a recent news.

Kring! Kring!! Kring!!!

It was 6am already. Ugh! Why isn't today Saturday? Like, how many hours did I even sleep?!

I get up lazily from my bed. Shut off my alarm and caressed the bedsheets for an additional five minutes.

"Five minutes is over, get up already." A voice says.

Okay okay, fine.

I slide on my slippers and walk to the bathroom.

Now, which toothpaste do I use? Hmmm. There's Colgate and there's Crest.

The Crest's not mine but, you know, I just wanna try it. It's just toothpaste. It ain't gonna hurt. Those three colours certainly look inviting. I know that these toothpastes, they use a different marketing strategy—that's highly deceptive. Three different colours—blue, red and white. They're supposed to do three different things right?

Haha, boohoo—its not. It's one toothpaste. One damned toothpaste with three different colours. Oh, Thanks mi brain for remembering that, I'm just gonna go for the Colgate.

I brush for as quickly as you read the paragraph above. I take a shower and booyakasha— I'm in my black shirt and brown cargo pants. I don't know if that's a good combination but whatever, duh. Will a face cap be good on this? I touch it for a few seconds. Will it?

Okay, let me just rush down, I'm late already.

Next thing you know, I'm locking my door. Rory and André are not around so I can lock it. I guess everybody's going to have a really busy day today.

I'm checking a few mails offline as I walk downstairs and I catch some eyes staring at me. Why are they all looking at me like that? I'm not involved with any mafia boss or the KKK. Gee, and who is that? I don't even know her from anywhere. Why is she walking towards me, or is it my imagination? She has beautiful eyes though but she looks sad.

It didn't end there. I met more eyes. Black and whites everywhere.

What? Why are you looking at me? I never ask though. I'm getting used to it. It's not easy to be the son of Alex Sanders. The hip hop musician every generation loved—-from boomers to Gen Alpha. And I was living in this building, where there had to be a lot of people. Ugh.

But I wonder, they usually smile when they see me and give a warm greeting but today's different.

No streak of happiness on their faces but I don't get it. Why?

Well, I should just ask someone already. Okay, I'll ask Dexter. Maybe he'll know something.

Dexter's sitting on a bench scrolling through his mobile. I tap his head a little violently, cause— I just had to, duh. He looks at me but there's no expression. Oh, come on. You too?!

I ask him my question and he just keeps looking at me.

Come on. Is this some kind of joke? Or the end days? Were y'all infected with some kind of disease like those sci-fi movies? Before I can even finish the thought, Dexter throws his arms at me. He hugs me tightly, squeezing all the air out of me and I'm like—- Bro, I ain't Colgate.

Wait, what's he doing? Petting my head like I'm some ten-month old? I try to push him away but he just tells me everything's gonna be alright.

Uhh, okay??

I withdraw from him slowly as he finally lets me go. He asked me if I needed anything and I denied immediately, still feeling awkward.

You know what, I was already late. Let me just go straight to school.

I enter a taxi and life feels normal again. The driver doesn't talk and I'm fine with that. My phone's on DND and I can listen to my music peacefully without any distractions. Except for the flowers I see by the road. I wonder if I can take those. Maybe I'd get some for Rosie. She'd love them. She'd love anything white. Maybe one day I'd get some for her. Don't worry Rosie's not my girlfriend, she's my cute little friend. I wonder why I didn't see her this morning. Strange.

Fast forward to school, I think it's important to say that the music was not nice. Who told Spotify that I liked rap? I had to skip many songs in succession. Good for a good day where I didn't even wanna wake up.

*Oh! How I forgot! I haven't called Dad and Mum. Why did I forget that?

Let me just get to class first. Then after the class, I'd call them. I run down to my classroom as fast as I can.*

I'm still panting when I see a familiar sight. Eyes. More eyes.

Now I know something's wrong.

I turn to Julia. Julia Jones. The woman of my dreams. And I ask her in the most calm voice, what was going on. She doesn't answer the question. She locks me in her arms and tells me that everything is going to be okay. She tells me that she's sorry for what happened. But, what exactly happened? Eh, fine girl?

She releases me with tears in her eyes. I look at her and the others that had gathered around me.

I ask repeatedly what happened but nobody answers. In the morning, it was my condo. No Rosie, too many faces and countless eyes, a hacked playlist and a crowded classroom seat. What is going on?!

I get up from my seat in frustration. And ask what happened. I pull Julia back, just as she's about to go back to her seat. Just then, Martinez, the boy who sits behind me looks at Julia like they're hiding something. I asked her again. What's going on? Martinez tells everyone they should stop overreacting and that they should just let me be. He said that that was the only way to help me. By just behaving normal.

His statement makes me angry and I face him with spears in my voice.

The egomaniac, whom I knew also liked Julia and was jealous of our friendship, gets up and tells me that he was being kind by not saying anything. He threatens to say something. Alas, someone decides to speak. But he says that it would break me. I can see the desire to hurt me in his eyes but I knew he wasn't a bad person. He just didn't like me. At all.

Julia and the rest of my friends tried to make him not say anything. But he was stubborn.

"Dimwit, who's gonna help you get every special award now that your father's gone?" He says, looking at me—with the expression of face-to-face. Literally.

Who told him I depended on my Dad? And my Dad didn't go anywhere. He knows Alex Sanders, the musician but not Alex Sanders, the father. My beloved Dad. He's probably assuming that I got into this college with help from my father. He isn't wrong though. My Dad's helping me financially but he doesn't have anything to do with the school authorities, if that's what he's thinking.

I ask him what he meant by 'my father's gone'.

Julia pleads some more. Even holding his hands. Eh? I pull them away quickly, telling her she need not beg him and that he can say whatever he liked. She looks concerned and tells me to head to a different classroom.

But I want to hear him. My bag falls from the chair as I separate my hands from hers.

"Your dead father must have left you quite an inheritance. You don't have to come here anymore, SpongeBob."

"Go live your stupid life with your fellow rich kids. And leave us poor kids alone."

I don't understand what he's saying. My father isn't dead.

I warn him to stop saying my father's dead. But he laughs hard.

Just then, Julia dragged me out of the classroom. I refuse but she forcefully pulls me outside. What does he mean by my dead father?

I ask Julia again. What was happening? Why is he saying my father's dead repeatedly? I grab my phone from my pocket and call my Dad but he isn't answering. I start to panic and call him five more times. And it's still the same reply.

Dad, pick your call. Please.

The tension in my heart grows even further and my palms get sweaty. Julia looks at me as she sucks back some whimpering and hugs me tightly. What I didn't know is that she'd say the most hurtful words to me at that moment.

"Your father's dead, Chris."

She holds on tightly but I want to push her away. Why is she saying that to me?

"I'm so sorry." She adds as she cries some more.

I finally push her and tell her to stay away from me. She tries to calm me down and begs me to take it easy. She puts a hand on my head and tells me to calm down. My other classmates rush out too. And they try to make me sit. But I don't wanna.

*But wait, Where's Dad?

No, my father can't be dead right? He's not dead, right?

Yes. He's not dead!*

Martinez comes outside and says he's sorry and shouldn't have said that. He also says that my father's really dead.

"Shut up! All of you!"

Let me call Mum. Mum…Mum ….mum… They're all taking rubbish. Oh God, Where's her number? My eyes and hands aren't cooperating and my phone falls to the ground. I pick it up, still trying to trust the shaky fingers.

Just then, Mom calls. She asks me to come to the hospital. Dad's body is going to be removed from the hospital today.

No! Wait…

No!

Nooo!

It's not true. But it's true!

Dad no!

No, it can't be true.

But….. Ahhh, my head hurts. A deep sharp pain is all I can say.

I suddenly remember.
The memory played back like a movie.

It was around 5pm when the accident happened. His brakes had failed and he'd been travelling at an outrageously high speed. He crashed into a big tree and he was rushed to the hospital immediately. He died a few hours later. I held his hands close to mine. I had cried for a long time and the whole school heard of it. I fell down a lot of chairs and desks. My head had kissed a pavement and I woke up this morning. That's all I remember.

Julia said I'd been really violent day the day before. I was really distressed and I fell unconscious after hitting my head but I don't remember how I got home.

The news had spread everywhere. Everyone knew it. But I couldn't believe it. It's worse than my worst nightmare.

I couldn't believe that Dad had died. But now, I know that it's true.

It's true he's dead.

And I'll never get to meet him again.

I sit quietly on the floor and fold into a ball.

This is reality.

I'm never going to see Dad again. For real.

Image by Pexels from Pixabay