The Shy Boy and the Girl in the Green Dress

Chapter Five - The Recovery Day

Chapter 5 – The Recovery Day

When Blake’s parent finally walked out of his recovery room, I got up from the little uncomfortable chair, hoping for good news.

            “How did it go?” I asked the second they saw me.

            Sophia answered, “Very well, the procedure went smoothly, there were no complications and the doctors are all very positive.” I breathed a sigh of relief.

Since Blake had gotten his MRI and the doctors had gotten a good look at his brain, they’d announced that Blake’s headaches were caused by an abnormal connection between veins and arteries in his brain, called an AVM. Left untreated, it the veins could pop in his brain and kill him. And the options for the treatment weren’t one hundred percent effective either. The more aggressive way to deal with it was neurosurgery, where the doctors would open Blake’s skull and fix the problem. There were a lot of risks though. And the other option was radiation therapy, which was not always effective and could take a few years to really kick in, but at least it wouldn’t mess with his brain and make him lose his memory, or change his personality or mess up with his motor sense.

It kinda sucked that now that Blake and I were finally boyfriend and girlfriend, he had some brain malfunction that could blow his brain. And sucked was probably the understatement of the year.

“He asked for you,” Blake’s mother told me softly, smiling, her hand comfortingly holding my arm.

            I smiled at the both of them. “Can I go in?”

            Christopher, Blake’s father, nodded with a small smile, and stepped aside guiding his wife, so I’d have a clear path to Blake’s room.

            “Lexi?” Blake’s mother called back after I had passed them.

            I turned. “Yes?”

            “Thank you,” she breathed.

            I frowned. “For what?”

            “For forcing him to get a check up, for being the reason why we caught it before it was too late. I don’t think I could live through losing another of my sons.” Her husband held her at the end, and it was clear in his eyes that he couldn’t have lived through that either.

            I half smiled at them. “Well, I don’t think I could have lived through losing him either, so don’t thank me. I did what I was supposed to.”

            “Thank you nevertheless,” Christopher told me. I smiled fully this time and they smiled back.

            And then I walked into Blake’s room.

Even if I had seen him before they had taken him for the procedure, it still felt weird to see Blake in the hospital gown, lying on the hospital bed, with a tube sticking out of his arm.

I didn’t like it. Even if I knew he was alright, I didn’t like seeing him like this. His eyes were closed and I don’t think he had heard me walk in, so I silently made my way to his bed, appraising him, drinking him in.

He was alright now. They fixed the problem. Everything would be okay.

            “How are you feeling?” I asked softly, sitting by his bed.

            Blake opened his eyes and turned his head to look at me, and frowned a little. “Who are you?”

            I could swear my heart stopped beating. Who was I? No, no, no, no, no. This couldn’t be right! They said the procedure went well! They said everything was alright! How could they?