Pills of love

Dream World (part 1)

Leaning against the wall, Benny sighed for the thousandth time, looking at the watch on his wrist and continuing to play with the rubber ball in his hand, borrowed from the nurses station.

And he was thankful he had something to pass the time and distract himself with, because those white walls were really starting to make him feel suffocated.

He had never liked hospitals, but then again, who likes them? But in his entire life he could count on his fingers the times he'd been forced into it for himself or for someone he knew.

A splinted finger here, a food poisoning there, his sister who had had to get stitches for some injuries. Nothing serious, fortunately, always allowing him to abandon it in a few hours.

But now it was his turn to wait there and the situation was starting to make him nervous.

It had already been 2 hours since she had entered the operating room. 2 hours of total silence. Those nurses he'd seen pass him for the past hour and a half, he'd haunted them with all sorts of questions.

'Do you think they are finishing up already?'.
'You know nothing, do you?'.
'Anni-Frid Lyngstad... Andersson! She was admitted under the name Andersson'.

Benny sighed again and planted one foot against the wall, flexing his leg for balance. He knew it wasn't the best position against a blank wall, but... hell, right now he didn't realize anything.

Not that it was a life-and-death surgery... Important, yes. Annoying, yes. But nothing to stand on tenterhooks. And yet it was always a surgery... Anesthesia, possible unexpected events...

He snorted to himself and looked up at the roof, commanding himself to stop and think of something else.

He leaned his head forward and resumed playing with the little ball. His mind inevitably wandered to something else, a few hours earlier, when as usual she had had to show up strong, determined, dodging every gesture of apprehension. But he knew her well, oh how he knew her well...

*FLASHBACK*

"Do you need a hand?".

Frida looked up from the bag she was emptying and she glared at him "I know how to empty a bag, Benny. I am not yet an invalid. In a few hours, maybe, but not yet" and she angrily closed it, now empty, approaching the wardrobe from the side of the room.

Benny raised his eyebrows, hands on hips, taken aback by her vitriolic words. He closed his eyes briefly. There she was. Finally, her lioness mask began to slip away with him, showing the real her. Alone there, only with him.

At that precise moment, he didn't know what exactly, but her words irritated him more than necessary. He had expected that reaction, he knew it. She had always been the strong one of the family, especially in front of the kids. But behind closed doors, at home or in a hospital room in that particular case, her high walls were crumbling like plaster, showing fears and doubts that until then had never seen the light.

"Sorry if I want to help you..." he murmured, still turned away from her. He heard her stop her movements and then her quick footsteps coming closer.

"I asked you to help me, maybe? I don't think I did" she murmured in a harsh tone.

He looked at her motionless "I'm your fiancé, you don't even need to ask me".

She laughed ironic "Don't worry, Mr. fiancè, your work is about to end anyway" and she turned towards the bed, arranging everything that she had took out from the bag moments before.

Benny frowned, confused "What are you talking about?".

Frida snorted "I'm just helping you out, Benny".