Three days passed, everyone taking Savana's hospital in shifts. The only time any one left the room was for the nurses to change her dressings and sanitary supplies. Once that was done, though, they flooded back.
Every time Lindsay came in, she either watered the flowers that were there or brought new ones. Michael made sure to fix her necklace every time that he noticed it was crooked. Sierra and Lindsay worked together to take her makeup off.
The fourth day was a day they had all had enough of the hospital. Every one felt guilty about not going, thinking that if she had woken up, she would've been alone. Michael was the last to get out of bed, and didn't leave his room hardly at all that day. When he did, everyone watched him for from his bedroom to the kitchen, and back.
"You guys should go talk to him." Sierra nudged Ashton. "He needs someone right now."
Ashton nodded and pulled Luke's sleeve up a bit, "Let's go, Luke." He wasn't messing around when it came to his friends and their feelings. They walked up and knocked softly. "Hey, Mike?"
"What do you want?" Michael said, muffled.
Luke looked at Ashton, "W-We were hoping we could talk. About Savana. We know how you're feeling and the girls told us it could help you if we were to talk about it."
It was silent for a moment, then the doorknob twisted. They opened the door fully and saw Michael laying on his bed with pictures of him and Savana on the wall around him. The blinds were closed and the light was off, but he still covered his face with his pillow. The outer edge of his bed was neatly made, almost untouched. Ashton and Luke thought that Michael was coping with her death, even though she was still alive with a good chance of waking up soon.
"Hey, Mikey, you know she's not gone, right?" Ashton asked as he sat on Zayn's bed. "Her doctor said she has a good chance of pulling through."
"I know, I just," Michael sat up a bit and looked at the pictures, "I can't sleep on her side of the bed, her coffee mixture stuff is still on the nightstand from that day. It's hard to do anything without her. I can still see her dancing in the kitchen on a rainy Saturday morning, making pancakes and telling me they make up for the lack of sun. Yesterday, I tried cleaning up be-because Sierra told me it'd take my mind off of everything, but I found some t-shirts of hers and I couldn't do it anymore. I tried sleeping to forget, but she's in my dreams, too. She's everywhere I look and I'm scared that she'll stop fighting and that I won't see her anywhere all of a sudden." He let his upper body drop back onto the bed while exhaling, "I don't know what I'd do without her. I love her, and, if she dies, I won't be able to tell her that anymore and see her smile and say it back." He rolled over and grabbed his phone off of his headboard.
Ashton got an idea and left the room for a moment. Luke tried his best, "You'll get your chance again, Mike. You can quote me on that." He got a grunt in return.
Ashton came back with a small piece of orange paper in his hand, "Michael, Sierra told me that, every morning, Savana writes a new mantra for her to repeat to herself every day. She's into 'witchy stuff' as Sierra calls it. This one is from the morning of New Years Eve. Read it." He handed it to Michael, who took it with a shaky hand.
He read it: 'I'll be just fine -12/31' He held it close to his chest as he turned over and stared at pictures of her. "Michael, she said it herself. She'll be fine." Ashton said.
Michael didn't say anything in return, much less a noise. Ashton and Luke took this as their cue to leave. Once they shut the door, Luke looked at Ashton.
"What if we wrote a song for him with what he told us?" Luke suggested, "It'd be a little grim, but music in any context always cheers him up, you know that."
Ashton liked the idea, so they got to work in the dining room while the others watched home remodeling shows. After an episode or two, Lindsay wanted to stop by the hospital and check on Savana. Sierra decided to join her, "Don't tell Michael. We want him to stay here and relax."
The boys all nodded as their attention stayed fixated on the remodeling show. Lindsay kissed Niall cheek and Sierra ruffled Ashton's hair before saying goodbye, and leaving.
Lindsay sat in the passenger seat while Sierra drove, "Why do you think this hits Michael so hard? I mean, I'd be devastated, too, but he's treating this as if she's died."
"Linds, he and Savana told each other 'I love you' before they started dating. They've loved each other ever since we set foot in that house, and everyone knew it. It was just a matter of time. He asked her out less than a week after we moved in, and I could see that he wanted to do it when we walked in. He stared at her and went silent as we walked to our room. Before he asked her out, they'd cuddle up to one another all the time and they'd never leave the others' side. They both found their other half. I'd be beside myself with grief if I found my soulmate and 3 months later they're in the hospital with a collapsed lung in a medically induced coma. Especially if I blamed myself for it." Sierra explained as she turned left and right, heading to the hospital.
Lindsay sighed and put her phone down, letting her head fall onto the headrest, "Yeah, you're right." She closed her eyes, "We haven't visited her all day. I wonder how she's doing."
Sierra smiled, "I'm sure she's still sleeping peacefully with her throat tube."
"I wonder when they'll take that thing out." Lindsay said with a shudder.
"For Savana, her lung collapsed, so it's there to help her breathe properly. Especially after what happened. At least we haven't seen then use the orogastric tube. They usually do that after they change her." Sierra said.
Lindsay's eyes widened, "I'm not even going to ask what an orogastric tube is." They pulled into the parking lot of the hospital and walked in. Lindsay worried that she would be awake and alone.
Once they got to the room, they opened the door and walked in. "Uh, who the heck are you?" Lindsay spoke with a sharp tone.
There was a dark-haired man with a beard sitting next to her with his hands over his mouth. He was clean cut, and, in Sierra and Lindsay's opinion, was attractive. He stood up and approached them shyly.
He stuck out his hand towards Lindsay, "I'm Josh, I-I'm one of Savana's friends. She told me in September that she was having issues with someone, and, when I heard about this, I had to make sure she was okay."
Lindsay knew who he was and smiled, "He's okay, Sierra. Savana's told me all about him."
