Off Ones Rockers II • Lashton

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

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Luke was still confused, his head ached and he felt too tired to think about why he was laying in a hospital bed with tubes and wires attached all over his body. Nurses and doctors kept coming in and prodding him with medical instruments. He simply just remained there and allowed his body to rest.

He jumped when he heard a sob come from the left of the room. His eyes slowly opening and his head turning to see his mother looking sadly at him from the doorway. A tissue held to her eyes as she rushed over and took his hand, squeezing it tightly. "Lukey," she whispered sadly, her mind running wild with thoughts and questions. "How are you feeling baby?" she asked, pushing his hair back out his face. "You need a hair cut!" she joked, trying to find the light in the conversation.

"I'm tired," he admitted, his voice hoarse and dry from where he hadn't spoken in hours despite the occasional yes and no when the doctor had been asking him questions. He turned down her offer of water and was now regretting it, a feeling of burning in his throat.

She pouted. "You can sleep soon," she said softly. "The doctor just needs to speak to you about a few things?"

Luke turned to look at the woman who had sat on a chair, she was the one who had kept coming in and questioning him, trying to pry into his life. "Are you feeling dizzy at all Luke, any pains in your chest?" the doctor asked, watching the blonde whose chest was rising and falling slowly but heavily under the thin duvet the hospital provided. He was still cold, however.

Luke shook his head. "I'm fine," he dismissed, he was just weak and tired and wanted to sleep, to escape to somewhere safe. He felt comfort from the soothing patterns his mother was rubbing into the hands and the weak smiles his brothers kept giving him. He sensed their pity too, which annoyed him. He didn't want their pity, he didn't think there was anything to pity. He was fine.

"Are you hungry or thirsty? You've been here a while," she asked worriedly noticing he hadn't even drunk anything since he had been admitted. She expected him not to want to eat anything, hence the tubes which were pumping essential nutrients that his body was missing and desperately needed.

"I'm a bit thirsty," he agreed, touching his throat with his free hand worried that if he was going to be talking the burning in his throat was only going to grow worse.

The doctor nodded and poured him a cup of water and passed it to the blonde who thanked her. He began to slowly sip at it, the cold liquid feeling foreign against his body.

"Luke your shaking, are you sure you okay?" his mother asked worried, wanting to hold the cup for him, worried the water was going to spill everywhere.

"I'm just cold," he dismissed, placing the drink on the table beside him, holding her hand again, wanting to take all the warmth to heat his own body. She sighed and rubbed his hand wanting to make him warmer.

"Do you know why you may be here Luke?" the doctor asked, sitting back down once again, smiling at the fifteen-year-old to make the situation less intimidating for him.

Luke simply shrugged, he couldn't postulate a reason as to why he was here. He didn't understand why his diet, which he believed was truly healthy, would affect him so that he ended up in the hospital. The only thing he could think of is that there was something he couldn't detect wrong with him, something he believed was due to the fat that was hugging his body.

"You collapsed due to heart failure Luke. Do you know what may have caused that?" she told him, giving him some time the process what this may mean and why it occurred. She had not made a definite conclusion to the cause yet was ninety-nine per cent certain.