Open Your Arms

Chapter 18

May 24, 2003

My eyes flutter open and I groan as I sit up, still not opening my eyes. I yawn and rub my neck, feeling how sore it is. I probably fell asleep in a weird position. 

I open my eyes and find myself in a very, very white room. There's not much light, considering that it's still night. Then, I remember that I'm still at the hospital. How long have we been here for?

I gasp, realizing that I'm no longer in the waiting room. My eyes land on the hospital bed and I see Ville smiling at Bam who's sitting down next to him. 

"Well, well, look who's awake," Bam smirks at me. 

I peek my head outside of the door, considering that I'm right next to it, and see that we are in fact in the hospital room. "How did I get from the waiting room to here?" I can't remember anything; I'm out of it. 

"Well," Bam chuckles and sits up, cracking his knuckles. "Mige came and got us, so I tried waking you up and you tried standing up, but you were half-asleep, so I had to literally carry your ass into here."

I groan and go to respond, but I can't even bring myself to speak another word. But then I remember what happened. I immediately stand up and go to rush over to Ville and give him a hug, but I don't know if it would hurt him. 

"What are you doing?" He chuckles at me and looks at me like I'm a weirdo. He's wearing a hospital gown and his hooked up to many, many needles. I'm surprised that he isn't using an oxygen tank right now. 

"I don't want to hurt you," I say. 

He smiles softly at me. "Well, what is it that you're trying to do?"

"I just want to hug you."

He holds his arms out and I gently lean down to hug him, feeling how cold he is. I was so scared that I lost him or that he was going to be severely hurt, but he's acting like nothing happened. He seems perfectly fine. 

The hug brings more comfort to me than it probably does to him. I can't even begin to imagine how scared he must've been. 

I pull away from him. "Are you okay, Ville?"

He nods. "I'm doing better."

"You scared me!" I say a little louder than I intended. "How did that even happen?"

"This motherfucker forgot to take his asthma medication," Bam starts laughing hysterically and Ville chuckles too. 

It amazes me how they're still able to find something to laugh about in this situation. I, myself, find nothing funny about this. I don't understand that Ville could've died, yet they're laughing. 

"Did you take it today?" I ask. 

"No, I have to wait a little," Ville replies. 

I turn to Bam. "What time is it?"

"It's, like, one in the morning."

My eyes widen. "What time did we get here at?"

"Like, eleven?"

"Go back to sleep," Ville tells me. "You're exhausted. Or if you want, I can have someone drop you off at the hotel-"

"Nope," I immediately return back to the chair and sit down. "I'm staying here. I'm not leaving."

I manage to make myself as comfortable as it gets when it comes to sitting in a chair in a hospital room. Despite how nice it sounds to go back and sleep in a bed in a hotel, I would rather stay here with Ville.