Leave me alone. I'm so tired.
It's like I'd fallen asleep with the T.V. blaring. All the noise had become a static droning that I was numb to.
"Hey, kiddo, we need to open our eyes, okay? Stay with us."
The voice was faking composure. A dozen hands jostled me.
No. Let me rest.
Four waxy fingers spread apart my eyelids and I caught a glimpse of a face before my eyes rolled back again.
"What's your name, son?" was paired with a pat on the cheek. "Do you know your name?"
"K-Kazu. Kazuhiko Souda."
I was slurring, my tongue thick.
"Okay, Souda? We need you to open your eyes, okay? It's very important that you stay awake."
It felt like there was glue in the back of my eye sockets, but I managed to comply, blinking slowly at a blurry man.
"Do you know what year it is?"
"Uh...."
Panic tickled my stomach.
"Who's the current Emperor?"
My mind was blank. I swallowed, but nothing went down.
"...Akihito?"
"Okay. How's your vision? Any problems? Any nausea?"
"N-no... What's going on?"
It was then that I realized that my head was surrounded by foam; I could only look around by darting my eyes. The blindingly bright, open sky winked at me from above, and to my right the helicopter whirred. Scrubs-wearing people were swarming. Because I couldn't look down, I vividly remember a moment of panic where I shifted to check if my leg was still there.
It was.
Senseless, I peered to my left.
And there was Keiji--or rather, the shell of him--splayed atop a stretcher, paramedics pasting stickers with wires on his bare chest. One woman was holding his limp, uncasted arm by the wrist, staring down at her watch, moving her lips as she counted.
Everything that made me Kazuhiko came apart.
"Oh my God-- Keiji!"
I struggled against the straps that tied me down.
"Souda, look at me," one of the women beside me said, talking like you would to a baby. "You need to be still, okay? Your friend will be just fine."
We were rolling, then, or I was, across the hospital's rooftop, away from him.
"Have you ever had a concussion before?" the first man asked.
"No? No! What? What's wrong with Keiji?"
"Stay calm. Everything's under control. Jun, humidified oxygen, please."
I'm dreaming again right? This is just a nightmare.
The mask was placed back over my mouth then, silencing me, and my face twisted up in ways it never had, eyebrows twitching, nostrils flaring.
Have you ever been so distraught that you cried without tears?
YOU ARE READING
False Start (Boyxboy)
RomanceKeiji is everything I'm not. It's been that way since we were kids. He's everything I'm not, and I can't help but love him. ♡ Kazuhiko has always been jealous of his best friend. But despite the feeling of being overshadowed, he's be...
