the sun - charlie gillespie

twenty eight

"hey..." i felt someone lightly shake me. i tucked my head even further to the person's neck i was leaning on and breathed in heavily. it sounded like owen.

"mia.." the same person whispered. i lightly opened my eyes and saw that i was leaning on jeremy, i dosed off on his shoulder.

"i'm sorry." i apologised, i closed my eyes once again.

"is she sleep talking?" carolynn asked sweetly.

" i don't know, why are you apologising for being tired." i heard jeremy say and i crossed my arms.

"mia, you need to eat." owen said, i opened one eye to see that he was holding a steamy pasta box with some tissue and a plastic fork. i lightly pushed the food away and carried on sleeping.
owen was the only one who knew sleeping and not eating was my only coping mechanism. studies show that teenagers are actually fond of getting negative coping mechanisms.

"please mia." owen begged me, i'm assuming he was the one who moved the hair out of my face. jeremy shook his shoulder to encourage me to eat. i sighed and took the box, maybe if i hold it, they'll leave me alone. i sat up with the box in my hand.

the hospital waiting room was not great. we've been here for almost 2 hours with no updates on charlie. he's not dead. i mean, why would they take this long to tell us that he's dead. i'm sure they are trying they're hardest to keep him alive. i opened both of my eyes as soon as i heard the waiting room door open. it was a male doctor, who had a clipboard.

"who is here for charles gillespie?" he called out and since we were the only one in the waiting room. he knew it was us. he grabbed a chair-

wait, why is he grabbing a chair?

chairs are only needed for long talks. this shouldn't be a long talk because charlie is alive.

i know he is alive.

owen grabbed my hand and laced our fingers together. he knew i was going out of my mind. i took one deep breath and placed the pasta box onto the table beside us.

"we've chosen to revive him slowly, instead of all at once. by administering naloxone in 0.4 mg increments, and waiting 3 to 4 minutes between doses, just so we avoid accelerating his heart rate or causing him to vomit." he explained to us and i grabbed owen hand a bit tighter.

" although the recovery of consciousness after drug overdose may occur within a day or two, the drug itself may not finally leave his brain for another one to three weeks, and at this late time a withdrawal syndrome can occur, with insomnia, restlessness, raised paradoxical (R.E.M.) sleep, epileptic phenomena, and even delirium." what he's saying is quite complex so let me break it down for you.

withdrawal syndrome is a collection of symptoms that are opposite to the pleasurable / desirable drug. they occur when charlie is not taking the drug, since his body has now adapted to the drugs, when he's not having it, he'll feel sick.

R.E.M stands for rapid eye movement, it's stage 5 in stages of sleep.the body is paralysed as the brain waves are desynchronised. so he'll have trouble sleeping.

delirium is a serious disturbance in mental abilities that results in confused thinking and reduced awareness of the environment. the first sign is sudden confusion about time and often about place (where they are) may be an early sign of delirium. If delirium is severe, people may not know who they or other people are