Jessie woke up to the sound of knocking on his bedroom door. He turned to see his mom opening the door to his room with a coffee cup in hand.

She was a rather tall woman standing at nearly six feet. She had blonde hair, with blues eyes to match, and a button nose. In the past, he remembered hearing his teachers call her beautiful but to him, she seemed fake. "Good morning." she said as she walked towards Jessie. She placed her coffee on his nightstand and sat down on his bed beside him. "How'd you sleep? I hope well."

"I slept well, I've been doing a lot better mom." Jessie said.

"You can't be too careful Jessie, you have to take it easy."

He sat up and winced, grabbing his side. Ok, maybe she has a point.

"Mom I'm fine, I'll get better on my own but I feel trapped sitting here doing nothing. I wasn't even hurt that badly I inhaled a tiny bit of smoke." He said jokingly to his mother.

"Jessie I just want you to be safe. You're all I have left." She said as she placed her hand on his cheek. He recoiled and she paused before taking back her hand.

"Your right I'm sorry. I'm just fed up in here, I feel like I'm suffocating. I wanna go back to school and see my friends, I haven't seen them since you banned them from seeing me in the hospital." he said quietly.

"Well, the doctor says it's ok for you to go back in a week but you have to take it easy. Which means no heavy activity. Just rest up for now, ok?" She said as she gave him a small smile. Just when Jessie was starting to feel reassured her smile curled into something else. "Besides I think that Travis boy is annoying and I didn't want him near me when I'm grieving. I can only deal with so much. I'm a fragile lady Jessie."

"Mom he's my friend don't talk about him like that." Jessie said annoyed.

"Fine, I can see who you value more. Honestly choosing that little nuisance over me is unbelievable." His mom said as she huffed and turned away from Jessie. "I'm going to head to do some shopping and I don't know when I'll be back, not that you would care." She said as she stood up.

"Mom I do care but I'm just not too thrilled hearing you talk about my friends like that. " Jessie said as he sat and watched as his mother ignored him and walked towards his door. "Mom?"

"Yes?" She said as she turned to face him before she walked out of his room.

"Could you please get me a phone while you're out?" Jessie asked shyly.

"I still can't believe I haven't gotten you one. Well I mean you did lose yours in the fire and that cost me a lot of money but with everything going on I'm sure you just weren't thinking about me and my money problems. It's no problem I'll get one while I'm out." She said it in a voice that didn't give him confidence that she would.

She left leaving Jessie stunned. Jessie sighed and sat back in his bed staring out his window. A few minutes after he heard her car pull away and determined to be useful decided to make himself some breakfast.

As he made his way down the hall he struggled a bit but made his way to the stairs just fine. Going down wasn't much of an issue with help from the banister.

I have a bit of a limp but it's nothing too serious, not like before. Just thinking about it gives me chills.

When he finally got to the kitchen he was surprised to see his mom had left the tv on. It was tuned to the news, and he recognized the building the reporter stood in front of.

"Hi, I'm Jessica brown with channel 13 news here bringing you the morning report. I am standing here in front of Sherwood high where there has been a sudden increase in infected persons, specifically younger adults, and adolescents." She said as she looked through some papers in front of her.

"Symptoms include Red eyes, rough skin, increased hunger, and extreme nausea and vomiting. Doctors are reporting seeing in these young students a change in their physical appearance. What makes this disease so strange is the fact they recover so fast ranging from a week to two depending on the severity. Though others aren't quite as lucky, around an estimated 40% of the infected pass in four days."

Jeez, thank God I don't have that. Just thinking about it is enough never to go outside.

As he watched the news report, he started to work on his meal. As he was reaching for the cereal on top of the fridge the reporter continued her report.

"As of today, a confirmed thirty-two people have died out of the total of sixty-two that have been recorded as infected. No formal word from the mayor about the situation leaving many wondering does he even care about this town's people. This is Jessica Brown signing off."

That guy is so fucked.

After fixing a bowl of cereal Jessie sat down and flipped through the channels on the tv, turning the channel to cartoons.

"I hope no one I know got sick." Jessie said to no one in particular.

—————

After his breakfast, he passed the time by wandering through his house and discovered the newly furnished living room.

"She didn't waste time spending that money, did she." he said sadly.

He thought it was weird that while he was in the hospital she was at home buying new furniture. A home without his brother felt so empty, no matter how many mahogany tables there were.

I should go see if mom has turned Seth's room into a gym yet.

Making his way to the room was a little harder this time because of the uphill climb. When he managed to get to the top he was a little out of breath and rested before moving on.

I feel like an old man. I got to get one of those mounted stair scooter things. Yeah pretty sure that's the official name.

It was harder than Jessie thought it would be. Even seeing his door at the end of the hall was hard. When he finally made it to the door he hesitated, he didn't know if he was ready to go in here knowing that his brother was gone. He thought of all the things he would never be able to do with him anymore.

No more late-night videogames, no more late-night snack hunts. Now that I think about it we did a lot of things at night.

Wrestling with his emotions for a while he finally grabbed the knob and went inside the room. It was just how it looked before he moved out. Even though he had moved out he preferred to sleep at their house to be with Jesse, even if his mom had a bad relationship with him.

Well no dumbbells, that's a good sign.

Jessie looked around to see his desk filled with work on one side and his awards from years of medical work on another. As he ventured closer into the room he noticed pictures of his family on his desk. They were old photos of back when his dad was alive and when they still lived in California, before the big move.

Daniel looked so much like dad. I wonder if he was still alive would we even be in this town.

Old emotions began to fill his heart making it heavy with grief. Finding himself unable to continue to be in that room without breaking down, he walked towards the door. Before making his way out he spotted a photo of himself, hidden behind the others. He took hold of it and felt great pride that his brother would have this. When he looked at the back he noticed little writing saying,

"Jessie series 1"

What am I, a trading card? Seth was such a weird guy.

Thinking nothing of it he returned to his room feeling proud and grief-stricken. He sat in his bed staring at his ceiling feeling sorry for himself.

————

About two hours later his mom returned home. After a lot of huffing and promising that he cared for her, his mom handed him a small box.

"There you go, Jessie, now don't lose this one like you did the last one." His mother said sternly.

"I couldn't go back for it in that fire mom. I would have gotten hurt worse than I already am." Jessie said as he opened it to see a brand new cellphone.

"I know I'm just teasing, now try to get some rest."

As she left his room he started to work on getting his contacts back. The only numbers he could remember by heart were his two best friends.

Now, who's first?

He put in Rose's  number first and texted her a quick hello before putting in his other friend Travis into his list as well.

It wasn't long before Travis responded.

He always was very good at responding fast.

"Hey, it's Jessie."

"Woah, Deadman communes with the living. How you feeling??"

"Deadman? I'm doing much better but I'm on different medications now and I'm tired all the time."

"For what?"

"The hospital made me see a therapist and she prescribed me antidepressants."

"Oh...Yeah, I guess we never did talk too much about what you saw. You sure you're ok?"

Jessie sighed.

I don't know how I'm supposed to tell you without worrying you.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just the usual trauma. Oh I've developed a new hate for fire, so there's that."

"Uh speaking of fire, Jessie I wanted to tell you this in person but I feel like it's better if you know now. Patrick's been telling everyone at school you caused the fire."

Jessie sat up and winced grabbing at his chest.

That slimy weasel! Wait till I get my hands on him, I'm gonna break more than just his arm this time!

"Why!? What does he even gain from this?"

"Rose has a theory that he still likes her and thinks that if he tells people, it'll force us to stop being your friend. For fear of being shunned or something."

"That does sound like something he would do..."

"Yeah and I may have kinda, sort of, punched him in the face." Travis added a smiley face to the end of the sentence. Jessie laughed and typed his reply.

"You're telling me your short ass jumped up and punched him in the face?"

"Keep up the short talk and I'll jump up and put you in a headlock."

"Well tell me what happened?!"

"Ok so one day about a week ago, Rose and I were supposed to meet at the library and he comes up to Rose in the hall just outside and asks her outright if she'd like to go out on a date with him. She of course said no and how she told me it went down after is he got upset, very upset."

"His go-to when he can't get what he wants"

"Right exactly, so as she turns away and tries to leave he grabs her and practically threatened that if she didn't he'd tell his dad to arrest you."

May the Lord forgive me.

"So Rose, being as lovely and sweet as ever, slaps the ever-loving shit out of him in the middle of the hall. He lets her go, she walks away with him yelling behind her and she doesn't get in trouble with the school. What a win right? Wrong, as she's walking away, I happened to walk out of the library looking for Rose."

"Travis, don't tell me you did what I think you did."

"Oh, I did. I walked right up to him and slugged him right in the face. He of course swatted away the fly that landed on him, yeah I have a black eye and a bruised lip."

Jessie inhaled and held onto his anger.

Don't call him an idiot. His ego is already bruised, just give him another black eye when you see him.

"So I can tell from the lack of a response that you also think I'm an idiot. I agree but that guy gives us the creeps and you weren't there so I wanted to do something for Rose."

"The only time I ever got physical with that guy was the dance and you know how that ended for everyone involved. All it took was me just being there to ward him off Travis. It's better to just not get involved at all and now you've made yourself a target."

"I know, I know. I just couldn't handle it anymore. I don't like bullies, none of us do."

"It's fine, it'll resolve itself with time just bear with it for now. We'll eventually leave this small hick town."

"Sure we will, Jess."

They continued talking into the night about everything that Jessie had missed. Eventually, the light left the sky and Jessie could feel the sandman calling to him. He went to sleep heavy-hearted and thinking of those he'll see again.