The next time I was aware of being awake, I woke up in a bed that definitely wasn't mine. For one thing, my sheets at home were blue, not white. They also definitely hadn't been washed in awhile - so there was no way they could smell this sterile.
My eyes felt like someone had glued them shut. It took a lot of effort for me to get get them opened, and when I did, I knew that the ceiling didn't match the one in my bedroom, either.
All of a sudden I realized how nauseous I was. Frantically, I searched for something for me to puke into - that was the dead giveaway that I was in the hospital. There was a bin next to my bed… I remembered Ponyboy using one last night. It must've been protocol for all the patients.
After I finished vomiting I noticed Darry was also in the room. He was sleeping in one of those hard, plastic chairs they also had out in the waiting room. I grabbed his knee and shook his leg.
"Darry!"
"Mhmmm? What?" I giggled. He was half sleeping, half awake.
"I just puked."
Darry seemed to become aware of his surroundings and jumped about a foot in the air. "Jo! Good lord, you scared the… crap out of me." he caught himself from swearing in front of me. I stared at him, amused, while he caught his breath. Seeing Darry get so scared when he was so big was kind of funny.
Then he looked at me - I could tell he was embarrassed. "How do you feel?"
I just shrugged. Other than having just puked, it didn't feel like any thing was actually wrong with me - my mind was still working to try to process everything that had happened. "I'm not gonna lie, I don't remember parts of it."
"Uh… do you remember passing out?"
"Sort of. Not anything after that though… But I guess that makes sense."
I was surprised when Darry smiled. "That has to be a new record, Jo - fainting in the hospital."
I laughed. Darry didn't really joke that much, so it was almost funny just to hear him try.
"I also think me and Pony probably broke the record for most puking in one night, too," I said. "And morning."
Darry looked upset again, and I realized that, to him, there probably was nothing funny about this situation at all. His two youngest siblings were sick - technically, we were his responsibility now. "Jo? Would you mind explaining exactly what happened? I mean, is there anything else me and Soda should know about? None of us were there except you and Pony." I had a feeling Darry had already heard parts of it, that's why he was asking.
"How is Pony? Is he ok?" Truthfully, I was still disorientated - but I would tell Darry, eventually.
"Well, he's better than earlier, for sure," Darry didn't really seem to care that I had changed the subject - it probably would've been hard to reprimand me while I was in the ER. "Soda's in his room right now. We've been switching off between you two all night."
"You've been here all night?! Darry, you came right from work!" I realized he probably hadn't been home since he and Soda had left before dinner yesterday. No wonder he looked so exhausted!
"I definitely wasn't gonna leave Pony here by himself. And then, you…" he shook his head. "There was no way I couldn't stay, Jo."
"Oh." I still wasn't thrilled that Darrt had slept in a chair last night. If only I'd been able to hold off fallen asleep until we'd gotten in the car… "What about Pony's… whatever it's called? I forget the name."
"His appendix. He had appendicitis - that's why he's been so sick. But he's fine now, from what I understand, they had to remove it."
"What? His appendix?" Apparently, I still had a lot to learn about anatomy, which I wouldn't get to take until I was a sophomore. I hadn't known it was possible to take out entire organs.
"Yeah, it's sort of useless, apparently."
"Actually, someone told me that your appendix catches all the gum when you accidentally swallow it." I said. It had been Two-Bit, a few years ago, and I was just remembering where I'd heard the word 'appendix' before.
Darry didn't laugh, instead, he looked like he'd aged about 5 years. "I can't believe this happened to him. The doctor said if we had waited any longer, he could've died, and I just thought he was overreacting." He shook his head. Darry would beat himself up about this for awhile, I knew.
"Darry, you couldn't've known. I've never even heard of appendicitis."
I remembered what Pony had told me about how I was the only one who could really talk to Darry, so I decided I would try. I figured now was as good a time as any. "Stop blaming yourself, ok?"
Darry just stared at me. "Jeez, I never thought my 12 year old sister would be the one with all the advice." he put his hand on my shin, under the blankets.
I laughed a little. "Yeah, well, one of us had to be the sane one."
"You did a good job, getting Pony here. I know that must've been scary."
I was too guilty to take the credit for saving Ponyboy. "It wasn't like I drove or anything, that was Steve. Besides, Pony pretty much saved me." Darry looked at me, puzzled. All of a sudden, I was explaining everything that had happened, without leaving out a single detail. I wanted Darry to know everything that had happened. Without Mom, there wasn't a single person who actually knew everything about me, and it made me feel less.. alone.
When I was done, Darry smiled slightly, and gestured to his own face. "I guess that explains all this."
"You're seriously not mad at me?" I asked. I wished I could get up and clean all the makeup off my face, except my muscles were actually starting to feel sore, now.
"I know I should be. And don't think just cuz I'm not punishing you means you can do this ever again - it could get us into some real trouble with the Social Services. But… no. I can't be like Mom and Dad in that way yet."
However much I wanted to convince myself I was being treated in the same way my brothers would be, I knew that had this been Pony in my position, the punishment probably would've been way more severe. But I took what I could get.
"I won't do it again. Ever. I promise."
"I know you do, Jo," he just stared at me for a second, like he was judging whether or not to say something. Then he said, "Also, it would be pretty hypocritical of me."
"Why? What did you do?"
Darry started telling me about the things he'd gotten into in his younger years. I was shocked to find out that, for some of them, he'd been around my age for. I was starting to think that maybe, Darry snuck out even more than Soda, but was just better at not getting caught.
Listening to him relive all his memories didn't sound like a parent talking to me at all. In fact, like Pony had said, Darry sounded like my brother - and I liked that a lot.
Eventually, my eyelids got to heavy for me to hold them open any longer. I fell back asleep, face-down on the pillow just so I could pretend I was in my own bed, ignoring everything but Darry's voice.
I thought a slower paced chapter was needed after all the action lately. Also, I wanted to make Jo and Darry's 'reuniting' it's own chapter. So, I lied - there will still be 14 chapters. (Can I ever make up my mind?)
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