Two months and a half had passed, and still, there was no change. He still lay there, looking as if he were sleeping peacefully in that hospital bed, unbothered by all things around him. After a month of his coma, his sister and husband returned to their home, but I was under strict instruction to call her immediately after he woke up (she didn’t trust her parents to call her). Everyone stopped going every day, except Jake’s parents and myself. Everyone else came every few days to check up on him, and I had a sinking feeling they were checking up on me too.
The past two months had been long and hard. I hadn’t done much. I never went out with friends, I didn’t even go dancing anymore. Chad never once bothered me either. In fact, I hadn’t even seen nor heard of him since that day in the hall. I didn’t stop to think what had happened to the guy, he wasn’t worth my thoughts.
I spent my time doing homework and spent every moment I could with Jake, praying he’d wake up. Most of the time, I just sat by his bed and talked to him, holding his hand. Other times, I just sat and listened to the radio. I had asked the doctor’s if I could bring a radio into his room, to play music since he loved music so much.
I could tell Tyler and my friends were getting more and more worried about me every day, but I ignored them all. I was perfectly fine. But they didn’t seem to think so. They kept trying to get me out of the house, to go out, to do something, anything really, but I always flat out refused. It wouldn’t be right for me to go out when Jake was stuck in that hospital bed. Especially since I was the one who put him there.
********
“Ivy? Ivy I was going to go pick up a few things, want to come with? I can drop you off with Jake afterwards,” Tyler asked me one Tuesday evening after school.
I jumped to my feet and grabbed my bag, shoving my homework into it before I followed him quickly down the stairs and outside to the car. We drove off into the night, and I stared out the window, not saying anything, as was my usual state.
“What store are we going to?” I asked, after several long minutes had passed and we still hadn’t gone near any stores or malls.
“You’ll see,” he said mysteriously, and I got a twisted feeling in my stomach. I started twisting the ring Jake gave me around my finger anxiously, wishing to get wherever it is that Tyler was taking me. I didn’t think he was going to the store anymore.
Within minutes I had my answer. We were at Jo’s house.
“Tyler what’s going on?” I demanded.
“We’re having an intervention,” he replied simply, turning the car off as he turned to face me. “Look, I can understand why you’d be so torn up about Jake being in the hospital, especially for all this time, but you can’t just stop living. It’s crazy. You even stopped dancing and I haven’t seen you smile in ages.”
“Tyler I’m fine, okay? Just drive me home," I replied, annoyed.
“You are not fine and you’re not going home. Tonight’s a girl’s night. Jo and Leena are waiting for you. You need a night out, you need a break. You need a distraction from Jake for once, so maybe that’ll be the kick in the ass you need to get yourself back on track. I’ll be back in the morning to pick you up, and I really hope you’ll think about what I said, and what they’ll have to say. I know you don’t think anything is wrong with what you’re doing, but obsessing will only make this worse. If you spend every waking moment with him, it’ll feel like forever when he wakes up. If you keep on living, it won’t feel as long. And that way, you won’t end up losing any more people. You can’t afford to.”
Before Tyler could continue to lecture me, I opened the door, got out and slammed it shut again. I stormed up the steps to Jo’s house and pounded the door with my fist.
Jo answered, smiling hugely at me. “Hey Ivy!”
I didn’t even bother to greet her, instead brushed right past her. I was still mad, and I knew I was acting like a spoiled brat, but I didn’t care. I could live my life however I chose and who were they to decide if it was wrong or right?
“So what’s up?” she asked, sitting on the couch opposite of me.
“Everyone clearly thinks I’m unstable and can’t take care of myself,” I returned bitterly.
“We’ve always thought you were unstable,” she shrugged. “Now’s no different.”
“So what to do first? Pj’s?” Leena asked.
“Sorry I don’t have any. I guess I should leave.” I started to get up but Jo waved me down with an eye roll. “Don’t be ridiculous; I can lend you some.” She got up and ran downstairs quickly, her room was in the basement, then came back up, tossing some clothes at me. I caught them and went to the bathroom first, changing into the Hello Kitty black tee-shirt and rubber ducky pink pants she’d given me.
“Next order of business…junk food,” Jo grinned mischievously, and the three of us trooped to her big, clean kitchen. She pulled out a large tub of chocolate ice cream, several spoons, chocolate bars, chips, candy, cookies and a million other things that normally would have excited me, but now just made me sick to think of it all. We brought it all, taking several trips, to the living room and pushed the table and couches out of the way so we could spread out sleeping bags on the floor in front of the TV.
Leena and Jo were talking animatedly about something, eating gummy worms and chips happily as if nothing at all was wrong.
When they noticed my silence, they both exchanged glances and Leena sighed.
“You need to have fun, Ivy. Jake would hate for you to stop living because of him,” Leena said gently, a yellow and green gummy worm between her fingers. “I can’t imagine how it must feel to be in your place right now, but to stop everything is no way to deal with this.”
“Look, I don’t need a lecture guys, so if that’s all you were going—”
“A lecture is exactly what you need, young lady,” Jo said sternly, glaring at me now. “You are acting ridiculous. Jake is your best friend and your boyfriend and yeah, what happened sucks. But do you think sitting around, sulking and being a loner is the way to deal? You are very, very wrong. Jake would be so mad if he saw you like this; always ditching us and your brother, that you stopped dancing, especially that all you ever do is homework! I can understand being upset, but it’s been almost three months and you need to get your rear in gear and wake up to the reality of the situation, and then maybe Jake will too.”
“What do you want me to do then? Go out, hang out with you guys and dance again? Do you not understand that I don’t want to? You have no idea what this feels like!” I thundered. “It’s my life not yours!”
“No duh we have no idea what it feels like, it’s never happened to us and you aren’t exactly telling us anything either.” Jo shot back, her blue eyes sharp. I’d never seen her look this angry before.
“Ivy we’re your friends too. All we want is to make sure you’re okay and happy, but we can’t do that if you won’t talk to us. Tell us how it feels, lean on us. You don’t need to go through this alone," Leena said, sliding off the couch to sit by me, gummy worm lying forgotten on the cushion. “We want to help you, but you need to stop being so stubborn. I get that it was awful, but well…no one really knows exactly what happened except for the accident.”
“You want to know what happened? Fine. That asshole tricked me. Again. He sent me a letter telling me to meet him at that stupid restaurant, pretending to be Jake. Jake got one too, thinking it was me inviting him. But it was Chad. It was always Chad,” I said furiously, my hands clenched in front of me. “He kissed me just for Jake to see! And you know what happened? Jake left. He didn’t even wait for an explanation, he didn’t do anything. He just drove off and got into that stupid accident. That was the last time I saw him.”
They were both quiet, looking mixed between anger and surprise.
“I thought maybe he trusted me enough to know I would never go near Chad willingly. I thought maybe he would have at least talked to me instead of just taking off…” I wiped away the tears, annoyed with myself. “But how could I blame him? I did the exact same thing! I took off when I thought he cheated.”
“Ivy…” Leena looked like she was at a complete and utter loss for words.
“You have no idea…how horrible it is to see him there in that hospital every day. Last time he saw me before the accident was when Chad was kissing me. Do you have any idea how that feels? I’m the reason he got into the stupid car, the reason he got into that accident. So don’t sit there and tell me that I should go out and have fun when it’s my fault that he’s stuck in that hospital.”
“Whoa! Don’t even go there Ivy, that’s not your fault. The blame belongs to that spineless dickhead, not you. Chad tricked you, is it really your fault? No, you thought it was Jake asking you out. Jake thought you asked him out too. Is Jake to blame now too, for having driven off instead of being rational and waiting for an explanation?”
“Of course not! How can I expect him to be rational and calm when he saw me with an ex, even one I hate? That’s not his fault!” I whipped back, even more furious.
“Exactly! That’s exactly it, Ivy! It’s not his fault and it’s not yours! He was upset, he got into the car, he drove off. He made his choices, you didn’t force him into it. So none of this is your fault either. You didn’t ask for Chad to meet you there, you didn’t kiss him. He kissed you, not the other way around. The person to blame is Chad.”
“It’s both of us. I believed him and let him rule over me, I didn’t believe Jake when he tried to tell me he didn’t cheat. From the start, this was my fault as well as Chad’s.”
“That was in the past Ivy, that doesn’t matter. You didn’t know. You were hurt and you can’t be expected to act rationally. You did what any normal teenager would do in your position. In the end, you believed him and that’s what counts. But that has nothing to do with this right now. This was all Chad. You can’t blame people for the choices they make; sometimes bad things happen no matter what. If you had seen Jake in there kissing Shannon do you think that you’d have stuck around? I doubt it very much. I know you, you wouldn’t wait around for an explanation," Jo said, practically out of breath from speaking so rapidly to keep me from interjecting. “Or else you would have marched right up to her and slapped her so hard that pretty little head of hers would have flown right off.”
I just stared at her, since Jo was the person who was least likely to lecture me, much less make such sense. I hated her for it.
“I wouldn’t have hit her…” I mumbled instead.
“Well you would have done something equally badass or run off. Frankly, I’d be hoping for the badass one. It must be tiring running away all the time.”
I couldn’t tell if this was an insult or not, so I just stayed quiet.
“So are you back among the world of the living or can I just forget about watching Moulin Rouge with my best friends?” she asked, giving me a steady look, as if she were daring me to crawl back into the shell I’d been inhabiting for the past two and a half months.
“I guess I’ll watch…but for Ewan, not for you," I tacked on, lying down on my sleeping bag.
“Yes!” Jo jumped up and punched the air, running to put Moulin Rouge back into the DVD player and dim the lights. She jumped back on the sleeping bag on my other side, while Leena went to get hers, tossing the gummy worm that had been lying on the couch onto the table for the garbage.
Jo put the tub of ice cream in front of me and handed each of us a spoon before cracking the lid. Having sat there for a while, it had gotten soft and that was just how I liked it. We all dug in but before we could even lick our first spoonful, Jo cleared her throat.
“Before we pig out to our heart’s content, I just want to say that it’s great to have Ivy back. Zombie friends kind of suck.” I hit her spoon with mine, knocking her spoonful of ice cream back into the tub.
“Hey!” she protested, hitting my spoon with hers. “En garde!”
“No violence! Make babies, not war!” Leena exclaimed with a mouth full of ice cream.
“En garde you…you…overgrown pocket watch!” I threatened, smacking spoons again.
“Did you just quote Lumiere? Did you seriously go there?” Jo gasped. “Stand back Leena, she means business!”
“Come on, the movie’s starting!” Leena said hastily, pointing at the screen while bouncing on her sleeping bag.
“We’ll continue this later,” Jo said, with all the ferocity of a squirrel, because at the moment she was staring at the screen with a dazed, lovesick expression.
“Ewan McGregor!” she gasped, hands clasped to her chest, spoon still between them. “Him. We need more men like him.”
“Amen to that,” Leena agreed, settling down on her stomach, elbows on the pillow with her spoon sticking out of her mouth.
I looked at them both, relaxed and happily watching our favorite movie of all time, and decided they were right. Jake would be incredibly mad at me for not taking advantage of life, especially when he couldn’t. Besides, I missed my friends. I should have come to talk to them. Not that I forgave them for plotting behind my back to get me here, but I appreciated the thought.
I went down on my stomach as well, eating ice cream and candy in excess throughout the movie until the very end, when Satine was giving her final performance and then she collapsed and she was with Christian…by then we were all frozen, watching the screen, the intensity of the scene just as fresh as the first time we all watched the movie a few years ago.
“Such a…horrible ending…I don’t know why I love this movie so much…” Jo said, sniffing and wiping her eyes with a tissue once the credits started playing. I let my tears fall freely.
“You know you’re a sucker for a tragic romance. Remember your Titanic phase?” Leena said, sniffing as well.
“That was an awful movie!” Jo wailed, “Everybody died! And Jack saved Rose, he sacrificed himself…”
“She could have pushed over and they both could have lived. Or they could have taken turns.” I muttered, because it was true. I wasn’t much of a fan of Titanic, the idea was more than a little stupid. ‘I’ll never let go’…yeah right. First sign of someone coming to save you, you dumped his body faster than a hot potato.
“Ever the romantic you are,” Jo frowned at me, but handed me a tissue. “So what movie next?”
I looked down at the ring on my finger, glinting merrily in the low light. “How about something happier? A Disney movie?”
“Oooh, how about a Disney marathon?” Leena jumped up and down excitedly, “Can we? Can we? Can we?”
“Yes!” Jo said excitedly, wiping her eyes again before she went to her cabinet, pulling out every Disney movie she owned. As we went through the movies, the hours passing quickly in a bundle of laughs and gasps and off key singing. For once, my mind was off thinking of other things, better things than my boyfriend lying in a hospital bed.
No, isolating myself wasn’t the way to deal. This was how I should be dealing; with friends.
********
Walking into History on Monday, my spirits had lifted significantly. I had a bit more of a bounce in my step, and a bit more energy than I had in what felt like a long time. I didn’t feel guilty for being happy…well, not as largely guilty as I had originally before having stopped being happy, so it was an improvement.
Even the surprise pop quiz in History didn’t put my spirits down. I sat down, blazing through every question without difficulty until a vibration in my pocket made me stop. As ninja like as I could manage, I slipped my phone out of my pocket, seeing Jake’s parents name and number flash on the screen.
They wouldn’t be calling me when I was in class for absolutely no reason.
I looked back to my test, half finished and everything I had previously studied flew from my mind. What if something happened? What if there was a complication? What if—?
I didn’t dare hope he’d woken up. There was just no way I could deal with the thought of it, only to have it crushed. I pocketed my phone, finished my quiz as fast as I could, though I was sure the second half of the answers I’d written weren’t entirely correct, before I raised my hand and asked to go to the bathroom.
My teacher protested, but I said it was an emergency and that I finished, so she let me go grudgingly. I ran to the bathroom, heart in my throat as I dialed back Jake’s parents.
“Mrs. Lewis? Mrs. Lewis what happened? Is everything okay? Is he alright?” I fired off, gasping for air in the bathroom stall I was hiding in.
“You better come to the hospital.” She mysteriously, her voice sounding as if she was holding back a great flood of emotion.
“Are you alright? Did something happen?” My heart rate was shooting through the roof and I was surprised I hadn’t passed out and fallen in this toilet yet.
“I’m fine, honey. But when school is over, you might want to pass by the hospital. We’ve got some news…I think it might be better to give you the news face to face.” She said, once again her tone indecipherable. “Come after school, okay?”
“Okay,” I replied, mystified, but I couldn’t ask anything more because she had already hung up on me.
My heart was racing and didn’t seem to be on the way to slowing any time soon. What did she mean by that? News that had to be done face to face? They weren’t going to just…give up? My heart hammered faster and I felt so nauseous I was sure I was going to throw up. But she didn’t sound too tearful or upset, so it couldn’t be that. If something was wrong or something had happened to Jake she would have been crying, not holding it back like that. Unless she was just doing that so I wouldn’t be worried…but not telling me would make me worry more.
I made a decision, and left the bathroom, still nauseated. I wandered around the halls, trying to remember what class Tyler had now, the hall pass tight in my sweaty hand. I wandered the halls at a quick speed, peeking into class windows until I realized I’d been gone for nearly twenty minutes. I had to go back to class or I’d get in major trouble. So I went back and said I had felt sick but I felt better now, so I took my seat and didn’t get a detention.
As soon as it hit lunch time, I hunted Tyler down at his locker.
“Tyler! Something happened to Jake!” I burst, a nervous, sweaty, shaking mess.
“What? How do you know? What happened?” he asked, looking thrown and worried.
“I don’t know, his mom wouldn’t tell me. She just said that we have to go there after school, they have some news they need to give us face to face…” I slumped against the lockers and Tyler rubbed his eyes.
“If it was something really bad they would have told us to come now. I know you want to go now, but I’m not taking you out of school. As soon as school is over we’ll go, alright? Just relax. Nothing bad could happened to him; he’s under constant supervision, they’d make sure he was alright.”
“Tyler…what if you’re wrong?” I whispered. All the worst scenarios were stuck and playing in my head.
“Look, Mrs. Lewis told you to come after school alright? So whatever it is, it’s not a big enough emergency for us to forget class. We’ll wait till school is over, alright? I really doubt it was that bad…was she crying?”
“No, but still..." I replied, feeling anxious still. I wouldn’t be able to relax until I got there and knew what happened.
“I’m sorry Ivy, but you’re going to have to wait. Now let’s just go to lunch okay? You look like you’re about to pass out.” He looped his arm around my waist, supporting me since my legs were too shaky and unstable.
I tried to convince him on the way to the cafeteria, but he still wouldn’t budge so I just gave up. I was in no state to be running to the hospital on foot, not to mention it was cold and it was too far away. So I’d have to wait for Tyler to drive us after school.
The whole afternoon was long and I couldn’t stop shaking with fright, unable to pay attention my mind wandered over different scenarios, of all the different awful things that could have happened…
When the final bell rang I was ready to pass out with all the nerves and fear. My heart was as unsteady as the rest of me and I felt so lightheaded that I was ready to vomit. The car ride did nothing to help, and by the time we had made it to the hospital I was grinding my teeth to keep the vomit down and my stomach was churning painfully.
“Everything’s going to be fine,” Tyler said comfortingly, rubbing my back as we walked, but even he looked a little pale.
We made our way to the hallway we had all sat in for nearly day waiting for news on Jake’s condition the night of his accident, and I prayed that the news we’d receive today would be better than the news of him being in a coma without any indication of when, or if, he’d ever wake up.
There was Mrs. Lewis, sitting with her face covered by her hands and Mr. Lewis was sitting next to her, looking vaguely dazed.
“Mrs. Lewis?” I questioned, feeling even woozier now that I was here. The curtains of Jake’s room were drawn shut and that was enough to make my stomach drop to the floor. They were never shut.
“Ivy!” she gasped, head whipping up rapidly. She jumped to her feet and hugged me tight. “Oh Ivy!”
“What’s wrong?” I asked, glad she was holding me because I wasn’t sure if I could stand anymore.
She pulled away sharply, holding me by the shoulders. Her eyes were red rimmed and there were fresh tears falling down her cheeks. “He’s awake!”
There was a long silence, in which I stared at her, uncomprehending. “He’s…he’s awake?”
“Yes! He woke up this morning! And he’s alright! He’s fine, he’s good, he’s amazing!” her tears were of happiness, she couldn’t stop smiling suddenly. She took my hands and bounced on her feet. “He spoke to us and everything and the doctor’s say he’s perfectly healthy!”
“That’s…that’s great…” I said, letting go of her hands to go sit on a chair. I made it just in time because my legs buckled as soon as I reached the chair. I sank into it gratefully.
He’s awake, he’s awake. He’s alright, he’s perfectly healthy…
“Ivy? Are you alright?” Mrs. Lewis asked worriedly, “You look sick.”
“No, no, I’m alright.” I put a hand to my head. “He’s…can I see him? Or…?”
Now her happiness faded away completely and that caused my stomach to give the most painful lurch of the day. “Actually Ivy, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“You see, he’s awake and perfectly healthy; he just needs to work a bit on the physical from not having moved since the accident, and he’ll be back in tip top shape.” Mr. Lewis said slowly, taking over because Mrs. Lewis seemed unable to explain. “Unfortunately, there was some…minor damage to his memory.”
“His memory? He can’t remember some things?” Tyler asked, looking slightly more composed than before, but still surprised at this new information.
“Not some things. Most things. He knew we were familiar, knew us by name actually, but didn’t know we were his parents until we told him.” Mr. Lewis continued, the green eyes that Jake had inherited from him were suddenly dark. “He can remember his own name and when he was born, but he didn’t connect the dots between our relation until we pointed it out to him. He remembered he had a sister, but not her name or that she was even married. He knows where he went to elementary school, but not his high school.”
“Well that can’t be too bad; it’s just gaps in his memory. We can fill him in.” Tyler said then hesitated. “Can’t we?”
Mrs. Lewis smiled sadly, “We can try, but we can’t force him to remember. If he remembers he remembers, if he doesn’t then we’ll manage it. So far we’ve been telling him a little about himself, but we can’t tell him much; the doctor’s say to ease him into it.”
“Does he remember his best friends?” I asked suddenly. If he couldn’t even remember his parents, how could he remember his friends or much else? His parents have been there all his life. Of all things to forget, that should be the last on the list.
“We don’t know. We didn’t have a chance to ask; only to tell him where he goes to school, that we’re his family, how old he is and things about his sister. That’s all we were really allowed to say for now,” Mrs. Lewis replied gently, “But I’m sure he’ll remember you in some way…even if it isn’t the way you are now.”
I nodded slowly, not sure how I felt about everything I’d just heard.
“You can go see him if you want, maybe you can help piece a few things together, but you can’t stay long. He needs some time to rest and get used to everything,” she continued when I didn’t say anything. I was suddenly aware of everyone watching me, so I pulled myself together, attempted to anyways, and stood. I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans and reached for the door handle, feeling the cold metal in my hand.
I inhaled deeply before I twisted the handle and pushed the door open slowly, peeking into the room. He was awake and sitting upright, but that’s all I saw before I looked to the ground and eased into the room, closing the door quietly behind me. I held the door handle, back against the door, for some time.
“Um…hello?” I heard him ask uncertainly. My eyes burned and I let go of the door. I had to face him. It wouldn’t be so bad, I could handle it. I looked up and saw his face; usually so warm and open but now he looked more uncertain and polite, not a lick of familiarity in his eyes.
“Hey,” I smiled, because even though he didn’t seem to recognize me, he was awake. And that’s all that mattered at the moment. My smile widened at the thought. “Can I sit?”
“Sure,” he waved at the empty chair by his bed, shrugging. “I hope you’re not someone important that I’ve forgotten, if I have well…sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry, it’s not your fault,” I said quickly, taking the seat. It felt strange and exciting sitting by his bed, talking to him after all these months. “I’m Ivy.”
“Ivy…” he repeated, his face scrunching up as he tried hard to remember. “I’m not sure…it sounds familiar…” he rubbed his head, “That’s your name right? It’s not short for something?”
I blinked. “It’s short for Ivory.” He remembered that? Or was he just asking out of curiosity?
“Burns?” he guessed.
I shook my head. “Close. Blackburn is my last name. Ivory Blackburn.”
“Ebony and ivory…” I heard him sing under his breath and I chuckled.
“Very funny. So…” my mind blanked and I couldn’t think of a thing to say, I just stared at him, fingering the ring on my finger as I often did.
“Nice ring.” He commented, then blinked at it. “That’s a claddagh ring.” He took my hand and held it to his face, “It’s pointing in…you have a boyfriend then?”
I was suddenly thankful that I was sitting, because all the good feelings that had replaced and diminished most of my shaking and nauseas came rushing back at his question.
“I…he…yes.” I fumbled. Should I tell him now? Or should I wait? I remembered his mom, telling me we couldn’t bombard him with information right away…maybe I should wait.
“Did I know him?” he put my hand down, gazing at me questioningly.
“Yeah. You did. Very well.” I couldn’t help the tear that escaped. I brushed it away roughly. “So um…how’s the food here?”
“Its fine I guess,” he shot me a slightly alarmed look. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m alright.” I tried to smile, but I’m not sure it was very convincing. “Did…did you know I have a brother? Tyler?”
“Tyler?” he blinked. “Tyler’s here?”
“You remember Tyler?” I gaped.
“He’s my best friend,” he said matter of factly, before pausing. “Isn’t he?”
“He is. You’ve been best friends for as long as I can remember,” I whispered.
“You…you’re his little sister Ivy…wait I think…” he snapped his fingers, suddenly sitting up straight. “I told you that socks were feet eating monsters! I got in so much trouble when you believed it and wouldn’t wear socks for days…” he looked me over once more, a warm expression coming over his face. “I think I remember…parts. You were kind of my friend too, right?”
“When we were little.”
“And now?” he frowned. “We’re not friends now?”
“If we weren’t friends, I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you. We became really good friends over the past few years, now that we’re older.” I twisted the ring around my finger rapidly, feeling nervous all over again. We were a lot closer than he thought, I was just afraid I might let slip how close… “I think maybe…maybe you should talk to Tyler now…” I started to get up, but he caught my hand in his.
“Please don’t treat me like I’m mentally unstable,” he frowned. “My parents do enough of that. You’re my friend right? Friends help friends. Help me remember; they tell me next to nothing and I want to know everything I can.”
I stopped, looking down at the three symbols on my ring. The heart, the crown, the hands…
“Well, these,” he pointed to the Celtic designs by the heart, “Are where the two hands are supposed to go. They mean friendship, the heart means love…And the crown means loyalty.”
Then my gaze slid to our hands, his warm fingers wrapped around my hand. I slowly took my seat again. We were friends. Best friends. And I had to put him first. “Alright.” I said softly. “What do you want to know?
“Tell me about us,” he said gently, squeezing my hand gratefully.
“Us?” I squeaked out, eyes going round.
“Yeah, tell me about…tell me why we got closer, tell me some stupid things we’ve done or just…I don’t know. Tell me something. The only memories I have of you are when you were small," he said quickly, “Please? It’s boring sitting in this room alone; I want something to think about.”
“I…” I really wanted to tell him everything. I wanted to talk to him for hours. But he didn’t even know who I was or what we were to each other. Which was exactly why I shouldn’t stay to chat about the good times we’d had recently, and the hard times too…what if he didn’t believe me? Or worse, believed me but didn’t love me anymore? What if he didn’t even want me around after I told him everything?
“Please?” he pleaded, “I want to know. And I really doubt my parents will tell me anything important.”
“I…” I said again, before I sank carefully back into my chair. “What exactly do you want to know…about us?”
Looking a little more pleased with himself, he settled in more comfortably into his hospital bed. He let my hand go and plucked at the hospital bracelet on his wrist. “I don’t really know, just tell me anything memorable.”
“Memorable?” I echoed. Oh I had plenty of those kinds of memories, but none of which would be a good idea to share since most involved us being much friendlier than friends should be. “Um…well…” I scratched my head, struggling to find something I could share. Then hit me. “At the beginning of the year, you were staying at my place while our parents went on a cruise together. And at lunch one day, you made a comment about me being short so I hit you while you were drinking.”
“Then you spilled Coke all down yourself and told me you’d get me back for it, and when we were walking home you chased me all the way down the street and into the house and tickled me like crazy.” I smiled at the memory. It felt like that was years ago, it had been so long ago. But that was really the moment that my crush on Jake had become noticeable.
“You’re ticklish?” he asked.
“Very.” I shrugged slightly, looking down at the ring on my finger.
“I’ll remember that.” He grinned.
The soft music of the radio broke off, the radio hosts starting to talk about the latest news with celebrities.
Jake scowled at the radio. “I love music, but radios are just ridiculous. Honestly, no one wants to hear gossip about people they’ll never meet or know; what they want to hear is some good music.”
“That’s what radios are for. They have to keep everyone updated.” I shrugged.
“Well they should make a radio station where only music is played, and different music. No repeated songs throughout the day.” He folded his arms, and I noticed for the first time most of the tubes that had been attached had been removed.
An idea struck me and I dug through my coat pocket before I pulled my iPod out and handed it to him. “Here, this might be a little better. Besides, there might be some better music on there then the radio. And you decide what you want to hear.”
“Are you sure?” he asked, surprised as he held the tiny purple iPod in his hands with a tangle of white earphone wires.
“Course I’m sure. I’ve got plenty of things to entertain me, you’ve got…well nothing.” I gestured at the room.
“Do other people have radios or TV’s in their rooms?” he asked, starting to untangle the wires.
“I don’t know. I had to convince the nurse to let me bring the radio in, so I doubt as much.”
“You brought it in?” he seemed surprised by this news and forgot about the earphones for a moment, staring at me instead. “Why?”
“Well…you love music. I figured it might help while you were…” I trailed off, feeling a lump in my throat. I blinked furiously and tried to smile, “You know.”
“Wow I feel bad now,” he grimaced. “You care so much and I can barely remember you.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said quickly, “It’s only normal.”
He nodded, still frowning a little. He untangled the wires in silence. I was just about to get up and leave when he spoke again. “What happened to me?”
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Hey! I'm updating again and I realized I only have 3 more chapters left to this story to post holy hell this is going fast! I'll be posting W&V very soon and then working on the sequel to S2L so hopefully I'll get that up and running quickly (the sequel not W&V since obviously that'll be easy and quick bc its pretty much all done???).
Hope you guys are having a fun time (I know school just started recently so idk how likely it is that you're having fun or not) and taking it easy and treating yourselves to lovely things!!!! I'm off to go finish homewok (Yeah it's 10:15 at night don't judge me) and sleep bc I haven't slept nada in the past few nights bc fanfics keep me up and because I just get irrationally afraid i'll be late for work so I wake myself up every twenty minutes (idk why my body just does it by itself??? very annoying) to make sure I don't end up being late even though I have an alarm and everything and that makes me very ill/sleepy blech SO GNIGHTY NIGHT LOVELIES <3 (Also I just cut my bangs I FORGOT HOW MUCH FUN IT IS TO HAVE SHORT BANGS I FEEL SO HELLA I HAVEN'T TOUCHED MY HAIR FOR A LEGIT YEAR NOW ITS GREAT <3 thats a lie i dyed my red streaks back to brown when they faded but that dont count ANYWAYS)
Much love and good vibes,
xxLaura <3