Down But Not Out

Chapter 40

I sighed, still looking at Josh as I willed him for the fortieth time in the last hour to open his eyes. I'd been counting up to forty since apparently that number is a biblical number. Actually scratch that, it was a fucked up idea since I just realised that forty is also biblical number for death. Well at least I think so. It meant death of people on an episode of Supernatural.

Josh had only been in the hospital for one night and most of the day, but already I was willing him to open his eyes so that I could see the deep blue staring back at me. At the moment I was failing since there was no sign of life. No flickering of his eyelids or twitching in his muscles. He just lay there, breathing shallowly and far in between while the heart monitor sounded his heartbeats. That was the only comforting thing about being in the sterile white room and that was the heart monitor, the only thing telling me he was alive.

I sighed again and looked up at his pale, bruised face. His left eye was swollen and his bottom lip had been busted up so much that he'd needed stitches as well as the fact that he had a cut on his eyebrow and left cheek, although the nurse had told us all last night that those would clear up. His knuckles were scraped and bright red since he'd had feet stomped on his hands when he fought back as well as the fact that I'd remembered him scraping his hands across the floor a few times as he scrambled up to get to me. Luckily he'd been covered up by the sheet on his bed by the time we were allowed to see him last night so I couldn't see the extent of his injuries over the rest of his body. I was thankful for that since the injuries on his face were bad enough.

His heart monitor beeped and I lay my head down on the bed next to where I was holding his hand, careful not to knock the needle attached to the back of his right hand as it attached him to an IV drip. I continued to look at his face as I felt my heart slow down and beat in time to the monitor. I swallowed around the lump in my throat, as I tried to swallow my emotions and keep strong for Elissa, who had stayed in the room with me this morning when her parents left to sign into the same hotel where we were staying. We hadn't left his room much except Elissa, when she went to get food and drink from the hospital café as I'd told her I wasn't going to leave him, except to empty my bladder which would be a necessity for my body.

"How did you meet?" Elissa asked, disrupting the silence as well as my thoughts about how much I loved him and my need to protect him, though it would be useless seeing as how I'd failed to do that since I hadn't fought against the gang hard enough. My boyfriend still got stabbed and was lying in the hospital because of me. I cleared my throat and lifted my head up to look at Elissa who was watching me.

"At work" I whispered and she cocked her head. I smiled at being able to see her open curiosity about how we'd met so I decided that I would tell her, but in a shortened version.

"He opened a shop for Down But Not Out, as you know, and my friend Summer and I went in three days in a row just to look around and then to buy stuff. I chatted to Josh for a while before I returned for a job interview on the fourth day. My friend who had offered me an interview told me that the place was filled so I went to the coffee shop to drown my sorrows. Josh found me there and offered me a job at the shop, but I wouldn't be paid for it. I agreed and helped him out. I was attracted to him from the beginning, I suppose it was because of the mystery that surrounded him since I couldn't see his face" I shrugged and I sighed before glancing at Josh's face to see that he was still immobile, with no emotion flitting across his face. I swallowed and turned back to Elissa who was still watching me.

"Well a few things happened. Firstly my friend Summer had some problems with her ex-boyfriend. So I got rid of him but he pushed me and I hit my head. When I woke up I was in the back room of the shop with Summer telling me Josh had punched her ex and threatened him, calling him a piece of shit for hitting girls. Then there was a problem with Josh's ex Becky-" I heard Elissa groan at this, I wondered if Josh had told her what had happened between them.