They took Joey straight into a room, and he was swallowed by a group of nurses and doctors, one of the nurses took me out of the room and sat me down. "Come on honey, you can wait here while they do what they can. Is he your brother?" she asked. I nodded, completely at a loss for words. She had a small smile on her face but I could tell she was hiding something from me; it only made me worry further for the life of my brother.
I rang my friend Lex and burst into tears, she picked up the phone on the first ring "Heyya dude, you alright? London is soo amazing!"
"Shit babe, Im sorry I forgot. Don't worry about me then, just enjoy your holiday" I said. I was forcing the tears back but I was never very good at doing so.
"Where are you, right now, Ally. Where are you?" Lex asked, she knew something was wrong and the panic in her voice had risen. This wasn't fair so I told her about Joey and being in the hospital.
"Don't worry babe, he'll be fine, and so will you. It's a bad time now but he will be fine, okay. Head up, be brave, be strong and I love you, okay. I'll ring you in a bit. I disconnected the phone and put my head in my hands. I thought about texting Josh but I didn't want him to worry too, mum and dad would freak out if I mentioned Joey's name. So I sat there all by myself waiting to see if they could save my brother.
Despite everything that had happened he was still my brother and I loved him that could never change. I might have disliked him but I still loved him, and love is stronger than like. After a few hours the nurse led me into Joey's room, he had tubes and wires attached everywhere and he looked so vulnerable and lost. He looked like my Joey, the big brother I loved and liked 5 years ago. I sat by his bed and held his hand, brought it up to my face and held it there, praying. I prayed that he would be safe and would wake up soon. Im not sure how long I was there for, but I fell asleep because my phone rang waking me up, I answered it.
"Dude, where are you? Im back in Nottingham, now where am I coming to? Home or Hospital?" It was Lex, my lovely Lex had come home from London just to be with me. I welled up again and mumbled "hospital". An hour later, she rushed through the doors and scooped me up into her arms. I started crying again and she just held me tight. I pulled myself together and we went down to the cafeteria, I got some chocolate and a coffee and headed back to Joey's room. The doctor was there and asked me my name and relation to the patient.
"Alison, and im Joey's sister, can you please just tell me what's happened?"
"well Alison, your brother Joey is lucky to be alive, he had alcohol poisioning caused by very excessive amounts of alcohol in his system. We have pumped his stomach and he is recovering well. We will definitely have to keep him in for a few days but I would say the worst is over." I let out a huge sigh of relief and Lex smiled over at me. " so go home, get some rest. Leave a contact number at the nurses desk and we will ring you if anything happens. But you need to get some rest now." The doctor said. I knew he was right but it still felt wrong leaving Joey so helpless in the hospital, Lex took my hand in hers, and held her suitcase in the other and we got a taxi to my house.
Lex had dropped her suitcase off at home and was now walking back into the house. Her parents had said that it was fine for her to stay for dinner but afterwards she had to go home, neither of us could be bothered to cook so we decided to just get a couple of pizza's instead. I heard her downstairs ordering the pizza and I just sat there on my bed. My phone started buzzing and I picked it up without looking at the caller i.d, worried it may have been the nurses.
"Hello?" I asked, it was Josh. I hadn't mentioned anything to him all day, and now I could hear all the panic in my voice and it didn't take long to hear it reflected in his.
"Ally, are you alright? What's wrong?"
"um.. well I spent the entire day at the hospital with my brother and I just got home, they're keeping him in to keep an eye on him and they said they would ring me if anything happened." I said, the tears began forming in my eyes again as I thought about all them wires and tubes again.
"are you at home now, love?" Josh asked,
"Yeah I am, can... can you come over please?" I asked. I felt so bad for asking him to come over on such short notice but I really, really wanted him to be with me tonight.
"yes of course gorgeous, I'll be over in 15 minutes" he put the phone down and I stood up. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and decided to go the bathroom. I splashed some cold water to reduce the redness and puffiness on my face and then headed downstairs. Lex was getting some plates out of the cupboard and then it hit me. I hadn't told her about our third guest!
"Um.. babe?" I asked, she turned around to face me " I kind of invited another friend over for dinner, he should be here real soon."
"oooh a friend huh, a guy friend or a boyfriend?"
"umm..." what where we? I really liked him but we had yet to make anything official seeing as it was only one date. "guy friend but we went on a date last night... but I need you to promise me something. You might recognise him, but don't freak out. Okay?" and just on time the doorbell rang. I breathed in and opened the door.
Lex screamed. Josh pecked me on the lips and wrapped his arms around me, I hugged him back, and then we both looked around to stare at Lex. She was still stood at the table, mouth hanging open, staring at Josh.
"uhmm, she's a bit of a fan of yours, sorry" I said, I walked over to Lex and shook her shoulders, "come on, babe. Back to earth please". She smiled at me then mumbled a "Hi" to Josh.
Josh gave her a cheery "Hiya!" and a high five before the door bell rang again. It was our Pizza's, I reached over to the counter to take some money out but Josh playfully slapped my hand away and paid for it himself.
I handed the money over to Josh who just started laughing, he carried the pizza in one hand and wrapped the other round my waist leading me over to the table. We ate our pizza, I only had a slice because my appetite had completely gone but Josh and Lex were happily munching through them. I went over to the fridge and grabbed a few cans of coke and handed them round the table, Josh and Lex who were engrossed in conversation (well Lex firing questions at Josh, and him answering them) looked up at me and smiled, mouthing their thankyou's.
I wrapped my arms around myself and went over to the sofa, collapsing down onto it, I didn't realise how tired I was! Lex let herself out, saying her parents were getting worried and I glanced at the time to see it was 11pm. Josh came over and sat down next to me, extending his arms, so I cuddled into him."Want to talk about it?" He kissed my head and rubbed my arms, I felt so safe in his arms. I wasn't upset about Joey at that minute so I told him everything, the whole story, just glad to get it off my chest. He held me tighter as I sobbed into his chest and finally I stopped.
"Joshhh... it's midnight. Im sorry for keeping you so long" I whispered
"Shh... it's fine. Don't you worry about me, im fine. I just want to make sure your okay."
"im fine, im just so exhausted, I want to sleep then I'll go to the hospital first thing."
"Okay, well if your sure, I can swing by again in the morning to drive you to the hospital if you want" josh offered. He was looking down at me, his eyes so full of concern. I could tell he was worried about me.
"Um, josh? If you want you can stay here. I mean we have two guest bedrooms so there is more than enough space. And it will just save you coming back in the morning, and... and... I don't want to be alone" I mumbled.
"If you're sure, then yeah okay" he smiled down at me and kissed my forehead and I snuggled closer to him. We watched TV for a while and I could physically feel my worries and stress disappear, I started to relax a while and I could feel my eyes getting heavier and heavier.
...
I woke up, as I was getting the feeling I was being moved, I scrunched my eyes shut then opened them. Josh was carrying me in his arms up the stairs, I must have really dozed off,
"Well hello there gorgeous, how you feeling?"
"Tired, you can put me down... I can walk" I mumbled, I was still half asleep and really enjoying being held so close, not that I was going to admit it!
"Its fine, don't worry about it, just go back to sleep" he whispered kissing me on the forehead again. I snuggled into his chest and my eyes started shutting again, I felt Josh put me down in my bed and tuck me in. He started to walk away again but I held onto his hand, ushering for him to come closer, he came closer I kissed his lips softly and gave him a big hug. He returned it before walking to the door "good night gorgeous!" he winked at me before turning my light off and going into his bedroom.
