Easter Wolf

Rubber Room

This was another day of me and Jayson trying not to kill each other in a tiny hospital room. The problem this time? The tv.

"Can you turn that thing down, please?" I was trying to take a nap but Jay was watching some horrible soap opera at full volume and the annoying dramatic music was driving me crazy.

"No." He refused.

"Jayson, turn that down or I'll get up this bed and open that hole in your stomach again."

"Yeah, go ahead and try." Jay snickered, having the gall to turn up the volume more.

I got up and went straight to his medicine bag. He was on some painkillers at the time and I learned from watching the nurses how to lower the dose he was taking.

"Hey, hey. What are you doing, man?" Jay looked at me wide eyed when I stepped closer to his med bag.

"If you're gonna be an asshole you might as well feel the pain."

I had a feeling that he was smelling slightly distressed but between the drugs I was on and the distress of everyone else in this hospital I couldn't smell shit, which served me to not give a two fucks about what I was doing.

"No, stop that." He tried to slap my hand away from his med bag but his movements were limited by all his still healing injuries. "Nurse! Nurse!" When stopping me by force didn't work he opted for crying like a baby.

"Are you gonna turn it off?" I stopped my hand right on the controls of his meds and glanced at me.

"No, fuck you."

"Okay, pain it is then."

"Nurse!"

"What in Selene's name is going on with you two?" Our nurse came in through the door ready to smack the both of us.

Shit.

Our nurse was a rugged lioness beta. She was a nice lady in her forties that was used to impertinent children like us, but over the last few days she had grown more than tired of our bullshit.

"What do you think you're doing?" She raised an accusatory eyebrow at me.

Retreat! Retreat! Abort!

"Nothing." I stepped back from Jay's med bag and sat on my bed.

"Gloria! Thank goodness you're here! He was about to turn down my meds!" Jay whined, pointing his finger at me.

Fucking snitch.

"I was not!" I took a hand to my chest and gasped as innocently as possible.

"Stop it, both of you." She snapped a finger. "I think that what you guys need is some fresh air." Gloria took the remote from Jay's hand and turned the tv off.

Jay and I groaned. The last thing we wanted was to walk around this hospital filled with the smell of death and helpness. I laid back on my bed, throwing the blankets over myself.

"I was watching that. Besides, I thought the doctor said I was supposed to be on bed rest." Jay sulked, crossing his arms over his chest and glazing over to the window.

"And now I'm saying that you need fresh air. Come on get up." Gloria snatched my blankets. "I heard that your little raccoon friend is in the yard right now, don't you want to see him?"

"Tommy's in the yard?" Jay cracked his neck towards Gloria.

"I thought psych patients weren't allowed in our yard." I asked, with the same surprise in my voice.

"They're not, which is why you need to move fast if you want to see him before we take him back to his room."

Jay and I both agreed that worrying about Tommy was better than driving each other crazy in our room. Seeing Tommy was discouraging at times, he was going through a phase where all he did was stare at people blankly and not say a word. Jay was the only person that could almost strike a reaction out of him. Said reaction being Tommy's eyes getting all watery and red like he was about to cry every time he saw Jay.