Andy
I'm basing this vaguely on when my little brother had appendicitis. I'm from the UK, so I have no idea what hospitals are like in America, but I'm assuming they're pretty similar.
She'd thought it had just been the food he'd eaten. Or that he just had a virus and he'd be okay again in a few days. To be honest, she thought he was just making a fuss. Yes, he had a high temperature, but other than that he seemed okay. Maybe she was just ignoring the warning signs because she didn't want to believe that he was really ill.
He'd been sick a few times over the last couple of days. He said it wasn't a big deal and she believed him. All he'd eaten since the carnival was a handful of blueberries that she'd fed to him, he hadn't wanted anything more. But when he woke up in the middle of the night to throw up, and realised that vomit wasn't meant to be that brown, he knew he'd better go to hospital.
He called Beth, but she didn't answer. So he called Haley. She was outside his apartment within a few minutes, having sped all the way there, and was still in her pyjamas which Andy found incredibly cute. Together, they called a medical helpline and their reply chilled Haley to the bone.
"He needs to be in hospital. Get him there now; he needs surgery within the hour."
They offered an ambulance, but Haley knew that she could drive there faster. It was three am, nobody would be on the roads and she couldn't sit there waiting for the ambulance to come and pick him up.
When they arrived at the nearest hospital, dozens of nurses and doctors would come over to Andy and poke at his stomach, asking whether it hurt. The answer was always yes. They took hours to diagnose the problem, using multiple X-rays and an ultrasound before deciding that he needed surgery. Even then, nothing happened until he threw up in the middle of the emergency room, this time it was sickly green coloured.
After that, it became a blur. The hospital decided that they didn't have the facilities to operate on him there, so he was sent in an ambulance to a bigger one, around thirty miles away. Haley stayed with him the whole time, her hand never left his as she supported him through the experience, even though she was terrified of hospitals. She needed him just as much as he needed her, feeling his palm against hers gave her the strength to carry on and not just curl up in a ball and cry.
When Andy eventually went into surgery, Haley waited outside the whole time. She was there with him when he woke up. She was there when they told him that his infection levels were 200 times more than expected, and when they had inserted the 27 drips into his arms. She sat beside his bed while he slept; only going home to change and shower. The nurses took pity on her and allowed her to sleep in a camp bed in his private room.
The next few days were tough for both of them. Andy was on and off the oxygen, and the morphine in his system made him delirious and sleepy. Every time he woke up, he asked the same question. "Is Beth here?" It broke Haley's heart every time she had to tell him no.
After three days, Andy was starting to recover. He was still fragile and weak and looked almost dead lying in the white bed, but he was getting better. He only had a few drips left and could stay conscious for more than five minutes. He'd been working with a physio, and had even managed to walk to the bathroom in his room by himself. Haley felt as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. He was going to be okay.
By five days after the operation, Andy was almost back to his normal self. He was still ill, but the antibiotics and painkillers would handle that. All he needed was sleep, lots of it. Haley was still spending most of her time down at the hospital, bringing cheesy bad movies that they would watch while lying together on his bed. When Andy was sleeping, a blonde girl walked in.
"Hi, I'm Beth. You must be Haley. Andy's told me so much about you." Haley wanted to hate the girl. Wanted to ask why she hadn't been there for him. But she couldn't. Beth looked exhausted. She had deep bags under her eyes and she looked pale. She looked almost as bad as the boy lying in the bed.
"I'll just... leave you two alone." Haley said quietly and turned to leave the room.
"No, don't... I'd like you to stay. I mean, if that's okay with you. Andy talks about you a lot and I want to get to know you. You mean a lot to him and I want to thank you for being there for him while I couldn't."
"Why weren't you here?" Haley asked gently.
"My boss wouldn't let me take a day off. Well, I should say ex-boss. If he won't even let me have a day off to visit my boyfriend, who's in critical condition in hospital, then I don't want to work for him. I quit and then I took the first plane here and I'm not planning on leaving any time soon."
Andy woke to hear hysterical laughter coming from the two girls sitting in his room. They were drinking cups of coffee that apparently Haley had managed to get for free by flirting with the Costa barista.
"You did not." Beth laughed, wiping a tear from her eye.
"So my whole crazy family came down to the police station in the middle of the night, trying to bribe or threaten them into letting me go."
"What happened?"
"They said I could leave as long as I took them with me and never let them come back."
Andy looked so happy at that moment, he was almost glowing. "I'm glad to see that my two favourite ladies are getting along nicely."
Haley hit him gently with a pillow, "Yeah, I like Beth much more than I like you. Now stay here, we are going shopping."
The two girls linked arms and Haley pulled Beth from the room, after blowing a kiss to Andy. She really hadn't expected to like the girl, but they were more similar than they'd ever dreamed. If her parents thought that one Haley was hard enough to deal with, they were in trouble now.