The Homecoming

Chapter 5

The moment they heard the bad news, Leah and Roxy rushed to the medical bay. There, they were informed by a nurse with a pair of braided gray tentacles that their friend Luca had been placed in the room number 7. Leah was walking more slowly down the hallway with Roxy by her side, who was taking more nervous and impatient steps. Leah looked up at her eyes. A clear fluid filled them. She was on the verge of tears. Even though they both loved Luca, Leah knew how much more Roxy cared for him. In her opinion, the way Roxy worried about Luca's condition, not just now, but always, crashed the seemingly thick boundary between friendship and romantic love. Roxy dismissed it every time Leah tried to tease her about it, but was never able to hide her reactions whenever he got into trouble. And he got into trouble a lot.

Leah raised her hand to knock on the door, but Roxy was faster. She burst through the door, revealing pale and sweaty Luca on a hospital bed. The nurse had told them he was recovering, but he was obviously far from fine. Roxy let out a shaky sigh as Luca smiled at her. Not Leah, not both of them, but her. Leah felt the happiness overwhelming her, knowing her theories were correct. Roxy's feelings were definitely reciprocated and Leah hoped it wasn't going to be a long time until it would be confirmed. They approached Luca carefully, not worrying about the disease being passed on to them, but because he was looking like a person on the boundary between life and death. It was almost as if they were afraid of his bones shattering if they approached him too quickly. His eyes were covered with a veil of exhaustion, as the tiny drops of sweat fell from his temples to his cheeks. But the good news was, he wasn't going to die.

"Hey there." Luca said, trying to raise his hand to wave, but failing. His voice was like an old man's, too tired not to break and not without a sigh between the words, like he got interrupted by a sudden twinge in his body. Because of that, it was hard to believe that this was just a food poisoning accident. "I should've just stuck to making pizzas."

"What the hell happened?" Roxy asked, her voice getting higher as she tried to fight the tears.

"Have you ever heard of a disease called Hopeless Euphoria?" The alien doctor in a plain blue suit entered the room from the different door. Leah and Roxy turned, surprised because they didn't hear him coming. They shook their heads, the name of the disease being far from familiar to them.

"It's a set of uncomfortable symptoms you experience when you eat the wrong berries." The doctor smiled, as he checked the flow of the infusion hanging from the stand next to Luca's bed. No one seemed to be worried enough, Leah thought. Not even the medical workers. Maybe it hadn't been that serious in their eyes. "Your friend had a rough night. He had to go through the whole session of symptoms before the antidote started kicking in."

"So what are the symptoms?" Roxy asked, but by the tone of her voice, Leah knew she wasn't prepared for an answer.

"Numbness in one leg, blood in urine, acid reflux, excess sweating, significant weight loss in a short period of time, and sometimes even hallucinations." The doctor checked Luca's eyes. "Your friend was lucky to have rushed to the medical bay in time, before he started seeing things that weren't there."

Luca smiled again, this time reminding Leah of someone who got really, really high. "Wait until you hear the coolest name for an antidote." He said, as if all of what was happening to him was just some kind of a joke.

"Liquidized Bone. We distilled it recently, and it's the greatest success in our latest medical research." The doctor said proudly. Roxy wasn't in the mood for science now, but Leah was listening. It was never a bad time for learning something new.

The doctors were going to keep an eye out for Luca until he fully recovers. Leah and Roxy headed back to their room. They realized as they waited for the door to open that they had left Stephanie alone. Not much of a worry for Roxy, but for Leah, it was unacceptable. She didn't understand why, but she wanted to watch out for this girl. Something connected them in a way she couldn't comprehend, but sometimes it was better to just listen to your instinct instead of trying to understand what it's telling you.