Leon was woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of his phone ringing. The air was so cold that he practically woke up freezing. Damn, how low did he set his air conditioner again? He doesn’t know.

To make matters worse, it was raining outside as well. The fact that he slept with two layers of weighted blankets over his body meant nothing—the cold still permeates through it. He kept kicking and throwing the blanket around, looking for the warmest spot for him to huddle in, but he just couldn’t find them.

Realizing all of his effort in moving around was for naught, he begrudgingly sat on his bed. Although he was already sitting up, his head still fell to the back—he was tired as fuck. After he took a short while to regain his sanity, he turned his head and looked towards his phone that just wouldn’t stop ringing.

Should I pick it up? he asked himself. It was 2 AM, whoever called him, this must’ve been important—it has to be important. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, but then he quickly reached for his phone so that he, at the very least, could see who was calling him.

He stretched towards the phone but his fingers slipped when he tried to pick it up. He shook his hand and tried to take his phone again, but he was seeing two of them. He roughly wiped his eyes to stop himself from seeing double. And after a few tries, he finally managed to take his phone and sat back on the bed.

He turned the phone around and yawned. Who was calling him? he wondered. When he saw the name written on the phone, there was one word that crossed his mind: shit.

His dad was calling him. His fucking father was fucking calling him at 2 AM. Without thinking, he slapped himself in the face so he could respond well. And then, after regaining his consciousness, he went ahead and answered the call.

“Hello?” he said.

Leon could hear his father’s breathing through the call. The man took one heavy breath, and then another. He hears him cough, and only after that did the man call out to him. “Leon,” he said, weakly, the last syllable seemingly fading away as he said that.

Leon was dead confused. What the hell was going on with his dad? He was coughing, and then he was—it was like he ran out of breath. Is Leon just struggling to understand his father because he just woke up, or is he just not awake enough to realize his distress?

“Yeah, dad. What is it?” he asked, sounding a bit annoyed.

There was a short pause, an awkward silence as he felt his dad carefully arrange his words from across the phone. “Leon, son... it’s your mother,” he breathed out. The slight mention of his mother woke him up a bit, but not enough.

“Yeah, mom? What about mom?” he asked.

“It’s... she—she had a complication late at night and—and had to be operated early.”

Leon bit his lips, his grip tightening on his phone. “And...?”

“The—the operation... it was—t’was a failure and...”

No. His mind screamed at him. Don’t say it, he thought, don’t you fucking say it, he cursed out. It was a desperate plea. He was unsure if he actually said those words out loud or just thinks about them in his head. “Please,” he whispered. He doesn’t want to know the continuation of those words, but before he could tell his father to stop, the man has already spoken.

“Leon, I’m sorry... but your mother didn’t make it.”

Leon felt like he could stop breathing at that moment, there and then. All the air in his lungs seemed to vanish out of a sudden. He felt like he was suffocating. His eyes were wet. He took short fast breaths, gasping for air repeatedly as his head still tried to process what his father has just said.

“Mom—she’s... she’s dead?” he asked, his voice shaking.

“Yes, Leon. Your mother, she—she passed away earlier this morning.”

His head felt dizzy, and Leon felt like he would puke. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it! He tried to control himself—starting from his emotion, followed by his breathing; he’s been failing at both so far.

He couldn’t stop his gasping... his panting. Leon’s reaction must’ve been incredibly loud as his father asked about his well-being, and he didn’t answer his question. Leon couldn’t even hear his question, his mind was still in denial.

His fingers dug into the sheets under him. He didn’t know what to say, how to react properly. Honestly, what is the proper reaction to death? Right now, he only knows what he’s currently feeling, and he was torn apart. Tears fell from his eyes as he wailed onto the phone, overwhelmed by everything.

Leon cried, cried, and he kept on crying. His voice was breaking and his eyes were swelling. The man across the phone didn’t say a word as his son mourned. He lets Leon cry through the phone, letting his son have some time to accept the reality that he’s currently facing.

And as Leon’s cries subsides, only then did he begin to speak again.