James and Chip both lay on the sofa, limbs entangled, as they watched yet another episode of Doctor Who, a long ago empty tub of ice cream discarded at the side of them. Chip's head was nestled against James' chest and often her focus from the episodes was stolen by the sound of his heart beat.
After a hour and a half of pure relaxing bliss, Ciara was forced to climb out of James' tight embrace by the distant trill of the hallway phone. Given that her Mammy was not home, she had no choice but to succumb to the cold air that was out of the blanket that had covered them both as she made the way to the hallway. James of course protested this greatly, attempting to tug her back into his arms, but she just had a feeling it was one of those phone calls that she could not ignore.
"Chippers.'' The horace whisper came before she could even get a word in, as if he had been waiting to hear her pick up the phone ever since dialling her number. You wouldn't have had to known Eoin for that long to know that something was wrong, something bad was wrong.
"Eoin what's wrong?" she asked rapidly, words falling from her tongue in quick succession.
"It's me Ma," he choked out, voice thick with tears. "She's um..."
"Are you in the hospital?" she asked quickly, rocking back and forth on her thick sock covered feet. She had her arm not holding the phone crossed over her body, the anxiousness for him starting to creep over her thoughts.
"Aye." He sniffled and she could hear the sound of a lighter clicking. Chip's eyes went wide at the sound, given that he had smoked for a good couple of years, she gathered that the situation must have been dire for him to feel forced back into old habits such as that.
"Ten minutes and i'm there," she responded, trying to keep her voice as comforting as possible in the hopes it would soothe something away. Just something to take the edge off until she could be there physically.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry," she replied softly, reaching for the shoes that were the closest."Okay? I'll be there as soon as I can, I promise."
After hanging up the phone, Chip pulled on her boots and laced them up to the point where they would be safe to drive, but didn't bother going any further. She ran into the living room and searched for her jumper but when she couldn't immediately see it, reached for James' blue sweater instead. "What's going on?" he asked in somewhat of a daze, watching as she grabbed her bag and a few various things from the side table that she had placed there. Her lighter, a book and a near empty cigarette package.
"I have to go, Eoin needs me. I'm sorry," she apologised quickly, grabbing her keys from the kitchen counter. James sighed and silently stood, switching the television off. She paused all actions, frowning softly at his posture and all the tell tell signs of his emotions, "James, you're not angry are you?"
"No of course not," he muttered, going to head out of the house entirely.
She had other ideas and placed a hand on his arm, her attempt at stopping him so they could talk. He shrugged her arm off and continued walking, only stopping in the kitchen when her hurt whisper reached his ears, "James?"
"You drop everything for him?" he frowned deeply, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he did everything possible to avoid her gaze. She had never seen such a look in his eyes, even from as far away as she was, she could see it as clear as the day. Her stomach did a flip, a bad flip, that had spinning the rings on her fingers once again.
She sighed softly, weighing up all her options. There wasn't a way she could stay and just leave Eoin on his own, she simply could not do that to him after all he had done for her. It was his Ma after all and he had no one else. "I have to, he did the same for me when I needed him. It's his Ma, she's literally the only family he has. Apart from me... A-and I promise I'll make it up to you..." she trailed off, walking towards him in the silence.
"You promise?" he responded softly, the look in his eyes remained but it was slowly replaced by one of understanding that she so relished the sight of.
"Aye, whatever you want," she promised, the tension of the conversation that could border on argument if it turned in another direction dissipated slowly. The corner of her mouth turned up in a smile as she continued. "Within reason..."
He laughed softly and forked a hand through the layers of curls she had already messed up while they watched the movie. "Okay... And I'm sorry."
"Don't be, I get it," she smiled softly and gently pressed a single kiss to his jaw, then another to his lips. "You can stay if you want, Mammy's not back till Sunday," she continued as she headed out of the kitchen, going towards the key bowl and the coat rack.
"Any idea when you'll be back?" he asked while leaning on the doorframe, watching as she tugged on her coat and grabbed her car keys from the bowl.
She hesitated, deliberating for a brief second, before she responded, "I don't know... I'll ring when I find out."
"Okay," he sighed softly, smiling as Chip kissed his cheek. "Love you."
She smiled brightly, still not used to hearing it from him even after so long, "Love you too."
-
After a gruelling six hours at the hospital where Eoin's Ma was in and out of surgery and in various states of consciousness, Chip returned home with her shoulders hanging heavy with stress and exhaustion. Eoin had been in a complete state so it was up to her to talk to the doctors, to get all the information on what was going on and to make sure that he ate despite how much he protested. She dumped her stuff at the door, deciding to just sort it out later and headed into the living room. Before she had left the hospital she had rung James and told him so. Only now he appeared to be asleep on the sofa, one of the books from her bookshelf slumped at his side.
They had once had a brief argument - if you could even call it that - about how he usually tended to avoid reading at all costs. She just didn't understand how anyone could resist letting themselves slip into any world on the pages that were just at their fingertips.
She smiled at the sight of him and covered him with a blanket, kissing his cheek before she disappeared upstairs to shower the hospital off of her. When she got out of the shower, hair still dripping with water onto her pyjamas, she found James sat in her bed simply waiting. He, as she walked over to the bed asked, "He okay?" She nodded softly, exhaustion beginning to take over her now heavy limbs as she climbed into bed next to him. "You okay?"
"Tired," she mumbled, cuddling up to his chest as she grasped some of his pyjamas top in her hand. He chuckled softly, the sound literally putting her to sleep, then kissed her forehead just as she slipped into a slumber.
YOU ARE READING
Basorexia - J.MAGUIRE
Fanfiction(𝐍) 𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍 "𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓁𝓂𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒹𝑒𝓈𝒾𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝓀𝒾𝓈𝓈." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CIARA [CHIP] BYRNE - had quite a lot going on in her life tha...
