The days Andy hated the most were the hospital days. Those were the days he felt most acutely aware of being different. He was poked and prodded, put through batteries of physical and mental tests. And the scans. None of the scans ever had an effect like the first one, but he still panicked every time. His heart rate spiked and set off alarms and ( Read more... )

Peter had been dragging on for at least half an hour, askin me what I was doing with my spare time, if I was seeing my therapist regularly, if I'd started looking through the UCAS information. I really, really felt like tellin 'im "You know what, Peter, it slipped my mind. Between the gaping void of realising I probably fuckin died, realising the ( Read more... )

Andy lay in bed awake with his eyes closed. He couldn’t bring himself to open his eyes. Not today. In the flat outside the bedroom door, Tess, Aletha, and Fae were preparing to bake all the favourite foods he’d usually enjoyed. Beef and stout pies, lemon flavoured fairy cakes. They’d be cutting up the potatoes for the potatoes O’Brien later that ( Read more... )

I've started to believe now might be the time for me to talk about what happened the other day. Weeks ago, now. The first of all my confusions, the launching point for my series of complete and utter incomprehensible situations. It's funny to put it that way, because in truth ever since I felt the sand on the tops of my feet, I was doomed to this. ( Read more... )

Outside, rain had started falling. It was just enough for Andy to throw the hood over his head as he got out of his solicitor's car. It had been too warm for a sweatshirt, but Andy didn't have anything else to protect himself from the elements. Once he got inside, the air conditioning chilled his damp clothing and he pulled it tighter around ( Read more... )

Andy had grown tired of watching things about the paranormal and the unexplained. There was only so much delving into his own psyche's confusion he could take. He wished he could go to sleep; he knew his mother was anxious about how little he rested. His body was exhausted and at times Andy drifted off, but it was only for an hour or two at a time ( Read more... )

Andy kept trying to explain to himself what returning to normal life would be like. The Andy who had stepped onto the beach on Boxing Day imagined returning to London, complaining about all the drinking his father had done instead of spending time with his kids, then going back to school. Of course, that wasn't possible for him now. He couldn't ( Read more... )

Today, Andy was finally preparing to get out of the hospital. His previously broken fingers were still sore and the side where he'd broken his ribs still ached, but his organ function tests came out perfectly. His mother had, of course, insisted on checking them herself. His father- who had relented in returning to the hospital and refrained from ( Read more... )

When the screen went dark, Tory sat in silence for a minute. Eventually, he tapped the screen to life and navigated to his pictures. The top one was the screenshot he'd captured. Logic told him it was impossible, but that picture told him otherwise. Andy. The best friend he'd mourned on a daily basis for four years. Cessie having Andrea was the ( Read more... )

Two months before he'd left for Sri Lanka, Andy's best mate Torrin had invited a few friends over because his parents were out of town and his brother was home from Uni. Tory'd found his stash of weed and knew he wouldn't be around. They fumbled around making a joint, passing it among themselves until the cherry burned their fingers. His head felt ( Read more... )