Bad Luck with Love

Chapter 37: Memorable

Two months and a half had passed, and still, there was no change. He still lay there, looking as if he were sleeping peacefully in that hospital bed, unbothered by all things around him. After a month of his coma, his sister and husband returned to their home, but I was under strict instruction to call her immediately after he woke up (she didn’t trust her parents to call her). Everyone stopped going every day, except Jake’s parents and myself. Everyone else came every few days to check up on him, and I had a sinking feeling they were checking up on me too.

The past two months had been long and hard. I hadn’t done much. I never went out with friends, I didn’t even go dancing anymore. Chad never once bothered me either. In fact, I hadn’t even seen nor heard of him since that day in the hall. I didn’t stop to think what had happened to the guy, he wasn’t worth my thoughts.

I spent my time doing homework and spent every moment I could with Jake, praying he’d wake up. Most of the time, I just sat by his bed and talked to him, holding his hand. Other times, I just sat and listened to the radio. I had asked the doctor’s if I could bring a radio into his room, to play music since he loved music so much.

I could tell Tyler and my friends were getting more and more worried about me every day, but I ignored them all. I was perfectly fine. But they didn’t seem to think so. They kept trying to get me out of the house, to go out, to do something, anything really, but I always flat out refused. It wouldn’t be right for me to go out when Jake was stuck in that hospital bed. Especially since I was the one who put him there.

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“Ivy? Ivy I was going to go pick up a few things, want to come with? I can drop you off with Jake afterwards,” Tyler asked me one Tuesday evening after school.

I jumped to my feet and grabbed my bag, shoving my homework into it before I followed him quickly down the stairs and outside to the car.  We drove off into the night, and I stared out the window, not saying anything, as was my usual state.

“What store are we going to?” I asked, after several long minutes had passed and we still hadn’t gone near any stores or malls.

“You’ll see,” he said mysteriously, and I got a twisted feeling in my stomach. I started twisting the ring Jake gave me around my finger anxiously, wishing to get wherever it is that Tyler was taking me. I didn’t think he was going to the store anymore.

Within minutes I had my answer. We were at Jo’s house.

“Tyler what’s going on?” I demanded.

“We’re having an intervention,” he replied simply, turning the car off as he turned to face me. “Look, I can understand why you’d be so torn up about Jake being in the hospital, especially for all this time, but you can’t just stop living. It’s crazy. You even stopped dancing and I haven’t seen you smile in ages.”

“Tyler I’m fine, okay? Just drive me home," I replied, annoyed.

“You are not fine and you’re not going home. Tonight’s a girl’s night. Jo and Leena are waiting for you. You need a night out, you need a break. You need a distraction from Jake for once, so maybe that’ll be the kick in the ass you need to get yourself back on track. I’ll be back in the morning to pick you up, and I really hope you’ll think about what I said, and what they’ll have to say. I know you don’t think anything is wrong with what you’re doing, but obsessing will only make this worse. If you spend every waking moment with him, it’ll feel like forever when he wakes up. If you keep on living, it won’t feel as long. And that way, you won’t end up losing any more people. You can’t afford to.”

Before Tyler could continue to lecture me, I opened the door, got out and slammed it shut again. I stormed up the steps to Jo’s house and pounded the door with my fist.