Chapter 9 Bad Choices Lead To Worse Mornings (1/2)

”Uuuuhhhhhh, what the hell happened?” Laz asked himself when he opened his eyes. His memory was vague and clouded, like a hang over from a night of hard drinking. His body felt like he had been hit by a car.

Laying on the floor of his apartment, he could see the light coming in from between the curtains and knew that it was morning. He could only faintly remember that yesterday was friday so he knew that at least he wasn't missing school today. He also wasn't going anywhere for a while.

Laying there like a corpse that only occasionally blinked his eyes, Laz looked at the ceiling and couldn't help but think, what the hell am I doing? Did I really need to go and invite that trouble? I could have just come home and nothing would have happened.

But could he really do that? If life was a path, then every fork in the road was a choice.. He always believed that. Some would walk forward lifelessly, just striving to reach the end. Laz wasn't like that. He wanted to walk every path to see what was there.

This time, his choice led to a psycho. ”Ah well,” he figured. ”You can't win them all.”

He started to notice how glaringly bright the light was. It seemed like the little crack between the curtains was huge and it really started to blind him. He had to close his eyes and turn his head before he he felt the pain recede.

This however lead him to notice something else that was unexpected. With his eyes closed, he slowed his breathing and was able to hear a voice. It was his grandpa from downstairs.

”I hope he's ok, I haven't seen him since wednesday. Maybe I should go up and knock on his door? No, no, it's the weekend. Kids should relax on the weekend. Lunch!!! That's it. I can make him lunch. I wonder what I got to cook with?”

Laz knew that his grandpa was mumbling to himself. But for some reason, he could hear it as clear as if he was standing right next to him. It was strange. His hearing shouldn't be this good. His grandpa was normally pretty soft spoken, but his voice was always clear. If he wanted you to hear him, you would. That also means that when he didn't want you to hear him, you wouldn't.

Laz felt touched, even more so now after last night. He knew his grandpa loved him, even if there were days he wasn't right. Nothing would change that. Although he knew that as things progress, his grandpa would get worse, he would never forget this moment. After surviving something he thought would kill him, he became strangely warm towards the little things.

Changing his attention for a minute, he started to focus on other sounds. He was able to hear very soft sounds coming from down the walkway.

”Hey, what do you guys want?”

”Give us the normal shit.”

”Two fifty, cash.”