Unedited XD
~*~*~*~*~
Someone was coughing when I woke up. Not like a tickle-y cough, but the kind where you're actually scared you'll hack up an internal organ.
I lifted my head, which felt like it had been filled with led while I slept. I was sleeping in the most uncomfortable position imaginable, even worse than that time Ryan and I slept on the grass. I was still seated in my chair next to Caleb's bed but my head must have fallen forward in the night, and stopped to rest on the edge of the bed.
Caleb was the one coughing. It was scary because he was still sleeping, but he was clawing at his throat like something was irritating his skin when actually, there was nothing there.
I quickly stood up, grabbing his one good shoulder and shaking it, knowing he must've been having a nightmare. His panic filled eyes popped open at my slightest touch, and he searched my face.
"H? What are you doing here?"
"What do you mean? I've been here all night."
He wrapped his one good arm around me, pulling me to his chest the way a father would with his child.
"Are you alright?" I asked, referring to his recent coughing fit.
He nodded. "Stupid dream that I'm drowning in sand, I'm fine though."
"You sure?"
"Positive."
He sighed, loosening his arm from around me. "You know you get more beautiful every time I see you. I missed you."
"I missed you more."
"Impossible," he smiled, shifting into a sitting position.
"So you don't remember anything from last night?"
"Last night?"
"You don't want to kill the guy that shot you?" I asked.
"No, why would I want to do that?" He inquired.
"You said you wanted to."
"That's ruthless."
"Tell me about it, you must have been on some kind of pain medication that make you go kinda loopy."
"Oh, I remember them saying something about laughing gas..." He trailed off as he saw Ryan watching from the doorway. He must've found somewhere to sleep because his eyes were still glazed with sleep and he had bed hair.
"Who's the baby giraffe?" Caleb asked, nodding in Ryan's direction.
I snorted at 'baby giraffe' knowing he was talking about Ryan's height.
"Ryan meet Caleb, Caleb meet Ryan," I introduced.
"So you two are friends?" Caleb asked skeptically.
"Yeah, we're...uh...friends?" I confirmed, but it came out as more of a question.
"You didn't seem too sure about that, H," Caleb said amusedly.
"That's because I'm not," I muttered.
"What was that?"
"What was what?"
"You said something."
"You're delusional."
"You're in denial."
"You're ugly."
"You're just jealous because my legs are so much longer than yours."
"You have a hole in one of your legs."
"You have seven holes in your skull."
"Thanks for reminding me."
"No problem."
"Are you two always like that?" Ryan asked, staring blankly between us.
I shrugged and Caleb nodded.
"Seriously though, how do you guys know each other?" Caleb asked.
"We're neighbours, and friends," Ryan started. "More like family actually, I think my mom loves her more than she loves me."
Caleb smiled at the last part while I blushed.
"Got any siblings?" Caleb asked curiously.
He nodded fondly. "Two brothers, Archie and Evan."
"No hot sisters then?"
I rolled my eyes, smacking is arm lightly.
"What?" He defended. "A little attention from the opposite gender doesn't go unnoticed by a guy who's surrounded by people of the male variety twenty four seven."
"You're unbelievable."
"Unbelievably good looking."
"What ever helps you sleep at night.
"A burger would help me sleep right now."
"Why are you so obsessed with burgers?"
"They don't serve them on base, actually scratch that, they don't serve anything good on base. I swear I'm like, malnourished now."
"You're not malnourished."
"Maybe if I ate a burger I wouldn't be malnourished."
"Oh my god, you're really persistent aren't you?"
"God's not going to help you get me a burger."
"Jesus Christ," I muttered under my breath.
"He's not going to help you either."
I huffed, crossing my arms across my chest. "You're so irritating."
"But you love me anyway."
"Sadly."
~*~*~*~*~
A serious looking male doctor wearing the stereotypical doctor get up entered the room, interrupting the thrilling game of eye spy we were playing.
"Hey," Caleb said brightly. "Did you come to give me a burger?"
I rolled my eyes. Here we go.
"Young man, we are a hospital not a hotel," the doctor reprimanded.
Caleb didn't seem fazed by his uncaring attitude. "And you're a doctor not a lawyer, dude loosen up. Try yoga, good for the mind and body, or maybe acupuncture, turn that frown upside down."
The doctor remained stoic.
Caleb groaned loudly. "I was kidding. Why do smart people always have crappy senses of humour?"
"Intellect comes before any of my personal desires. If my sense of humour is crappy," he said the word like it left a bad taste in his mouth, "it's because I prefer to spend my time on beneficial activities such as reading."
All four of us looked at him blankly.
"You seriously need to get laid," Caleb said bluntly.
"Excuse m-"
"Or eat some chocolate, you know get those happy endorphins flowing."
"That's quite enough Mr Harp-"
"If that yoga doesn't work out maybe you should join a dance class. Although you don't look like the dancing type..."
The doctor was turning red in the face at this point.
"Let me do my job Mr H-"
"Does your job ever get boring? Like, do you ever wish you became a hot air balloon pilot or a trampoline tester instead of a doctor? Sure, you probably enjoy stabbing people with needles, but don't you ever regret training to be a doctor? Unless you weren't trained...and were sent by the Russian mafia to assassinate me. But then if you were an assassin, you should have killed me already and I'm pretty sure I'm still alive..."
"They should pay me more to do this," the doctor muttered, storming out of the room.
Caleb stared after him, appalled. "What's his problem? I was only trying to make conversation."
"Maybe you offended him?" I suggested.
"Well he can cry himself a river, build a bridge and get over it."
That's one way to put it.
"You're so mean," I said, but a smile was working its way onto my face.
"He wouldn't give me a burger. What did he expect? A warm welcome?"
Jeremy laughed. "So whose turn was it?"
~*~*~*~*~
"This hospital sucks balls," Caleb complained as a nurse changed his dressings. Both Ryan and Jeremy had left the room in search of food, secretly I think they're both squeamish.
"Why's that?" I asked, averting my eyes from the blood and plasma oozing from his wounded shoulder.
"Well they don't have burgers, so that's clearly a let down. It smells like a cat died in here then they left it to ferment for a couple hundred years, and I could shit out a better looking interior than this," He stated, glancing at the yellowing walls and dull furnishings.
"You know, I think you've become even more articulate than before," I said, instead of commenting on his description of the box like hospital room.
"Why thank you little sister. Look out Shakespeare here I come."
"Maybe not quite Shakespeare."
"Aww come on, I can talk proper like Shakesp-ow, fucking shit!" He hissed as the nurse pressed some kind of disinfectant onto his stitches.
"Sorry," she said shyly.
He apologised for swearing.
"You were saying?" I smirked.
"Shut up."
He let his head sink into the white linen covered pillows, wincing in pain every so often.
"I wouldn't recommend getting shot," he said to me. "Totally not worth it."
"Thanks for the heads up. By the way, the guy you saved...how did he only end up with a sprained ankle?"
Caleb rolled his eyes. "I promised him I'd kick his ass if we lived. I'm not one to break a promise. If he wasn't such a stupid ass mother trucker I wouldn't be here. If his stupid ass hadn't tripped on a rock and cried like a baby, I wouldn't have heard him, thought he was seriously injured and carried him like the kind hearted gentleman I am. Then we wouldn't have been shot at and I would be eating a burger right now, not laying on an uncomfortable bed in a crusty hospital room."
"He tripped on a rock? You're kidding," I said in disbelief.
"Totally not kidding. I honestly don't know how that guy passed basic training. He's clumsy, clearly can't follow orders, doesn't have much going on upstairs, and he can't fight or shoot for shit."
"If aliens suddenly land in California, we're all going to die. Especially if there are guys like him in our military."
Caleb nodded. "To be honest, I think I'd survive an alien invasion, just like if I was in a horror movie. I mean, come on. Why do they always answer the phone? Surely they'd be suspicious. Going into dark rooms is another issue. Who the hell explores creepy abandoned buildings in the dark, usually without a torch and probably gets locked in a small dark room? Not me because I would be in the kitchen with the lights on, eating a burger. Also, what I really don't understand; why do they see the attacker, or monster or whatever, stare at it for a solid thirty seconds, scream, then run away? Like, if they had just run away in the first place, they would have had a head start. You don't even have to be smart to work that out. So basically, people in horror movies are extremely stupid, and if they followed my tips they probably wouldn't die."
The nurse finished up with Caleb's shoulder, peeling back the single sheet to redress his leg.
"Hey, hey lady!" He started as she pulled back the sheet.
Her eyes darted to Caleb's.
"This is not just a free service," he gestured to his lower region. "You don't just get free reign, or is it free range?" He muttered to himself.
"I was just-" The nurse protested, but was cut off.
"No no, free range is chickens," he confirmed to himself.
"I was just changing your leg dressings," said the rather embarrassed nurse.
Caleb made a noise of understanding. "Ohhh. Why didn't you say so?"
I shook my head, knowing that he was just trying to flirt with the nurse. She was young, and pretty, but super shy, which is probably why she didn't respond to Caleb's teasing.
His leg seemed to be more painful than his shoulder, which didn't make a lot of sense, considering his shoulder practically had to be put back together.
"Hey," I said, grabbing his hand. "You okay?"
He tried to smile but it turned into a grimace. "Just peachy." He squeezed my hand tighter, clutching the bed sheet with his other hand, and tightly closing his eyes.
The nurse seemed unaware of the pain she was causing, and carried on dabbing with disinfectant. It probably wasn't her fault, she just seemed inexperienced.
Eventually she stopped, wrapping a bandage around his leg, giving a timid smile, then leaving.
Caleb let out a sigh of relief, loosening his grip on my hand. "What was she doing, pouring lemon juice and salt on my damn leg?"
I shrugged. "Some kind of antiseptic."
"That shit hurts."
"I can tell," I replied, flexing my fingers to resupply them with blood.
He grinned sheepishly. "Sorry H."
I hit him lightly. "You better be," I said teasingly.
"I swear upon my heart and soul that I am sorry for squashing the fingers of thee Hazel Harper," he said, placing a hand over his heart.
I rolled my eyes, but I couldn't help the smile that spread across my face at his antics.
"So," he started. "How's Jasmine dearest?"
"Oh, just as polite and well mannered as ever."
"I wouldn't expect anything less from her."
I snorted when he added 'brat' to the end of his sentence.
"How's Kev?"
"Dad's good. He's working a lot, and spending heaps of time with Jasmine. He's trying to teach her how to swim. You can imagine how that's going."
"I bet it's going swimmingly," he said with a cheeky grin.
"I'm not even going to acknowledge that you just said that."
"Oh just admit that it was a stroke of genius."
I groaned. "Stop with the stupid swimming puns."
He chuckled, but then became more serious. I knew what was coming.
"How's mom?"
I sighed, might as well tell him the truth. "Pregnant."
"What do you mean she's pregnant?! How is that even... that's just so...I can't fucking believe her!" He was pretty furious.
"Oh I'm not done yet. Do you remember that time I hung up on you?"
He nodded.
"Yeah, well it wasn't me who hung up, it was her. She's got worse since you left. We argued all the time and she slapped me across the face. More recently she invited all her family over for the surprise baby announcement, I might've said some rude things to our relatives, she practically dragged me down the stairs, made me stand there and apologise. Then when I said the wrong thing she punched me and busted my lip with her rings. You know I could've defended myself but I didn't want to hurt her. Anyway, she would've hit me again but Ryan and my friends turned up to saved me. She promised me afterwards that I'd never see her again."
Caleb sat there with his jaw slack. "That..that bitch!" He exploded. "I can't believe her. Honestly she just thinks she can up and leave?"
"Seems that way."
Caleb huffed. "I can't believe she punched you. I should've been there."
"Don't say that, it's not your fault, you couldn't have stopped her."
"Still should have been there," he grumbled.
The door suddenly burst open revealing two boys armed with McDonalds.
I turned sideways to grin at Caleb, he looked back at me with the same grin.
"Burger, anyone?"
"I like this kid," Caleb grinned.
Me too.
~*~*~*~*~
I finally reached chapter 20, that's a pretty damn big achievement.
Lots of Caleb in this chapter, hope you guys got to know him a little better. I love Hazel and Caleb's sibling bond, I'm so jealous.
Caleb to the side *Sigh* Logan Lerman is such a cutie.
Vote, comment, follow.
Until next time.