Change of Heart

chapter 31

"You were the one who brought me here." I pointed out, to which he dejectedly shrugged.

Still observing the sea animals, I could see a smile that my dad was trying his hardest to keep down as we went past the puffer fishes. "They're cute aren't they?"

He looked startled for a moment, forgetting I was next to him, then shrugged. "Yeah, they're alright."

"Uh huh." I smirked but allowed the conversation to end.

We went to the aquarium café, my dad ordering a salad, whilst I ordered a burger and some chips.

This time, we were able to have a normal conversation with none of mom's nosiness popping in; I talked about school and friends whilst he told me a bit about his work.

But then he got a phone call, glancing at me for permission, to which I nodded.

When he came back, his eyes darted to the side, as he scratched his hair. "My work says I have to come in, there's been a problem, it'll take less than ten minutes, but I can always tell them no if you'd like."

"It's fine. You should go."

"No, if you want me to stay, I can. I can get Jerry to fix it." It was like he himself didn't want to go, but I didn't want to be an obstruction in his work, so I shook my head again.

"I'm gonna stay here for a bit longer, you can go." I reassured him.

"Are you sure?" He asked once again, a frown on his face when I nodded. "I'll be back then."

He gave me a small smile, hesitant to say something, but decided against it and turned around, walking away.

I wandered around a bit, continuously checking the time on my phone, before heading outside to see if I could spot my dads car.

No sign of his car yet.

But it had only been about 10 minutes, he could just be stuck in traffic, or maybe the work was worse than he thought it would be.

Maybe Jerry hadn't showed up.

Just with my luck, rain started to pour, and not lightly, but very heavily. The staff at the aquarium were eying me suspiciously so I left, not wanting to over spend my stay there.

I finally heard my phone ringing and quickly picked it up to see my dad calling, "Where are you?"

"I'm so sorry Isaac, I was on my way back to you when my car broke down. I can always call a cab for you if you need it?"

"Oh... where are you right now?"

"I can't hear you... Isaac, are you there?" His line started to crack, only a few words being audible.

"Yeah, dad, hello, can you hear me?"

"Isaac I've got to go, my phone is running low but I-" Then the call ended.

I tried to call him back but his phone went straight to voicemail. I didn't know if he was going to call the cab so I called my mom but her phone also went to voicemail.

Great.

I started to shiver; taking in how cold it really had gotten when an old lady was walking past me and let out a chesty cough right in my direction.

I tried to turn away but she had already coughed and walked away. Fucking disgusting, I thought to myself.

I wanted to go home... quickly.

I could call my friends? But I was sure they were all busy today, and I wasn't really prepared to waste their time.

Time for google maps, I decided.

Entering my home address on the app, I looked at the 30 minute walk, groaning slightly, before starting on it.

Good exercise I suppose.

Except for by the time I got home, I was exhausted, and my feet were aching.

Neither my mom's or dad's car was here, now that I thought about it, my mom had probably gone to pick up my dad.

Common sense.

I was completely soaked as I entered the house, thanking God that my mom wasn't here to complain and went straight to the bathroom, pulling off my wet clothes but it was too late.

I sneezed.

And what would a sneeze lead to?

A full blown cold.

I stayed in the piping hot shower for nearly an hour until my fingers started to wrinkle up. Maybe that was enough before I shrivelled up but now I couldn't tell if I had a high temperature because of a temperature or if it was just the showers fault.

My parents still weren't back yet so I went downstairs to the kitchen to make some soup. By my logic, if I could contain the cold before it fully emerged, I wouldn't be feeling sick for the rest of this week.

After heating the soup, I took it upstairs to my room and opened up my laptop, searching for any random video to distract me from the sound of my 'slurping'.

When I finished eating, I wanted to do some work but I suddenly felt so heavy and tired that the only thing I did was shut my laptop before laying back in my bed and falling asleep.

I remember my mom coming in much later, calling my name but I was still in some sort of dream state so she just left after a few minutes.

I just needed a bit of a nap... yeah, that sounded good.

A/N:  just realised i've been saying enjoy the chapter... at the end of the chapter as if it wouldn't have already been read so instead i'll say hope u enjoyed this chapter :)  also feel like i write 2 much in these 'author notes' so i'll cut down on them 👏 this chapters pretty random but yh 25/01/21