Age Gap

page 15

It was only when he came to that he realised he'd fallen asleep. In the staff room, crawling up from his position he checked his phone.
13 missed calls from Maddy
1 missed call from his mum and
6 missed calls from Dave. He sighed. They were going to kill him.
He tried to not panic when he realised he was technically late to work. He got up and stumbled out of the room. He had to find his boss and explain, it was a mistake. He'd fallen asleep.
He squinted as the hospital seemed to glare at him. Chris found his way into his bosses office. His boss glanced at him.
"Mr cottam, to what to I owe the pleasure of you being out of uniform and ironically late to work." Pain stabbed through Chris's chest. He looked his boss in the face.
"I know you know what happened last night. I'm sorry today, last night that was unprofessional. It won't happen again." He turned to leave but his boss stopped him.
"Chris sit down please" Chris did as he was asked. His boss looked him in the eye.
"I haven't been the best of bosses lately. Instead of telling you to stay off after you saved Mr Parkers life I let you work. Yes I understand that you want to work and I think we both know it was to distract yourself." Chris went to protest. He was stopped.
"It's natural and when you finally felt that the problem was coming back you had a panic attack. The human brain is mysterious. You became friends with Dave's niece, no panic attack. It was only when Mr Parker himself woke up that you did." Chris understood what his boss was saying. He couldn't save Mr Parker, not the way he did with Maddy. He felt guilty. He nodded to his boss and felt his heart sag a little.
"You are to work here for the rest of your shift, then I am putting you on leave for however long it takes ok?" Chris nodded.
He left the office and found his overalls in his locker. He got changed, then went out and tried to help.
When his shift was over he met Steven, thanked him for his help and drove home.
He slept for 20 hours and when he woke up it was to the ringing of his phone. He wanted to ignore it but that would only prolong the inevitable.
He couldn't even get a word in.
"Chris i expect better off you, leaving me a message and never replying. He woke up by the way just you know. Chris you were being so unprofessional." Chris tried to speak but he felt like death and really didn't want an argument.
"Dave I'm sorry I was pulled away ok." Dave seemed to be on a roll as he carried on berating Chris. Chris for his part just let it roll off his shoulders.
When Dave was done Chris hung up and tried not to think about his panic attack. He grabbed a glass of water, sipping it gently. He stayed in silence until he heard a knock at the door. Taking a deep breath to steady himself he opened the door.
"Hey Chris" Maddy said. She took in his appearance and began to panic. His hand was shaking and sweat beaded on his face.
" Chris.... what's wrong?" She asked. Chris could feel another panic attack. He fell to the floor saying all my fault. Maddy began speaking to him softly.
"Chris it's ok..... your ok we're at home.... you'll be ok" Chris began breathing properly. He looked at her, she looked back.
"I take it that's why you didn't reply last night?" he nodded and she looked at him sympathetically.
"Chris what's your fault?" Chris didn't answer. He couldn't look her in the eye, to scared of what he'd find.
"Your dad" she looked at him before punching him in the shoulder.
"You are such am idiot, you saved him you twit, after the stabbing and now you woke him up." Tears rolled down his face.
"It is, if I'd gone out a minute earlier nobody would've been stabbed." Maddy stood up.
"Why didn't you tell me you felt like this?" Chris shrugged.
"He's your dad, I can protect you mads but I dunno how to protect you from me." She felt her heart break. Tears rolled down her face.
"Your my friend, not my bloody protector. It's ok for you to break you Pratt." Chris got up.
"It's not" he retorted.
" you know what Chris what are we, are we a friendship, or are you my bloody body guard?" Chris felt his heart shatter. He knew he was overprotective but he knew what it was like to not have anyone who was overprotective. His mum tried but Chris was the eldest sibling and was usually the over protector.
He shrugged in response. the room became thick with tension. Maddy grabbed her bag and strutted to the door.
"Find me when you figure it out, I have a dad to help." Chris watched her go, taking with her the only whatever ship that Chris held closest to his heart.