IV
“Hey buddy,” Fox says, “Welcome back.” Luke sighs and lies down on the bed. Or table. I don’t really know what it is. “Do you want to step out into the hallway a sec Taylor? You look like you’re going to be sick.”
“Just for a second,” I say, standing and stumbling over to the door. I close it behind me. I focus on breathing and try to ignore the fog. I knew it would be coming back son. I can’t do anything about it here even if I wanted to. I slide to the cold ground and press my back against the even colder wall. I tuck my head between my knees and breathe in and out. I hear the door open a few seconds later and Fox its next to me.
“Lauren is a mini you, you know that?” he says.
“You think so?” I ask.
“Oh most definitely. Not only does she act just like you, she also looks a lot like you. Like she could be your daughter. Luke resembles you slightly but he’s so passive. You and Lauren… not so much.”
I smile slightly, “We don’t look alike.”
“Oh really?” he starts to count off on his fingers, “Same brown hair, big eyes, small nose, one crooked bottom tooth, and also crazy cute.” I run my tongue over my crooked tooth and blush.
“She has blue eyes though.”
“You don’t look like carbon copies, but still similar.”
“We don’t have the same mannerism though, she’s only four.”
“She does so! She bites her lip like you, and her nails, she pushes her hair off her shoulders and-”
I stand to cut him off, “We should go back in there.”
Lauren is sitting next to Luke trying to teach him the hand game she and Fox were playing earlier. “Why can’t you do this right?” she asks, throwing up her hands.
“You do that too,” Fox mumbles in my ear. I blush again. The bright nurse pokes her head into the room.
“Knock knock,” she smiles, coming in fully. She has apple juice and sugar cookies, “How’re you feeling Luke?”
“A little funny,” he says.
“Are you hungry?” she asks, and he nods.
“They haven’t even had dinner yet,” I groan.
“You probably have time to go and get something, we won’t be done for a few hours. If you’re not back when we finish we’ll call you,” the nurse says. She nods and leaves us with the cookies.
“Want to go to McDonald’s?” I ask to no one in particular. Everyone says yes so we all head to the car. I get the kids Happy Meals. Lauren chokes hers down while Luke takes his time.
“Are you going to get something?” Fox asks.
“Probably not.”
“Well, I am.” He goes up to the counter to order and I stay with the twins. I’ve been too worked up over Luke the last few days that I totally forgot I had to eat to live.
I get the twins back in the car and head to the hospital. It’s honestly the last place I want to be right now, but I sort of don’t have any other choice. Hopefully this will be out last hospital visit for a long, long time.
