Leon's pov.
It kills me to watch Zeke and Finn in the hospital. Maybe if I had done something, had somehow intervened, they would still be ok. I feel like I've had my fill of hospitals for a lifetime. I already visit at least three times a week to check in on mom.
She had been diagnosed with breast cancer when I was nine. Now I'm 17, in 12th grade just like Sage, Zeke, and Finn. Mom has had cancer for at least seven years, though I only started visiting her in the hospital when I was twelve.
That was the age my father allowed me to walk to the hospital. He refused to drive me no matter how many times I begged him. He barely ever brought her up after she went to the hospital. After she was gone he started distancing himself from me, as if it was my fault she had cancer. He'd leave early in the morning and wouldn't return home until late in the night. Sometimes I'd hear him come in at 12:00 or 1:00 in the morning. I'd hear him stumble into the house too drunk to care about if he woke me up. Then again, he never bothered to care about me.
Whenever he had a bad day or was just looking for something to entertain him, he'd come into my room, which is where I usually stayed whenever I was home, and he'd.. Well let's just say that sometimes I wasn't able to stand up straight, for various reasons. Whether that reason was my legs or my back was entirely up to how my father was feeling. Which is why I try to stay out of my house for as long as possible. I'll go to school early, go to my job afterwards, and spend the rest of my time with mom, until the hospital visitor hours ended. I'd take my time heading back to my house, always making sure I took the long way back.
Watching my mom in the hospital was heartbreaking, she was the glue in our family. She is the only thing that kept me and my dad together. When she left it was like our family was falling apart. When she was gone home stopped feeling like a home, and started feeling like a prison.
The only things that seemed to make me smile were my friends, and my cats. My mom bought me two cats when I was thirteen. I had walked to the place where I would get them, and instantly fell in love. One was a female light gray tabby with dark gray stripes and a white belly who I named Stella. The other was a male Persian with black fur, I called Chester. Other than Stella, Chester, and my friends, nothing seemed to light up my life that had been darkened by my mom's absence.
But watching Zeke and Finn in the hospital is different. It pains me to see them like this. It's like it's physically hurting me to look at them. It's almost been two weeks since Finn woke up, and he's stayed up late into the night crying about Zeke almost everyday. He doesn't know I know though. He waits until everyone is asleep, only then does he allow his emotions to overcome him and drown him in an ocean of tears. Emotionally he's drained, he barely tries to hide his sorrow anymore. But physically he's been getting stronger, he'll be starting physical therapy when he gets the ok from his doctor.
I've been trying to cheer him up, but all he wants is to see Zeke. I know it's hard for him to be apart from Zeke. He doesn't even try to start conversations anymore, he's just on his phone all day. It's like he's becoming a ghost of his former perky self. I know I shouldn't think much of it because he'll be back to normal when Zeke is awake. But it's still weird to see him like this. It's like he doesn't care what happens to him anymore. He won't eat unless we beg him to, and he barely ever moves from his spot on the hospital bed. Yeah it's been hard for him, but it's been hard for me and Sage too.
Sage hasn't gotten much sleep since they were put into the hospital. She stays for two or three days before she finally goes back to her house to get only a couple hours of sleep, then comes back here and repeats the process over and over again. I try to tell her it's not healthy, but of course she doesn't care. I know she'd let herself fall apart for the sake of keeping others together. It's breaking her, and it's unhealthy, and she won't stop. She's just like mom.
Mom would forget about herself when it came to others too.
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