Hold Me Close: An Ezria Story

Survive

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Ezra's POV:

My eyes sprang open. I must've fallen asleep in the waiting room. I looked at the clock hanging from the wall in front of me. 4:07 AM. Aria had been in surgery for two hours now. Aria's mom had fallen asleep next to Byron. I had called the college and taken a week off to be with Aria. I think her parents did the same.

The same bald doctor from before stepped into the waiting room. I shot out of my seat and ran over to him. Byron woke up Ella and came over also.

"Aria is out of surgery. We were able to stop the bleeding again, but she is much more fragile this time. The slightest thing could set it off. If it does happen again, there's almost a zero percent chance we can stop it. It's a miracle she's still alive, she's got a lot of fight in her." The doctor said empathetically.

Yeah, she does.

"So Aria's okay...?" I said. He hadn't really given us a direct answer.

"For now, yes. But it will be quite a while before she fully recovers. We have to try and keep her from crying as much as possible, because that causes her stomach to clench up, and the wound to open again. She's still asleep, so unfortunately I can only take family back at this time." The doctor said.

It felt like déjà vu. I still wasn't allowed to see her until she woke up.

"Are you sure only family is allowed? Sir he's her boyfriend and we'd... we'd really like him back there with us." I heard. It was Byron. I could not believe what I was hearing.

"Well I suppose under the circumstances..." The doctor said. He motioned towards a door at the end of a hallway. "Follow me."

We walked to the end of the hallway and through the door. We turned left down another hallway. We followed him to the middle of the hallway and he stopped in front a door on the right.

I couldn't believe what the doctor said next.

"Here she is. Room B-26." He said as he wrote something down on his clipboard.

At that moment I knew Aria was gonna be okay. That was her way of telling me she was alright. B-26. That's our number. That's our song. That's my girl.

"Thank you." Ella said as I opened the door and walked in.

I saw Aria's still body laying there with virtually no expression on her face. She was hooked up to like 6 different machines and she had an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth. I rushed over to the side of her bed and grabbed her hand.

"Oh Aria..." I barely whispered with a sigh as my voice cracked, signaling I was probably about to cry.

Aria's parents shuffled to the other side of her bed. I grabbed a chair that was sitting nearby and pulled it up to me. As I sat down, Ella took Aria's other hand and Byron kissed her forehead. I started to trace little circles on her shoulder, right below her collarbone. She always told me she loved it when I did that.

Then, Aria's eyes started to flutter open. She groggily looked at her parents who had both started crying. And then she looked at me. Her beautiful hazel eyes sparkling under the dim, fluorescent hospital lights. I had to fight every urge in my body to just take her mask off and kiss her. I smiled at her as my eyes filled up with tears.

"Hey baby." I whispered as I took one hand and stroked her hair. She let go of my hand and started to try and take the mask off. I put my hands over hers and moved them away from her face.

"You need to leave that on babe, that's making it easier to breath." I said as I shifted my weight in the chair so I was closer to her.

"I'm gonna go let the doctor know that she's awake." Ella said as she started to walk towards the door.

We waited in silence as I kept tracing circles on her shoulder and stroking her hair. Aria's dad was sitting on the other side holding Aria's hand tightly.

Ella came back in with Aria's doctor
and 3 nurses.

"Hello Aria, how are you? Do you know what happened?" said one of the nurses in a cheerful voice as she walked over to one of the machines and touched a few buttons. "Well, the bleeding in your stomach started again, but we were able to make it all better."

I looked at the nurse in awe. She was treating her like she was 5 years old. I looked to Aria and her eyes sparkled with the slightest twinge of amusement. I made a funny face at her as the nurse kept babbling on about who knows what. She tried to laugh but it quickly subsided as she let out a whimper. She sounded like she was in so much pain.

"You okay?" I whispered as I squeezed her hand. She squeezed my hand back as she gave me a small nod.

I knew she was putting on a brave face for me. Her eyes were the thing that gave her away. Her eyes showed all the pain and fear she's been through in the past 12 hours. I felt like crying in that moment. I could see right through her. But I had to be the brave one this time.

I focused on the mask around her mouth and nose. Whenever she would take a breath, the clear plastic would get all foggy and then become clear again in a split second. I managed to push back the tears.

I looked into her eyes again and squeezed her hand. I leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. I stroked her hair until she had fallen asleep.