Smoke Filled Lungs

Chapter 25: Hospital Pains

Stan stood outside the hospital's doors with a lit cigarette between his lips, and his eyes looking up into the clouded grey sky, he went to reach for his flask only to remember that he left it at home when Randy was going to take them out to eat, he took a deep breath and then blew out smoke. He felt exhausted, he didn't sleep at all last night while he sat in the waiting room, his parents left some hours later, but left him there, Randy was going to try and force him to go back, but his mom stepped in and told him that if he wanted to stay that he could, and so he did.

His eyes felt heavy and his stomach growled, he hadn't eaten since yesterday, he had a few dollars for the vending machines, but from his own personal stays and visits to the hospital, not only was the food they made taste bad, but the vending machine food was all knock offs of better brands, and they tasted like cardboard, and he wasn't going to waste money on that. Besides he's used to being hungry anyway.

He took another puff and dropped the butt onto the sidewalk, stomping it out with ease. He knows that he promised Kyle that he'd try to quit, but one can't just go cold turkey when having an addiction for so long, and he's been smoking since the fourth grade, he has cut back, his friends were told by Kyle what happened so they too were keeping an eye on how much and often he had a smoke, but with Kyle still unconscious in his hospital room, he was stressed. He doesn't know what happened, but when he saw Kyle's parents come in, he could tell something happened between them, but he didn't know what.

Taking a deep breath of the chill mountain air, he turned back to the door and walked in. He passed the waiting room and went straight for the hall that had Kyle's room, he was able to finally see him earlier, but when he saw Kyle's parents he stepped out. With his hands shoved in his pockets, he reached the open door only to freeze when he heard voices, one of them being Kyle's.

Quickly stepping in he saw Kyle propped up on his bed with Ike clinging to him in a tight hug, Shelia and Gerald were off to the side, not saying much, or if they said anything at all they already did before he came back, but there was a huge sense of relief that flooded him, he couldn't stop the smile that spread across his face, and when Kyle looked over at the door and their eyes met, he couldn't keep it together.

He rushed over while yelling the redhead's name and clung to him as well, the injured teen made a sound of discomfort, but didn't push either of the two away. Stan buried his face in Kyle's shoulder and breathed in his scent, well there wasn't much of it besides the smell of dirt and hemp plants he crashed into, but there was still a lingering hint of what Stan would define as his scent, but he didn't really know how to describe it.

"We should get going now."

Stan pulled away a bit to see Kyle's parents making their way to the door, Ike protested, but Kyle ruffled his hair and told him he'd be fine and he'd see him tomorrow, so Ike left behind their parents, but not without one last glance back at his bedridden brother.

So Stan and Kyle were alone now.

"Are you alright?"

Kyle looked back over at him and smiled, "Yeah, just a scrape."

The raven blinked at him as he glanced down and saw his casted wrist, and bandaged arms, and some bandaids on his face, he sighed as he fixed himself to fully sit on the bed with Kyle and asked, "What happened? Why were you in Randy's field at eight at night?"

The redhead's sea-green eyes looked away as he let out a sigh and leaned back in his bed, running a hand through his loose curls, "Got in a fight with mom and dad, someone ratted me out that I wasn't a virgin. So after ma slapped me I was gonna go over to your place and try and crash. Just didn't know I would literally crash."