Different || Merome

Different

bright.

it was too bright, the light was too much and the strange beeping from his left was too loud and everything was too much and he couldn't breathe-

"mitch?"

mitch's eyes snapped open so that he was looking up at the ceiling. "mitch, buddy. you need to calm down, alright?" there was a hand on each arm, pinning him to the small bed so that he couldn't move, and it took him a moment to realize he was thrashing around on the bed violently. all movement ceased immediately, and his attention went to the weird thing protruding from his mouth that went down into his throat. a woman in scrubs appeared in his line of vision as the thought crossed his mind, and she told him to relax as she removed the tube from his throat. "they had to intubate you, mitch. you weren't breathing on your own. just let them do their job." the voice from before explained everything to him as who he assumed was the nurse worked, but he couldn't figure out for the life of him why he would need a nurse.

when the tube was finally gone and he was breathing on his own, mitch was allowed to glance around the room and finally see who had been talking to him the entire time. "j-jerome?" as soon as his best friends name passed his lips he began coughing, his throat showing the affects of non-use for who knows how long.

mitch was sat up and a glass of water was pressed into his hand which he hurriedly began drinking, trying to soothe the burning of his throat. he could hear the nurse and jerome speaking about him, but his ears felt clogged and his head pounded from the lack of oxygen his coughing fit had caused. slowly he passed the cup of water off to someone else who he didn't see and laid back down in his bed gingerly. he looked around the room slowly, his eyes clouded and blurry from unshed tears and even though the water had helped, his throat still burned with every breath he took. the bed dipped on his left side, and he slowly turned his head to face his best friend. mitch raised an eye brow, trying to get jerome to tell him what was going on, but jerome either didn't get the hint or ignored it, and settled for staring at mitch as though it was a miracle he was there at all. "it's good to see you awake," jerome said simply, placing his hand gently onto mitch's knee. mitch winced as a jolt of pain moved up his leg, but tried to hide it.

"we thought we'd lost you, buddy." jerome must not have caught mitch's look of confusion once again, because he continued on while staring at mitch, as if he looked away for one moment mitch would disappear. "you wouldn't wake up, and nothing anybody tried would work...they were going to take you off of life support...god, mitch i-"

"mitch!" said boys eyes snapped away from jerome's and to the door where a group of five people stood.

"m-" mitch began to speak, watching as his family rushed into the room, but was cut off as yet another coughing fit erupted from his throat. he sat up again, and placed a hand on his chest as he tried to fight the cough back. jerome handed him the glass of water again and he drank the rest quickly, thanking jerome mentally as he sat back. though this time there was a sharp pain as his back hit the head rest of the bed, and his hand immediately went to his lower back. "w-what happened to me?" mitch managed, hand still clutching the place that had hurt. his whole family took in deep breaths, and looked at jerome, who sighed and placed his hand on mitch's knee again.

"you don't remember anything?" jerome confirmed, glancing at the nurses and mitch's family. mitch shook his head no. "do you remember when you were coming back to the LA house from spending Christmas with your parents?" mitch furrowed his eyebrows, trying to recall that Christmas with his parents. he had small flashes of memories, but nothing solid.

"kind- kind of?"

"alright well...on your way back to LA, the plane you were on, it- it crashed." mitch could hear his mother take in a sharp breath and he lowered his eyes to the bed, but he stayed confused. he was in a plane crash? why didn't he remember it?