"O-Okay. What the hell's going on here?" Eddie stammered.

Tanya was blowing her nose loudly with a tissue paper while Belle held a tin can full of trash at her side.

Belle looked strange.

Her usually straight, jet-black hair was off of her face and settled in long, natural waves on her shoulders. Her long locks were chocolate, dark and . . . strangely appealing against her pink cheeks.

She was staring at her hands, barely even moving her face. She knew Eddie was staring at her. She was like a stray cat. Frozen. Waiting for him to make a move.

"What do you mean?" Tanya answered lowly, tearing Eddie's daze from Belle. She seemed to have emptied out an entire tissue box. Tanya's nose was red and fleshy. She looked so bad. But Eddie needed some answers. Quickly.

"What I mean is-,"

"What he means is," Belle shot up from her seat and dusted off her clothes in an obvious and awkward manner. She placed her hands behind Tanya and fluffed her pillow affectionately and then sighed. "What he means is-that we've run out of tissue. We should go get some. Shouldn't we?"

Belle finally turned, throwing Eddie a fierce look. She widened her eyes a bit and then motioned to the door behind him. Eddie opened his mouth , about to angrily rant, but Belle jumped at him and pushed him out the door.

"Are you out of your mind?" Belle shoved him.

Eddie couldn't even be angry. He was so shocked. It was all too much.

Belle's eye furrowed in impatience. "Are you listening to me?"

Eddie wasn't. He was staring at her face. It was strange. Yet familiar.

It was clear-no trace of makeup at all, just a peachy complexion and pink lips. Her hair was a bright brown at the roots, then growing dark at the tips. Watching her now, so closely, it was like he had never seen her before.

And In a strange and awful moment-it all hit him at once.

His ignorance.

His blindness.

Seeing Tanya in there-sick, scarred forever. Hearing her disappearing voice echo in his mind. It opened him. It awoke him. It was like his whole life, he had been looking at the world from underwater-everything was always unclear, roughed up on the edges, but it was always there. This whole time he could never really see the beauty in it all.

Now he was lifted.

Eddie finally understood the amount of stupidity woven in his life, a braid so deeply embedded into his blood, his soul, how it had been planted there from an early age. How this pattern was thick and coarse, how it ruled him.

Unfastening it all was going to be hard, he though hastily.

He nearly smiled to himself. He was happy. He felt light. It was so new.

But he also felt awful.

"Hey. You! I'm talking to YOU!" Belle's voice rang.

Eddie snapped back and coughed. "Oh, wow. Sorry. You were saying?"

"Listen, asshole. I know you weren't ready to walk into that room with my friend in there, ready to go all ape-shit like you always do. I don't have the patience to deal with your crazy shit."

Eddie shook his head. "You don't have patience with me? You're the one who stole my blade."

Belle's eyes softened. She opened her mouth to say something, but then she reached into her back pocket and pulled out Eddie's blade. She held it out before her.

"You aren't going to stab anyone with it, are you?" She murmured, stepping closer to Eddie and looking down and up the hospital hallway.

A couple of RN's passed by chatting loudly, living their own lives separate from the whole mess happening over there, with Eddie. For a slight moment, he envied them.

"My answer doesn't matter. If I were you, I wouldn't believe a word I'd say." Eddie said sadly.

"I should be shoving this down your throat for what you did to me."

"You hit me straight in the balls, little girl. Don't you think you've had enough fun?"

"I have. Now it's time to man up. Tanya's in there and she needs us. Take this, put it out of sight and keep calm. She doesn't need anymore drama in her life as it is. We can settle shit outside. Not in there."

Eddie stared at the blade resting in Belle's hands. He grabbed it, but then gave it back quickly.

"What are you doing?" she asked skeptically, pushing the blade closer to Eddie.

"It doesn't look right in my hands. Keep it, kid. Lord knows you'll be needing it."

Belle scoffed. "Are you threatening me?"

Eddie rolled his eyes. "God-no, can you just shut up and take it?"

"You're fucking mental."

Belle was staring intently into Eddie's eyes, as if taunting him, as if daring him to look away first.

In order to break the silence, he went, "How did it happen? Why did she collapse?"

Belle bit her lip a bit and then looked away.

"I don't know much. The doctor calls it Acute Retroviral Syndrome. It's what's making her sick as a dog. When she dropped from exhaustion last night, Katie didn't know who to call, so she called me."

"Why you?"

"Tanya & I used to be best friends before highschool. We were . . . really close. We did everything together." There was underlining notes written across every single word she had whispered to Eddie. He knew there was so much more to that, but it wasn't time for that now. He needed to be there for Tanya.

"You wanna go back in?" Belle whispered conclusively. Her voice was monotonous, her mind obviously a thousand miles away.

It was strange, how easily Eddie could read this girl's face. Every line and wrinkle on her face told a million stories, each written more passionately than the next. He never would've thought he could ever possibly look into this girls face without any ounce of hatred stinging his eyes. It troubled him.

For a second, he wondered what she was thinking. About Tanya. About the blade.

About Jake?

"Yea." he finally answered.

Belle nodded, looked down and took a shaky breath.

"Look, Belle," Eddie began again. A part of him just wanted to an excuse to look into Belle's eyes one last time, another wanted to explain what he was feeling. "I'm fucked up."

Belle smiled sadly and looked at Eddie up and down as she put her hand on the handle to Tanya's door. "I know."

CHAPTER PREVIEW

"Everyone needs to calm the fuck down, now! Let him talk. This ought to be good."