Awakening Book 2 Chapter 3: Concerned

Knock knock knock knock.

"Blake? Did you want some lunch?"

"I'm not hungry."

No response. After a few moments though, the sound of footsteps started and grew quieter.

Dinner yesterday, now breakfast and lunch today. After the frustrating conversation with his mother the previous day, Blake was just in no mood to eat or leave his room right now. He was too confused, too angry...too hurt. He hated that Alisha, one of two very trusted souls in his life, had essentially lied to and deceived him for so many years. He hated that she hadn't told him anything about what he could do and about the scythe and his father, and now the added tension of having superpowered maniacs coming after him with no understandable explanation made it all the harder to cope.

And most of all he hated that it still seemed like Alisha wasn't telling him everything.

At the hospital, she made it seem like she had the answers to all his questions. But given the constant unresponsiveness from yesterday, it felt more like a foolish hope now. He wanted to know what was going on and why, but at this point it seemed the only ones that knew anything were those who wanted to do him harm, and his home.

Blake buried his face into his knees, and groaned softly.

Knock knock knock.

"Mom, I'm not hungry," he snapped.

"It's not that. It's June. She's at the door and wanted to see you."

He pulled his head away from his knees in less than a second. "June's home?" Without waiting for a reply, Blake swung his legs over the side of the bed and reached the door in no time at all. The moment he opened the door he banked left, not bothering to look his mother in the eye even as she stood a few feet away.

The front door was partially open, and just outside of it stood a young female teen with below-shoulder-length brown hair and a lean form, pretty much the same height as him. With curious light brown eyes, she gazed at him with a curious expression. The girl, his best friend, lit up a little once Blake stopped at the open entrance to his home.

"June," he said in a quiet voice, but feeling more relieved than ever.

"Hey, you," she replied with a tiny voice and smile.

Both stared at one another in complete silence, and it did not take long for that to start feeling awkward for Blake. Given her uneasy shuffling after a couple more seconds, he could tell June felt uncomfortable by the awkwardness as well.

"Umm..." Blake trailed off for only a moment. "I heard you were being discharged today. Didn't realize you'd already be home."

June nodded her head. "Got back about ten minutes ago."

He couldn't see the house next door, but turned his head and looked in that direction anyway. "I thought your dad might want to spend time with you once you got home."

After asking, Blake felt the atmosphere shift from something light-hearted to something a bit more despondent. Despite this, June responded anyways. "I don't think he's gotten a lot of sleep lately," she said eventually. "Between what happened with me and...Mom...I don't blame him."

The word caught in June's throat for a split second, but she continued before Blake could ask her about it. "I think as soon as he knew that I was home and safe, he wanted some rest. I told him I wanted to check in on you, but, he might've already been asleep by then."

Blake couldn't blame him either. Between losing his wife and nearly losing his daughter to the town's recent blight, he could only imagine the stress and fear June's father was under during this whole mess, even now. He was sure it was similar to his own feelings when heard his own mom had been hospitalized.

"So, yeah. I just wanted to, you know, check up on you," June concluded, before looking him over for a second. "How are you doing? Were those weird injuries healing up okay?"

Blake nodded without a second thought. "Yeah, I feel fine. I can barely notice them."

He expected her to look relieved by that news, let out little sigh maybe. But instead she looked off into the distance, her eyes glazed over as if she was deeply lost in thought. Blake rubbed some of his fingers together, unsure what he should say next.

"I, uhhh-"

HONK.

Blake looked past June, who herself swiveled around to find out what that startling and abrupt noise was. A silver SUV sat running in the street, right in front of Blake's house. The driver, a woman who didn't quite look middle-aged and had a safety bask over her nose and mouth, merely stared at him and June; the plainness of her expression unnerved Blake just a little.

One of the back windows started rolling down, and before it was fully exposed a familiar face popped out and called, "June! Blake! Perfect timing!"

The teenage boy, Cameron, had a big smile on his face as he called out his friends' names with glee. Another figure in the backseat of the car shuffled around, and although Blake couldn't quite make out details he was certain it was Amelia, Cameron's twin sister, and June's close friend.

"Wait, what's perfect timing?" June confusedly called back in response.

"Look, both of you are out of the hospital and we want to hang out. It's been a while."

Blake rolled his eyed a tiny bit, intent on keeping the mood as light-hearted as he could. The rear side door to the SUV then opened and Cameron beckoned them with a hand motion. Blake and June exchanged a glance, not even needing to confirm verbally with one another.

"I guess so. Let me just leave a note for Dad." With that June headed over to and inside her house next door.

"Blake!" Cameron shouted with cupped hands. "You in?"

He already knew his answer, but out of habit there was something he needed to do first. Turning his head, he looked his mother in the eye. Alisha leaned against a wall, while standing a few feet away. She seemed exhausted and nervous, but he had no intention of letting her have a say right now.

"I'm going with them," he simply told her. He stared at her for a few seconds before popping on some shoes at the front door and exiting his home. As he walked toward the car, he dare not turn around, not really caring what Alisha might do or say right now.

"Alright, let's go!" Cameron cheered, stretching out his hand to offer the backseat next to him and Amelia.

"You can sit in the front."

Blake and Cameron both were caught off-guard by the voice. The driver slowly turned her head to look back at the boys. The mask hid half her face, but her gaze alone was like a hawk's, watchful and authoritarian. Blake could feel its intimidating presence even before he looked directly into them.

It was ultimately that which led Blake to not argue as he opened the front passenger door, sat down, and put the seatbelt on, all in complete silence. He briefly looked behind him, seeing that both the boy and the girl sitting in the backseat wore expression contorted with annoyance. He had shorter brown hair and a simple T-shirt with cargo shorts; her hair was shoulder-length and dirty blonde hair, and she clearly cared more about fashion than comfort given her long jean skirt and flowery blouse.

Blake then caught a brief glimpse of the driver while turning to face forward. A patterned yellow, gray, and white dress and thin white shawl completed a very modest look for the likes of Cameron and Amelia's mother, Sheila. But it was her face that really caught Blake's attention. The slight wrinkles about her cheeks and wavy blonde hair braided up in a bun seemed innocent enough, but those striking greenish-gray eyes could stare daggers right into his soul if she bothered to look at him. He himself looked out the side window within seconds, and he rubbed his fingers together by nervous instinct.

Then he saw June running up towards the car, and joined Cameron and Amelia in the backseat with haste. Blake breathed a silent sigh of relief once she was buckled in and Sheila shifted the gears.

"So, where are we going?" asked June, finally breaking the awkward silence she didn't even know was there.

"Addie's Cafe," Cameron replied.

"Per my request," Amelia joked. "It's been a while."

"I'm surprised Addie's is open," Blake interjected. "Didn't a bunch of the little places close up after what happened?"

"Addie's didn't really get damaged like some of the others," Cameron explained. "Mom called up herself, heard is straight from the owner."

Blake glanced at Sheila for less than a second, but her focus was on the road.

"That's good," June mused.

"They all got the cure, vaccine, medicine stuff, whatever," Amelia said. "So nobody's sick, nobody's gonna be."

"Are you, are you feeling okay Mrs. Aldridge?"

He regretted asking the moment it came out. While at a stoplight, Sheila's gaze slowly shifted until she gave Blake this intimidating side-eye. Feeling hot and flustered, he looked away, praying that someone would say something.

"I'm fine," she finally answered, her voice mildly hoarse. "Just tired."

"Please, you're worried they might be sick, don't lie," Amelia said loudly.

"Excuse me."

Blake's shoulders tensed, but Amelia was unfazed by her mother's tone. "June's the reason everyone in town is gonna be fine, and Blake never got sick and got the medicine. This is just overreacting."

"Watch your tone young lady."

Blake didn't see what might've happened, but Amelia's voice dropped a little in volume when she spoke next. "Sorry, sorry. I'll be quiet."

Initially, he'd been happy to spend some time with his friends like old times. But in this very moment, he was actually wishing he was back in his room, on his bed, head pressed into his knees.

"Wait, your mom was in the hospital?!"

"Yeah. She didn't get sick like everybody else though."

"Was it her chronic illness thing?"

"That's what the doctors said."

"Well at least she's up and moving now."

Blake and Cameron initially had their own conversation at the cafe table, but June and Amelia had now taken an interest in what was being said, especially now that they were distracted a bit from eating sandwiches. Sheila, meanwhile, looking somewhat disinterested in the whole conversational shift.

"Hold on." Amelia swallowed her bite before continuing. "Remind me what your mom has again?"

Blake could only shrug in response. "She's never gotten a diagnosis. They thought it was MS for a while, but she progressed really slow and all the blood tests never showed anything. Her symptoms never completely fit either."

"Isn't it unofficially labeled as something now?" June asked. "Lens, or lems, something like that?"

"What is it?" Cameron inquired.

"A kind of syndrome that affects the muscles and your energy," Blake replied. "It still doesn't fit, but it's the best they've got."

"Imagine if your mom had gotten sick with that epidemic," Cameron interrupted, his voice quiet and uncertain.

"She might not have survived..."

Sheila's words then cut into the conversation, changing the very air of the table entirely. Everyone fell silent. For about a minute.

"Maybe she would've been okay too." Amelia could barely get the words out though. Blake could tell she was trying, but something like that wouldn't have been easy for any of them. He wanted to keep his mouth shut though. On one hand, based on Alisha's discussions with him in the last couple of days, she might have been completely unharmed by the epidemic because she may have some "protection" of her own that carried. But there was no way he could explain that to his friends. There'd be questions, questions he didn't want to answer or didn't have the answer to.

And then, on the other hand...he looked at June. She had the blankest stare while holding her sandwich, as if she'd become a statue for a moment.

"Alright, that's it."

Cameron had stood up suddenly, and nearly slammed the table with his open palms. All eyes shifted onto him as he proudly, and maybe a bit too loud, declared, "We need to ride bikes together again. Sometime this week. Get back to normal and start the summer, yeah?"

Amelia looked to be on board with the idea. Blake felt uncertain but was ready to follow along with his friend's lead. June, however, just stared.

"I don't know," she finally said.

"No buts!" Cameron argued! "We're doing it. End of story."

"Alright, alright," Blake replied, holding up his hands while he stifled a small laugh. "June and I are in."

"Cameron," Sheila said with a sigh. "Please sit down."