That very night Marshall sat down with his mom at dinner, shovelling down spaghetti, with a slow yet steady stream of tomato sauce dribbling down his chin. His focus from his food was pulled away when he felt his moms piercing stare on his back and turned around, bringing his pink plastic chair with him. "What's wrong mom?" He asked, through a large mouthful of spaghetti. She formed her mouth into a thin line and as soon as he finished that bite, she practically attacked his face with a wet napkin saying, "You have food all over your face! Nobody wants to see that." After a couple of minutes of wiping all the food smudges, she sat down across from him and asked, "By the way sweetie, how was your day? I seemed to have forgotten to ask."
He stared at her, wondering if it was just a mom thing to go from angry to concerned in less than a second, and quietly said, "Not that good..." She frowned and asked, "Why? What happened?" He took another slurp of his noodles to prepare himself and began to explain, "You know Bubba? I'm pretty sure he likes this kid named Brendon but he got made fun of when people found out, so I stood up to one of the bullies, but Bubba was totally ungrateful! He said I'm gonna make this stupid Brendon kid get bullied for the rest of the year because of what I said!"
His moms eyebrows disappeared in her hairline, surprised by this newfound fact about Bubba. Setting it aside for the moment, she asked, "So what did you say...?" Marshall frowned and crossed his arms, "Doesn't matter what I said." Before she was about to ask him again, and scold him, saying it in fact does matter, they heard the doorbell ring followed by a short knock. So she got up and went to get it, but when she opened the door, she found someone she would've never expected. Beneath her moderately tall stature was the very person they were talking about, shivering and staring at the floor. "Sorry to bother, but I wanted to say sorry to Marshall for something I said..." He began.
Before he could say anymore, Marshall's mom ushered him in, inviting him to sit down on their leather couch, trying to help him get comfortable. His fearful eyes glanced up at her, and then flicked over to Marshall. Marshall at the very least looked genuinely surprised, and a little bit angry. "Hi Marshall," Bubba muttered, the two simply staring at eachother. "Hey Bubba," He muttered back, taking a seat across from him in a wooden chair.
The three of them sat there for a minute in awkward silence, before Bubba opened his mouth and began to profusely apologize, "I'm so sorry for what I said to you earlier, I know I should've been nice to you, and should've said thank you. I even told my parents what happened and they got really really angry so they sent me over here to apologize. Please Marshall, please.." He broke out into tears, obviously anxiety ridden, and tried wiping them away before his eyes got too puffy. Marshall suddenly felt a little guilty for making Bubba feel so bad and said, "Listen, it's okay! I wasn't very nice to you either so we're even right?"
They sat there for another minute before Bubba smiled and agreed. They both got up and hugged each other before sitting back down began chatting, as if the little drama that just happened didn't actually occur. Marshall's mom will always be astounded by the emotional resilience of kids these days.
After a few moments, Bubba mentioned, "Oh, and my mom invited you over tonight, as sort of an apology," He glanced up at Marshall's mom and asked, "Is that okay Mrs. Abadeer?" She blinked, surprised by the foreign use of 'Mrs. Abadeer' and quickly told him to call her Hana. "So...is it okay Hana? If Marshall comes over? My parents said they really want to meet him." Hana thought about it for a second and decided, why not? What's the worst that could happen? Bubba's parents sounded like nice people, even though that was worrisome that they sent him all the way over here to apologize for such a little thing. She said yes, and Marshall quickly cheered and practically bounced into his bedroom, with Bubba following shortly behind.
Once Marshall stuffed his backpack to the brim with as many toys as possible along with the bare minimum essentials, he bounced back out into the living room, Bubba following closely behind him. When Hana noticed them, she asked, "Do you want me to drive you there or are your parents waiting outside?" Bubba shuffled nervously and said, "I had to walk here so...do you mind driving us there?" Hana again wondered if she made the right decision to let Marshall go with Bubba, noticing how his parents actually made him walk here just to apologize over a stupid little fight. She nodded warily and went to grab her keys and her shoes, and once she was ready, they all left, Hana locking the door behind her while Marshall and Bubba excitedly talked about what they were going to do.
The conversation lasted the whole way there, finally ending when Hana arrived at the address Bubba gave her, and they all exited the car. Hana furrowed her brows when she noticed how sketchy the house looked, and how there was even a boarded up window on what looked like the attic. She looked around further and saw the tall, untrimmed weeds, practically spilling over onto the little concrete path that led to the derailed looking front steps. She looked around some more until she heard the front door creak open followed by a feminine, "Hello Mrs. Abadeer!" Hana froze in her place and turned around, greeting the brown haired woman with a smile. Behind her was a tall, yet almost unhealthily skinny looking man who looked to be about 15 years older than the woman, and nodded his head at Hana.
Hana internally felt that these were pretty much all flashing neon signs, saying 'danger! danger! Things go on this house that Marshall could probably get killed in!' But deciding to have faith in these people, seeing as they raised such a kind, albeit strange looking child, greeted them back. She turned around and motioned for Marshall and Bubba to come forward from where they were playing with something in the dirt. Bubba looked up first and grabbed Marshall by the wrist, bringing him upright immediately. They looked over and saw Bubba's parents looming on the steps, smiling kindly at Bubba. Bubba turned around and said, "Thank you Mrs. Ab- Hana, I mean." He smiled and ran up the stairs, Marshall a few steps behind him. "Hey, say goodbye!" Hana called out to Marshall, making him swivel around, him almost falling off the top step.
He ran back down and hugged her and said, "Thank you for letting me come over mom! I love you! I'll see you tomorrow!" And with that, he left, and disappeared inside the house. Hana only hoped she could trust Bubba's parents.
X
After they got inside, they went to Bubba's room, which was incredibly tidy for someone his age, and somehow made Marshall feel a little inferior. "Why is your room so clean?" He asked, noticing how there weren't any places that were covered in dust or any form of stain. "I don't know, my mom cleans it for me so I guess that's why." Marshall shrugged, and unzipped his backpack, taking out his teddy bear Hambo along with another stuffed bear and looked up at Bubba with a devilish grin, "You wanna play bear wars?"
After a half an hour of playing Marshall's made up game of 'bear wars' Bubba's mom came in with two plastic cups in her hands, and said, "Drink up! I made you two some homemade lemonade. I made it with my special recipe in honor of our new guest, Marshall." She smiled kindly at him, making Marshall blush. "You know, Bubba has mentioned you quite a lot!" She gushed, carefully watching them as they drank their lemonade. Marshall practically choked, and looked up, staring at her with surprise, "He does!?" She smiled and nodded, now giving Bubba a turn to blush.
After they finished their lemonade, they handed they cups to her, and she smiled kindly, and left. "Your mom seems nice," Marshall pointed out, stuffing the bears back into his backpack, making sure to keep Hambo on top. Bubba nodded thoughtfully and sighed, "She's usually nice, except when she gives me medicine. She's not very nice then." Marshall looked curiously at him and asked, "You need medicine?" Bubba nodded and muttered, "I don't know why I do, I black out or faint whenever I take it..."
He drifted off when he heard footsteps walk across the hall and stand by the door, as if listening to their conversation. After a moment, the footsteps trailed in into another room, leaving them alone yet again. Somewhat creeped out, Marshall asked, "Do you have a TV? I'm bored." Bubba stood up and nodded, and told him to follow behind.
When they reached the living and got to the remote, Bubba's mom seemingly appeared out of nowhere and scolded him, saying, "You know better than to watch TV past sunset. Now please go wait in your room, I'm almost done with dinner." Bubba feeling a surplus of embarrassment, grumbled and apologized to Marshall, and headed back to his room. Marshall was about to follow behind, until she stopped him, gripping his shoulder somewhat tightly. He shied away and turned around to look up at her. She smiled again, and asked, "Did you already have dinner?" He nodded, noticing how tall she was and how long her shadow is, and looked down at the ground. "Well good," she said, "Easier for me!"
After that, Marshall left as fast as he could and tiptoed down the hall to Bubba's room, but was surprised to find that Bubba was sitting carefully drawn in on his bed, looked much paler than he did a few minutes ago. "Hey, are you okay? You look kinda sick." Marshall put a hand to his forehead, trying to feel if he was especially warm, and pulled his hand away, shocked by how overheated he was. He immediately offered to get him some ice or a cold rag, because that's what his mom does whenever he's sick, and tried his best not to panic. "No, please don't, whenever I get sick like this, it just means I have to take my medicine." Bubba stood up, and held onto the wall for support. His legs wobbled beneath him and a sheen of sweat coated his skin, almost making him look like his delicately pink colored skin was melting. "I'll go get your mom," Marshall offered on the way out of the room.
He ran down the hall and nearly collided with her, and in a rush said, "Bubba'ssickandneedsmedicine!" She looked strangely at him and told him to slow down. He took a deep breath, and said slowly, "Bubba's sick. He said he needs his medicine." There was a short flicker of understanding in her eyes, and she rushed to Bubba's room, asking Marshall to hold the plates she was carrying.
After a couple minutes, she came out, holding Bubba in her arms, and quickly said, "I'm taking Bubba upstairs for the night, but please don't come up and see him. He'll need a lot of rest. You can watch TV if you want or something, okay?" A few seconds later, he could hear her walking up the stairs, and shortly after a door loudly slamming behind her. So trying to distract himself from the situation that was hanging over him like a could, he set the plates of what looked like chicken and salad on the nearest table, and went to the couch to go watch some TV.
After a few hours of watching cartoon reruns, and hearing nothing from Bubba's parents, he decided to take a look into Bubba's room, despite Bubba's moms strict warning to do exactly the opposite of that. But hey, wouldn't anyone with a decent heart be worried for their friend and want to see them? As he flipped off the TV with a red power button and flicked on the stairway light, he tried his hardest not to feel bad about what he was doing.
After lightly tiptoeing up the steps, he reached a short hallway, with 1 room in front of him, and 1 room on either end of the hallway. He stopped for a second, trying to listen for any noise that might given away where Bubba was, and made he sure he also didn't hear any whispers. After a few seconds, he heard some snoring on his right, and the quiet whirring of some machine to his left. Hoping he was right, he turned the corner, and entered the room on the left. He wriggled his toes on the soft carpet, and twisted the brass doorknob open. The door opened silently, revealing a barely lit room, with what appears to be a glass casing in the corner connect to multiple machines, only one of them making any sort of noise. Marshall quickly walked over to the glass case, and pulled off the black felt blanket that was covering it, and was completely caught off guard by what he saw.
Inside the glass case, was Bubba, stripped down to his underwear, with multiple needles digging in his arms. After another moment of simply staring, he noticed a strange pink substance floating around in it, being drawn towards Bubba everytime he breathed in. The substance seemed almost like little droplets of something, so tiny and so reflecting that if you didn't look close enough, it looked like little pieces of pink sand.
He felt sick to his stomach, and actually had to hold a hand up to his mouth making sure not to vomit as he saw Bubba like this. He felt a scream rise up through his throat without him noticing it and he put both hands on his mouth. He knew he probably shouldn't be reacting so negatively but what in the world was going on? He began to shiver, and despite the window being open on a chilly night, Marshall knew he wasn't shivering because of the cold.
A few minutes later, Marshall felt like he was being watched, so he of course turned around, making sure neither of Bubba's parents saw what he was doing. When he saw no one, and still heard the soft and steady snores coming from the other direction, he turned back around and continue look curiously at Bubba, wondering what was happening to him. Was he hurt? Was he being experimented on? That was his last thought before he felt a strange shock course through his arm, followed by a sharp dig, and realized there was probably a needle in his arm. He stumbled around, already losing his balance and his vision, and saw Bubba's mom clean the needle off that she just stabbed him with, and quickly stabbed him with another needle, pressing a cloudy liquid into his arm. That was the last thing he remembered as he fell onto the soft ground, feeling a freezing sensation rush through him, and his heart stutter a few times before completely stopping.
A/N
Hello and thank you all so much for the comments and follows, it really brightens my day so thank you so much :)
