Perhaps Someday // The Sequel to Life Ends, Love Says

Chapter 5: Like it Was Before

Joey's POV

Meghan's eyes shot open, bloodshot and weary.

"Joey! Joey!" She screamed, specs of spit flying off her dry, cracked lips.

"I'm here!" I whispered back, running over to her, instantly awoken from y dazed daydream. It was like I was in a parallel universe, half asleep, half away, in an imaginary world where everything was bright, and I was happy. Imagining that distant reality kept me going, kept me stable.

Meghan's breath was fast and rigid. Her pants making me worried that she could pass out. I whipped my hand behind me to press the emergency nurse call button without taking my eyes off of her. My eyes skimmed over every inch of her, examining anything that could make her feel this way.

"No! No don't call them!" Her eyes were wide now, as if she hasn't been in a deep sleep.

"Meghan," I tried to stay calm, my voice shaking, "W-What's wrong?"

"I have to leave." She brought her hands up to her ears and started shaking her head violently. "I have to leave, Joey! I'll die here! I have to leave!"

Tears swelled in my eyes, I shook my head slowly, not understanding why she would think that. I brought my hand up to her cheek, her eyes glued shut. Just as she said that, two nurses ran into the room, prying her hands from her ears to check her IV's. I looked up at the nurses, hoping that they knew something I didn't.

"Ms. Camarena, can you please tell us what's bothering you?" One of them asked.

"I want to go home!" She cried, "I need to to home! I'm gonna die if I stay another day here!" She repeated, rage and fear written over her face like words on the page of a book.

My own face filled with her fear, but from a different perspective. My heart pounded and my throat clogged up, preventing me from speaking.

"She can't go home, not yet!" The other nurse said to the one who spoke.

"Maybe it'll be better." The other one replied with a sigh.

Meghan started coughing hysterically and I grabbed her hand in response. She squeezed my hand so hard that veins popped from my knuckles and down my arm. "Shh, calm down," I said, my own voice shaking. I was half calming myself down, and half her.

The doctors rushed to place a mask over her face, helping her breathe from her cough attack and getting her to sleep again. "Joey?" One of the nurses came to me. I nodded and looked at her, "You can take Meghan home today, but just for one night. We'll see how she responds."

My heart lit up as if a volcano of happiness had just exploded inside of it. I wanted to grin from ear to ear, maybe let out a little laugh. But I felt guilty for even feeling happiness when Meghan was still in this state, unable to join me in that happiness. I felt as if I wasn't finished with grieving so I shouldn't end it before it gets worse. So I just smiled a friendly, "thank you" smile as Meghan's grasp completely loosed from my hand as she drifted into a deeper sleep.

"I'll give you some of her painkillers and other medication, with all the instructions..." She went on but I had completely stopped paying attention to her words, only responding my taking what she handed to me and nodding ever so often. I thought about what I would do once I brought Meghan home, all the things we could accomplish in a night. It would be short but sweet, the perfect day. I imagined waking up to her quivering eyes as they opened to their fullest, the green colour finally peeking out through her eyelids as her irises shrunk in size from the light of a new morning. A morning with her. The best kind of morning. It would be just like it was before. Before all of this. "...but remember, you must make sure she is sleeping the majority of the time, she's not ready to complete a full day on her own." She finished.