Journeys(L.H)

Chapter 23

Still Luke's POV:

   I stumbled backwards into where Liam was standing. The impact of his fist on my face was like a mallet hitting a gong. And I'm the gong.
    I could barely stand up. I fell backwards into one of the metal chairs and my head made a hollow banging sound on one of the hard arm rests. Two nurses ran up to Ashton and grabbed hold of his arms until he stopped struggling.

   "He was your friend! He did nothing to you!" Ashton yelled with spit flying everywhere out of his mouth. He looked deranged and wild, the giggly Ashton gone for now, hopefully not forever.
    "Luke, are you alright?" I heard a distant voice in my head. It could've been Jesus telling me I am a horrible person and I wouldn't have known. "Luke? No, no don't pass out!" Right after I determined the voice Niall's, everything went black and I could only remember Ashton yelling spiteful things at me.

>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<

    When I came to consciousness, every was a blur of doctors, tubes being stuck in my body and a bunch of nurses and people flooding in and out of my tiny room.
    I had no trouble sitting up, but I brought my hand up to wipe my face and my fingers lightly brushed my nose on accident. Sharp bursts of pain exploded like fireworks in my face.

I let out a short yelp of pain and looked at my hand. Since when did my nose hurt? I lightly touched it again and it hurt even more. My head throbbed in pain. I looked around the hospital room for some clues as to what happened. All I remember was punching Caspar and everything after that was a blur of messy events, like trying to read a first grader's handwriting.

I really couldn't remember anything that had happened but I knew it was bad. I pressed the help button next to my bed and put my face in my hands.

A few moments later, a nurse came running into the room. "Oh thank goodness you're awake!" She exclaimed. "We were getting worried if you were ever going to wake up."
My eyes widened in fear. What? I was passed out? "Wh-what happened?" I stuttered out, nervously wringing my hands together.

"Oh, that's right. We predicted minor amnesia when you woke up." She talked quickly to herself. But I could hear her everything little word she mumbled. "You hit your head on the chair pretty hard after your friend punched you. That impact plus you hitting your head resulted in you forgetting everything in the last few hours." She explained with a clipboard now in her hand. "I just need you to answer some questions first before we can allow visitors." She asked me typical hospital questions like how bad is your headache or what do you remember? I answered them as best as I could, as fast as I could.

   "Okay, thank you so much Luke!" She said perkily. "There is a young man with colorful hair waiting to see you. He should spark some memories back." She told me and walked out with her clipboard all business-like.
    I folded my hands to keep them from shaking so much and waited. It seems like I've been waiting for a large portion of my life for a lot of things.

   Then a tall boy with bright green hair walked in. This boy left my mind spinning. I know him, I thought to myself. Who is he?

   "Hey Luke." The boy said, hands in his pockets, while strolling into the room. He sat down in a chair next to my bed and pulled out an apple from his pocket. He tossed it around in the air. "Didn't know that Ashton had such a hard arm." He commented before warily looking at my confused face.
     "I'm sorry, but, who are you?" I asked slowly to him. His head turned to look at me. The look on his face was beyond shocked. It was disappointed and sad and disbelief.

  "Y-you don't remember me?" He asked in a shaky, low voice. He lowered his head to look at the ground and I saw a tear fall out of his eye and hit his shoe. He stayed silent for a long time.
   "How do you know me?" I asked him, voice trembling along with my fingers. "I swear, I don't want to make you cry.  Just don't remember you, that's all." I said to him.

   He said something so very quietly that it sounded like nothing. Almost nothing. "What was that?" I said to him in a whisper. Tears prickled my eyes as I saw his pain. I desperately wanted to remember him and know his name and his face.
    "M-Michael." He said a little bit louder. "My name is Michael Gordon Clifford. I'm your best friend." He looked up at me and I saw his eyes that made me remember something.

I looked up to him and studied his body language and his features. "You play guitar in a band." Michael's head snapped up and more tears collected in his eyes.

  He let it a shaky laugh. "Yeah. Do you remember what it's called?" He asked me.
   I racked my brain through everything I know. I looked left and right for any clues. I closed my eyes to concentrate. The blackness brought me back to a memory of four boys playing instruments and singing in front of a Christmas tree. They were singing the song Teenage Dirtbag. One boy was sitting on a cajon. Another was sitting in the floor next to me. The last was playing guitar.

  I popped my eyes open and smiled so wide that it hurt my cheeks. "5 Seconds of Summer! You're Michael! And there's Ashton and Calum!" Michael stood up and came up to hug me. We wrapped out arms around each other as three years of memories came back to me. We were laughing and crying and smiling.

   "Thank god. I thought I lost my penguin."

A/N: aww MUKE AF. Okay byeeee🐩