Broken (A Josh Hutcherson Imagine)

Chapter 52

52.1

A few more days go by, and soon it's the night before your birthday. Josh walks through the door, a few bags in his hands. He told you he was going to get supplies for the party, but you're assuming that he got your present too. Josh wouldn't let you go through the day without a present from him. "Hey babe!" He says with a smile as he puts the bags in his closet. "Hi" you say with a weak smile as he takes off his jacket and crawls into your bed next to you. You and Josh usually lay in your bed now, so you don't have to get up to move to his bed. It just takes so much energy. "How was the store?" you ask Josh when he gets settles. Josh smiles, "It was actually really good." he says, "I was in line at target and these two girls ran up to me freaking out that I was out of the hospital. Then they apologized for the fans who said the nasty things to you, but I could just tell they weren't the ones who said them. They were so sweet. It really made me remember how great my life is. Despite being here. Despite you being sick. Despite the nasty tweets. Despite all of that. My real fans are great. You're great. I'm great. Life's great." Josh's optimism makes you optimistic. You can't help but grin at him. "Damn that was the best rant I've heard in a looonnnngg time." you say. "You're the best damn rant I'VE heard in a long time." Josh responds sarcastically, laughing at his own joke. You can't help but laugh too. You snuggle in bed for a few more hours and all of a sudden Josh gets up. "What's wrong Josh?" you ask, sitting up a little bit, alarmed. He just turns back and smiles, which satisfies you enough for a few moments so you know nothing is wrong. He goes to the cabinet and grabs something, taking it to the bathroom. He comes back out, two bottles of budlight in his hands, and jumps back into bed. "Josh what are you doing?" you ask him. He takes out his phone and you see the time. 11:59. "In one minute, you're going to turn twenty one. I don't care that alcohol isn't permitted in this hospital. We're drinking at midnight. It's the only chance we'll have, nobodies around right now." He says smiling. You take one of the bottles out of his hand, and you both look down at his phone and watch the date change to March 21st, 2014 and the time to 12:00am. Josh takes his bottle clinking it to yours, and he says "To my girl, the one who can always put a smile on my face, the one who is stronger than anybody I've ever met, and the one I love so much I'll never be able to live without." You both take a swig from the bottles, and share a kiss afterwards. You sit in bed, his arm around your shoulders, slowly drinking your first legal alcoholic beverage. When you finish your drink, Josh stands and holds his arms out to you. "What?" you ask. "We're going on an adventure." he says. You let him pick you up, and he situates you so you're on his back in a piggyback ride. He takes off as fast as he can, which isn't very fast. But it's fast enough for you. He takes you to the elevator where you go to the top floor and out the door you went out during your first 'date' on the roof. He walks to the edge of the roof, sets you down, and puts his arm around you, holding you up steadily. You're glad he does this without asking, because just standing without shaking is nearly impossible now. "Destroy the evidence?" he asks, and you nod. You clank the bottles together and throw them down at the lower portion of the roof, watch the brown glass shatter as it hits the cement. He picks you up again after a few minutes, and walk back down to your room. As he sets you down, you say "I think I'm going to be sick." Josh barely has time to grab the garbage and hand it to you before your fruit dinner comes up burning from the alcohol you just drank. Josh holds you rubbing your back softly. When you're done, he puts the garbage back in its spot, and pulls you carefully up to the top of the bed. "Get some sleep my love," he says, "We have a big birthday celebration tomorrow." Josh kisses you on the forehead, and you fall asleep with his arms around you and your head on his chest, listening to the beat of his steady heart.

52.2

You wake up to Josh getting out of bed quietly. "Josh?" You question, wondering if you're dreaming or if he's really leaving your arms. He leans in close to you and kisses your forehead. "Shhhh baby, it's okay. Go back to sleep. I'll be back in just a minute." Your eyes open further, "where are you going?" You ask him. "I'm just going to the bathroom, go back to sleep baby." You nod at him, satisfied and fall back to sleep before he crawls back into bed. When you wake up in the morning, your eyes open into a bright light from the window shining in. "Happy Birthday Beautiful." Josh says when your eyes meet. "Thank you" you say on impulse as your eyes look around and you see everything you're surrounded by. There is blue, green, pink, purple, and yellow streamers twisted and hanging from the ceiling, hung from wall to wall, and covering the room. There's a giant banner that says "happy 21st birthday" hanging on the wall opposite your bed, and many other cut outs and decorations hanging on the walls. There's balloons covering the floor, everywhere you look. On the window couch seat, there's a few presents, and a vase of flowers on the windowsill next to it. "Josh.." You say, "when.. how.. Wha--" Josh grins, "when I woke up in the middle of the night and told you I was going to the bathroom.. That's when." And then he laughs his perfect laugh, so you can't help but laugh too. Nicole comes in a moment later, saying "happy birthday darling, dr. James told me that you don't have to do chemo today's we know you have a big day and we don't want you to get sick from it, and your body could use a short break! So I hope you enjoy your day off." You smile at her "best. birthday. present. ever." Josh smiles then too, "were having a small birthday party here tonight, so direct all the guests in here, and make sure to stop by later for cake!" Josh says with a charming smile as Nicole's walking out of the room. "I just might have to do that," she answers, stoping by the door for a second, "thanks for the invite!" After she leaves, you grin at Josh. "What?" He asks, curiously. "You're so charming." You tell him and he answers "thank you, I think?" With that same smile plastered across his face. "Well aren't you just Mr. Smiley today." You tell him. "How can I not be smiley, it's your birthday!" He answers, and then asks "wanna open your presents before you get ready?" "Is that even a question?" He gets up and brings the boxes that were by the window over to you and you both snuggle up as you grab the first and smallest box unwrapping it. Inside that box, is a phone case with a collage of four pictures on the back. The top left one has a picture of you and Josh that Nicole took one day, when you fell asleep wrapped up together, the top right, an up and down picture, is of you and Josh all dressed up and fancy on Valentines day. The bottom left is also an up and down picture, of you and Josh with Rosie in his arms, while the bottom right is another picture of you and Josh on valentines day, a selfie you took together. It's not a perfect picture, but the smiles on your faces are fun and genuine. "Thank you Josh I love it." The next box has a few thing inside. A pair of sperry's along with a pair of toms, a few sweaters, a bottle of sweet perfume, and a necklace snapped like a key from a company called Stories Vintage Jewelry. (A real, lovely charity jewelry company, go check 'em out!)You thank Josh again, grabbing the final box. This one is giant, and has another variety of things. The first thing you grab is a little booklet. You flip through it seeing homemade "coupons" Josh made. There's things like "I'll go get you lunch from wherever you want" "one free kiss" "use this to shut me up for a few hours" and "you get to choose what we watch" there's about twenty coupons, all different and all things josh will do for you if you trade in the coupon. The next thing you pull out is a small scrapbook. You page through it, and it's full of pictures of you and Josh with cute decorations. "Jen helped me with that." He admits with a shy smile. As you look at each page carefully. You hadn't realized you and Josh had taken so many pictures together. But it's something fun and easy to do while you're stuck in a hospital room, so you guess that's what you turned to a lot. The final thing on the bottom of the box is a giant picture of you and Josh in the shape of California. You take it out and look at it, it's about 3 feet tall and a foot wide at most parts, and you see the picture is the first one you and Josh ever took together. He gets up and you see the rest of the present after he gets it out. It's a giant thing in the shape of all 50 states of the US. The thing covers almost the entire wall across from your beds, each empty state at least two feet around."when we get out of here," Josh explains, "we're going to take trips around the country. Each state we go to, were going to take a picture, and then get it screen printed on each state and it'll fit back in its spot!" He explains. You now understand, you had seen something like this on twitter the other day. You love the idea, because you love traveling. "I have just the spot for it at home." Josh says with a smile. Before you can answer, his phone rings and he answers it. After a short conversation, he disconnects and says "time to get ready, I have a surprise for you!"