to do anything but plead for them to save her. A nurse ushered them out of the room and minutes later her doctor came out with a look on his face that answered the question before they could even ask. Not saying a word to his father, Cody walked out of the hospital numbly still not fully comprehending that his mother had just died. He sat in his car for what could have been minutes or hours. He then drove back home dazed and he honestly couldn't believe he got back to his house without getting in an accident.

Cody's father got home first and when Cody trudged in the house his dad said bluntly "We're moving." Cody demonstrated no indication that he heard him not really caring about moving. Cody later came to realize that all the time he was at school, she planned her death arrangements and thought ahead about a nice place they could move to if being in this house was too much for them. 

Apparently, that decision had been decided by his father. Guess he had applied for a job and had already taken the steps for this transition. One of the reasons he loved his mom so much was that she actually understood him. He assumed his father loved him but his father was less emotionally expressive than his mom and not as understanding. Cody's mom was the only one who knew about the one thing he loved more than the air he breathed: dancing.

One time Cody asked his father what he thought about dancing, he said it was for girls, and that was the end of that. He was more of a sports enthusiast; all about football and basketball. While Cody liked sports well enough, nothing could hold a candle to how he felt about dancing.

Cody's mom kept his secret and for the past six years, he had been dancing in street competitions and had gotten really good. His mom came one time and told him later that the passion and fluidity of his moves and rhythm made her feel every emotion Cody did and gave her goosebumps. That is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to him and he would treasure her words until he died.

After the funeral, Cody's father didn't leave the house for two weeks and with it being scorching hot in August, Cody didn't either. Barely exchanging a sentence during that time, they isolated, processing their grief alone. Cody noticed the contents of the cabinet where they kept the liquor dwindling down rapidly and by the end of the two weeks, it was completely empty.

Promptly, on the 14th day, Cody's father decided that is when they would start packing to move. They started boxing up things and made what had to be one of the shortest moves in history.

Within two days they had packed everything in the house and left to go across the beautiful state of Texas. As they pulled up the driveway to their new place, Cody took in the modest two-story, bungalow-style house. There was a nice stoned pathway leading up to the door with small bushes lining it. When he imagined his mom planting her favorite flowers, calla lilies, his chest tightened and throat went dry.

Cody's father wasted no time opening the front door and starting to drag out boxes inside. They unpacked everything and the day after they settled in, his father came in to give him his enrollment papers for his new school. Cody sighed because not only does it suck being the new guy, but he found that apparently he was considered attractive and got a lot of attention from girls.

Which was laughable because Cody felt he was so awkward looking just a year ago with average stature, glasses, and uncontrollable acne. It's amazing what growing a few inches, contacts and some acne products can do for someone's social life. At his old school, he thrived on all the attention, the girls, and the parties but now all he wanted was to be left alone and fade into nothingness.