Shadows of Yesterday

Chapter 41: Throwing Ropes

A/N: Potential trigger warning. Happy reading!

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I got the good news the next morning in AP Spanish in the form of a text written in all caps. I was sitting in the front row for once, holding hands with Liam and trying to focus on the worksheet in front of me rather than the memories of his hands and lips on me last night, when it came through:

Mom: THE HOSPITAL JUST CALLED. DECLAN IS AWAKE!

I immediately dropped my pencil, conjugation practice forgotten, and grabbed my phone to text her back. I had to reread the message seven different times before it finally sank in.

Declan was awake. Awake. Not just recovering. Not just improving. Awake.

My body felt like it wasn't mine for a second. My fingers hovered over the keyboard, as if I was somehow afraid that if I actually responded, she would take the news back or tell me it was some kind of sick joke.

Declan is awake??!

I finally snapped myself out of my shock enough to type out, "How awake is awake?"

Mom: He's been more and more conscious recently. Apparently, today he actually spoke for the first time since the accident. Me, Dad, and Ben are all going to visit him later if you want to come

Me: Of COURSE I want to come. What time?

Mom: 5:30ish

Me: I'll be there

Liam raised an eyebrow, obviously curious but smart enough not to call attention to it and get in trouble with the teacher. I slid my phone from my desk to his, and after he read the exchange, he looked up to me with wide eyes. I nodded in agreement.

I turned my phone back off and set it face down on my desk. I didn't hear a single word after that. Not in American History. Not at lunch with my friends. Not in Chemistry. 

Declan is awake.

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The hospital was just as sterile as I remembered. It still smelled nauseatingly like strong cleaning chemicals, and it was still quiet enough to make my skin crawl. But somehow, it was a lot less suffocating when the sun was up. 

I didn't register anything my parents said at the front desk. I was too busy panicking. 

Nobody in my family had talked about our conversations the night of Declan's accident since they happened. There were no apologies offered. No promises to change. No hashing-out of our issues. And now, we were about to enter the room the elephant had been living in for a week. 

Was this about to be a relieved family reunion... or a bloodbath?

My feet trailed after my family, but I couldn't feel them. I couldn't feel any of my body, really, because the heaviest weights were the ones in my chest and stomach. I was bracing for the worst and hoping for the best.

My dad opened the door to my brother's room and ushered us all inside before entering himself and closing it behind him. I felt a little bit like throwing up.

Declan looked just as bruised as he had been when I'd seen him yesterday, but better than when he'd first been admitted. The only major difference between yesterday and today was that he was now sitting up in bed, and his eyes were open. Though "open" might have been a stretch. His eyes were half-lidded and hazy, and the look in them was wary.