The Truth About Drew

e i g h t

Drew was in the hospital for two weeks. Blake and Aaron came by every day to give him his homework and notes and to just talk. Thanks to Aaron, Drew was kept well up to date with all the news of school. Philip and Trixie had been bonded, a fact that made Drew roll his eyes so hard he was worried they'd pop out. Bonding was equivalent to marriage; a promise to stay together, to be faithful to the end of time and last he checked, Phillip was anything but faithful. He'd come on to every single Omega and Beta in both 11th and 12th grade, including Blake and Drew, though they'd both sent him packing with a boot in the backside.

We'll see how long this lasts.

After Blake and Aaron left would come Josh. He was the person who'd caused the whole mess. As it turned out, he'd only wanted the instructions sheet and was horrified when he'd caused Drew to get hurt. The very first day he had shown up with a bouquet of flowers and a sonnet written to apologize. He wasn't a bad guy. Drew and the Beta got on quite excellently, and he enjoyed his visits.

Kai hasn't come back. In a way, Drew was disappointed; he'd wanted to ask him what he'd meant by his creepy words, and then he wanted to kick his ass for leaving like that. Who does that?

The nurse came floating into the room, instantly brightening the dull room. She was impossible not to like, no matter how hard Drew tried. She brought him books and played games with him when she had extra time.

"Hello Drew! Guess what?"

"Hi, Lilly, what's up?"

"Today you get your bandage off!"

Drew shrugged. The bandage didn't bother him much. His vision had come back a week earlier, much to his happiness. He was quite fed up with feeling like he was on drugs every time he opened his eyes.

"Hold still, hun, I'll get it right off, and you'll be back to your lovely self!"

She seated herself on the edge of his bed and placed her cool hands on his face. She gently removed the sticky substance keeping the bandage on. "Ready?"

"Sure."

She peeled off the bandage, and removed the gauze. 

"Lilly?" Drew prompted when she didn't move.

"I'll be right back." She patted his cheek and left quickly.

Seconds later the creepy-ass doctor peered in. He frowned and disappeared again. He could hear his and Lilly's voices arguing about something, and then the doctor came through the door.

"How are you, my boy?" He asked, sitting by the bed.

"I'm good, I guess. What's wrong?"

"Nothing major. Just some unexpected scarring. It's not that bad. I'm sure it will fade quickly."

"Define scarring," Drew said bluntly.

The doctor pulled a mirror from a drawer and handed it to him. "See for yourself."

Drew took the mirror, a little weirded out by how people were acting. He looked in the mirror.

A jagged scar ran along his left eye over his cheekbone. It was bone white and looked to be healing up, which made things worse. Was it going to stay like this? It looked like someone took a blade to his face and twisted as they dragged the knife down.

Drew hurled the mirror away from him and curled into himself.

"Now, son, it's not that bad. We can certainly make it less noticeable." He paused. "Son, are you alright?"

"Not really," Drew whispered. Tears welled up in his eyes, but he blinked them away. "Scar revision is a thing, right?"

"Of course, don't worry."

"My constant state of being," Drew said, rolling over and yanking the blanket over his head. The doctor and nurse took that as their cue and left quietly.

***

"Welcome home, Drew!" His father yelled, showering him with confetti. "I tried to make you a cake, but it seems I swapped out the vanilla with machine oil... So your mother made you a cake!"

He gestured to a pretty cake on the table. Blake, Aaron, and Josh sat behind it, grinning at him. He and Josh had become pretty good friends over the past two weeks, and Blake and Aaron seemed to like him as well.

"Welcome home, Drew!" They called.

"Dude, this cake tastes like magic. I helped make the frosting and I could kiss myself I did so well," Aaron said proudly. "So do us all a favor and hurry up so we can eat it. I almost face planted into it like 8 times, but my lovely boyfriend here stopped me." He pouted at Blake who gave him a look with no sympathy whatsoever.

Josh smiled at the two, easily able to grow accustomed to their antics. "I agree. I was unable to help, as I could probably burn cereal, but I'm grateful to be here to welcome you home, though I am the cause of the reason that you have to be welcomed home."

Aaron slung an arm over Josh's shoulder. "Bro, you sound so formal. Loosen up!"

Josh frowned a bit. "I will do my best to "loosen up," as you wish.... Bro." He added the last bit awkwardly, and the effect had Drew laughing hysterically.

After the cake had been cut and served and Drew had had an opportunity to agree wholeheartedly that the cake did indeed taste like heaven's tears, Aaron relayed all the information he gathered, Blake gave him his homework, and Josh handed him his incredibly thorough notes and also a project rubric.

"-so Mary apparently has the hots for you, which I couldn't believe, but I heard it from a reliable source, so you'd better watch your booty," Aaron finished up.

"Weird," Drew muttered, poking at the remnants of his cake. The frosting had been a bit too rich for him, so he'd only eaten half.

He'd been able to keep up easily with all his homework, having nothing else to do in the stupid medicine-smelling hospital, but the project had worried him until Josh had explained it to him in more detail than, to quote Aaron, "The dang professor himself!"

There really was no place like home.