Trouvaille

Chapter 6

Nikki's first reaction to Tom waking up was to smack him in the face. The second reaction was to immediately regret smacking a person who had just woken up from the coma. The third was to smack him again as he remarked, 'I wasn't dead, stop looking like you just saw a ghost.'

It was only after Tom himself asked whether they should call the doctor that Nikki realized she should probably have called the doctor first thing. She ran out the door yelling, 'HE'S AWAKE!!' shocking a nurse into dropping her coffee on the floor. The nurse then paged for the doctor, and everyone rushed to Tom's side. The doctor did a lot of tests, and proclaimed that Tom needed some nutrients in him but was otherwise fine. He kicked Nikki out as he set on changing Tom's medicines and doing some more tests.

Nikki called Tom's family to let them know that Tom was awake and that they should probably rush to the hospital. She also called Zoe and Zendaya to let them know. She texted Calum to let him know, knowing that he was in a studio session to record something. She was buzzing with nervous energy, not knowing what to do. The weight on her shoulders had lifted, and she felt ridiculously light. She couldn't remember what she used to think about all the time before she was worried about her best friend dying. Nikki felt so happy she randomly pulled a nurse who walked by into a hug.

She walked over to the vending machine, wondering if they would admit her into the psych ward if she hugged the vending machine and gave it a kiss. Realizing that they probably would, she just stood there, grinning like a fool at the vending machine.

'You look like the vending machine just proposed to you,' a voice from behind her made Nikki turn around. It was Zoe, wearing just as big a grin as Nikki. Zoe swept Nikki into a hug, squealing.

'You can go back in, but try not to exhaust him too much,' the doctor was standing in front of them, looking rather amused.

Nikki grabbed Zoe's hand and dragged her into Tom's room. Tom was smiling, rather tiredly, but still smiling. 'My favorite girls,' he said, holding his hands out to both of them. Zoe and Nikki climbed into bed with him, navigating in between the tubes and wires and his broken parts.

'So, what have I missed?' Tom asked.

Zoe, lying on her stomach next to Tom launched into a story about how she tried to hit on a girl at a bar but it turned out to be her high school nemesis. Nikki laid her head on Tom's shoulder and thought about how grateful she was for this again. Tom and Zoe had been the two people who had got her through some extremely dark times, and she hadn't realized how much sharing secret smiles with Tom as Zoe enthusiastically shared stories about trying to pick up girls meant to her until she almost lost it.

Before Zoe could finish the story, Tom's entire family burst in. Nikki and Zoe tried to leave, but Tom's parents made them stay, insisting they were family. It was beautiful to see Tom's brothers jump across the room, his mother fussing over him and his dad looking intensely happy. Nikki's phone rang- Calum was calling and she left the room to talk to him.

'He's awake?' Calum asked and Nikki could hear some guitars in the background.

'Yes!' Nikki exclaimed, 'and the doctor said he's fine!'

'You must be happy,' Calum said, and Nikki thought she could sense the slightest grumpiness.

'Yes,' Nikki said, 'you know when you get off your braces and you can't stop smiling? It feels like that.'

'I wouldn't know that. I had perfect teeth.' Calum said smugly.

'Oh sheri dei,' Nikki said, unconsciously relapsing into Malayalam, her mother tongue.