Worth Living For {Completed}

Chapter 2 | The Hospital

          Eyes flashed open. The blinding light, fluorescent, surrounding my entire vision, I couldn't see and I flinched. I closed my eyes for a second and opened them again to see my normal surroundings. What was I? 

          I could hear a steady beeping sound in the background. Silence. So silent it was like death. My back ached, I sat up and turned my stiff neck. All I could smell was the pure smell of rubbing alcohol and old macaroni and cheese. The chemicals. I wrinkled my nose and arched my back uncomfortably.

          I moved my legs to the edge of the bed and carefully laid my feet on the linoleum floor, carefully moving my weight from my arms to my legs, and cautiously stepped off of the bed. My head spinned and I stumbled and tripped, almost falling onto the ground but luckily I caught myself before I did and slowly regained my balance. 

          I took a couple steps towards the door. I felt fine. I leaned against the wall of the room, the blinding light and the closed doors. I turned to look at the bed I was once lying in, it was occupied. But I had just been occupying it, it should be vacant, was this person there all along?

          Cautiously, I quietly stepped towards the sleeping body. Long, red hair covered the pillow, his eyes were shut, peacefully shut. Like he was sleeping, but he wasn't at the same time. A long scar covered his cheek, threaded black stitches were inside the cut. Eyes, big and puffy, pink mixed into red, closed though. 

          He was wearing the standard hospital clothes. His left arm had a white cast that was from his wrist, all the way to his elbow. Long, winding tubes were stuck out of his mouth, connecting to machines that moved up and down. IV's connected out of his hands. I looked up, my eyes following the beeping sound my ears had led me to, to reveal a green heart line, steadily and calmly moving up and down to a high beep. This person was familiar to me.

          I jumped, swiveling around to the sound of the door to the hospital room opening, for the brief second the door was open I could hear the commotion outside the hospital room. But then I succumbed back into the silence the room once held.

           A woman came thru the doorway, a nurse, a younger nurse with auburn hair and a pink nurse uniform on. She didn't look at me but continued towards the boy lying on the bed.

         "Excuse me?" I asked, reaching across the bed to tap her on the shoulder, but she didn't notice, that I had talked or even asked for her help. Rude.

          The door opened once again and this time it was an elderly man, most likely in his 50's. Short gray hairy stubble covering his chin. He was bald with short legs but a large upper body and small feet.

          "How's he doing?" the Doctor asked, approaching the hospital bed of the teen boy. He rubbed the top of his bald, egg-like head and shook his head, eyeing the boy with a certain curiosity and sadness.

          The young nurse pursed her lips and glanced down at the boy, then looked away, still messing with the IV's hanging from the post by the side of the boy's bed. She hummed, shaking her head from side to side.

          I stayed quiet and watched the two "Excuse me-" I started, before being interrupted and ignored by the two other people in the room.

          They can't hear you. A hushed voice whispered, making me look around for the voice, but there was nobody. 

          "What happened to him?" the nurse asked, letting go of the IV's and facing the elderly doctor.

          "Bad car accident" he replied.

          Like I was shocked by lightning, I fell to the ground, holding my head and crying out with agony. My eyes were pursed closed, the smell of burning rubber, the tight squeeze on my hand, the loud scream from my mother pierced into my skull.

          The heart line on the monitor beeped faster, the high beeps growing louder and louder, I could feel the vibrations of the two adults feet shifting on the ground.

          "What's wrong with him Doctor Welser?" the nurse frantically cried.

          "It's okay, it's just her heartbeat, it's getting steadily better" the Doctor said calmly.

          You're not okay, you are going to die.

          Hush!

          I opened my eyes, and swallowed hard, releasing the tight grip on my cranium, the pressure went away and I found myself on the ground, I stood myself up carefully and leaned against the wall, trying to catch my breath. The beeping had grown steadily softer in the background and I felt dizzy.

          What was going on?

          The nurse softened her gaze and looked down at the sleeping boy, she reached out a hand and placed on top of the boy's raw, scratched hand and smiled softly. "It's all up to him now" she smiled.

          The Doctor nodded, reading threw the papers on a clipboard that was once hanging at the end of the bed. "Mhm" he muttered, not looking at the nurse.

           "What's his name?" the Nurse asked softly, looking over at the doctor.

          The Doctor hummed and slipped to the first page of the clipboard.

          I looked at the boy and awaited the Doctor's answer.

          "Kyle. Kyle Broflovski" he finally answered.