And here's the next chapter of the story! I know that I've been tantalizing you all with the eventual meeting of the to main characters, but it's coming soon trust me. I have the next chapter ready but have to do some proofreading before I submit. I also have a CPE later today so I'll either post before I leave or when I get back, but it will be today. But until then,
On with the story!
Chapter 6:
The first thing that I saw when I opened my eyes for the first time, was a bright blinding light. I cringed and shielded my eyes. My eye sight was blurry at first but soon began to clear up, the sound of machines beeping and the clock ticking filled the room.
"Ahh, glad you see you finally awake" a voice said
I turned my head and there standing over me was a tall elderly woman with pink hair tied up into a bun. She was looking over at the machines and wrote down something on the clip board that she was carrying
"I must say, I didn't expect you to make it" she said honestly, chuckling to herself "But stranger things have happened"
Okay, I have no idea what was going on but one thing was for sure, this woman had a morbid sense of humor
"Where am I?" I croaked out. Oh my god! Was that my voice, it sounded like a cross between a hoarse frog and a dying wolf, all scratchy and no tone
The woman cringed at the sound of my voice "I will explain everything but please, refrain from talking with that horrid voice, at least while I'm in the room" she muttered the last part
I rolled my eyes at the woman irritably before she cleared her throat and started talking
"For reference, I am doctor Porlyusica"
Doctor! With those bed side manners, I'm sure that she's been told that before with the way she was looking at me
"And for the record, I have been told about my poor bedside manners, but I could care less" she said acting like she had just read my mind before continuing "You are in the hospital recovering from 3rd and 2nd degree burns on majority of your body, which are healing quite adequately, if I do say so myself" she sounded like she was patting herself on the back for doing her job, weird woman
"Also, your left foot was crushed by a fallen support beam and crushed severely"
My eyes widened and she noticed the look of horror on my face
"Stop looking at me like that!" she snapped at me "It's not as bad as you think, luckily, it was only sprained and is swollen, a cast had to be administered but you should recover full mobility in a couple of week, a month if necessary"
I wanted to ask her what about my dancing, but she seemed like the type of person who didn't like to answer a lot of question, but I had a lot of questions and I figured one more wouldn't hurt
"What about me dancing" I managed to croak out
She gave me a look that said, didn't I tell you not to speak,
"Dancing!" she gawked "What do I look like? I'm a doctor not a choreographer if it's dancing you want then talk to someone else" she narrowed her eyes at me and turned around so I could only see her back "Besides, I told you a couple of weeks, a month if necessary. I do not like to repeat myself"
"Now, get some rest, I will check on you later" she said exiting the room and closing the door behind her
When she left, I laid my head back and was met with a soft pillow. I pulled both my arms from under the covers and saw that they were bandaged all the way from my wrist to my elbow, maybe even farther than that. I leaned up to get a better look at my foot but was met with excruciating pain shooting up my abdomen. Laying back down and not wanting to go through that again, I settled for trying to lift my leg up, an sure enough, I had a tight restraint wrapped around my leg, it felt heavy and clunky but the pain was acceptable.
I lay in my bed staring up at the ceiling, a thousand different questions ran through my head,
"What had happened after I went back in?"
"Was Chelia, okay?"
"How did I get to the hospital?"
"How long have I been out?"
"What happened with everyone?"
Each question only managed to give me an even bigger headache then I already had, and to make me even more tired.
I sunk deeper into the pillow and let the sleep consume me
XOXOXOXOXOXOXO
The blinding light coming in from the window woke me up, if it hadn't been for the protection of the shutters, then the small room would have been filled with light. I turned my body grudgingly to block it out and reached to pull the covers over my body, but stopped when I felt a piece of plastic. I glanced down and groaned when I saw the IV attached to my wrist, I wanted nothing more to just rip the thing out but decided against it.
I heard a knock at the door and before I could respond, the door opened to revel my doctor
"Good, you're awake, this makes me job a lot easier"
I wondered what she meant before she walked over to my arm, and none to gently, ripped the IV out of it. I hollered in pain but it came out all croaky
"Don't be a baby" she said rolling eyes before replacing my bandages. As much as I didn't want to, while she was busy rolling my skin up with fresh tape, I glanced over at the previous ones; they were covered in a yellowish-green substance and dried blood, the sight was enough to make my stomach do back flips. I turned my head and focused on the woman that was, roughly, tending to me.
"Okay" she sighed as she placed the roll of bandages back into a white box with a red cross on it and closed it "I'll be back later with your medications" she said getting up from the bed "But for now, you have visitors, I'll show them in" She walked out of the room but left the door cracked open
"Visitors" I thought, how could possibly be here?
As if hearing my thoughts, the door burst open and the room was soon filled with colorful balloons, different arrangements of flowers and a, very large, stack of what I presumed were get well cards. Holding said items were Chelia, Chise, Orie and Nobu, my mom, dad and Juno.
As soon as he got in the room and saw that I was awake, Juno ran and jumped into my bed, narrowly missing my bandaged foot
"Tomo!" he screeched making my ears ring
He wrapped his arms around my bandaged chest and it stung a little but I decided to let him have his moment
"Look whose back from the dead" Chise replied sarcastically as she placed one of the flower arrangements on the stand next to my bed "And here I thought the tragically boring tale of Tomoyashi, came to a dramatic conclusion" she sneered looking at me and I stuck my tongue out at her playfully
"Huh! Chise" Orie gasped as she shoved the balloons that she was carrying into Nobu's arms and ran over to my bed, her weight caused the bed to sunk in and she roughly grabbed my head and roughly thrusted it into her, admittedly large, bosom
"Here is our friend laid up in the hospital, horribly disfigured and all you can do is make jokes, have you no shame" Orie continued to push my face deeper into her breasts making it harder to breath, I started thrashing
"Uhm, Orie" Nobu spoke up meekly "Tomo's kind of—"
Orie looked down and saw that I had trouble breathing and she quickly released me. I pulled my face out from between her breast and started taking big breaths of air, my face had become flushed, I glanced over to Chise who simply rolled her eyes and looked away. She looked more than just her average irritated, she actually looked jealous
"Here, these are for you" Nobu said placing the balloons in my lap causing my line of sight to become blocked "Ms. Cortez also wanted to say, get better soon" he said taking a seat on the bed next to Orie making it sink lower
"OH!" Juno sat up and took a neatly folded up piece of paper out of his pocket and started to unfold it "I drew this for you" he said excited as he shoved the piece of paper in my hands. On the picture was a poorly drawn version of what I think was supposed to be me and him underneath a rainbow holding hands, it read
"Get butter soon!" with the u crossed out to an e
Spelling mistakes aside, I chuckled at the sentiment and patted him on the head. I looked to the door and saw Chelia standing there, she was being so quiet that I had forgotten that she was even in the room, she was normally the one making all the noise so to see her like this, something must have been bugging her.
As if feeling that I was staring at her, she turned her head and forced a smile in my direction, I smiled weakly back at her and knew that we were going to have one big emotional talk later
My father cleared his throat and everyone in the room in the room looked at him. The gruff expression on his face told everyone that he wanted them to leave
"Umm, Juno!" Orie exclaimed faking a smile "How's about we go find some ice cream for,Tomo?" Orie didn't wait for his response as she peeled him off of me and grabbed Nobu's hand before heading out the door. My dad stepped to the side and allowed them to exit, everyone else soon followed until it was just me, my dad and mom
The room became dead silent except for the constant ticking of the clock on the wall. My mom was leaned up against the wall and my dad was just standing there, they were looking at me, staring at me like a child who had just got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. It wasn't until my dad made a move that everything seemed to come back to life
"So, it seems like you're doing better" he inquired as he looked around the room "Everything, um, is alright, right?" he asked with inquisitive eyes
I didn't know how to respond to that; I mean, I was layed up in a hospital bed with burns covering majority of my body and a sprained foot, how do you think I was doing?
"John, he's in a hospital bed with 2nd and 3rd degree burns, how do you think he's doing?" My mom rolled her eyes and walked over, he heels clicking on the tile floor as she took a seat at the foot of my bed, being careful not to step on anything or sit for that matter
"It was a legit question" he said running a frustrated hand through his gray and brown hair before taking a seat on the small sofa that I was just noticing for the first time "I mean, we're paying extra for this room. I want to make sure that our money is being used wisely, comfort isn't cheap"
My mom glared over in my dad's direction which meant, stop talking, in that language that only married people could understand. She reached a gentle hand over and ran it across my face, I inadvertently twitched making her stop halfway and pull back with a sigh
"At least let us know if you're comfortable" she said with pleading eyes
I looked back and between my parents, this was the first time that they were actually paying a sizable amount of time worrying about me. My relationship I had with my parents consisted of a couple of things, 1) Conversing on a minimal amount of time for the momentary minute that they were home, 2) Making sure that there was something, actually edible, in the kitchen for breakfast and dinner and sometimes a light snack, but they were in charge of that. A goodbye wave in the morning and a good night at dawn, everything else was just…unnecessary
My replay to them was a slight nod, the doctor comment on my voice had kind of made me self-conscious about it
"Good" my dad said hopping up and dusting off his slacks "Everything seems to be in order, so" he looked at his wrist watch and then at me mom, tapping on it impatiently "Can we—"he motioned sweeping motion toward the door
"John" my mom warned in a serious tone
"But, Mariam" he said in a calm/agitated voice "I have a meeting in 45 minutes on the other side of town and then after that—"he was stopped when my mom jumped out from off the bed, making it creak
"John!" she said through gritted teeth
Uh-oh, I knew what was coming next
"Can I see you outside?"
That was my mom's way of making herself feel better for what was about to happen, she figured that if we couldn't see them, then that would make the arguing less harsh for me and Juno. He grunted before they walked outside into the hallway, the door creaked shut before it began
The muffled shouting, the, all you care is about work, and then the ever so popular, you see how hard it is being me, before the shuffling of the feet, and then the sound of muffled cries and the high pitched voice before the ever so exciting climax of one of them walking out, and the other walking back in. However, because it was a public affair, they both walked back in with my mom looking seriously, for the sake of the children I'll say peeved off; with my dad walking back in with his hand shoved into his pockets
There was a knock at the door, and who else but my doctor to make this family affair even more entertaining
"Hello there" she said walking in past the hand shake that my dad had offered and past my mother who opened her mouth to ask a question "I am doctor, Porlyusica, I will be your son's primary appointed care taker, and so on and so forth" she said as she rapidly flipped through some pages on her clipboard "If you have any questions, please ask them now"
My mother opened her mouth but was once again cut off
"Good no questions, let's move on" she said flipping to another page
"Your son, T…m..oishi, what kind of name is this?" she muttered to herself as she squinted at the paper
"Tomoyahsi" my mother corrected
"Right…that, anyway, he has sustained some serious burns on majority of his body which seem to be healing averagely for the degree they are in. He should regain full mobility of his foot within the coming month, and 40 percent of the toxic smoke has been filtered from his lungs, all in all" she pulled the board from her face and looked at my parents "He's lucky to be alive"
My mother cleared her throat authoritatively and the doctor sighed "Yes, what is it?"
Ignoring the tone the doctor used my mom asked her question "Yes, when will he be cleared to come home?"
The doctor looked over her clipboard "We are still worried about the amount of toxin still in his system, however, if everything checks out then he should be cleared by tomorrow"
"And what about school" my mother continued
"Whenever you feel he's ready, anything else" the doctor edged on trying to get all the question over with
"Yes, as anyone told you about your poor bedside manners" my mother said glaring the woman down
The doctor was however unfazed "Yes…Yes they have, if you have a complaint then please feel free to fill out the paperwork at the front desk" she said it like she had it rehearsed, which apparently she had
"Don't worry, I will" my mother said sneering in the woman's direction
The doctor walked out of the room not paying attention to my mother's "threats"
"Who does that woman think she is!" my mother gawked "Oh, when I get done she's going to-NO! The hospital's going to be issuing a public apology" my mother seized as my dad started rubbing her shoulder, making her take a seat on the sofa.
My mom worked as the spokeswoman for the Magnolia Gazette and national town news, so anything that's relevant in Magnolia, new places, failing business, who slept with who in what position, all this stuff was her businesses. And needless to say everywhere she went, she was treated like she was the Queen of England, which I guess made me Prince William and Juno, Prince Harry. Where that left my dad, I don't know
"Calm down, Mariam" my dad cooed as he continued to rub her shoulders soothingly, there was a knock at the door, had the doctor come back for round 2?
"Come in" my dad called, looking like he was thinking the same thing I was
When the door creaked open, the air was tense until we saw that it was Juno, Orie and Nobu
"Is it safe to come in?" she whispered
My dad walked over to the door and pulled it open, making Orie stumble backwards but skillfully being caught her significant other
"Gee, thanks babe" she said patting him on the head as he pushed her back up on her feet
Juno came in caring an armful amount of juice boxes, he dropped them all on the bed, presenting them like a prize
"Look what I found" he said climbing back into my bed and rummaging through the different colored boxes, he picked up a yellow one and stick the straw in before shoving it toward my mouth
"Drink" he ordered, I softly shrugged to myself and sucked on the straw, the yellow liquid went through the tubed and splashed into my dry mouth, I was instantly hit with the taste of pineapples. I gave a thumbs up to Juno who beamed up at me and gave me the bottle to hold as he began to pass around different colored boxes to people
"Were did you guys get these" my dad said eyeing the purple box he was handed suspiciously before downing it
"Oh, there was a cart outside" Juno said sitting on my bed and sticking a straw into a blue box for himself
"Did you ask first?" my mom chimed in
Juno shook his head
"We made sure to ask" Nobu said crushing the box in his hand before tossing it in the trash
"Yeah, the lady said take as many as needed" Orie said smiling as she slurped up the last of her drink
"And, all of these were necessary" my mom said dropping her box in the trash
"Well, Juno didn't know what flavor Tomo wanted, so he got two of each" Nobu commented
Juno took his mouth away from his box and looked up at me, I knew what he was waiting for, if there was one thing I resented at this point, it was teaching him manners
I sighed before taking the box down from my mouth
"Thank…You" I had to take a momentary pause because I thought that it would cushion the impact. All their eyes widened and my dad chocked on his box, evident from the pounding on his chest
"You sound like a robot!" Juno cheered "Cool"
"Oh dear" my mom placed her hands in her hands and just shook it slowly
All I needed now was for the doctor to come back in the room and tell us that we were making too much noise, to make this moment just perfect
XOXOXOXOXOXOXO
Laxus leaned back in his swivel chair and looked at the clock on the wall for what seemed like the 10th time now. He had approximately 15 more minutes until he could leave, a minute early and Erza would have his head.
Laxus let out a tired yawn and stretched his arms out, it had been a practicality quiet day and the only calls that they had received ranged from cats being stuck in trees, to small barbecue fires that a regular house owned fire extinguisher could have taken care of. Natsu jumped at the chance to take care of each assignment, and Laxus wasn't going to argue with him.
The clock ticked again and he looked up for the 11th time, it always seemed that whenever it was time for him to go, the time would go even slower making the agonizing wait even more annoying
The door creaked open and in walked a half dressed Gray, Laxus didn't acknowledge his presence but continued to stare at the clock
"Don't you know the old saying "A watched pot never boils" Gray
"Don't you know the saying, shut the hell up" he growled back
"Someone's touchy" Gray said as took a seat "By the way, we got hospital report about that kid"
Laxus would be lying if he said that he hadn't thought about that incident since it happened. It's been all over the news, reports swarmed in about the fire that devastated a school gymnasium and about a student being severely injured. The thought of what would have happened to that kid if they hadn't found him still plagued the back of his mind
"Oh yeah, how is the brat doing?" Laxus asked trying not to sound interested
"He's doing a lot better, should be released sometime this week"
"That's nice" Laxus was relieved to hear that the kid was doing a lot better, he had to admit then when they found him in the building he looked worse for wear, he thought that the kid wouldn't make it but he was happy that everything worked out
"Think we should send a care package?"
"Psh, up to you, just keep me out of it" Laxus said counting the seconds he had left on his shift
"Alright, I'll make sure to sign your name with dotted hearts" Gray said ducking as Laxus chucked a mug at his head
"Whoa" Cana said as she opened the door narrowly being hit in the head by said mug, before it smashed into the wall "I'm not cleaning that up"
"It's almost noon, shouldn't you be intoxicated by now" Laxus joked making Cana flick him off
"Bite me" she sneered "I'm actually going out later, you guys should come"
"Can't" Gray waved his hand "Gotta stay after for something Erza has me doing" he groaned and slamed his head on the table
"Sucks to be you" she looked at Laxus "What about you, your gramps said he hasn't seen you in a while"
Laxus sniggered his teeth "I see him every other day" Laxus scratched the back of his head "I don't know, maybe"
"Well whatever, I'm getting my drink on regardless"
Laxus looked up at the bottem less pit of a woman that he called his coworker and wanted to say something before his cell phone rung. He checked it and saw that the timer that he had set for work schedule had gone off
Laxus stood up and grabbed his jacket form the back and the chair, he walked out of the office with a small wave and goodbye. He decided that he would make a quick trip before going home that day
XOXOXOXOXOXOXO
It had been about 2 hours since everyone had left, Orie and Nobu had filled me in on the things that I was missing at school. Apparently because the fire wasn't as bad as the school officials had first thought, they decided that they would just sanction off the gym for the rest of the school year to be renovated. That meant for the students that school would be out for the rest of the week but would report back on the following Monday.
When they told me that I had been out for about three day now, I couldn't' believe it. Being asleep, it felt like everything only happened for a couple of hours
I read over all the cards that they had brought me, the ranged from "Getter better soon" to "Did you know that only 69 percent of bun victims survive, you should be happy!" I even got some from the people that worked with my parents. I have to admit though, I've never received this much attention before, and I was going to miss it when I left the hospital, but anything was better than being in this bed all day with a moody doctor.
There was a knock at the door, expecting it to be my doctor I didn't say anything. However, opening the door was definitely not my doctor, Chelia walked in looking apprehensive, she was carrying a large bouquet of bright yellow flowers. We stared at each other for what seemed like forever before she crept over to my bed and pulled a chair up
"Uhm, here" she said quickly placing the flowers into my hands
She started to fidget uncomfortably in her chair and I wanted nothing more than to just jump out of bed and hold her close to me, but given my current circumstance. Even more time passed by and the tension in the air continued to get thicker
"I want to know one thing" she said looking down at the ground from her seat "Why?"
"Why what"
"Why you went back in like an idiot!" she screamed at me, she finally looked up and then when I saw that her eyes were beginning to water
"I couldn't find you" I screamed/croaked back, which turns out was a bad idea because my throat started to itch making me wheeze. Chelia jumped up and patted my back in a soothing motion for a moment. After I was done, she sat back in her seat
"You couldn't find me and your solution was to run back in" she said still shaking her head "That makes no sense to me, what am I some freakin damsel in distress that needs to be saved all the time, I can take care of myself" she got out as the tears started to fall
I looked down at the flowers in my hand, trying to distract myself from what was going on. I knew that we were going to have this talk eventually, but didn't think that it would happen so soon.
"When they brought you out from the gym" she stopped herself before continuing "I didn't know what to do, I saw you hurt and bleeding and thought that maybe that was going to be my last time seeing you" she bit her bottom lip to the point I thought she was going to draw blood
"I-I can't lose you, Tomo" she said taking my hand and bring her forehead down to it "Your my best friend and I love you" she started to softly sob into my hand and I could fell the could wet drops of her tears as they fell. I reached my other hand over and softly caressed her hair
"Me too"
She looked up from my hand surprised
"When I thought that you were in trouble, I couldn't help myself" By this time, I could feel myself crying. The way that we both worried about each other, the lengths that we would go to help one another, the tears that we shed, everything only seemed to prove one point; we loved each other unconditionally
She reached up and we wrapped our arms around each other in a warm embrace, when we let go it was as if the tension in the room sudden disappeared and was replaced with a bright warmness
"Okay!" Chelia said wiping the tears out of her eyes "Now that all of that drama is out of the way, how have you been?"
I explained to her all about the crazy doctor, my parent's arguments, Juno's obsession with my robot voice, and the boringness of being laid up in a hospital bed
"Wow, that's crazy" she said laughing at my misfortune, causing me to roll my eyes. I looked down at the bouquet of flowers and took a big whiff, the aroma of sweet honey and a warm relief washed over my body
"We're did you get the flowers?" I asked as I continued to inhale their sweet smell
"Oh I didn't get those" she said "Those were at the front desk when I came to visit you"
I stopped for a moment and pondered, who would send flowers to me. I looked over them for some kind of identification, but only found a small card
"Getter better soon, kid" signed:
- Don't worry about it
Who could have possibly sent Tomo those flowers? (wink, wink)
Anyway, please R&R your thoughts