Kissing In Cars

14

We got the hospital about an hour and a half later. Before we left Tony grabbed some stuff his mom might need likes clothes and books since he wasn't sure how long she would be staying or how bad her injuries are. I cleaned up the painting materials, rinsing out the paint roller and trays, putting the lids back on the paint cans. Then we set off for a silent ride to the hospital. I kept glancing over at Tony often to see how he was doing, each time his face held that same worried expression. I wanted to reach out and comfort him but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Just being with him would have to be enough for now.

Upon getting to the hospital we're directed to his mom's room on the third floor. We ride the elevator together in silence. I can only imagine the thoughts going through Tony's head. He wasn't told a lot about how his mom is, he was only told that she was involved in a car accident and was being rushed to the hospital. Neither of us know the severity of her injuries.

When we get to his mom's room I make the decision to wait outside the room. 

Tony pauses before entering her room, his hand on the doorknob. He turns to see me sitting on a chair outside her room. "Don't you want to come in?" he asks.

I shake my head. "It's not really my place."

"She wouldn't mind." he says, then adds "I don't either."

Again, I protest. "I'm not her family. I don't want to crowd the room either."

He still looks at me in a way that tells me he disagrees but he doesn't push it any further. Instead he goes into the room where his mom is, ready to face whatever problem is there in front of him.

I sit outside his mom's room for almost two hours. I quickly shoot Jordan a text to let him know that I'm in San Bernardino because Tony's mom is here and had an accident. Jordan's always known that Tony's mom and I were close, he's even been with me a couple times when I bumped into her. I hope he doesn't think more of me being here than need be. 

After texting Jordan I decide the only other thing I can do is play games on my phone. I download Candy Crush and play several levels, having a great time until I run out of lives. From there I turned to Sudoku, figuring that if I'm playing games that it's best if they're made to keep my mind sharp. That doesn't last long either due to general disinterest. By time Tony comes out I'm playing Subway Surfer. I'm doing good too. I'm in the middle of getting a new high score when Tony comes out, closing the door to his mom's room.

"How is she?" I ask, my attention shifting to him. From my peripheral vision I see my character in Subway Surfer crash into a train. 

"Better than expected. She has bruised ribs and a fractured arm, but other than that she likes fine." he informs me. "They want to keep her here for another day or two just to make sure everything's alright."

"That's really good." I say. "I'm so glad she's okay."

"I'm going to stay here tonight." Tony says to me as he sits down beside me on the chairs outside his mom's room. He holds out his car keys to me. "You can take the car, I'll drive my mom's car down once she's out"

"I'm not leaving." I say. "I'll stay with you."

"You don't have to do that." he replies, but he puts his keys back into his pocket anyways. 

"I know. I want to." I say, smiling warmly at him. He offers me a small smile back. "So, what's our next step?"

"We should probably find somewhere to sleep." he says. "I'm sure there's a hotel or two that still has available rooms."

We each get on our phones to look for nearby hotels with availability. Tony wanted to find one as close to the hospital as possible so we tried our best to find something that would fit our needs. Unfortunately, due to the last-minute booking we were both struggling to find something nearby. 

"I found something." Tony says. "Ten-minute drive from here."

"Perfect! Let's do it."

"There's only one problem." he says to me.

"What is it?"

"The only room available only has one bed." he says, turning his phone to me to show me. The only room available has one queen size bed in the room. He eyes me cautiously as I look at the room on his phone, he's expecting me to turn it down.

"It's the only close one." I say to him. "It's fine, book it."

He raises an eyebrow at me, obviously surprised. "Are you sure?"

I nod. "Gotta do what you gotta do for loved ones." A confused look crosses over his face, and I realize that my words have been misconstrued. "I meant for your mom." I add quickly.

We head over to the hotel and check in. At the front desk I ask if there's truly only this room available or if there's another one with an extra bed. To my demise the room with the single queen bed is the only room left for the night. They ask if I want a cot brought to the room but I decline, thinking it's a little childish to put a cot in our room that has a bed already.

We both sigh happily as we get into our room. The craziness and emotion of the day hangs heavy on us, but at least now we have a place to sleep, and we can get comfy here for the night.

"I'm going to order food in." Tony says to me. He comes and sits down on the other side of the bed beside me. "What're you in the mood for? Greek?"

"I would fucking kill for a chicken pita right now." I say, my tummy growling at the thought. "And a Greek salad."

"Greek it is." he says. He orders us food, not accepting my offer to pay for it. I figured he wouldn't anyways, Tony's a gentleman.

"Do you want to watch something?" I ask him. I flip on the TV and search the channels, finding that we do have a pretty good selection. 

"Any good movies on?" 

We search through the movies finding that most of them are really old, like black and white old. We at some point land on The Breakfast Club. We watch it until our food arrives, then we continue our search for something else to watch. Maybe six channels later we land on The Office, both of us deciding that this is probably the best we'll get for entertainment.

So we sit on the bed side by side and eat our food as we watch reruns of The Office, just like how we used to.