Finding a Twin

Chapter 16 : Hospitals and arguments

And he wouldn't let me leave. I was sitting right next to him in his hospital bed, not allowed to move an inch further from him.

Dad was talking to the doctors. They were just going over the X-rays, making sure Jeff could go home. They mostly just said that it was a small fracture, and he needs to be on crutches, and just keep his weight off it. But he didn't need a cast. He just had to have it wrapped.

"Alright. We can go home," dad said, walking in.

I helped Jeff get up on his crutches, and we left the hospital. We got back in the car, and went home.

Later...

Jeff POV

"Riker," I whined.

He looked over at me.

"What?"

"I need water."

"Ok...? Go get some."

"Riker," I whined.

"Fine..."

He got up, and refilled my water bottle.

"Thanks," I said, taking it from him.

I was currently in bed next to Riker. Riker was doing test corrections on his calculus test.

"Jeff, do you know what this means?" He asked, pointing to one of the questions.

"Yes."

"Well what?"

"Find the derivative."

"How?"

I sighed.

"What!? I don't know how to do it!" Riker said.

"How are you even in this class?"

"Mom and dad are making me! Believe me, if I didn't have to, I wouldn't!"

"Can you get me some pain medicine please?"

"Ugh!"

"Riker, I can't help it! It hurts!"

"Well I can't help that I suck at math!"

"Yeah, you could! You could study!"

"Well then you could get better!"

"Riker, an injury and not knowing how to do math can't be related how you're trying to relate them."

He narrowed his eyes at me.

"Well fine then. I'll just get your dang pills since you got the crap beat out of you because you were stupid and ran away from home! You should be so grateful that I went out looking for you, Jeff!"

"Riker, you're the one that caused me to run away."

"Regardless, it was still a dumb idea! And you call yourself the smart twin!"

"Well I'm smarter than you! Look who failed their calculus test!"

"You know what? You can get your own freaking pills."

Riker picked up his stuff, and slammed the door on his way out.

About a minute later, the door opened again, and I saw Rydel.

"Hey. Is everything ok?" She asked, shutting the door.

"Riker, got mad at me..." I said, trying not to cry.

"Well the good thing is, you can't run this time," she said, giving me a half smile.

I sighed.

"What happened?" Rydel asked, sitting down beside me.

"Before I answer that, would you mind getting me some pain medicine?"

"Sure!"

Rydel got me 2 pills, and I took them.

"So um... Riker was asking me about his calculus test corrections... And he basically sucks at math. I don't know how he's even in that class. But I've been helping him with calculus all week. I don't know how he doesn't know it. Like maybe he's not paying attention in class or when I'm trying to help him. I don't know... I asked him if he could get me some medicine because I couldn't walk, and he just got mad at me. He tried to blame it on me that I ran away, but he's the one that scared me, and I didn't know what to do!"

"He just gets a temper sometimes. But it's usually because he's frustrated with himself, not anyone else. He's probably just frustrated that he's not good at math. I doubt he's angry with you. And then after some time goes by, he gets all guilty, and he'll come back and apologize."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Riker's a really super sweet sensitive guy. He doesn't mean to lose his temper."

"Ok..."

"Do you need anything else?"

"No, but thank you."

"You're welcome."

Rydel left, but before she could shut the door, Riker came back in. He had a weird look on his face.

He shut the door, and then came and sat down next to me. He was staring down at his hands. And I was staring at him.

"Riker-"

"I'm sorry, ok!? I'm really really really really sorry! Sometimes I just lose it for a second, and I shouldn't have, and I'm sorry. Please don't hate me."

"Riker, it's ok."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Thank god..."

Riker pulled me into a tight hug, but not tight enough to hurt my bruises.

"Do you need help with your calculus?"

"No actually... Dad helped me."

"Ok."

"But I did want to talk about something."

"What?"

"Your cutting."