letters to juliet {h.s}

Chapter 31

      "Yes dad, I'm fine. No, we haven't heard anything yet. Im here with his mom. Anne? Yeah dad her. Okay, love you, bye." I lock my phone and tuck it into my pocket. My clothes are wrinkled and smell horrible, hell we all smell horrible. None of us have showered in two days.
      We found Harry laying in the bathroom at the bar. Well technically Ed did, as I was too busy downing my third glass of Pepsi. Jaxon and Zayn called 911 and soon we were at the nearest hospital with no answers.
So now I'm here with Harry's mom and sister, whom flew into town as soon as they heard what happened. We still technically don't know what happened. I've been sitting in the waiting room for what feels like years, and I wouldn't be surprised if it had been that long.
"Juliet, " I look up and see Gemma readjusting her purse on her shoulder. "Im going out to grab lunch, would you like anything? My mom wants Panera so thats probably where Ill go."
"Ill pass, but thank you." I smile pathetically at her and her face visibly drops. She takes a seat in the chair next to me and looks at me for a minute or two, in complete silence, before taking my hand.
"Listen, I know you're worried. Harry's fine, we both know that. He was just a little sick. If my mom can handle this, then so can you." She stands back up and walks towards the exit. "Take care of yourself!" She shouts over her shoulder before leaving.

     I step carefully into Harrys room and quietly shut the door. I can hear his soft snores and his mother turning the pages of her book. As I walk towards her she sets her book down and tucks her glasses into her shirt. "How are you?" Her voice is soft and caring, just as you would expect from a loving mother. She reaches towards Harry's hand that is laying limply to his side and places it in her own. 
    "Im doing okay, how is he?" I watch his detailed face as it makes no move. He's obviously deep in sleep, hell, he has hardly stayed awake since the incident. Always tired.
    "Its pneumonia." She sucks on her teeth and glances towards the door. "The nurse promised she would be back with some stronger medicine, but I'm afraid he'll be too tired to take it." She squeezes Harry's hand and looks at me concerned. "He had pneumonia one other time, I believe it was when he was six. Got off pretty easy however, wasn't severe at all. I just hope that he didn't spend all his luck."
     I remember vaguely having a friend in elementary school who also got pneumonia. I don't remember her name, she was a grade below me, but I know that she had it really bad. She didn't go to school for like two weeks, and then our principal came to our class to announce that there would be a memorial assembly in her honor. I was too young to understand that it obviously had meant that the illness won. My dad went on and on with his friends about how she was too young, how it could've been me. He took me to the doctor like fifty times that month just to make sure that I wasn't sick too.
   Harry is different though. He's older, stronger, and I actually can remember his name. We all know that this isn't a severe case, but it still puts us all on edge.
    The door knob clicks and a nurse walks in with a cup of water and a small container of pills. "Sorry for the wait, everyone seems to be getting sick nowadays." She sets the cup and medicine on the table by Harry's bed and adjusts her uniform.
    The nurse reminds me of my grandmother, for some crazy reason. She obviously dyes her hair brown, but the grayish/white roots are overgrown. Her tired looking face holds kind brown eyes and bright red lips. I hardly even remember my grandmother, but I imagine that they could have been twins.
    She props up the bed slowly and Harry sluggishly wakes up, his eyes peaking open. His usual bright green eyes are now a duller version of itself. His lips are visibly dry and cracked, and his hair is all greasy and unkept.
"Okay honey, you're gonna have to take some more medicine for me alright?" The nurse nods towards the small cup of pills and Harry takes it begrudgingly, moving it slowly towards his mouth before swallowing them with some water. The nurse takes the empty cups and tosses them into the trash by his bed. His head lazily turns towards me and his mother before giving a slight grin.
"Good to see my two favorite ladies sitting by my bed. Mum, you're always a sight for sore eyes." Anne visibly rolls her eyes at her sons remark and reaches up to brush some hair away from his face. "You're acting like I'm gonna die, I'm finding it quite insulting." His eyes are tracing back and forth between me and his mother. His face is screaming with exhaustion.
"Harry, you need to get some more sleep okay?" He groans after the nurse's remark and sits up.
"All I've done is sleep! I'm a grown man, how hard is it for a guy to get a proper meal here? I could go for a massive burger right now." His mother pushes his shoulders back until he's laying back down.
"You can eat when you're healthy." She stands up and smacks him playfully with her book. "You can be a grown man when you start acting like one."

After visiting Harry all day at the hospital, me and my dad decided to grab something to eat for dinner, since it had been forever since we actually had spent a lot of time together. That was something I had missed. He was my best friend, and no one could replace him. For awhile now I had began to feel guilty, I started thinking that I had been neglecting him.
As we sit across each other at a small diner, theres an awkward silence floating above us.
"Hows work been?" My sad attempt at a conversation starter is cut short by the waitress coming by and taking our orders. My dad and the waitress get into conversation and I find myself actually wanting to be back at the hospital, with Harry.