Survivin' - [B.C.]

Chapter 12: Chloe and the Feeding Tube

I felt myself growing drowsier and drowsier. My full weight finally relaxed into Ben and I could just about shake hands with sleep. I felt Ben squeeze me into a side hug. His face was pressed into my hair. It was just us. Just me and him against the world. Against an army of doctors. Against an illness that had snuck up on me and tried to take my life - and almost succeeded.

But with Ben by my side, I was surviving.

========== SURVIVIN' ==========

I had the absolute worst headache when I woke up.

It felt like someone had shoved an electric rod through one of my temples and out the other. The pain was buzzing around my entire head but the worst of it gravitated towards the front. For a second, I had forgotten that I was in the hospital. That was, until the atmosphere trickled into place once more.

Painfully bright LED lights. Cold air being constantly swept up and moved around. Noises born from thousands of different sources bouncing around off the tiled floor, ceiling, and concrete walls. Chilling saline flowing through my veins. Low whooshing of the oxygen machine. Coloring only consisting of an off-shade of blue and a jarring white.

Turning to my side, I expected something to be there on the bed. Something that was there when I finally fell asleep the night before. But nothing was. And it felt weird. And instead of seeing someone in the same small bed as I was, I saw another kid around my age, lying on the previously unoccupied bed on the other side of this section.

They had very short hair, and very thin, as well. It was an auburn sort of color. Their face was thin with a pointed chin and a rounded nose. Their skin was very light-colored with some freckles here and there. Their eyes were closed - probably sleeping. They looked so at peace even though they were in the accident/emergency section of the hospital.

I watched them sleep for a while, working out what I thought could possibly be wrong with them. It made me feel better about my situation.

"I can feel you watching me," they said suddenly. I jerked my head away from looking at them, which caused me to start hacking like an old lady with a smoking problem. Pain flared in my chest once more. A stand-by nurse came rushing in and upped the dosage of something hanging in a new IV bag. I groaned as the coughing fit ceased and the nurse left me alone once again.

The kid, who turned out not to be asleep, propped themselves up on their elbow and looked at me with their big, green eyes.

"Hey," they said.

"Hey," I replied.

"Name's Chloe."

"Cal."

"What are your pronouns?"

"They/them. You?"

"She/her."

(Add here a pause of silence...)

"Why're you in here?" Chloe asked.

"There was an accident," I responded, still not making eye contact.

"No shit."

"No, but actually, the anesthesiologist tried to kill me."

Chloe burst out laughing. I turned to look at her with this deadpan expression on my face. She stopped after a moment.

"Oh. You're not joking?" I shook my head. She immediately looked 10x more interested.

"Dude, give me all the details."