"Kendall," I whispered, wiping the tears off my cheeks with one hand, and gripping his slender hand tightly with the other. His hand was getting colder by the minute and I knew we didn't have long. His bright green eyes appeared from his, now open, eyelids and his gaze fixated on mine. A small smile cropped up on his face, imprinting the deep dimples that made me fall in love with him. No matter how upset I was, his smile was always infectious and I found myself smiling broadly back at him, fighting away the tears that were threatening to fall.
"Hey MJ," he said, and though his voice was raspy, his eyes were sparkling, the vivid green dancing round the black pupil.
"Hi." I choke out the small greeting, trying to sound as normal as possible but failing, well, miserably.
"I guess I won't get to be Spiderman after all." I could see the disappointment in his face and my heart sank to the ground.
"You will. You'll get better. You'll get a part as Spiderman. You'll be amazing..." The words came out almost inaudibly, yet he looked at me as if I had spoken them at the top of my voice. His eyes gazed across at me intently, not saying a word, yet I could feel his pain just as strongly as mine.
"Don't be sad MJ," he finally said, breaking the silence, "It'll be all right, you know." I rub my eyes feverently, forcing the tears out onto my sleeve so they couldn't stream down my cheeks instantaneously. And out of the blue, while I was busy drying out my eyes, Kendall said slowly, "tell me a story." My arm returns to my side and I stare at him incredulously.
"Tell you a story?" I repeat, making sure I heard him right.
"Yeah, I just-...I-...I want to hear your voice," he said, tripping over his words, and I knew blood would be rising to his cheeks, if it wasn't for him d-
"Please," he whispered, breaking off my thoughts abruptly, which I silently thank him for.
"Fine," I sigh, and pull out my phone, ready to read an eBook, when his hand reaches out towards the phone and grabs it and pulls it away, wincing the entire time. I stare at him in confusion and his eyes flit and his face scrunches as he waits for the pain to pass.
"Make...it...up," he said between gasps of pain and my heart swelled in his agony. My hand deftly makes it's way up to his cheek and strokes it gently in a feeble attempt to take away the pain but surprisingly, I could see the pain gently subside from him and he opened his eyes once more, to look into mine. I continue to stroke his cheek and decide to go with his wishes. I wished there would be something I could do. Anything. But any possibility drew a blank and the hopelessness drew a greater sorrow out of me, causing the tears to, once again, pool in my eyes. I hover over him and watch his emerald eyes as they gazed at me and began my story.
"Once upon a time-"
"No, no, no! You can't start a story like that! It makes it sound like a fairytale!" Kendall interrupted, pouting slightly, and a sad smile creeps onto my lips.
"This one is a fairytale," I retorted, smiling, "Once upon a time, there was an ordinary girl. Her name was Barbara-"
"Ordinary? Don't you mean beautiful, smart, funny, perfect, cute, strong, determined, an amazing coo-"
"Who's telling this story here?" I cut him off, trying to look mad at him but the situation made it very hard.
"Sorry, carry on," he answered, smiling, the harsh light of the hospital flickering in his dazzling eyes. I carefully clamber onto the bed, placing my shins on either side of his, and my left hand firmly beside his head, so I was kneeling over him. My spare hand makes it's way through his hair, and I play with it, gently tugging at his hair and running the fine hairs through my fingers.
"This girl was in love with this huge popstar, the famous Prince Spidey," I say and I see a broad smile appear on his face and I smile back at him, moving my hand down to his cheek, stroking it carefully with my thumb, "One day, Prince Spidey came to Barbara's home town and she spent the whole day searching for him until she found him entering a hotel." I smile fondly, remembering the incident that brought them together. "But the evil security guards wouldn't let poor Barbara see the green-eyed man of her dreams." I put on a fake pout, to emphasise the point, and Kendall gave out a laugh, which was stopped tersely by a shooting pain up his spine. He gasped out in pain and I watched in anguish as I watched my poor husband battle the pain that was darting through him and my heart ached in both self pity and pity upon the man below me. I waited patiently for the episode to end and after a short while he gave me a curt nod as a sign to continue. "So Barbara sat outside the hotel, intending to stay there all night, and eventually drifted off into a sleep. When she woke, she realised she wasn't at home, or on the hotel's doorstep, but in a big fluffy bed, that smelled a lot like boy. She panicked, thinking she'd been raped and the fact that she was wearing a big T-shirt instead of the clothes she was wearing increased her worries. She screamed at the top of her voice and a boy-" I was cut off by a small cough by Kendall and I giggled, continuing, "-man walked in, dressed only with a towel wrapped round his waist, which I have to say, was extremely distracting..." I paused, recollecting the memory of seeing him then, the towel loosely hanging off his hips, and his body, well defined and toned, his face full of colour and joy. I was returned to the present by another small cough and my eyes restored their gaze on the much paler Kendall, weak and fragile and a fresh swarm of tears threatened their way to my cheeks. I forced them back with all my will. "The man looked at her worried and she looked at him in shock. She couldnt believe she was in front of the Prince! And not only that, but he was almost naked!"
"You loved it," Kendall cut in, smirking at me and I let out a strangled giggle, which gave me a look of confusion from Kendall's slender face.
"She then realised that she was wearing his shirt, her favourite of his many shirts she had seen. And the man said, 'Are you okay?' looking very worried indeed, and she stared at him, frozen to the spot. The man muttered a couple of very bad swear words-"I broke off because Kendall was laughing again. I watched him intensely, waiting to see the pain but was relieved to see him looking up at me happy from his laughing fit with no signs of pain. That's a good sign. Isn't it?
"The prince then laid the girl back on the bed and probably gave her CPR, or that might have just been her fantasies and he may have just splashed water on her...Anyway, the girl returned to the real life world and the prince expressed his worry a lot. It went on for about five days-"
"Did not!" Kendall retorted, "Anyway, I was worried about my love's health-" he cut off as he realised the position they were currently in and his gaze moved off my face and flitted across the rest of the room. I softly stroke his cheek until finally his gaze returns to mine and I smile at him, shoving all the worst emotions inside away, and he smile backs sadly, as if pitying me, even though he was the one going through this.
"The girl looked up at him and began stuttering a lot of questions, and after she had finished, Prince Spidey just laughed at all her questions. He explained that he came down for a quick walk in the night when he saw the girl and he felt sorry for her immediately and made the evil security guards take her up to his room to his bed. The evil security guards were very against the idea but the Prince left for his walk leaving them to deal with it. When he returned, the Prince changed the girl-"
"Without looking," Kendall prompted, and I could hear his voice getting weaker.
"Without looking, he...he...he...oh, stuff this!"
I swiftly brought my lips to his, kissing him with fierce emotion. Tears cascaded down my face as my lips moved against his soft, sweet lips, which, even now, were warm, filling me with the usual happiness and hope. The salty taste of my tears had reached my lips but I did not move away, for fear that if I moved, that would be it. After a short time, however, Kendall's lips retreated to take in air and I watch him closely, wiping away my tears as best as I could, but it was a hopeless case so I gave in and let them flow. I noticed a small tear roll down Kendall's right cheek as his eyes locked onto me. His lips pulled apart, and he whispered, as if through his last breath, "Barbara Schmidt, I'll be thinking about you-" There was a brief moment of silence. Followed by the continuous beep of the monitor.
"Worldwide," I whisper, and kiss his head softly.