2.1 Hold on to me | ✔

26 | Heads up

The timer is on the last minute. The crowd is cheering for us loudly. But I only have my eyes focused on Amelia that is talking with my family in the booth that I reserved for them. I wanted my mother to see one more game of me before she has to go back to the hospital. I want to make her proud of me and everything that I have achieved because of her.

She is my rock in this world and I don't know what I will do without her. I am not sure how I will react the moment I will get the phone call that my mother is no longer here. That I can no longer go over to her and ask her advice about everything and nothing. That I can no longer call her whenever I feel like I don't have any friends around me.

I am not only going to lose my mother but also my best friend. She always makes sure that I am doing okay by her weekly updates. She shares the weirdest memes with me that I sometimes don't even get. But it makes her smile so hard that she can send them to me. I have no idea what I will do during that time but I have to keep myself from breaking down on the ice now.

"New Perk University won. They are going to the semi-finals." My mother starts to cheer for me while my father keeps her steady. I think I even see Alessia smile at me that is something so rare nowadays. She is rather stuck in her room, keeping herself busy with everything related to science. She doesn't want to spend too much time in the real world because that reminds her of the less time that my mother has left.

I tried to tell her that she is going to regret it but she doesn't want to listen. In her eyes, she can find a cure for my mother and make her stay alive for the rest of our lives. I tried to talk to her, even Amelia offered to talk with her but she doesn't want to talk about it. She shuts everybody out that wants to remind her that everything around her is the real world. That maybe one day she is going to wake up without running to mom's room and asking her what we are going to eat.

Brandon wraps his arm around me, pulling me to the locker room. It has been a few heavy days for me, seeing my mother barely knowing how to stay awake. I wanted to take away all her pain but I am not capable of that. And if I would, she wouldn't even let me do that. My mother is so proud of herself that she wouldn't admit that she is having pain. She rather hides it with a fake smile than let us know that she is hurting.

"Everything is ready at home. Your mother can stay in the spare bedroom that I cleaned earlier today. I can still go grocery shopping if she needs anything else." Brandon has been a bit down lately since he heard the news of my mother. He has always been such a fan of my mother who acted as his mother most of the time when she came over.

"I am sure that she has enough with everything that you bought, Brandon. But thank you for doing that." He just slaps my shoulder while I start to put on the sport clothes from college. I couldn't even stop my head from thinking about all the worst scenarios that could happen to my mother. I even cried in my sleep a few nights ago and Amelia held me close, telling me that she is always going to be here for me.

Amelia really is the person that gets me through everything nowadays. She keeps showing up at my place, making sure that I am eating something. She makes sure that all my assignments and deadlines are followed so I can still make my mother proud. She does my laundry and cleans my room whenever I am calling my mother for hours to just be there with her.

"I just want the best for your mother." I sit on the bench, feeling the tears roll down my face when Brandon gets beside me. I have been crying every single day like a little child whenever I talk about her. I just can't get it in my head that one day I am going to wake up without having my mother around to talk with. "I know that, Brandon. It is really nice of you."

"Can everybody leave the locker room?" Coach Johnson takes this chance to talk with me alone about everything going on in my life. He is one of the first people that knew about my situation at home. He has been giving me some space to leave practice earlier to visit my mother or to spend some time on the phone with her whenever she is at the hospital.

"Are you okay, son?" He gets beside me and lays his hand on my knee. I slowly look up at him and I could no longer control the tears. Coach Johnson has always been someone that I could count on whenever times were rough. He wasn't afraid to tell me whenever something I did, he didn't like it. I see him as a second father figure here at college.

He squeezes my knee tight and I even see some tears on his cheek. "I know that it is hard but sometimes it is better to stop fighting a battle that is already lost. It is a cruel way to say this but your mother needs some peace, son. She has been fighting this ugly monster for quite some time now and she is exhausted."

"I want you to know that when the time comes, that I am here for you. The team is here for you and would do anything you ask. You can have as much time as you want, but just know that we are here for you." I feel Brandon his arms around me, hugging me tightly. He is one of the few people on the team that know about my mother.

"It is not easy, coach." Brandon starts to rub my arms and I could see the tears roll down his face. I know that this guy is going to be hurt as much as I will. He sees my mother as a person that he could call whenever he wanted to. He sometimes called her when he wanted some advice on how to ask a girl out on a date. "I know that but we are all here for you."

He squeezes my knee one more time. "That amazing girlfriend of yours is going to be here for you. She is going to pull you through a lot of hard times because that is who she is. She loves you that much that she even asked me to cut you some slack when the time is there. She even demanded me that I would give you some off to think everything through."

I had no clue that she had done that. But it doesn't surprise me that Amelia went over to Coach Johnson to demand him to give me some time off. She has been there for me during all the hard days, holding my hands tight.

Holding on to me.