Love You Like A Love Song

Chapter Twenty - Seven

“Can we see her?” Mr. C asked my Dad with a shaky voice.

“Josh, I’ll allow just you and Angie to take a peek at her in recovery, but that’s all I’ll allow,” my Dad told him.   I would have liked to have seen her, even if it was just for a second, but I wasn’t going to push it.  Besides, my Dad was adamant about infection and all our clothes I’m sure were dirty from the fire or where ever else we were.

The next week of my life, I was like a robot.    I went to school, came home, did homework, studied, ate and by seven I was at the hospital.   Exams were coming up and I had to respect my parent’s authority, I could visit with Sophia a couple hours a day and that was it.  She wasn’t awake, she was in a medically induced coma, but just being near her was all that I wanted.  

I walked in her room on the sixth day, Nick and Claudia were there and I went to step out because of the only two people per visit rule, but Nick stopped me.

“We’ve already been here for an hour James,” Nick said softly to me.  “Come in and visit with her.”   I said my hellos and goodbyes and then I was alone with her.   It was the first time actually, most of the time someone was always with me.  Her family never wanted her to be alone and I totally understood that.   Mrs. C was even sleeping here at the hospital with her.  The nurses had a cot brought in for her to sleep on.

Her skin was pale, she had bandages covering her eyes, another large bandage around her head, over her stitches.    She lay on her tummy, no pressure could be put on the back of her head now.   My Dad told me that he had nurses come in and move her body carefully each day.   Both of her hand had IV’s, one had two bags of meds hooked onto it, the other had three.

I took the seat next to her, her hand was right there and I placed a tender kiss onto it.   “I love you,” I whispered to her.  In my heart, I knew she could hear me, I wanted her to know that I was there, so I always spoke to her.

“I missed you in school today,” I said to her.   I played with her fingers, tracing each one with the tip of my finger.  “Guess what?   Zach finally broke up with Tessa,” I chucked a bit to myself.  “He found out she was cheating on him.   Surprise... surprise.”

I paused a took a deep breath.

“Exams are coming up soon,” I whispered to her swallowing the lump in my throat.    I rubbed my cheek on her fingers now.  “I’ll help you study if you want?”  I adjusted the blankets on her now, her shoulder was a bit exposed, I thought that maybe she might get chilled.

“I went to beach on Tuesday,” I said as a tear slipped down my face.   “I sat in our spot, it wasn’t the same without you.”    I grabbed a tissue from the table and dried my eyes.  “I saw the man that walks his dog.   He waved at me again, I waved back.”

I heard the soft click of the door now open and I turned my face to see who it was.   It was Tyler, not sure if he came from home or if he just got off of work.   I straightened up in my seat and quickly wiped my eyes with the sleeve of my shirt.

“Sorry,” I muttered to him.  I don’t think that I’ve ever cried so much before in my life as I have this past week.  But I can’t help it.  

“Don’t be,” he said leaning over Sophia gently kissing her head.  “When I’m alone with her, I cry too.”

“Nick and Claudia just left a little while ago,” I told him, as I reached to play with Sophia’s fingers once again.

“I saw them on my way up here.    I had a quick shower in the employee lounge, I felt gross just getting off of work,” Tyler told me dragging a chair over to sit next to me.