If Darren was going to be completely honest, he really just wanted to go back to bed. Despite a full eight hours of rest (perhaps closer to nine) he felt as if his bed was still softly calling his name.
"Darren... Darren...."
He shook his head, trying to truly rouse himself from his slumber. Blinking several times did nothing to diminish the very obvious changes to his face in the mirror. In fact, it sort of looked like he was developing a set of crows' feet when he did. This was all way too creepy.
"Mom?" he called out, his voice cracking weakly in his throat, "Can you come over here?"
Being the excellent mother she was, Darren's mom didn't even respond, she just raced over to her son's room, a cereal bar in hand.
"What's wrong, honey?" she asked, taking a bite from the cereal bar as she pushed the door open with her free hand.
"I- I feel like I'm getting sick," he said, though honestly illness didn't really explain what he was feeling right now, "I mean, I look sick, right?"
Darren's mother tried her best to hide her shock when her son turned to her and revealed a face that seemed to clearly have aged 15-20 years overnight. Hell, going off only his face, they looked more like brother and sister than mother and son. His hair didn't help his cause either. Was the boy stressed? She had seen cases of young men's hair going white under extreme stress, but Darren lived a pretty sheltered life- unless something had changed recently.
"You wanna stay home, honey?" she asked, coming over and pecking his cheek. Was he shorter? Typically, she had to tippy-toe slightly to kiss her son's cheek, but now all she had to do was turn her face up slightly. Perhaps he was just stooped over- or something.
"Yeah, I need some rest," Darren admitted, turning back to his bed.
"Okay, hun-" she said, spinning back around and heading for the door, "If you need anything, call me. Okay? I'm only about 10 minutes away, traffic permitting."
Darren simply nodded as he pulled the covers back over himself. He needed some sleep.
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