Greenline

11

Thursday, May 5th. 11:04.

I had spent at least four hours reading blog posts and watching youtube videos about how to apologize to your boyfriend. I had found most of the ideas incredibly stupid or time consuming, so I settled for stopping at the grocery store that was close to the hospital and trying to find a few things that I knew Isaac would like.

The combination of items on the belt was interesting but not entirely odd: a bag of miniature kit kats, grapes, and a small pot of orchids.

I was so nervous when I reached the hospital and my nerves only got worse on the elevator ride up to his room. I stood outside for a few minutes, deciding I was going to go in rambling and hope against all odds that he would hear me out.

I had the plastic bag hanging from my elbow and I held the flowers I bought him as I stepped into the boring white room. My eyes fell to the only thing of color in the room, the blue World of Warcraft shirt that my kind-of-boyfriend was wearing.

I started before I'd even met his eyes. "I would've been here sooner but visiting hours are eleven to three," I blurted, cheeks flaming. That was most certainly not what I wanted to say.

Luckily, Isaac laughed at me. I didn't bother with embarrassment, because I had not expected him to smile at me. "It's eleven-oh-four, you're late."

I padded into the room cautiously and stuttered an apology, but he cut me off with another laugh. "Ethan, I was joking."

"Oh, I knew that," I tried to brush it off, but he clearly wasn't buying it. His laughter continued and it was music to my ears.

Then his face contorted as he winced and I rushed over to him without hesitation. "Stop making me laugh, I just had surgery."

My face fell and I nearly flinched back. "You had to have surgery?"

I didn't think his joyful expression could be gone so quickly. "I'm not going to break, okay?" He snapped, pushing himself up to lean on the mountain of pillows behind him.

I was unconvinced, but I tried not to let it show on my face. It must have worked, because he cheered up again. "What goodies did you get me?" he asked like a child, making me giggle, a noise I did not know I was still capable of making.

I smiled and set the bag on the table next to the hospital bed, as well as the flowers. The plastic crackled as I sifted through it, pulling out the different items. I left the receipt inside, not caring if it was lost with the bag since I had paid in cash. "Okay, so we've got Kit-Kats and– all right, your lovely and strange self is obsessed with grapes, so..." I listed off. He went for the bag of candy and nearly ripped it out of my hands.

While he struggled to find the spot to tear open the bag, he mumbled, "I can't believe you got me flowers, you dork."

I raised my eyebrow, unable to fight the arrogant smirk that grew on my lips. "I'm a dork who's making you blush," I teased. Though it probably wasn't fair, considering how easy it was for Isaac's cheeks to get rosy. If you hadn't seen him often, you might not notice his face was always paler than the rest of his dark skin.

"Shut up and give me the grapes," he insisted, giving up on opening the chocolates. I did as requested and then grabbed the Kit-Kats, opening the package for him and setting it on the table.

I stood over him awkwardly for a few moments, biting my lip. After finding my words, I lamented, "I'm sorry. I know I was a shitty friend and did exactly what you didn't want me to do. And I probably would have done it again if I could because I can't stand to see you hurt like that even if you get mad at me– but I, uh, probably shouldn't be trying to justify my actions while apologizing. Fuck, I just messed this whole thing up, didn't I?"

Isaac was trying to hold back more laughter the entire time I spoke. He always took his anger very seriously, but he was never straight-faced with the apology after it had faded. "I'm going to ignore the second half of that. Except for the part where you said you didn't want to see me hurt, because that was adorable. The 'I'm sorry' was good, though," he told me. Then it was my turn to blush. I tried to hide it by turning to pull over the extra chair in the room, but he saw it. I could tell by the look he gave me when I sat down and faced him again.

I was expecting him to tease me while wearing that strange expression, but in my later interactions with Isaac I learned to memorize it as his look of pure adoration. I think it would've made my heart skip a lot back then if I hadn't been so oblivious. But at the time, I was caught completely off guard when he stopped what he was doing and said, "Be my boyfriend."

I blinked at him for a few seconds, and if I could go back I would probably laugh at the tension I unknowingly created before splattering, "Y-yeah, sure. Okay."

He smiled at me, so relieved but also slightly glazed over. It may have been the morphine being pumped into his body from the iv in his arm. "Yeah?"

I nodded, more confident in my reply this time. "Yeah."