College cigarettes (Miniminter FF)

part 7: why did you stay?

continuing on from last chapter

"you should get some rest hun." the brunette nurse says leading me back to my hospital bed with my pole. everything is silent again and once again the only sound is the sound of my bare feet on the cold floor and the now screeching sound of the wheels on the bottom of the pole. we both go into the room and she closes the door then leads me to my bed.

"lie down it's all fine." she says and I lay down with the woman's help.

"but I have to get changed and I-i uh have to tell them I'm fine." I say trying to struggle  against her soft hands on my shoulders guiding me down but my lack of strength is easily lost.

"you can do all that in a moment, but right now you still have a concussion and the stitches are still healing and sensitive to any stress." she explains.

"stitches?" I ask and reach to the back of my head. i feel a series of lumps on my head and a lack of hair in the spot and panic.

"its OK, they will heal in time and you won't be able to tell they're there. As for the hair, it most likely won't grow back in that spot but it can be easily covered." she says in a soothing tone making me less worried than previously.

"just rest for now then you'll be able to walk around. Go to sleep." she says and I start drifting to sleep and spot a glance at Simon looking at and me biting his nails anxiously before I fall asleep.

I wake up and look around. the room still has no one but me and its become darker with a faint sunset over the tall buildings outside causing a shade of orange light into the room. I look outside and see nobody there until a few seconds later when I see Simon come in with a cup of coffee for himself making me smile. I get up and grab an ugly robe thing off the chair next to me. I put it on in the corner of the room no one can see into. it was difficult because of the iv wires so I just put the sleeve over the iv wire first then on my arm. I walk out of the room with my pole and walk out to Simon. he runs up to me and hugs me and I hug him back. he hugs me so tight I can't breathe then loosens up.

we let go and I look at him. I start to get dizzy and feel like I'm about to fall. he holds onto me and leads me back to bed slowly.

"you ok?" he asks me once we get me to the bed and he sits on the chair next to me.

"my head hurts a bit but now that I'm back in bed I feel better." I respond.

"not what I meant." he says shaking his head looking down then back up to me and I realize what he meant. I take a long sigh before I respond. half because I don't know what to say, and half because I'm scared of what ill say but I finally get the words out.

"honestly, I don't know anymore. I just can't tell. it's scary because I can't read my own emotions." I say spilling out the truth to Simon but instantly regret it when he gives me a pitiful, sad look and starts crying. I feel like I'm about to cry but I know that'll just make him cry more. I sit next to him and hug him but he doesn't stop and just cries more. I look around the room desperately trying to stop the tears and see a bag that Simon had brought into the room. it's filled with board games and I see monopoly on the top. fucking Simon you dweeb. I faintly smile then I stand up and take my iv pole over with me to the bag. I grab the monopoly and bring it over to Simon. I hold it up so he can see it and he has a smile on his face but it feels fake.

"I know this isn't really the place or the setting but, wanna play monopoly? kind of like this whole situation it ruins friendships." I say and I earn a little giggle from him which feels genuine but how would i know honestly. we play monopoly for a good while and act like nothing happened. when we get tired we decide to play UNO.

"fuck simon you always win." I say and put down my 2 UNO cards I still had left after he puts down his last card.

"I have a lot of practice." he gloats.

"that doesn't matter this whole game is chance and there's barely any strategy." I point out and we both laugh. I look out the window and see that still nobody is there. then I look out the window right next to me and look at all the rain falling and the people smoking ironically right next to a hospital in the now, complete dark.

"they only left about 20 minutes before you woke up again." Simon informs me. I look at him and he's looking at me.

"Chloe left last though. you know she really loves you." he tells me.

"I know. I really love her too. we all love each other." I say. a silence falls across both of us besides simple, thoughtful sighs.

"Simon?" I say while he's looking out the window. he looks back at me and raises an eyebrow inviting my question.

"why did you stay?" I ask and he doesn't say anything.

"well, they only left like twenty minutes before you woke up." he answers.

"but why didn't you leave when they all left? when Chloe left?" I ask again asking for a clearer answer.

"I don't know really. I just wanted to make sure you woke up again." he says and stares me right in the eye. I sit on my knees and lean over the UNO cards. I hold his face and he puts his hand on my hand. I hold his face then let go and hug him. its a quick hug and it had not actual reason but I felt like I couldn't kiss him. I lean back over and sit down again.

"I'm glad you stayed, thank you." I say after. Simon stands up and walks over to me then sits down next to me. he looks at me and puts one hand on my left hand. he hugs me again and we end up hugging for longer. we hear the door open and quickly separate which knocks over the UNO cards onto the floor. Simon quickly picks them off the floor and I look over at the door. it's just a woman giving out dinner. she gives me a tray with a dish covered with a lid and several other things. the woman leaves and I say thank you.

"wow, hospital food. sounds like its gonna be great." Simon comments. I laugh not even trying to argue against it. I open the dish and it looks reasonable, it looks like some sort of meat with sauce on it.

"I told them you're vegetarian so don't worry." he says knowing what I'm thinking.

"well it doesn't look bad." I say hoping it doesn't taste like shit.

I pick it up with a fork and taste it and it doesn't taste half bad.

"and it doesn't taste bad." I confirm. I finish eating and we talk the whole time. Simon gets a call and im left sitting in the room while he talks to someone outside. when he comes inside he tells me it was just them asking how I am. he leaves and I give him one more hug right before he leaves. After that, i just stare at the window with people checking on me every once in a while. I eventually fall asleep watching TV.

Edit: alright originally i thought it was a good idea (for some reason) to have them kiss but hey removed that because its like 7 pages in so wtf why. anyway this is the last chapter i can edit this class so ill be done editing either tomorrow or later today. bye.