Welcome Home (Multiple Parts)

Part 2

Blinking awake, she immediately regretted her decision to open her eyes. The lights were so bright and it smelled like old people and death. Before she took in her surroundings, the terror from before the darkness came back and she bolted upright; eyes wide open and heart pounding. She tried to spring from her bed but sharp pains shot up and down her arms. IV's? What the hell.... She ripped the needles out of her arms and sprinted toward the door, looking both ways before taking off in the opposite direction of where people were. Any time she saw someone she immediately turned in the opposite direction, but had no idea where she was going. Eventually she heard footsteps getting louder, terrifying her even more. They got right behind her and she thought that the thing had finally caught up to her. Her heart felt like it was going to explode from her chest, and that's exactly what it felt like when the hand reached up and grabbed her. She was about to scream when the same warm feeling came back as when the hand held hers in the car. Whoever it was whisked her around and held her shoulders firmly. After a second of confusion and letting her eyes adjust she recognized the face and the biggest relief she had ever felt in her life washed over her.
"Jonathan?" she breathed.
"Um.. Yeah?" the guy raised his eyebrows. "You know me?"
"Well.. yeah.. We only went to school with each other for nine years." She heard herself croak. He dropped his hands and took a step back, still looking at her with confusion in his eyes. She sighed, "Y/N Henderson..."
"No way," he breathed before wrapping her in a giant hug. "You're home! Oh man.... You're-you.... You should get back to bed." He started ushering her back toward the direction of her room, keeping one arm around her back and the other with a light grip on her arm; of course, he thought she was either going to pass out or run again. But she just let him lead her back.
"Why are you here?" she got out, clearing her throat a bit. She mirrored him by wrapping her arm around his back, only her grip was a lot tighter than his was on her.
"Well, I wasn't going to leave you alone. Not after how I found you...." He trailed off, looking away from her. Shit... Jonathan was the one who found her. And from the way he sounded, it wasn't pretty.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, clutching her hospital gown around her self-consciously. He gently squeezed his arm a bit tighter around her.
"Hey, no, don't be sorry. Who knows how much longer you would've been out there if I hadn't been there." He half-smiled. They got to her room and he helped her sit back up on the bed, wrapping the covers around her and then pulling his chair closer to the bed. Neither of them said anything for a long time. They just sat in silence and avoided each other's eye contact. She was about to doze off when he broke the silence. "So.. what happened to you, Y/N?"
She kind of just sat there for a bit, staring at her hands and picking at her fingernails. What was she going to tell him? That some... monster had chased her after she had gotten high at some random house party? He reached up and pulled her hands apart, keeping his on top of hers for a second as a hint for her to stop picking. She let out a sigh before starting from the beginning; from the party, to smoking weed, to Possibly-Sean, then to the part where she tried walking home by herself. Right as she was getting to what was chasing her the doctor walked in, giving her more time to think of what she was going to say. Jonathan scooted back and stared at the ground, his face pink and eyes glazed over.
"Hello, Ms. Doe! I see you're awake and talking!" the doctor chirped, glancing over his clipboard and then back at her. She gave him a slight smile then glanced back at Jonathan, who still wasn't looking at her. "Ready to tell us your name?" Oops... she hadn't taken her ID with her to the party.
"Umm... Y/N Henderson." She whispered. The doctor handed her a pad of paper to write down her home phone number and then left to call her parents. She looked back at Jonathan, who was still exactly where he was last time. She really didn't know what to say, so she looked down and started tracing patterns on the blanket.
"Hey, Y/N?" he asked, shifting a bit in his chair.
"Hmm?" she glanced at him, wondering what he was about to say.
"Don't ever walk back by yourself like that again, or I'll kick your ass myself." He teased. She couldn't help but laugh out loud at the relief as he reached up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. "Just give me a call and I'll come get you from where ever, just don't. ever. walk. alone... Capisce?" ———————–
He sat with her for almost a full hour after her parents were called. It took the doctor a bit longer to reach them than he expected because her father worked weekends at the factory and her mom had taken her little brother to church. He sat in the chair next to the bed and stared everywhere but at her while they chatted to pass the time.
He was just as nice as she remembered him being. Although it was a little awkward when the silence set in because he was a guy of few words. Every now and then she would ask a question or two about what all she had missed since being gone to break the silence. She couldn't help but smile at how he fumbled for words.
The two had hung out in similar groups before she had left, so they had occasionally hung out at the same house parties or stoner spots. She'd never seen him take a drink of alcohol, but they had passed a bowl around in the same circle a few times. He'd always had his camera with him, snapping shots that she wished she could have had the chance to see. People may have called him a weirdo, but he was the nicest guy she knew so she didn't really give a damn.
"Y/N?" he broke her out of her little trance for a second time.
"Hmm?"
"So, you never finished telling me what happened." He hinted, finally looking her in the eyes before quickly shifting his focus to his hands. She had no idea what to say about the night before. Of course, she'd been thinking of excuses the whole time they'd been sitting there. She even considered telling the truth, but there would be no way that anyone would ever believe her.
"I, uhh.. just got too high, I guess. Imagined a huge-ass dog chasing me. Must've fell and bumped my head or maybe even passed out from being stoned.." she trailed off, playing with the hem of her hospital gown. She saw him nod up and down from the corner of her eyes and her face started to get warm. Yeah, she knew she sounded stupid. But she'd rather sound like a stupid stoner than a liar. Plus she didn't want to scare away the only friend she could possibly have at the moment.
A few more minutes of silence passed between them when her parents burst through the door, her little brother trailing behind them. They were all talking at once; her father yelling about how she knew better than to go to "those types" of parties, her mother trying to say something through her tears, and her brother, Dustin, turning to tell Jonathan goodbye before he dipped out. It was about to be a long day... ————————–
She tugged her sweatshirt closer to her as she walked through the door. After an entire day of getting yelled at by her parents yesterday, she was more than happy to go to school. Her parents had settled on her punishment: grounded for two months with her only use of the car being to school and work. Yeah. W O R K. She had to get a frickin JOB. Goodbye to any free time she would've had...
After she got her schedule from the office she unlocked her locker she started emptying her back pack slowly to kill time. She looked around nervously at everyone in the hall. They were all with friends and cliques that they had made already, sparking a twinge of regret for having spent a whole year in the program instead of just a semester. She was going to have to start over.
It wasn't like she had had many friends before she left, but now that she had been away and they had all grown up a bit, they had separated. Nancy hung around that douche-nugget Steve Harrington, Barb must have moved, and Jess was standing around a group of girls she didn't remember. So far, Jonathan was the closest thing to a friend that she had. Great... It had already been awkward enough that he had found her on the side of the road, and then that he had to pretty much babysit her in the hospital. He would probably never want to speak to her again, let alone hang out.
She was brought out of her daze when her backpack slipped out of her hands. Papers, books, and pencils went skidding across the floor, causing people to start looking her direction. Was she blushing or was it just too hot for that sweatshirt? How much greater was this day going to get. After a deep breath and an eye roll she bent down to gather her things and was met by another hand.
Jonathan. Their eyes met and he gave her a small smile, making her face go redder than she thought it ever could. He handed her what he had grabbed and she hastily shoved in back into her backpack.
"So a great start to school already, I see?" he joked softly as they stood up, leaning against the locker while she finished stocking her locker.
"Oh, it's going great. I actually planned this whole thing, ya know." she said sarcastically. Only taking a notebook and pencil, she shut her locker and started down the hall, Jonathan falling in step next to her. "I wanted that awkward attention. It was allllll a ruse"
"It's not so bad." He chuckled. "At least you have some friends to come back to."
"If by friends you mean you, then yeah," she teased, giving him a slight shove. "I mean so far you've helped me out twice, so I'd say you're the best friend I've got."
"It'll get better.." he shrugged. The smile slid off his face and he went to turn down another hall. She grabbed his arm before he could get very far. He stopped and looked back her, confused.
"Thank you.. For yesterday, and today." She smiled, loosening her grip on his arm. His face went pink and he started fidgeting. She could tell he was looking for something to say and it was... Cute..
"I would never have left someone there, on the road... And not in the hospital, either." He mumbled, looking her in the eye before giving her a slight smile. "So if you ever need anything..."
"Same for you." She smiled, turning to get to class.
"Hey, Y/N" he called after her. She spun around to look at him. "If you ever need to study, or need a ride. Or just a friend." He rubbed the back of his neck, slowly backing down the hall.
"I'll call you later." She called to him. They both turned around to head to class, huge smiles stretched across their faces. He was right, it was going to get better. And she couldn't wait.