Give Me A Chance (boyxboy)

Fourteen

I don't want to open my eyes.

The silence I was in was pleasant. The darkness was welcoming. The hopelessness was something I could get used to.

But I knew I couldn't stay there. So now I'm forcing my eyes open, trying to lift my hand to block the light from my eyes. But there's something in my hand. Something weirdly eerie. And my other hand is really warm.

I force my eyes open, grimacing. The first thing I see is mom sitting at the end of the disgustingly sterile hospital bed. I try to croak something out, but all that comes out is a little squeak. She notices, though, and she looks up from the book she was reading. One of her hands was resting on my leg the whole time.

"Lyam!" she says excitedly. She gets up so fast, the chair slides out from underneath her. "Oh my god, baby, you're awake!"

I groan. "What else would I be, asleep?"

She laughs, but there's tears in her eyes. "I was so worried," she says, and does that mom thing where she tucks my head under her chin and holds me enough that it starts to strain my windpipe.

I look over to my other side and, startled, I see Blaine, beside the bed as well. He's nervously rubbing his hands together. Was he holding my hand? Is that why my hand is warm? No. Of course not. I'm probably just delirious from whatever meds they've got me on. Hence the eerie feeling in my other hand. There's an IV drip in my hand, right between my center knuckles. Whenever I move my hand, it feels like it slides in further. I shiver, revolted. Needles aren't my thing.

Blaine says nothing as mom fusses over me. But I've only got one worry.

"Do you know who did this?" I ask her.

"No," she says warily. "Do you not know?"

I shrug. "Of course I do, I was just wondering if you did."

Mom sighs and drops her gaze. "You're not gonna tell me, are you?" she asks sadly.

"I can't mom," I tell her.

"Why not?" she asks, her voice rising a little bit. Not angry, just over-worried. "I get a call that you're in the hospital because someone assaulted you on the sidewalk, and you don't want me to know? I can't help you if I don't know."

My lip quivers, and I try to stop it. It doesn't work. "This is my problem," I tell her.

She takes a deep breath, closing her eyes. "Okay," she says softly, a hand on my arm. "I trust you." She releases the breath. "But if anything remotely close to this happens again, you promise me that you'll tell me?"

She's trying to avoid being like dad. I can hear it in her voice. "I'll get it sorted out, mom, I swear," I tell her, even though it's probably an empty promise. "It won't happen again." I try to smile, and it hurts a little bit. My face is tight, swollen.

My gaze instinctively flashes over to Blaine on the other side of the room, because I care about how he sees me. I shouldn't, but I do. Not my fault. But the voices in my head tell me it is. I sigh.

I look down at my hands, beside me on the sterile hospital bed. My entire body feels kind of numb, probably due to whatever they're giving me. But my mind is running too fast. Going over everything, causes, consequences, what might happen with Quinn if this continues.

Blaine breaks the silence. He chuckles. "You're a tough one, for sure," he says to me, meeting my eyes. "First a car, and now whatever happened here."

I chuckle too, but it turns out to be quite less graceful for me. My chest contracts in pain and I end up coughing, which only hurts more. I gasp as I lurch forward, trying to minimize the pain I was feeling.