Something Special

Chapter 21

"Excuse me. Miss?" Tara glanced behind her and bit her lip. A young nurse was running towards her, a clipboard clutched in her hand. "Sorry. Were you here to see Mr Cross?" Tara nodded. "Hiya. My names Claire. I'm his nurse." She shook her hand.
"Tara."
"He really would like to see you." Tara takes in her pretty smile and light blue eyes. "Um. Really? Him and his girlfriend were in there and I-"
"She's not in there now. Honest. He's shouting out for you." She bites her thumbnail and nods hesitantly. "Ok." Claire beams and leads Tara to a room. Tara notes how amazing the inside of the hospital looked. With uber modern commodities and artwork pasted over very wall, it looks more like a hotel then a hospital. But with bedpans.

Alex is sat on his bed, his eyes half closed, his arm held in a sling. His normally perfect looking face is black and blue, with a deep slash over one eyebrow. Tara still thinks he is beautiful. "Hey Tara." He murmurs, tapping the space on the comfy looking bed next to him. She closes the door behind her and leans against it for support. "How are you?" He asks, glancing up at Tara.
"Great. Never better. Top of the world."
"Tara. I'm so doped up on drugs I can barely see straight and even I know you're lying." She bites her lip to stop a soft giggle. "You're a fine one to talk. Look at yourself. What've you done?"
"Broken collarbone in two places. Major concussion. Deep laceration to my stomach. Two broken ribs. Fairly sure I landed on some glass. Um, cracked my head open a little bit too." he stumbles over his words, as if his tongue was too big for his mouth. "You know. Just the usual."

Tara folds her arms over her chest and he keeps going. "Going in for surgery later today for a plate in my collar bone. Also, they scanned the bejeezus's out of me. CT, MRI, X-Ray's, KFC-"
"That's not real.' She says skeptically, still hovering by the door. He smiled warily and leans back, pain flickering through his expression. "Maybe not." Slowly, then all at once, Tara rushes towards him. He swears slightly as she crashes against him, but holds on for dear life. As if she was a life jacket and he was drowning.

"Please don't do that again." she whispers in his ear. He pulls away and looks her in the eyes. With newly found confidence he strokes her face with his non injured arm. "What?"
"Nearly kill yourself. It's-" she struggles to find the word. "Heartbreaking?" Alex suggests. Tara ignores him. "Difficult Alex. It's really, really difficult." She offers no other explanation and he doesn't ask for one. Instead, he wraps her hair around his fingers and tugs it. "Come on Lincoln. You're not gonna cry on me are you?" She scoffs and he clumsily caresses her face. "Ok Alex. Let's not go that far." His eyes begin to close as the drugs in his system take effect. Tara places him gently back on the bed. He gives her a sleepy smile and catches her wrist. "Stay with me." he whispers, falling away from consciousness. "Sure." Tara whispers, her heart racing from the closeness of his face. He slumps and begins to snore lightly, his face softening with every breath. Tara carefully pry's Alex's fingers off her arm and sighs.

"You've really done it now." she whisper to herself, settling into the chair next to his bed.
...

Alex dreams of her. The girl with the Do Martins and a pierced nose. The girl with bruises on her back and a permanent scowl. The girl who got under his skin like a disease. Thoughts of her laid on him like a rash he couldn't scratch. She was in his mind like a book you couldn't forget. He saw her he closed his eyes and wished she was there when he opened them.

Tara.

"When can I go?" He asked the nurse called Claire who rolled her eyes and consulted her register. "Later today Alex. You know that." he beamed and rubbed his flat stomach. As if by magic, Reggie backed into his room, 2 mugs of tea in one hand, 4 snickers bars and 2 packets of crips in his mouth. "Herr Clayrn." He mumbles, throwing Alex a Mars bar and depositing the rest on the table next to him. "Hello Reggie. You ok?"
"Good thanks. You?"
"I'm fine. Alex, try to walk a bit more today. You're going to be your feet a lot more from tomorrow so you're gonna have to get used to walking." She waved at Reggie. "See you boys later." She exited the room, leaving behind the faint smell of cinnamon.

"Salt and Vinegar?" Alex asked, pulling his MacBook onto his lap and taking a gulp of tea. Reggie threw him the packet which he caught with the arm not in a sling. "Cheers." He murmured, logging into his twitter. "How's work?" Alex asked his oldest friend as he replied to Ellie Gouldings's tweet. "Fine. I'm doing this amazing back piece on a girl tomorrow which is sick. It's got this skull and a shit load of flowers coming out of it."
"You gonna start my arm piece when I'm out of the sling?" He asked, cramming half the packet of crisps into his mouth at one. "Fuck yes. I've already started sketching. Have a look when you're out. What's your mum got planned for tomorrow?"
"Interview with the One Show I think in the evening. A press release at lunch maybe. I'm going back to school next week. The police are issuing their final statement soonish mum reckons." He locked eyes with Reggie and winks.
"Life's good."
"For you." Reggie muttered wretchedly, downing his tea and sighing. Alex looks up from his computer screen and frowned. "Oi. Don't get all sappy on me. What's up?"
"Tara." He mumbled so quietly that Alex didn't hear. "What?" He said, with feigned deafness. "Tara." Reggie enunciated, rubbing his forehead.

Alex was taken aback. She'd been here just yesterday and hadn't mentioned anything. "What? The sex is crap?" Reggie didn't even laugh. "Nah mate. The sec is fine. Just,"
"What? She doesn't kiss you on the forehead and make you a cuppa every morning?"
"No. Listen ya shit." Alex smiled and cocked his head like a dog. "Ok. What's happening in paradise?"
"She's never around. Like last night. I asked her to stay round. I thought we could nip to the chippy, watch a film or summin. She blows me off- says she's got shit at home she needs to sort out. It's shit man."
"Did it ever occur to you that mate she jut had some shit at home that she did have to sort out?" Reggie shakes his dreadlocked hair and sighed. "Nah mate. It's not that. She's all," he made a face. "Cranky. An awkward. And not the cute awkward she used to be. It's fucking weird. This morning, I called her at like 9 to see if she was coming round. She was in the library doing work and then she told me she had to work. All bloody day." He shook his head. "She's what, 18. That's not right."

So Alex sat in his hospital bed that day, staring at his empty computer screen. Feeling an odd mix of sadness for his friend and elation that Tara was unhappy with her current relationship.