The next morning I was up before Robbie, having been unable to sleep normally the night before. I still felt extreme guilt for leading him on…if that's what I was doing.
Before he woke up, I climbed back into the wheelchair, having fell asleep in his bed again. Judging from what a nurse said the day before, so long as everything went according to plan, he would be moved into a regular hospital room that day, outside of the ICU. I was grateful, because I had come to realize I was staying with him due to the fact that I didn't like him being in the ICU alone. If anyone and everyone (well, with hospital consent) could come visit him, his dependency on me would dwindle.
And after the previous night, I was sure that what little dependency he had, if he ever had any, was now next to none.
I tried pushing it out of my mind, but I found it very difficult. As I sat in the wheelchair, waiting for him to get up, my mind shifted focus from an English essay I had due to the movie that Tori and Andre and the others were probably going to see that day to…the kiss.
The two kisses, actually. I had kissed him twice last night. I tried to remind myself that neither was on the lips. Therefore, neither truly counted as a kiss. I knew that seemed a bit of an obscure way to see it…but it was the only way I could bring myself back to sanity. I was starting to go insane in my mind just thinking about the way I had deceived Robbie. He had seemed so vulnerable…and somehow even though he had told me we wouldn't work, I felt the guilt because I knew it had been wrong. I had taken advantage of him…
No, it wasn't wrong. He was in pain. It was the only way he would ever take the medicine that Siobhan and I knew he needed. I wasn't sure why but he had this huge self image he felt he had to protect, at the very least while I was around.
I could hear him mumbling my name in his sleep. I rolled my eyes. Oh, brother, I thought. Sure, Robbie. We're not compatible.
I realized the trouble when a nurse came in.
"Beauty rest, huh?" she said, smiling upon seeing him.
I nodded.
"You sure your parents don't miss you?"
I tried to crack a smile. Then…
"Mmmm…" Robbie moaned in his sleep.
The nurse looked over at him. "Do you think he needs some morphine?" I fought the sudden impulse to laugh, because by then I of course knew how impossible it would be to get him to relent. In fact, I didn't even know where the button was. It was with the next word that my heart skipped a beat.
"Cat…"
My eyes got wide suddenly. The nurse froze. "What did he say?"
"Uh…" I tried to stammer, but at that point, I found it very hard to deny.
"He must be very close to you," the nurse said, giving me a look that plainly said that she had some suspicions as to the true nature of the relationship between Robbie and I. "When he wakes up, just make sure he calls for us," she said, giving a look at the heart monitor. "He seems ready to be moved into a regular room, but we'll need to assess some more once he wakes up."
With that, she turned quickly on her heel and the doors shut behind her.
I breathed a heavy sigh of relief. One crisis had been averted. Stupid Robbie, I thought. Part of it was anger from the night before. Part was…I wasn't so sure.
A few minutes later, he finally woke up and I filled him in on the fact that he had been muttering my name in his sleep. "It's not a big deal," he tried to tell me.
I narrowed my eyes. "'Not a big deal'? Do you even know how much trouble we both could have gotten into? What do you think the doctors and nurses would have said about you calling out for your cousin in your sleep? Because correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think cousins do that kind of stuff in real life, do they? Do they?"
"Geez, sorry, Cat."
I sighed. I had come close to yelling at him, and all he had done was something completely out of his control. It wasn't his fault that he had been saying my name in my sleep. Besides, I couldn't sort out why but I was still bitter and angry from the night before, when he said that the most we should ever pursue was a 'platonic relationship'. "Whatever," I grumbled.
"Why is it such a big deal to you?"
"Well, I know the entire country is all divided on the ideas of what's a 'wholesome' marriage and whatnot, but I'm pretty sure that even the most radical of them wouldn't agree to someone kissing their cousin." I folded my arms over my chest, slumping back in the wheelchair, then said, "The nurse said to push the call button when you woke up."
He did, and less than a minute later a nurse was in the room, and seconds later Doctor William stood before us, too. "Good morning, Robbie," he said happily. I tried to smile at him, though my blood was boiling. He, too, looked at the heart monitor and some charts, then took out a stethoscope and listened to the sounds of Robbie's chest. He then put it against his back and did the same. He then smiled. "I think you're ready for a regular hospital room."
I helped Robbie put all of his stuff into his suitcase and backpack. There wasn't much; clothes, mainly, and his Harry Potter stuff. He also had a PearPhone and a laptop; I had only ever recalled him using the latter once since he was hospitalized. It easily fit in his backpack.
"The elevator will be a little bit crowded with the bed and everything," Doctor William told me, "but you're welcome to come and see him in a few minutes. We'll be moving him to room 218 on the second floor."
I smiled, already feeling my anger dissolve. It was so stupid that I was getting upset, since it was over just such a trivial reason. Robbie asked if I would bring Rex when I came up and I agreed. When they started taking him out of the room, it hit me that it felt like they were taking my best friend away. Where, I didn't really know. It was as though I was all alone.
Due to the chills going up and down my spine, I didn't stay much longer in the ICU. I went to the doors, struggling to open them with my wheelchair, and went to the elevator, pressing the button with the down arrow. The waiting seemed to go on forever, but finally the doors slid open and I got on.
There were three other people on the elevator, of whom gave me mixed looks. I hadn't showered in a while, to busy making sure that Robbie was okay, so I probably didn't smell like a spring field. What little makeup I had been wearing just a few days prior had run off and my clothes were wrinkled from being slept in. There was also the fact that I was in a hospital wheelchair—implying that I was a patient there—and was roaming around by myself. I could see one woman, out of the corner of my eye, give me weird glances at the top of my head. I assumed she was looking at my bright red hair.
The doors slid open again and a man held the door for me while I wheeled myself down the hall to room 218. When I got there, the nurse was just leaving and Doctor William was setting everything up.
"There you are," he said, then smiled when I came in. "Everything seems good." With that, he left the room.
We worked that morning and into the afternoon on patching things up between us. I apologized for my antics the night before and my bad attitude that morning; he apologized for being so short with me. I couldn't help but notice that neither of us mentioned what he had said about the status of our relationship.
Later that day, Allison arrived after she was dropped off from school. She was very close to Robbie, too, and hadn't seen him with a while. It was after she had been there for about half an hour that I realized it was a Friday and that by now, the rest of our friends at school were probably off seeing the movie they had made plans to go and see.
I was sort of getting bored (after all, this was a special thing for Robbie to see his sister and it wasn't exactly my place to interrupt), when she took out her phone and said, "When do you want me to let in the others?"
Both Robbie and I frowned. "What others?" he asked.
She smiled and said, "I'll take that as now." With the word 'now', she pressed a button on her phone.
Seconds later, the hospital doors opened and in came Tori, Trina, Jade, Beck, Andre, and Sinjin. I wasn't sure why Sinjin had come, but Robbie's face broke into the biggest smile I had ever seen. "What are you guys doing here?" he asked.
"Yeah, aren't you supposed to be seeing a movie?" I asked.
"Well, I do hate hospitals," Trina complained. "They're so depressing."
Jade suddenly looked up. "I love hospitals."
Ignoring her, Trina continued, "But we were just so concerned about you that we decided to come pay you a visit before we went." She gave Sinjin a weird look. "And Sinjin snuck into my car when I wasn't looking."
"Trina, you're such a liar," Tori said. "Well—except about Sinjin." She turned to me and said, "Andre and I decided to come down here, Beck agreed, Jade agreed because Beck agreed and because of the depressing factor, and Trina came because I promised her we can go shopping later."
"You tricked me," Trina grumbled. "You said that we were still going to see the movie."
"The movie can wait," Andre said, turning to Robbie. "Sup, man? How you doing?"
Robbie looked embarrassed. "I'm alright. I just can't believe you guys are all here."
"Are you kidding?" Beck said, sounding about as surprised as I felt. "You're one of our best friends and we were worried about you. We would have been here sooner but Tori said that Cat said you couldn't have visitors yet."
It was like Robbie just remembered that I was in the room as he fought furiously to hide a blush. Only I seemed to pick up on the fact that it was about me; the others mistook it for embarrassment at the unexpected visit. "Well, uh," he said, trying to change the subject, "this is my sister, Allison…"
We went around the room introducing everyone. Robbie threatened Sinjin when he got too close to her. The conversation lasts for a long time. "We hope you can get back to school soon," Andre says after a while of just talking about how the food at the hospital is (which is not very good, as I learned from sharing meals with Robbie day in and day out. I had started to hope that I never needed to go the hospital in just that respect).
"Yeah, Sikowitz said he won't announce what the musical is until you get back," Trina griped.
"Trina!" Tori said in shock.
We all laughed, and for once, Robbie's laugh was not accompanied by a look of absolute pain and torture. It was finally like he was enjoying himself, and I, too, had to hide a smile. I was so happy to see this side of him after the previous night and that morning.
"Well, what play do you think it'll be?" Jade asked, finally saying something that didn't make me feel depressed.
None of us had any idea. "It'll probably be something really well known," Beck said. "I mean, the fall show didn't do so well, did it?"
"That was a nightmare," I agreed. Though the play was amazing and wonderfully cast, it was seen by a very small audience. Usually, Hollywood Arts would lose money for paying for fees for the production but gain it back in ticket sales, but for that play, only fifty dollars was paid back. It was a very small audience for some nights, though there was a larger attendance on the last night. Still, it wasn't enough for us to not have a hole burned in our metaphorical pocket.
"I guess it wasn't really all that popular," Tori agreed, looking grim.
"Well, whatever the next play is, we better hope that Sikowitz picks a good one," Andre said, and everyone agreed.
"Did somebody say Sikowitz?" our batty teacher said, walking into the room.
"Sikowitz?" Robbie said, sitting up even straighter in surprise. I had to admit that his presence shocked even me. Everyone else looked like they hadn't known he was coming either, so I was thankful that he had taken time to come in on his own accord.
"Hello, Robbie," he said, handing him a paper. "I graded your scripts," he explained. For Sikowitz's class, we had to write a short script for a play. It could be about anything, so long as it was school appropriate. On the top of Robbie's paper was the score. I could see in big red letters a 95, as Sikowitz really didn't believe in giving a perfect score on anything. The only exceptions to that rule were when we were being graded on participation alone. "Cat, here's yours, too," he said, handing me mine. I had a similar score, a 93. I was surprised since my script was sort of a half hearted job.
We were showing everyone our finished products as a way of praising ourselves, when Sikowitz said, "Now…I've heard that some of you may be wanting to know what our spring musical is going to be." We fell silent immediately. "I was going to wait until you got back to school, Robbie, but since the majority of us are here right now, I thought it would be okay to let everyone know."
I didn't know about anyone else, but the waiting was killing me. It seemed that Sikowitz knew. Of course, he continued on, not announcing the name of the play, "I think that we all agree our fall performance was a flop. No harm there, we all know that it was wonderful but funding was not the best it could be. For the spring piece, I feel we should do something well known and that has a large cast. The play I have chosen will gather a large audience of both young and old and I feel we have the chance to sell out some performances. That is why I wanted to announce the name of the play we're doing is…"
I was starting to tense up; the man knew how to keep people in suspense. I held my breath, waiting for him to say…
"Annie."
There was momentary silence, then Cat said, "That play's a tragedy, right?" I honestly whether sure she was serious or not.
"Well…I suppose some parts are a bit of…"
"Not interested," Jade said. This was met with mixed results.
Soon, in small groups, everyone started to leave until it was just Robbie, Allison, and I. The smile on his face was so contagious that Allison and I cracked grins as well. Soon, Siobhan showed up for the night to take her daughter home, but she agreed to stay a while before that. We quickly filled her in on the rest of the afternoon when Robbie said, "Cat…you'd make a good Annie."
I laughed. "There's a joke."
"Oh, I agree," Siobhan said.
"Me, too," Allison agreed.
"What, just because I'm short, innocent, and have red hair?" I said, snickering, though I wouldn't object if Sikowitz wanted me to play Annie. I hadn't ever had a lead in one of his plays before, and it would have been fun to be able to do it for once.
"That, and you can act, and sing," Robbie said. The next words out of his mouth shocked me: "I mean, Tori's always stealing your spotlight. Sure, she can sing, but so can you."
I blushed furiously. "Oh, hush," I said.
Soon, Siobhan and Allison went home and we were alone again. My mom had demanded that I go home that night, so it was only a matter of time before she got there. I had looked up songs from the musical on my PearPhone and we had listened to them when suddenly Robbie told me to pause it. "What?" I asked, automatically in a panic.
He relaxed. "Sing to me," he asked.
I frowned. "Are you still hung up on the thing about me and Tori?"
He smiled. "No. I want to hear your voice before I go to sleep."
I bit my lip in an attempt to keep myself from smiling. Thinking, I started to sing Take A Hint but he stopped me and said, "No. Sing a song from Annie."
Truth be told, I only knew a small number of the songs in the musical, so I started to open my mouth, spitting out the words to one of the only songs from the film I knew that wasn't completely depressing.
"Maybe far away, or maybe real near by…he may be pouring her coffee, she may be straightening his tie…"
I'm sorry that this wasn't posted yesterday, my Internet wasn't working that great yesterday. There was also the fact that this week has been chaotic. I will absolutely try my best to update again tomorrow so that I don't deviate too much from my schedule. Um this was a chapter full of suck… But hopefully you'll be nice? xD I SWEAR Cabbie will happen. Just trust me. Also my school is doing Annie as our musical atm which is why I chose it for this. So um yay review.
- Hatter of Madness
