Bookends | Jody & Tyler | The Dumping Ground

Water | Eight

The hum of the machine kept her from falling asleep. Her eyes gazed over the blue-painted walls, the numerous wires, the flickering lights from the ceiling above.

She heard footsteps echoing down the corridor outside, a trolley on wheels being pushed; the sound getting quieter until it disappeared.

It was early morning and no matter how much she'd tried, she couldn't get to sleep. Her eyes stung from crying.

Blinking rapidly, she forced herself to turn towards the bed again. Baba.

"Lola, solnishka... go home and sleep. The doctors said she is going to be alright, so there is no need to worry!"

Her mum walked in, offering a cup of coffee towards Lola. It had been an eventful night for Khava, seeing Baba fall so suddenly... it felt like her whole world had come tumbling down out of nowhere.

But after all the conversations she'd had with the doctors, she was confident that Baba could be discharged today. Still, it was a shock.

Not least for Lola, who'd been adamant to stay by her grandmother's bedside the whole night in case there was any drastic change.

"What if..?"

"I will call you if there is the slightest change. But she is stable now and resting. I think you need to go home and do the same, okay?"

Lola sighed; she truly couldn't win. A yawn unwittingly escaped her as her mother raised an eyebrow. She couldn't argue with her body.

Khava planted a chaste kiss on her daughter's forehead.

"Tell Mama that I will be staying here today."

"Okay," Lola nodded, before gathering her belongings and throwing one glance back at her Baba. She looked peaceful enough.

As she walked reluctantly out of the hospital, she couldn't help but feel a sense of fear. Her mums and her grandma were all she had of her family; if anything happened to them...

No. She couldn't think like that.

Everything was going to be alright. It had to be.

*************************************

Her hand was cramping. Probably from her resisting the urge to check her phone for the millionth time that day. And it was only 11 in the morning! 

Bringing her knees to her chest, she closed her eyes and tried to relax. 

She'd had a pleasant morning run, a nice cold shower and then Candi-Rose had helped her get ready, braiding the two front strands of her hair to hang neatly by her shoulders. Jody felt more than cool with her new outfit; her green flowery top and purple jeans made her feel really summery.

And yet her expression said different.

She hadn't seen Tyler in a while. His mum had taken him down to London for a few days, just so he could experience a change of scene. Even though she'd spoken to him about everything that happened, it was going to take some time for Tyler to get used to all the changes. And her too...

Something Jody had realised that fateful day, was that they could never really get back to being the close friends they were.

Her heart plunged a little at that. Of course, it wasn't as if they'd always been in a relationship, but even as friends... well, she wasn't even sure when they'd gone from seeing each other merely as friends to seeing each other in a completely different light.