My eyelids feel so heavy.. I struggle to open them and look around the room. I see Brooke sitting in a chair next to me, with Ashton, Calum, and Michael hugging her. Theyre all quietly crying with their eyes closed. Whats Brooke doing here? Wait.. What am I doing here? I look down at my hands, see that they are bandaged up with stitches and it all flashes back to me. Did they tell her to come? Why would they do that?
"..Brooke?" I whisper in a small, tired voice. All of their eyes shoot open and look over at me. "LUKE!" They shout in unison. They all start going on and on about how worried they were and give me gentle hugs. After Im done talking to the boys, Brooke asks if we can be alone. They leave and were both left alone in the room. Shes still crying and she comes up to hug me. "Why did you come?" I say, almost sounding mad. "I was worried about you. You had an anger/panic attack. You bled out, you could have died!" She yells, now crying harder. "Come here." I pull her in and hold her in a hug as best as I can, since Im hooked up to a bunch of machines and Im very weak. "Im okay, Brooke, now that youre here." She squeezes me tightly but then lets go. She pulls the chair right next to my bed. "What caused this? What happened?" She asked, worried. I sigh and think back to the night.
"I was laying in bed, and I couldnt stop thinking about you. I was scared that you would break up with me because of the distance. Or stop liking me, or find a new guy. And what if that guy treated you badly? and what if I treat you badly?" I realize that Im now breathing hard again and she puts a hand on my arm. "Luke, you are the best thing thats ever happened to me. None of those things would ever happen." She assures me. "But, why did you punch the wall??" She asks, confused.
"I.. got mad." I answer. She raises an eyebrow. "At who?" She asks.
"The world."
"Why?"
"Because I cant always protect you from it."
Her eyes soften and she squeezes my hand. "And where were you trying to go? The boys said you tried to leave the bus, but you passed out before you could go." She looks me sttaight in the eye. "I was trying to get to you." I answer, weakly.
She leans in and we kiss. Its amazing. She pulls back and smiles in her chair and I bite my lip. "I love you Brooke." I tell her. "I love you too Luke." Shes still smiling.
I look out the window and realize that the sun is coming up, it must be pretty early. Oh shit... I have a concert today at 5:00pm. "What time is it?" I quickly ask Brooke. She looks down at her phone. "3:30. Why?" I start to sit up but she pushes me back down. I glare at her. "My concert, I have to get ready." She lets out a sigh. "Luke, look at yourself. You have to rest." I look down at my hands. Shes right. Theres no way that I can play guitar. But theres nothing wrong with my voice, I can still sing. I start to pull the things out my arms but Brooke yells at me. "Luke, you cant pull those out. You need blood in your body." I roll my eyes and she calls the boys in, along with a nurse.
"Nurse, is there any way that I can play at my concert?" I immidietly ask when they walk in and she looks at me with sympathy. "Im sorry Luke, your hands are still healing. You need to rest them for about a week." She tells me. I scrunch up my eyebrows. "Well, I can still sing, right?" I ask, hopeful. She sighs. "Luke, you are too weak. We still need to keep giving you blood since you lost so much. You are on bed rest for a week, but you can go home in a few hours." I look up and realize there is a huge bag of blood with a tube attached to my arm. I look down and twist the tube around in my fingers.
The nurse leaves the room and the boys stand around me but I still dont look up. "Its okay man, the fans will understand." Michael assures me. I sigh, unable to make eye contact. A whole week worth of concerts, and were letting all of those fans down.
I sit in the hospital bed, waiting for the time to go by, so I can go back home. Where will I go? Back to Moms house? Back on the tour bus? Maybe I can meet all the fans, to make it up to them.. I think about stuff until finally the nurse comes in and tells me I can go home. They put me in a wheelchair and take me out of the hospital. Calums pushing me. "Hey Luke, ya wanna do a wheelie?" He jokes. I sigh, "No, Calum. Can Brooke push me?" I ask, with no emotion in my voice. Hes taken aback by what I said. "Uh, yeah sure." He walks away and Brooke grabs the handles and pushes me down the hallway. "Thanks." I say, looking down. She brushes her fingers through my hair. "No problem Lukey." I smile to myself.
"So, Brooke... Where am I going?" I ask. She thinks for a minute and says, "Well, where do you want to go?" I look up and watch the walls pass by. "Anywhere but here." I honestly say. "Well, you could go home, with your mom." I look down. I dont want to have to explain this whole thing to her. I let out a big sigh and grip the sides of the wheelchair. "You dont have to go there Luke. You can go to Calums or Ashtons house." She suggests. I think about it. That would be nice, but really.. I just want to be with her. "Can.. I go to your house?" I ask, nervously. She stops walking. "Of coarse, if you want to." I hear her smiling behind her words. I look down and smile to myself.
Calum, Michael, and Ashton realize that we stopped walking. "Are you guys okay?" Ashton asks. "Yeah, Luke just told me that he wants to stay at my house while he rests." She answers for me. "Thats actually a good idea" Michael tells us. "Everything seems to go wrong when you guys are apart. It could be dangerous to separate you two again." We all laugh, knowing that hes right.
Maybe this wont be so bad after all.
