One Life

13.

"Q!"

Laughing quietly, Q came over to give me a giant hug.

"Wait wait wait, be careful of my IV hand," I warned, blocking him from me for a second.

Q's smile dropped when he saw it, unable to speak for a moment. "The hell did they do to you? My god, this is horrible! You're killing me!"

"Yeah, they had a difficult time getting a good vein," Sal explained to him as he put the food down. "I couldn't even watch anymore as they were trying. Jenna and I just sat behind as they looked and fished and everything. I'm kinda glad Mickey was passed out, only because I couldn't imagine what it would've felt like."

Q took a close look at my bruised arm, just shaking his head. "You poor kiddo," he said, sitting down at the edge of my bed. "Does the IV hurt? Like, if you touch it or poke at it?"

I cringed slightly as Q came near it. "Please don't touch it," I whined, shielding the IV with my free hand. "I'm sorry, I don't know if it hurts, I just don't want to chance it."

Q nodded his head with a little smile as he pulled away from it. "Alright, I understand."

While Q looked around the room for something to snack on, Sal set up my breakfast on the bedside table. He cut the waffles up into perfect little squares and poured the syrup perfectly onto each square without getting extra syrup on the side of the bowl. I found it adorable, and kind of sexy, how he was so organized and neat about everything he did, especially when it came to me.

"Thank you, baby," I told Sal as he finished and opened up the plastic fork and knife up for me. "You're the best." Sal smiled and nodded as he went into the bathroom to wash his hands up.

Q was sitting on the pull out couch when his phone went off. He opened his phone and took a look to see what it was about.

"The ferret is on his way," Q announced to both of us. He wrote back to Murr and put his phone down once he had finished. "I mean, they may not allow small rodents into the hospital, so I don't know if he'll be able to make it."

I rolled my eyes with a small giggle as I ate some of the waffle squares. "Stop bullying poor Murray," I said as I ate, trying to be as lady-like as I could.

I knew I didn't have to be lady-like around the guys, but I didn't know how else to act. I was torn between acting like a proper woman and not giving two fucks about how my image looked. I knew Sal liked when his girl acted like a proper woman, but I also knew he really didn't care as long as I didn't change who I was just when the other guys came around.

"But he is a ferret," Sal said as he came back into the room. He sat down by my bedside and grabbed the remote, flipping to another channel. I really didn't care since I wasn't watching the Dr. Phil show, so I just ate my food in peace.

"Yeah, a ferret who always has a full-proof plan," Q joked, stealing one of my waffle squares. "He's always saying how he has a full-proof plan and how he'll win and beat us."

I couldn't help but smile as Sal and Q talked about Murr and his stupid full-proof plans. Murr and I were friends before Sal and I had gotten together. I was in one of the lecture rooms when Murr had to be punished by doing a Power Point Presentation on climate change. We had talked after that and exchanged numbers, and eventually became the best of friends. After he introduced me to Sal, though, our friendship got interrupted due to Sal's massive crush he developed quickly on me. He was head over heels for me, and he would always ask Murr if he was seeing me that day so that maybe Sal could join us.

I also knew another issue that came between Murr, Sal, and I was the fact that Murr did confess he had a tiny crush on me after Sal confessed his feelings for me. I felt terrible for rejecting Murr, but I just didn't feel the same way about him, and I didn't feel like leading him on or anything of the sort. I told him honestly that I didn't feel that way towards him, and that I did have a crush on Sal. I knew he was hurt by it, but he acted strong anyway, which I never gave him the credit he deserved for that. Murr was never the type to break his friendships up just because another one of his friends got the girl instead of him, but he did begin to lose Sal because of how big Sal's crush on me was getting to be. Sal would literally ignore the boys for days, which was why I felt so bad for having him stay with me in the hospital.

Sal and Q were still talking about the ferret as I finished my breakfast and pushed it away from me. Sal looked down at me and smiled, brushing the hair out of my eyes.

"Done?"

I giggled happily as I nodded and poked at his cheek gently. "Yes, baby."

Q admired us as we interacted. I knew Q was a fan of us being together, and he would never complain if we spent too much time together. The cat-obsessed man was like a big brother to me, and I loved him like a brother also.

"Alright, I'm gonna throw this out for ya," Q offered, getting up from the bed and collecting my trash.

"I could do it," Sal insisted, standing up from the bed.

Q put his hand up in front of Sal and smiled. "I got it."

Sal sat back down as Q threw out my trash. Sal cuddled into my side as I yawned and shook my head.

"No cuddling until the guys leave," I told Sal, giggling to myself. "And especially no sex. I don't think that would be possible anyway with the IV in my hand."

"I was just going to say that," Sal said with a chuckle. "Don't worry, I'm going to pleasure you so much when we get home."

Q came back with a short thin man by his side. I knew Sal's face was going red by the way he quickly hid his face once he knew who it was.

"Murray," I smiled, waving him over to me.

"Michelle, oh my god! You scared the crap out of me when Sal told me what had happened!"

Q laughed as he sat down on the pull out couch and played some game on his phone. As Murr got comfortable in the bedside chair, Doctor Callen came in and interrupted us. The look on his face was serious and didn't look too great."

"Michelle, I have the results from this morning's blood work," he said sternly.

"Are they good?" I asked him, my smile suddenly fading.

Doctor Callen just looked at me sternly then dropped his stern look, replacing it with a smile. "They're better than good. They're perfect."

"So what does this mean for Mickey?" Sal asked, sitting up from the bed.

"You're going home today."