~Chapter 23~
Kent’s POV
“Hey Kent sugar, how ya doing?” questions a heavy set, dark skinned nurse named Luanne. Like every day this time I’m making my way down the hallway towards Blu’s room. I stop, and force a tight, fake smile and send it her way. Luanne is one of the kinder nurses I’ve met in my time here. Even though she’s really very sweet, after Blu’s up and moving I hope I don’t have to see her again, at least not here. I don’t ever want to set foot in another hospital after Blu’s awake.
“It’s getting easier.” I lie through the tight lipped smile. The plump woman frowns, seeing passed my false smile and mediocre charade.
“Just keep on keep’n on I guess.” Luanne’s voice is coated true sympathy, and in hearing it I have to swallow around a new golf ball sized lump that’s grown in my throat. Nodding weakly I throw a wave to her over my shoulder and continue walking.
“Amen,” I mutter under my breath. That’s all I can really do at this point; keep on keep’n on. Because when Blu wakes up he’s going to need a strong boyfriend to help him recover. Not a weak mess falling apart at the seams, something that I know I could easily become. I just can’t break. I need to push against the thick blackness that threatens to crush me and swallow me up. Somehow I need to keep my head above water so I don’t drown. I need to keep the madness at bay. For Blu, I’ll shoulder the weight for as long as possible.
Pushing open the all too familiar door I step into Blu’s temporary living space. There he lay, tiny fragile and frail in that huge, monstrous bed. I sigh, and a small part of the crushing weight on my chest lessens a little like it always does when I see him. I’m constantly nervous when I’m not around him. Sometimes it’s so bad that I have mini panic attacks. It’s really starting to scare my friends and family, but I know the symptoms won’t let up till Blu is awake again.
“Hello love,” I greet him like I do every other day. If he can somehow hear me under that thick layer of sleep, then I want him to know I’m here.
“Ready to do some more reading?” I ask my sleeping beauty. Of course he can’t my inquiry goes unanswered — it’s not like I expect to get a reply — but I ask it any way. I always do, it’s like I need my own voice to fill up the defining silence. Grabbing the dog-eared copying from its spot on Blu’s bed side table, I sit down in the chair that is forever pulled up next to his head. On our date by the river, that seems to have taken place a million years ago, Blu had confessed that he had always wanted to read the ‘Hunger Games’ books but had never gotten around to it. So, remembering this, I started reading the book out loud to him for about an hour a day a week ago. It was a nice break from babbling on unintelligently about my day in a one way conversation.
Flipping open to where I had left off last, I clear my throat, and begin my retelling of Katniss Everdeen’s adventures. In between paragraphs my eyes wonder from the ink covered pages to the unconscious boy in front of me. My eyes can’t stay away from his still form for too long. They’re like magnets drawn to the strongest of metals. Licking my thumb and pointer finger I turn the page and snap my green orbs to Blu. What I see — or think I see — makes everything still from my hands to my breath. The only thing that keeps moving is my heart, and it’s like humming birds wings, beating too fast in my chest.
I can’t be sure that what I saw was real, but ether way I close the book and set it back on the table. Leaning closer, I hold my gaze on Blu, unblinking. I sit there for what seems like forever, staring and breathing shallow breaths. And then, like some miracle, it happens again.
His pinky finger twitches. Honest to god twitches.
My breath whooshes out of me and my heart seems to restart. Overwhelming joy swarms inside me, buzzing like a million honey bees in my heart. I’m frozen solid, unable to move. Unable to do anything besides stare at his little pinky. In a full month all I’ve seen from Blu in turns of movement is the even rise and fall of his chest telling me he’s still breathing. And now, his finger moved, not much, but it did, I’m sure of it.
“Blu?” I whisper, my voice raspy from holding in tears. “Blu baby?”
And there it goes again, but this time it’s not just a pinky, three of his thin, pale fingers move up and down before settling back on the itchy sheets. I’m hyperventilating now I think, but it’s hard to remember how to breath correctly when my world is trying to land upright again after all those days when it was completely upside-down.
Just then, something happens that sends my heart soaring. I’m no longer looking at a pair of fluttering pale eyelids, but a pair of my absolute favorite ice blue eyes.
Blu’s POV
Oh god, how did everything get so damn bright? My eyes close again against the white light that blocked me from seeing anything. I groan, and pick up my heavy-as-lead arm to rub at my eyes. I don’t get to rub any of the crust out of my eyes, not really, because in the next
millisecond, I’m being crushed in a vice like grip. All my air is squeezed out of my delicate little frame and my eyes snap open in shock despite the bright lights. There’s a head crammed in my neck, and I can feel wet tears stain my skin. A delicious and all too familiar sent of musk and rain assaults my nose. Someone is babbling against my skin franticly and its hard for my sluggish brain to keep up with the flow of words.
“Oh god, Blu! It was just- and you were- I was so fucking worried. Don’t every leave me like that again! I am so sorry; it was all my fault, if I was only more careful. Please, please, please don’t hate me Blu. I couldn’t handle it if you hated me. God damn it, I missed you so much. I just-”
“Kent?” I mumble, cutting of his confusing rant. Hate him? How could I ever hate him? And how could he have missed me? Where the hell did I go?
“Blu! Oh god, Blu.” My boyfriend sobs over and over. Tentatively I stroke his curly brown hair, still beyond confused.
“Kent sweetie, can you please tell me what in the hell is going on?” I ask slowly, afraid to bring on a new wave of tears. I don’t know why he’s so upset, but it’s making me feel sad seeing him like this. He pulls away slightly but keeps me firmly in his grasp. Kent just backs up enough so we can look at each other. And to be honest, he kind of looks like crap. Like he hasn’t slept in days and dressed blind. He hasn’t shaved in a while too, and there are deep purple bruise like discolorations under his forest green eyes. Kent’s still the most attractive boy I’ve ever seen, despite all that.
“Blu,” He whispers, trying to regain some composure. Fat tears spill from his eyes with no signs but he has stopped sobbing. It’s scaring me, not knowing what the matter is. “You’ve been in a coma for a month.”
Wow.
Now that’s a strange thing to think about. A coma? For a full month? But…how? This all just feels like a really bad trip. I couldn’t have been in a coma, I was just…wait, Piper. Yeah, Piper definitely had something to do with all of this. I was boy-napped, and Kent, October and Parker came to save me. And then…then what happened? Piper was going to hurt Kent I think, so I hoped on the crazy bitch’s back, but what happened then? It’s all impossibly fuzzy, it hurts my head to try and remember. I blink rapidly, trying to wrap my head around a big black hole the size of a month that has been ripped in my life.
“But...what?” I say dumbly. It’s just then that I notice where I am. I’m lying in a hospital bed in an impossibly white room. It’s weird to think that I’ve been here for a full month, and today is the first day I’ve even seen it. My eyes travel back to Kent after inspecting my living space. He swoops down and claims my lips for a not-so-innocent kiss that leaves me all but breathless.
“What was that for?” I mutter, a blush tinting my cheeks.
“Blu, I have something really important to say. So just listen for a minute, ok?” Kent says, sounding equally parts nervous and serious. I nod, still trying to understand my being asleep for so fudging long. Kent sighs, and sits down next to me on the bed. He carefully pulls me into his lap, but in a way so we can still look at each other. Heaving another big sigh he begins playing with my hair.
“Ok, so Blu, I’ve been trying for the life of me to think of the perfect way to tell you this for the past month. I haven’t made any progress, so I’ll just come out and say it. Blu, I love you entirely, with every inch of my being.” My mouth flops open in surprise and my mind reals. An impossibly warm feeling settles in my gut and spreads throughout my limbs. He loves me?
Double wow.
My moves but refuses to make words. Come on damn mouth, MAKE WORDS! Apparently it’s ok that I don’t have the capacity to talk because Kent brushes his fingers over my lips.
“Please, let me finish.” He whispers, and again, I nod dumbly. “I love you, but I haven’t been entirely honest with you. Werewolves, the lucky ones anyway, get to find someone in their life, their other half if you will. This person is a werewolf’s mate. It’s the love of their life.”
Mate? Wait…did he find his ‘mate’, his other half, while I was unconscious? Was…was he or she better than me? Was Kent going to leave me for this person? Oh god, he’s breaking up with me for his mate isn’t he?
“And Blu…love, you are my mate.”
Triple wow.
He’s looking at me now with such love and fear in his eyes that it nearly drowns me. Ok mouth, NOW would be a great time to start working again.
“Uh…” I choke on my emotions and can’t seem to push the words I very much need to say out of my lips.
“Of course,” He says with a week smile. “If that’s too much for you, I understand. If you want me too, we can just be friends, I’ll do anything as long as I can stay in your life.” My eyes widen at this. Just friends, is he kidding me? Was he the one with the brain damage?
“You idiot,” I laugh and grab the back of his neck, crashing his lips to mine. Our tongues battle and teeth clash, lips molding together perfectly. When we pull away, we’re both panting and there’s that goofy smile that I love so much on his face.
“So,” He breathes.
“So,” I say. “I love you too.”
“Awesome.” He says, a grin splitting his face in two. I laugh. God he is such a dork. But he’s my dork. Suddenly the door bangs open, making me jump, and October barrels in followed by a nurse.
“Kent you wouldn’t believe what- Holy shit.” Her eyes widen into saucers and her mouth drops open in shock. “Blu you’re…Ok, ok best friend awake later, best friend’s mommy now.” She says and my eyebrows rise.
“What about my mom?” I ask my very pink best friend.
“She’s gone into labor.”
W-O-W.
So? How did you guys like THAT?! I'm so glad my baby Blu is awake :) And Blu's gonna have a little brother or sister! Eep, so much going on in this chappy! Plz, Comment/Vote/Fan
Love Me Or Die!