A woman on the announcement system interrupts my AP Biology class. "Sorry to interrupt class, but I'd like to inform everyone that Nate Mendoza, Junior, has just passed away. Can we please have moment of silence, please?" The announcer is silent for a while before coming back on, "The memorial torch will be lit for the remainder of the week."
The entire class is silent except for someone at the other side of the room gasping. Tears start to well up in my eyes as I'm just informed my best male friend has just passed. I run out of the class, tears streaming down my face as I head towards the center of the school. Sure enough, the orange flame is lit ablaze above the ten foot torch, signifying the death of a student at the school.
How could Nate have died? He was clearly healthy last time I saw him on Friday, and now he's gone. Why did God have to kill such a good kid as him? He did no wrong and now he's gone, and I'll never see him again.
I get onto my knees in front of the torch and cry. "Why? Why did this happen?" I scream, frustrated at the world and at God for taking my friend away. "Sure, he didn't believe in you, but there are many worse people out there who don't believe in you. Why not one of them? He was a good kid."
As I vent out my frustration with tears still streaming down my face, someone grabs my shoulder from behind. Turning around to face the person, I notice it's my friend, Sarah, even though my vision is blurry from the tears. She helps me get up to me feet and immediately pulls me into her embrace, letting me cry into her chest.
Even though no words are spoken, she let me cry into her chest for a minute before I'm able to bring sense to all these emotions. "Lauren, are you better now?"
I shake my head up and down slightly to affirm her question. I wipe away my tears and look up to my friend and notice her eyes are red as if she had been crying. I quietly ask her, "Sarah, I don't think I can go to class today. Do you mind staying with me?"
She smiles a little, but even in my distressed mood, I can tell she's shaken up from Nate's death since they were also friends. "Yeah, I don't think I can go either." She grabs my forearm, taking me in the direction of the vending machines. "Let me buy you a drink," she tells me in a soft-spoken manner.
I simply nod and point at the raspberry iced tea. She pulls out her wallet and puts in the dollar twenty five for the tea and as the tea drops down; she gives it to me. "Here you go." She then puts in some more money and picks the iced coffee. She grabs it as it drops to the lower compartment and looks to me, "I know of a tree that we can sit under. You want to go?"
I nod, "Yeah, I'd like to go." I follow her as she takes the lead towards the tree which is actually just a large oak tree at the edge of the school property, close to the student parking lot.
Since Sarah and Nate were close friends, I wonder how she's taking his death. Her eyes were red, but she wasn't crying her eyes out like me.
"Sarah, how are you feeling? I know you and Nate were close friends, and you're taking it a lot better than I am." We arrive immediately under the large oak tree's canopy and take a seat by putting our backs to the base of the trunk.
She opens up her iced coffee and takes a drink before answering my question. She starts to choke up, "If I had known this would have happened, I would have done so many more things with him." She stays quiet as she regains her composure and looks the other way.
She calms down, but she doesn't look at me. Instead, she looks straight ahead. A tear rolls down her cheek, "I liked him, you know? After knowing him for two years, I finally got close to him and came to know who he really was. He was smart, caring, and although he was flamboyant and sassy around his close friends, I liked that about him." She grins when she mentioned his last two traits she liked about him.
"Then why didn't you say anything to him?" I ask, looking at her.
She continues to look straight ahead, "Well, you two were dating, so I didn't want to interfere with your relationship. Now that he's gone, I'll never be able to tell him." Another tear rolls down her face, but she wipes it away.
She also thought Nate and I were dating? We were definitely close to each other, but we never even thought of dating each other. Even other people thought we were dating because of how close we were.
"We weren't dating, you know." She now turns to me, wide-eyed at that fact, but I continue on, "He was basically my gay best friend; we weren't ever going to date," I chuckle as I thought he was gay for the longest time until he told me he was straight and he liked the idea of me calling him my gay best friend since it made explaining our relationship to others much easier.
"You're telling me I could have confessed to him all this time?"
"Yeah, you could have, and he would have said yes," I pause right there, to face her now. "He told me he liked you, and asked me to ask you if you liked him also. Since you didn't give a straight answer, he thought he was chasing a rainbow."
She returns to her former position of looking forward, "He compared me to a rainbow." She stops and closes her eyes to dream of what may have happened if she had asked him.
"Something beautiful, but unobtainable was what he said." Another tear rolls down her face as she realizes that Nate would have never have asked her. As I see that Sarah is now starting to cry just as I was, it is my turn to pull her in and comfort her.
As she sobs into my shirt, in a soothing voice, I ask her, "Should we go visit Nate's family to pay our respects?" She simply nods her head up and down while sobbing in my shirt. I take no heed to how long she sobs, only that I comfort her as best as I can. "Take your time, Sarah, I know it hurts." The tears stream down my face, reminding me that Nate will never come back.
I read the email coming from the government private sector.
Dear Dr. Smith,
You'll be receiving another patient today who has been diagnosed with Eternal Sleep as stated by Dr. Cooper who first discovered it. The kid's name is Nate Mendoza, sixteen years old and he should be at your facility right now.
Sincerely,
Jacob Benz, U.S. Private Sector
Deleting the message right away so it won't fall into the wrong hands, I get up from my desk and take a check around my office. It is a small, ten-by-ten room with the desk facing the door. To my right is a brown leather couch I sleep on when I get tired. Pictures of my family adorn the otherwise bland, white walls. I have pictures of my parents, my kids; my husband.
Leaving the office, I turn right and walk down a hallway illuminated by fluorescent lights on the ceiling. Reaching the medical bay in a minute of brisk walking, I enter and first see Andrew and Nia both attached to IVs and a helmet to measure brain activity, should there ever be a change. A group of scientists and doctors sit idly by, but since nothing changes except researching how the force fields around their rings work, they are lazy.
I then see several doctors tending to another body in the same fashion that Andrew and Nia are set up. I go up to them, "Is this the new boy who was diagnosed with Eternal Sleep?"
One of the doctors looks up from his work and answers my question, "Yes Dr. Smith, this is Nate Mendoza. He just came in twenty minutes ago and we went straight to tending to him." I nod my head as I observe the new patient.
He looks young for his age, but that may be because he's peacefully sleeping. The other two also came in peacefully sleeping. Andrew still looks like the nine-year-old he was, even though it has been ten years. Nia looks like the thirteen-year-old even though it has been three years. And Nate will be forever sixteen years old; a sad fate, indeed.
I raise my voice so all can hear me, "Has anything changed since the last time I was here, other than Nate arriving?" I look around at the scientists and doctors present in the room; they all are shaking their heads. Not surprised by this answer, I head over to my assistant who's reading the latest fashion magazine. "Kelsey, when they've run a full check on Nate, can you call me down from my office since I'll be taking a nap."
She looks up from her magazine and to me, "Okay, but it'll be in an hour or two." She then goes back to reading her magazine.
"Thanks," I tell her as I turn to leave the medical bay and return to my office to take a nice, long nap.
"Thanks, Dr. Cooper, for telling me about your son," I tell him over the phone.
"You're welcome, Will. I'm sorry about Nate, though," he says sullenly. The mention of Nate makes me tremble, knowing that I won't see him ever again.
I say goodbye before the emotions overcome me, "Dr. Cooper, I have to go now. I'll call you this weekend."
"Okay, talk to you then," he says over the phone. I immediately hang up after he says bye. My eyes are heavy with grief, the lack of sleep sorely affecting me.
Brisingr, the red Shiba we own, comes into my room, his tail uncurled and head looking to the ground. He walks up to me and puts his head onto my lap, his eyes filled with grief look straight up at me. Even though he's not a lap dog, I pick him up and put him on my lap.
I hold him closely, "I know you're sad, Brisingr. Nate's not going to be coming back anymore." He lets me hold him like this while I console to him how I feel and as he can't talk, he makes for a great listener.
While I let forth all my emotions into my dog, the doorbell rings, prompting Brisingr to jump off of me and run to the door downstairs. Getting slowly out of me chair, I slowly walk to exit my room.
Who can be here at this time? Mary and Lucy have gone to go see family and no one ordered a package.
With sorrow, I head down the stairs which seem like an eternity to go down. While going down, the doorbell rings again having me heighten my pace out of habit. Reaching the door before the doorbell is rung again, I immediately open it to see two high school girls side by side at the door, both of their eyes swollen and red.
The one on the right is one I've seen a picture of before as she was one of Nate's friends. A little shorter than him, she has short black hair reaching to the nape of her neck. Since she shares the same ethnicity as our family, she has tanned skin, some slant in her eyes, and small nose and mouth. Her grey shirt is wrinkled along the chest region.
The one next to her is one I've never seen before. She has oriental features such as the fair skin tone, slanted eyes, and small mouth and nose, but she doesn't have the black hair normally associated with someone of Asian descent. Instead, she has dyed brown hair that reaches down to her shoulders. Just as the girl next to her, her shirt is wrinkled in the same area.
The one who I've seen before introduces herself first, "Mr. Mendoza, I'm Lauren, one of Nate's friends."
The other girl introduces herself, "Hi, I'm Sarah, also a friend of Nate." She bows her head after introducing herself.
"Come in." Both of them walk in and stand behind me, unsure of what to do. I close the door and say, "Would you like something to drink?"
Lauren looks at Sarah and then speaks up, "Yes, that would be kind of you." I lead the way to the kitchen and both of them follow me.
I grab two cups for them, "Is there anything in particular you'd like? We have juice, water, soda, and tea." I open the fridge to show them what's inside.
Sarah speaks first after looking at what's being offered to her, "I'll have water, please."
Lauren follows immediately after, "I'll have the same, too, please."
Just nodding my head, I close the fridge and put one cup to the filter soon followed by the other. After both cups are filled, I head over to the table and put each of them down. "Here, take a seat," I tell them.
"Thank you," both of them say to me and they sit down. Taking a drink of water, Lauren and Sarah both hang their heads in a somber fashion. I take a seat at the head of the table though the table is a square.
Before I ask, Lauren looks up to me, a tear running down her face, "Is it true that Nate is dead?" Sarah then looks up, tears running down her face, "He can't be dead! He was fine Friday!" Lauren bitterly says, in denial.
Is that what they announced at school? That Nate is dead? He isn't though, he's still alive somewhere.
With tears running down their faces, I tell them the truth, "He's not dead." Both of them look at me surprised, their tears stop coming down their faces.
Sarah quickly wipes them away with a napkin and says softly, "Mr. Mendoza, the school announced he died, though." Her eyes are red from all the crying she has recently done.
Should I tell them what happened? They both seem like close friends of Nate and the government never forbid me to say anything about him.
Putting my hands together and dropping my head, I prepare to tell them everything about their friend, my son. Looking up at both them, "Can I trust both of you that you won't tell anyone?"
They both look confused, but nod their heads in approval. I close my eyes, composing myself as best as I can so I don't break down emotionally while telling them.
Feeling that I can do this, I open my eyes, "He's not dead: he's in a coma."
After Mr. Mendoza finishes speaking, both Sarah and I are shocked that not only is he still alive, but he'll never age. Mr. Mendoza also looks like he's about to break down emotionally.
Sarah, noticing his emotionally-distressed state, soothingly asks, "Mr. Mendoza, would you like us leave?" He gets out of his chair and grabs a napkin in the center of the table before walking off into the kitchen.
He nods his head, though not turning towards us. "I'm sorry, but can I be alone now?" he asks sadly, his voice shaking.
Knowing that he's having a very hard time, much more than either of us, we both quietly get up from the chairs. "Mr. Mendoza, if you ever want to talk to us, our numbers are on Nate's phone." Since I can't see him, nor does he respond back, I assume he heard what I said and we both leave the house.
Walking slowly to Sarah's grey 2008 Honda Civic, she opens the door and we both get inside. She turns on the car and she immediately drives off after we put on our seat belts. On the way to my house, we are silent the whole way through, unsure of what to say to each other.
Once we arrive at my place in about five minutes, she parks on the side. She turns to me and gives me a hug, "Lauren, I'll see you tomorrow."
Releasing ourselves from our embrace, I open the door to leave the car. Before closing it, "Drive safe Sarah and see you tomorrow." She smiles a little but I can tell she's sad just as I am. I close the door and she drives off to go home.
Seeing her turn the corner, I turn around and pull out the house key from my pocket. Approaching the entrance, I insert the key into the lock and open the door. Entering the house, the first thing I see is my twin sister and her boyfriend making out on the couch.
Seriously? What the fuck is wrong with them!? For all they know, their friend Nate is dead, and they aren't even giving a fuck. It's as if they don't even care about anything else except themselves.
Frustrated at the both of them, I shout, "Every fucking time! I come home and both of you are fucking making out on the couch!" Tears are starting to form as I yell at them, "You heard that your friend Nate has died and both of you don't even give a fuck! I fucking hate both of you!"
With tears streaming down my face from anger and frustration, I storm off to my room and slam the door shut, shaking everything in my room. Not even caring, I jump into my bed and put my head into my pillow and cry into it.
Before I cry myself to sleep, I pray to God, "Please, God, please let Nate come back to us." Finishing my prayer, I let the tears soak the pillow as I fall asleep.