In The Sight of These Hills (Dolan Twins)

White Ceiling

Chapter 19: White Ceiling

"Every time that we run
We don't know what it's from
Now we finally slow down
We feel close to it
There's a change gonna come
I don't know where or when
But whenever it does
We'll be here for it-"
-Lana Del Ray's "Change"

Grayson would take a towel and wipe all the blood off his face, calling, "In a minute, Dad!"

Ethan would lay his head back on the pillow and stare at the white ceiling, stare at the cracks on the plaster, and feel the ghost of Grayson's thumb rubbing on his arm. What had he done with those hands a mere few hours before?

The wetness of the cloth went against his face, and he scrubbed at the gore until it turned the material a light pink and proceeded to shove the towel under the bed. There were some things you just couldn't hide under the bed and forget about.

Ethan watched in silence from the corner of his eye, feeling dizzy.

Grayson spewed some bullshit story about how Ethan had fallen in the shower when he unlocked the door, and let their father in. He opened his mouth and let his words fill the air like smoke. Nothing could take ahold and stick.

"Ethan's okay, Dad. He just fell in the shower and hit his head."

He knew the moment it came out of his hard mouth that it was utterly ludicrous.

"What happened?" Exasperated Sean, his eyes blinking the sleep away as he walked into the room, flicking on the light. Fallen in the shower? He moved towards his son, and Ethan felt hot against his gaze, as his large palm went against the bed sheets. The rain was loud against the window pane and the hard, cold glass.

Falling in the shower didn't explain the bruises. It didn't explain the bandage wrapped around his palm. Sean had just looked at them, hand on Ethan's shoulder, door leaking light into the room, like he was looking at two strangers. He would have none of it.

~

"I don't think I need a room," said Ethan to Grayson who was sitting in the uncomfortable hospital chair beside his bed when Sean stepped out to try to catch one of the nurses regarding him seeing the doctor. Despite them being on call 24/7, it was 4:00 in the morning, and there was no way that she could see him right them. It wasn't like he was dying or anything. Gray tried holding his hand while he laid there in the white bed, by Ethan retracted it, laying it across his sore belly. It was so weird to be in that quiet room, hooked up to a monitor, hooked up to an IV, a nurse writing his information on the white board plastered to the wall. He wanted to be home, but he could tell that Grayson thought that the hospital was the best place for him to be.

Sean had rushed him to the ER right after he came into the room, and ignored Ethan's exclaims that he was fine, and he didn't need to go to a hospital. They would take him up to a room a little after five in the morning. Grayson had helped him put his clothes on, pulling an oversize gray t-shirt over his head. He himself looked out of place with his suit on and had grabbed an extra pair of clothes to change the first time he had a chance to do so.

Grayson didn't say anything to Ethan's comment, his lips forming a straight line, running a shaky hand through his hair and going to the restroom to put his clothes on.

Ethan would spend Sunday in room 405 with nurses shooting pain killers into the tube of his IV every few hours. They made him wear a hospital gown, all light blue and thin, and he accepted it, even though it chilled his bare skin, and made him wrap himself tighter in his blanket. Cable television would flicker on the 2010 Samsung television, and he paid no attention to it. A kind CNA would heft a couch-bed and place it by Ethan's bed, and Grayson would give a polite smile when he handed him a bunch of pillows and thick blankets. Sean would sit in the chair besides Ethan's bed and not say a word.