Make a Wish|| G. Gustin

2.

I sit lonesome in my hospital room in deep thought. Over the years I have collected decorations here and there to make my room look more like a bedroom instead of a prison. Posters of bands and photos of friends line the stark white walls. I have replaced the scratchy white hospital blankets that accompany my bed with light blue sheets and a large pastel pink comforter. The once empty table in the corner of my room now has stacks of books and papers lying on top of it. 

Curled up under my blankets I scroll through my instagram mindlessly. After a few minutes, my head starts to throb and I turn the screen off. I lay on top of a mountain of pillows and think about the person I spoke to today. The first person I have spoken to that wasn't a family member or staff of the hospital, in a very long time. 

Grant. Why did he look so familiar? And why was he visiting kids for the Make a Wish Foundation? 

At that moment I realize who I was talking to only a few hours ago. Grant Gustin. The Flash. Sebastian Smythe. Okay, I watch a lot of tv. 

I met a celebrity. Not only a celebrity, but Grant freaking Gustin. I hear a knock at my door and my head turns. I see my nurse, Barbie, carrying a tray of drugs. Behind her stands a tall man with a sweet smile on his face. 

"You have a visitor, Mare," Barb says cheerfully. She walks into the room and the guy follows. 

"Grant?" 

"Hey Mare," he says softly. He walks over to the side of my bed and sits in a chair facing me. Barbie comes on the opposite side of the bed that Grant came to and sets the tray down on the pink comforter. She hands me a few pills that I swallow mindlessly. 

"I'm surprised to see you," I say truthfully. 

"Well I wanted to just check up on you and make sure you were okay. You fell pretty hard."

"You fell?" Barbie looks at me enraged that I didn't tell her. 

"I'm fine, I didn't fall really hard."

"I'm scheduling an MRI for tomorrow just in case," she says as she continues to change the IV's that are connected to my arm. 

"Well that was very sweet of you to think of me Grant," I say. "Or should I say Grant Gustin."

"You know who I am," he sighs. 

"Yeah, see, when you can't get a job and you have already gone to school and you are stuck in a hospital, you watch a lot of TV. I know who you are"

I give him a sassy smile and he laughs. His laugh is sweet and homelike. I feel a calmness fold me like a blanket. Either it's because of him or because of the new drugs entering my bloodstream, or maybe both. 

Barbie flicks a syringe of clear liquid and gets ready to poke my arm with it. I see Grant cringe.

"What you don't like needles?" I laugh. 

"Nobody likes needles," he says. Barbie injects me with the blood thinning shot and I don't even flinch. 

"Can you not feel pain or something?" Grant laughs curiously 

"I can," I laugh warm heartedly. It's been awhile since a laugh has fallen out of my lips. "I get these stupid shots every night. Plus I have gotten two open brain surgeries and a ton of chemotherapy. A little shot is nothing."

"Wow," he says speechless. 

Barbie finishes up and leaves the room. 

"So," I say sternly. "Why are you really here? Publicity?"

Grant's face turns shocked. "What? No. I actually care about your well being."

"How do I know you're not lying to me?"

"You don't. You just have to trust that I am a good person," he says. I sigh. 

"Sorry," I mutter. "Obviously I don't get many visitors."

He laughs again. His eyes sparkle in the dim lighting of my hospital room and he gives me a look of pity. 

"Well it was nice meeting you Grant Gustin." I'm a little disappointed that I will probably never see him again and that he will probably forget about this by breakfast tomorrow morning. 

"You make it sound like I'm never going to see you again," says Grant, confused. My snarky attitude rises up from inside of me. 

"This is the last time you're going to see me. You are a famous actor on a hit tv show and I'm a nobody who is dying of cancer. How do you think the press will react to you hanging out with a sickly woman who lives in a hospital."

"So," Grant says ignoring my speech. "What do you want to do tomorrow?"

"W-what?"

"I have a half day of filming so I can come by around six," he says dead serious. "What do you want to do?"

"Umm.. well usually I just sit around and watch movies on Netflix," I say yawning. The exhaustion from today's events catches up to me and I can feel sleep clinging onto me. 

"Well then I'll join you, if that's alright with you," he chirps. 

"I don't know," I whine. 

"I'll bring chinese food," he states. 

"Deal," I respond. I yawn again, struggling to keep my eyes open. I walked all the way to the peds floor today. That is way too much exercise. My whole body aches with the feeling that I have just run a marathon. 

"I'm going to let you sleep," Grant says standing up. "Goodnight Mare."

"Goodnight Grant Gustin."

with that, he leaves the room and I am left to sleep in peace. I smile thinking that I have made a friend. The fact that he is famous and incredibly hot is just a bonus. For the first time in seven years I feel somewhat normal, like the world is giving me another chance to be happy before I die. 

I let myself be taken down by the dark abyss that is sleep. Tomorrow I get to wake up with meaning. I sleep peacefully.