Welcome back to Insanity, if you're even still around!
Well, after listening to One Direction's new album, I'm in the mood for some heartfelt-stuffs. I hope you don't mind :D
Chapter 8:
Fly
When I woke, I noticed two things.
First: the room I was in needed one hell of a decor change. White paint was sleek on the walls, chipping at the bottom and making the room smell like an old locker room. There were two large chairs pulled away from their dust-heap outlines, an old clock that was clearly broken hanging limply on the wall, and an atmosphere I didn't like.
Second, the fact that something was wrapped around my neck, making me panic. I thrashed and clawed at my neck, trying to get whatever this thing was off of me as fast as I could. The moment I started, though, I was stopped by two hands trying to pry my hands away.
"Easy, Pone, easy!" came a voice; it was light and gentle, but firm all the same. "Ponyboy, you've gotta calm down; let go. You're okay, I promise...but you've gotta let go."
Reluctantly, I allowed the voice to set my hands at my sides again, and as it pulled away I realized who it was. Steve and Two-Bit were seated on either side of me, grins blooming like flowers on their faces when they noticed I was conscious. Two-Bit reached out and slapped my hand lightly with his, a small laugh of relief leaving him with it.
"Thank God you're okay, kid," he murmured, looking me over with a flash of sadness in his eyes. Steve murmured the same slur of words, nodding to me in the most nonchalant way.
I opened my mouth to speak, to which Steve jumped to his feet and shook his head. "You can't talk, Pony...you hear?" he said, placing his hands on my shoulders and looking me dead in the eye. "That neck brace is there for your protection; we don't need you doin' that type of shit again." He went scrounging around the room after that, trying to find something for me to communicate on. When he found a notepad and had grabbed the pen on my nightstand, he handed it to me quickly before sitting back down again.
I scrawled out two words on the yellow page; words that I knew Steve and Two-Bit would tell me whether they liked it or not.
Where's Soda?
Upon taking my message into his hands, I watched as Steve's face fell. He shared a look with Two-Bit, both of their eyes downcast and lips a thin line. For a moment, I had no clue what sort of things were whirling around in either of their minds, until Two-Bit opened up about everything and anything that had played out.
"He's here," he said, wiping his bangs out of his eyes only to have them fall back into them again, "actually just down the hall." He took a moment to sigh, rub at his eyes and share another look with Steve before he took off again, sensing my anxiety. "He ain't good, Pone; but don't worry –"
"What happened," Steve interrupted, shooting Two-Bit a glare as if to say you're an idiot, "was this: You two were taken from the house, obviously, late last night. You blacked out way before Soda did, but you kinda had a huge-ass gash in your throat, so... Soda threw in the towel not long after you, though, leavin' both of you passed out in the ambulance and fightin' for your lives. When you got here, people took both of you back to patch up those little pretty faces of yours, and now here we are: you're awake, but Soda's not."
I sat there, watching as tears started to well in both of their eyes. Steve, being the 'I'm-a-man-and-I-don't-show-emotion' person that he was, quickly dismissed them by wiping furiously at his face, only to make more tears fall until they were rushing down his cheeks like a waterfall. Two-Bit just as easily started to crack until he, too, was crying a river. "There's nothing we can do but sit and wait," Steve murmured, his voice suddenly dropping about two octaves so that it was low and grim. "Sit and wait for him to either wake up, or for that goddamn lifeline to go straight."
It took me a week and three days to convince everyone – my doctor, mainly, but also Steve and Two-Bit – that I was stable enough to get out of the neck brace and go to see Soda. He still hadn't woken up yet, but was close to it; at least, that was what Two-Bit and Steve relayed to me when they would come back after checking on him.
"You're not going to try something like this again, are you?" Steve asked as the doctor begun to unstrap and uncoil all sorts of velcro and pinned strips off the brace. I shook my head, to which Steve raised an eyebrow and said, "Are you, Ponyboy?"
"No, Steve," I said exasperatedly, sighing from both relief and annoyance as the last velcro strip on the brace was tugged off, allowing my neck to not be smothered by padding any longer. "I won't."
Steve nodded in approval, though his eyes betrayed the emotion. I saw a wide expanse of fear in his dark eyes, as if he didn't want to relive this moment; I knew it was for Soda and not for my own benefit, but the fear still brought a warmth to my heart.
"Well," said Two-Bit from where he stood against the wall right by the door. "We gonna go see him or ain't we?"
I nodded enthusiastically, hopping off the bed and catching myself as the world started to spin. Damn you, vertigo... I thought as Steve placed a hand on my shoulder to steady me.
"You good?" he questioned, not bothering to give me a moment to answer before he was sharing a look with Two-Bit. "Maybe we shouldn't go, Pone."
"No," I answered abruptly, shaking his hand away. I straightened and held my head high, forcing back the nausea that rose in the pit of my stomach. "I'm fine. Let's just go before you two have any other excuses to not let me see my goddamn brother."
Holding their hands in surrender, the pair of them led me out into the blank white hallway. It was filled with the same white-dressed people, the same tang of medicine in the air, and the same dreary atmosphere that only made me want to get out of here faster. I wasn't leaving without Soda; nothing would stop me from getting him out of here as quick as possible.
We paused just outside his door when Steve began to freak the hell out. He started to hyperventilate, his eyes wide and tears beginning to grow in them. His hands started shaking from where I could see them in front of me, and Two-Bit had to hold him together and murmur quietly in his ear for a few moments.
"Chill, Steve," I could hear Two-Bit coaxing, "You're fine; he's fine. He's okay, man – Soda's okay. Calm down, Steve – just calm down..."
That seemed to last about five minutes before Steve actually gained his composure. Wiping his eyes furiously on his arm, he looked at me as if to say this doesn't get talked about at all. I nodded, holding back a grin at the victory of seeing my brother's best friend show emotion for once.
Two-Bit sighed and looked to me, narrowing his eyes. "You're sure you want to –"
"Glory, Two-Bit, yes!" I whispered sharply, rolling my eyes. "Just open the damn door!"
"Let's get this over with..." Two-Bit responded, scratching at the back of his neck with a sigh.
"Let's hope he's awake," Steve murmured to no one in particular as the door swung open and we stepped inside.
Hope was what got us here; a miracle was what we needed more than ever now.
Well, I hope that this update (or lack of one) was at least sort of satisfying for you to read. I am unsure as to when this next chapter will be up, since I'm at my dads this weekend and I'm having a party with some friends of mine for my sixteenth birthday on Sunday... I'm hoping to start this next chapter once this one is posted, so perhaps a double update will occur. There's no definite chance that'll happen, though, because I get sidetracked easily and uh..yeah. XD
Thanks for reading, lovelies!
:)
