I slowly opened my eyes. I was in an unfamiliar environment. The walls were stark white and there was machinery everywhere. The air had a slight chemical smell, and there was a low murmur of machinery working and people whispering. I was lying in a hard bed, with sheets over me. A part of my left arm was bandaged heavily with gauze.
I looked across to my left and saw Alex laying in a similar bed, and gauze on his left arm in almost the same exact place. He was asleep. He looked so innocent laying on that bed with his hair in his face...it made me hate Justin all the more for what he had done.
"Look who finally decided to wake up!" A voice to my right startled me. I turned my head to see a middle-aged, kindly looking man, who was smiling at me. He was wearing a lab coat and holding a clip board, so I presumed he was a doctor.
"You've been doing very well...you two were extremely lucky that Mr. Aevale was in fact intoxicated at the time and could not hold the gun steady. The bullet went right through both of your left arms, and you were also very lucky that it did not hit any major bones, arteries, or veins. In fact, we could have you out of here in two weeks. The only condition is that you'll have to wear a cast for two weeks after that." He informed me patiently.
I sat there in shock as it fully sunk in. Justin Aevale had shot both Alex and I in our left arms in a drunken haze. I had known he didn't really want me back. He just wanted someone to treat like dirt and fulfill his horny desires (I had never let him have sex with me, though. I was waiting for when I was out of high school for that.) I felt anger slowly collect inside of me. How dare he ruin my life like that!
"Thanks, Doctor..." I looked at his name tag. "Doctor Goldstein," I rasped. My throat was sore from lack of use.
He smiled and left the room. Alex's eyes fluttered open when he heard the door shut. He sighed and looked to his right, at me. He smiled weakly at me and raised his right hand to wave.
"Don't overexert yourself," I laughed. His eyes brightened and he choked out a laugh. I frowned. It seemed the bullet had taken more of a toll on him than me. I could've killed Justin then for what he had done. Alex's eyes drifted over my face, and, seeming contented, he closed them and went back to sleep.
I sunk back into my pillow. My life seemed to have turned upside down. First with meeting Alex, then the whole Justin fiasco...I was ready to just go back to sleep. I turned onto my right side, being very careful with my left arm.
I was troubled by dreams where it was Justin being held up at gunpoint by Alex and I was sneering from behind Alex, where Alex had died, and where Justin had sexually harassed me. The sound of light piano and singing woke me up.
I turned my head to see Alex sitting uncomfortably at a small piano in the corner of the room. A ray of sun was shining on his back and I could see dark scars through the back of his hospital gown. He was playing the piano and singing.
"Go ahead and burn it down...I'm drunk and so's everyone else in this devil town. They won't let me turn around to get one last look at my baby while she's still around...while she's still around." His fingers stopped playing that song and immediately picked up a new tune. It was much more poppy, but it still had an element of immense sadness. "Sing me to sleep...I'll see you in my dreams...waiting to say, 'I miss you, I'm so sorry.'" He stopped playing after that as well and his shoulders slumped. Then, suddenly, they tensed and he let out a single sob. He carefully laid his fingers down in an ending chord and got up from the piano.
His face looked twenty years older with the hurt and sadness etched into it. He came and sat on my bed and pushed the hair off of my face. He gingerly kissed my forehead and stroked my hair. I felt something wet fall on my face. I looked directly into his eyes above my face. Alex was shaking with silent tears and was looking at me with such fierce dedication in his face. I pulled his lips down to mine and kissed him tenderly. He pulled away a few seconds after, gazing into my eyes with tears running down his nose. He squeezed my right hand and hobbled back to his bed where he laid down and dozed off, his tears slowly drying up.
I couldn't lose this boy.