Hold On, I'll See You Again

Deck the Plain White Halls Part 2

I woke up once again feeling much more functional. Dan wasn't in my room, so I grabbed a new pair of clothes and some fresh underwear along with a towel and some soap. It was a little after 6:00am, so I knew that Dan was still asleep. I made my way down the festively decorated hallway and to the showers. Peej was also there, but Chris was nowhere to be found. "Funny seeing you here!" I said. Peej spun quickly around to see who was talking to him. He relaxed a bit when he saw it was me. "Oh. Yea! Heh." "So you're an early riser?" "Yea. Chris always sleeps late, so I normally shower and grab us both breakfast. Yesterday was a strange day since we actually ate breakfast in the cafeteria." "Nice. I'm normally a late sleeper, too, but I had my first round of chemo yesterday. Those drugs can knock you out!" "Oh. I-I'm sorry." "Nah. It's fine. I'm guessing you're not here for the same reason I am?" "You mean here in the hospital?" "Yea." "Oh. Um... No. I got into a car wreck some time ago. At least, that's what they tell me. I've got no memory of my life up until a few months ago when I was admitted here." "I'm sorry. That must be rough to not remember so much of your life." "Yea. Well, after a few days of being here, I met Chris." I sat down on one of the benches, sensing that this would be an important story.

"Don't tell anyone this, but Chris is in here from drug abuse. Normally people go to regular therapy for this stuff, but he's here because he was in a coma for a week from an overdose. He acted up after he woke. The staff tried to contact his parents, but they refused to do anything to help their 'drug-abusive son.' At this point, Chris wouldn't cooperate with anything the staff did. He'd lash out at anyone who tried to come near him. They came into my room one day asking if I could chat with him. I went into his room, and something happened. I don't know what, but he opened up to me. He talked about his past, how he got onto drugs, and that he wasn't happy about it. We ended up talking for a solid hour before the staff had to move him to a room of his own. I followed him to make sure he wouldn't attack anyone and everything went alright. Ever since then, I've been by Chris's side. For every appointment and meal, I would stay with him. He would never attack or lash out at anyone while I was around, so the doctors allow us to stay with each other when we go through treatments and therapy." I nodded, amazed at how this man could completely change the behavior of another. "And then I started developing feelings for him. It was subtle at first, but then when he'd be watching TV shows or stuff like that, his eyes would sparkle with interest and it would be so cute! His smile is so... Ugh. What am I doing? I barely know you, and yet I've said too much." "Don't worry. Only Dan and I will know. Is it ok if I tell Dan?" "I-I suppose that's ok. Will you or he tell anyone else?" "No. You guys are the closest things to friends that we have in this place." "Ok. Thanks." I smiled at him, and we took our own showers. I didn't see him after I got out, so I toweled off and changed in the locker room area.

After stopping by my room to drop my stuff off, I made my way down the corridor to Dan's room. Knocking on his door, I stood back a bit so I wouldn't scare him by being so close to it. After a few seconds, the door opened and Dan stood there in nothing but a pair of boxers. He rubbed his eyes, showing that he'd just woken up. "Dan! Let's go inside so you're not visible to everyone passing down the hall?" "Hmm? Oh! Oops." He closed the door after I walked in, just before a staff member walked by the room. "You're already showered and dressed?" "Yea. I woke up at like 6 this morning, and since it was too early to do anything with you, I took a shower. I actually have a funny story to tell you." "What?" "I saw Peej in the locker room area, and we chatted a bit." "What about?" "Him and Chris!" Dan grabbed my hand and pulled me onto the bed. "Ok. Tell me everything. What's the scoop?"

After I repeated everything that had been said, Dan slowly exhaled. "Well, I guess there's a lot we don't know about their relationship, but I think we can still make it work." "Let's not push it, though." "Well, yea. Hey! You wanna look at the Christmas lights and go out to eat for lunch?" "You might want to put on clothes first." Dan laughed as he remembered he was only wearing boxers. "Then again, you seem to like me in this." Dan said, winking at me. I whacked him on the arm and told him to get dressed.