The next day, I waited for Gamzee by our lockers, by he didn't show up. He wasn't in any of our classes.
The same thing the day after that and the day after that. He missed a solid week. Friday night, I called him. "Hello?" A woman's voice.
"Uh hi. Is Gamzee there? He missed a lot of school and I was just seeing if he's sick or something..." I trailed off.
"Oh sweetheart, he's in the hospital." She said, her voice uneasy. "He has been since Tuesday night. I'm his mom."
"He's...in the hospital?" I asked, hoping I'd misunderstood her.
"Yes." She said sadly. "Are you Karkat?" She asked, her voice softer now.
"Yeah." I breathed.
"He's been asking for you, but we thought it was the medicine takling. Could you meet me at the hospital tomorrow morning?" She asked, her voice sweet now.
"Yes." I said softly, feeling the lump raising in my throat.
"Thank you sweeetie." She said and hung up. My phone fell to the floor of my room.
I fell on my bed, my head swimming. I woke up early so I could shower.
My stomach was too upset for me to eat anything. I caught the bus up to the hospital, not wanting to wake up dad.
Right out front, there was a woman in a dress, a furry wrap around her shoulders, smoking a long cigarette. "Ms. Makara?" I asked, making her look at me.
Her eyes were the same color as Gamzee's, her hair a silky black pulled back into a beautiful up-do. She had a bruise on one of her high cheekbones. "Yes." She smiled at me.
Gamzee didn't get his height from her, obviously. She was only slightly taller than me in her heels. She put out her cigarette and hugged me. "Thank you for coming." She said as she squished my face between her breasts.
"Of course." I said, following her inside. We got into an elevator and went up to the hightest floor before we got out. She stopped in front of a room, her hand on the doorknob. "May I see him alone? Please?" She nodded and opened the door for me.
Gamzee was on the wide hospital bed, asleep and shirtless. Gauze was wrapped around his waist. He had a few shallow cuts on his chest that hadn't been there before.
His eye was swollen and bruised, a big purple bruise on his cheek like his mother's, a cut in the middle of his. His lip was split and swollen opposite his lipring.
I walked close to the bed and touched his hand the IV wasn't in, holding it. His knuckles were scabbed, cuts slashed into them.
His eye opened, his split lips parting to smile at me. "Hi." He said softly. "I kinda gave up on you actually coming." He said, closing his eye.
"I just found out last night. What the fuck happened Gamzee?" I asked, tears building up in my eyes.
"My old man called me out when I said I was gonna leave the gang. Came to our new house and started a fight with me. I got him pretty good though after he hit my Mom. Then he stabbed me and I don't really know what happened after that." He said in one breath, not opening his eye.
That's what the cuts on his hand were. I kissed his knuckles, making him look at me. My tears were dropping freely now, making him frown. "Hey." He cupped my cheek with the hand I held. "Don't cry, okay? I'm fine, really. The doctors say I'll be out tomorrow if the stitches are doing well." He said, making me look at him.
Gamzee was so strong and all I could do is cry. "Come here." He said softly, pulling me onto the bed with him. He kept his arm free, stroking my cheek softly. I was scared to touch him, afraid to hurt him.
"I wasn't sure what I would see when I came to see you, Gamzee. If you were going to be an inch from death or if you were going to have a missing arm or something." I said, trying to not picture it.
It would make me cry more if I did. "I've had worse, trust me." He whispered, kissing my forehead. I frowned at him.
"That's not the fucking point." I said, trying to stay calm and remember that he was hurt. "Gamzee, the point is that I was scared that I was going to lose you." I hid my face instantly after I said it.
He was silent for a long moment before he touched my neck, making me shiver. "Karkat." He whispered. "Look at me." I shook my head. "Please?"
I looked at him, my face bright red. He leaned forward and kissed me. Not on the forehead or nose, but my fucking lips. Surprised, it took me a second to kiss him back.
When I did, he sighed, cupping my cheek again. A second later, he hissed and pulled back. His lip had split open again, blood beading and welling there.
He wiped it away with the back of his hand and licked his lip. "Sorry." He whispered, planting a wet kiss to my forehead. I smiled at him, kissing his nose.
"It's okay." I breathed, wrapping my arms carefully around his neck. "Does it hurt?" I asked, my hands in his hair. "Getting stabbed?"
"Eh. It's not the greatest thing in the world. But he missed my internal organs, so it's not as bad as it could be. But, if the knife is sharp enough, you don't even feel it until they pull it out of you." He frowned. "His wasn't really that sharp."
I stared at him with fearful eyes. Was he in pain? And how the fuck does he know that?! "I won't even ask how the fuck you know that." I said, biting my lip. He smiled at me.
"Ex- gang member, remember?" He poked my nose and moved it from side to side. "I kind of know things most guys don't." He smiled softly at me. "Not to mention I know how to pierce people and you always use a sharp needle to make sure there's no blunt force trama to the area. Same for knives."
"So...where he stabbed you is going ot bruise?" I asked, trying to follow what he was saying.
"Exactly." He sighed, moving. He lifted the gauze on his waist and sighed again. I didn't want to see it. I couldn't bare to see it. Not right fucking now. "It's already started, too."
"I'm sorry." I said. "I should have been here sooner." I swallowed hard, feeling the sting of more tears threaten to escape my eyes.
"Karbro." He took my chin in his hand and made me look at him. "You didn't know." He said, looking into my eyes. Well, eye.
Why did I feel so connected to him after such a short aammout of time knowing him? I remembered back when Mom had told me about how she and Dad met.
That they fell in love instantly and stayed in love ever since. Love at first sight.
At the time, I thought she was full of shit. But now, laying here with Gamzee, I think I understood what she meant all those years ago. There was a knock on the door and I didn't feel bothered to move.
The doctor came in and only paused for a second when he saw me. "Okay Mr. Makara. We need to clean your stitches and change the gauze now." He said, already putting on a pair of gloves.
Gamzee's face pinched and he sat up. I sat up too, holding his hand. I couldn't look away as the doctor unrolled the gauze around Gamzee's waist and looked at the dark black stitches in his skin.
"We'll give you some medicine to reduce the bruising. I can guess that hurts pretty bad." He said as he poured some clear liquid on a circular pad and pressed it to one of the lines of stitches.
Gamzee jerked. "Fucking ow." He hissed, his hand squeezing mine tightly. Then the smell hit me. It was straight rubbing alcohol.
I knew how bad that shit hurt on open wounds. Dad had mixed up the rubbing alcohol and the hydrogen peroxide once when I was younger and poured some onto my skinned knee. I'd screamed bloody murder at how bad it had hurt.
But Gamzee only jerked and pinched his face up as the doctor put soaking wet pads on the other three lines of stitches, shaking bad next to me.
I held him by his shoulders, letting him lean into me as his arms gave out. After a minute or so, the doctor lightly rubbed the pads across the stitches and threw them away.
He opened a fresh roll of gauze and wrapped it around Gamzee, his hands darting around his back without touching me. I didn't say anything until the doctor left.
I lowered Gamzee back down, his body still shaking. "Its done now. It's done. You can relax." I said, stroking his uninjured cheek.
He took a shaking breath and looked at me. With his free hand, he caught mine and held it. A nurse popped in, a needle in her hand.
"There we go." She said as she shot it into a tube in Gamzee's IV and pushed something on it, making the dripping faster. "This should help with the pain and bruising." She smiled at us on the bed. "You must be Karkat." She beamed at me. I nodded.
Without saying anything else, she left, shutting the door behind her. In a couple of minutes, Gamzee's eye was shut, his breathing even.
He was asleep. A thought hit me and I smiled down at him. I wrote a note for him and left it where he would see it, hoping I would be back before he woke up.
I kissed his forehead and covered him up. The elevator doors opened and there was his mom. "Oh! Karkat, I was just coming to check on you two. Is everything alright?" She asked, instantly worried.
"Yeah everything is fine. I just have an idea on how to make him feel better." I smiled at her, making her blink. She pulled me into a hug suddenly, her arms tight around me.
"Can I talk to you before you run off?" I nodded, sitting next to her in the hall.