"You have to go home Rivas. Don't worry, I'll still be here when you come back" Grace said, looking up at me from where she lid in her bed. According to her doctor, she was still in pretty bad shape and wasn't aloud to move due to the surgeries. It was now almost 7:00 at night, and I hadn't left the hospital yet. I didn't want to leave, I couldn't think of a reason to go.
"Why, you don't enjoy my company?" I teased, looking down at her. She was awake, and that was amazing, but she wasn't completely herself, I could tell by the look of her. She was pale and her lips were cracked, and she constantly said she was cold. She wasn't aloud to eat, they fed her through machines, and most of the time she lost her breath and needed to put the oxygen mask on. It scared me, seeing her so helpless, and I think it scared her too.
She smirked before replying "It's not that, you just kinda stink" and Maya nodded in agreement.
"When we leave at nine we'll drive you home okay? Besides, school reopens tomorrow" Zig said from behind Maya. It was the four of us again, me, Maya, Zig and Tiny, all stood or sat around her bed. Her parents had left around 6:00 and planned to come back around 9:00 when we left.
I sighed "I don't think I'll go to school, besides, I probably won't miss anything important" I stated, and Tiny nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, it'll probably be all about shootings and therapy and talking about our feelings and stuff" Tiny said, but he quickly realized he was in front of Grace and shot her an apologetic look.
She smiled at him "it's okay, you can mention it around me" she said, but I could see it in her eyes it was still a touchy subject. Tiny didn't seem to notice her lie and smiled back at her.
Maya changed the subject and started telling Grace about her new gig opportunity, but I blocked her out and decided to watch Grace instead. She was listening intently to whatever Maya was going on about, she was such a great friend to Maya. You'd never think they'd be such great friends, well then again you'd never think I would fall for someone like Grace, let alone another girl.
There was three monitors hooked up to Grace, one for her heartbeat and vital signs, one to alert a nurse if something bad were to happen to her, and another one that measures something else that I didn't know about. She also had tubes around her, one for her oxygen mask whenever she needed it, another for her urine since she was bed ridden, and the other, a feeding tube, went under the blankets into her stomach. She could move her arms and hands and stuff, but the doctors told her parents they were worried about her legs. One of the bullets had grazed her spine or something, and even though she could feel when the doctor stabbed her foot, they weren't sure if she could walk. They didn't tell Grace that though, they didn't want her to loose hope according to her parents, but I felt bad keeping it from her.
Nine o'clock came and Maya, Zig and Tiny said their goodbyes. I decided it was finally time for me to go home, considering I'd been there a day and a half, so I asked them to wait for me outside her room. I sat down next to her and took her hand, "You can call me, if you want, like during the night or whenever."
She smiled and squeezed my hand "I think I can handle it. Besides, my parents will be here for another while longer"
I nodded "Yeah, I know. It's just, I know this is hard and you might act tough, but this is scary. Even if you don't need to talk, could you call me anyway? Just so I know you're okay?"
She shook her head in agreement and I stood up to go. "Come here" she said quietly, and I bent down to her. She pulled me into a hug and then kissed me on the cheek "thank you Zoe." she whispered.
"Anytime. Goodnight Grace" I said and stood back up, letting go of her hand and walking out of the room to leave. We passed her parents on the way out and Dave looked at me and said "Goodnight Zoe, see you tomorrow" with a smirk, and I had a feeling he knew more than he was letting on.
The car ride home was relatively quiet, except for Maya who sang every word to every song on the radio the whole way home. I thanked Ms. Matlin for the ride home and walked up my driveway and into my house. All the lights were off, which meant my mother wasn't even home. I was gone since yesterday morning and she didn't even care, typical. I went straight to the shower, where I took my time to scrub away the past two days, like it would fix my problems. After that, I changed into my pajamas and threw away the clothes I had been wearing, too many bad memories, and went to bed. I turned my ringer on my phone as high as it could go, thankful Maya had retrieved it from school this morning before she came to the hospital, and laid it beside my head on the pillow incase Grace called.
It went off and lit up my whole room, waking me up after the second ring. The screen read 1:36 am, and I quickly swipped to answer. "Hello" I said quietly, still trying to wake up.
"Hey, did I wake you?" she whispered into the phone. Hearing her voice woke me up more, and I sat up in bed to hold the phone to my ear.
"Yes, but it's okay." I said, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.
"Sorry. I couldn't sleep" she said, and I could picture her now. She was probably under the covers, trying to make sure she didn't wake up the other patients who shared the room with her. We had gotten in trouble for being too loud, so she was probably worried they'd take away her phone if another one of the old ladies complained. "My parents left a while ago.. It's just so quiet here."
"It's fine, we can talk for as long as you want" I said, smiling into the phone.
"Okay thanks." she sounded so alone, it made me want to run over to the hospital right now and sit with her, but I knew I couldn't, they wouldn't let me in anyway. "Zoe?"
"Yeah?"
"You were right, this is scary." she whispered through the phone "I don't want to die, not like this"
I shook my head, like she could actually see me "You're not gonna die Grace, you're too strong. You made it through the surgery and through you're first night, the rest of it is gonna be a breeze"
She sniffed on the other end of the phone, and I knew she was crying. "I know, but I think the doctors think there's something wrong with me. They keep asking my parents to come outside and stuff, and I'm really scared that I'm dying and that no one has the nerve to say it to my face." she paused to sniff again " Is that why you were here for so long? Cause I'm gonna die and you knew?"
"God no! Grace, you're not gonna die. You're doing great, the doctors are only telling your parents stuff that you wouldn't understand that's all"
She took a second to think and then whispered "then why were you here for so long?"
"Because I was worried about you, and I like you. I wanted to make sure you were okay" I said honestly.
"Okay" she said. It was quiet for a moment, until she spoke again "Zoe?"
"Yeah?"
"Could you stay on the phone with me until I fall asleep?"
"Of course." I said and lid back down, the phone pressed between the pillow and my ear. I don't know which one of us fell asleep first, but when I woke up that morning I was still on the phone with her.