moon river ; g.d.

five

The next morning I woke up with the same pounding headache I had last night and a sore hip. I winced once I sat up and put pressure on it with both hands, slowly lowering myself back down to my pillow. The throbbing pain was shooting all the way down my hip leg and hip, and I tried sitting back up and swinging my legs to the side. I squeezed my eyes shut and gave up, completely oblivious to the off position I left myself in.

"Are you okay?" A voice from my doorway said. I jumped and felt it throb again, and put my hands back on the sensitive spot. I looked at the door and was shocked by the person in my doorway. It was Grayson, still fully present, still on Earth.

I was back to feeling like I was dreaming, and rubbed my eyes with both hands. I shook my head and used my arms to push myself to a sitting position. "I've been better."

"That sounds familiar," he said. I chuckled. Same words as last night, but a brand new day.

"Do you need help?" He asked, taking a step inside. I nodded and he walked over next to my bed. He reached out his hand and kept his free arm neutral in case I needed to hold onto it for extra support. I pulled myself up using only a small amount of my strength and relying almost entirely on his. He helped me stand properly once I was on my feet, as my hip was continuing to throb and almost made me lose my balance on my entire right side. He brought his free hand to my elbow, leveling me out as well as he could.

"Thanks," I said in a strained voice. He kept the hand on my elbow lingering, like I would collapse to the floor if he let me go completely. His hands were incredibly soft, despite feeling so calloused when I helped him stand last night. On that note, he looked like a whole new person today. His skin was a lot brighter, his lips no longer chapped and cracking, hair falling from his head in long locks of brown waves. He looked radiant. Angelic.

"What happened?" He asked, motioning towards my right side.

"I jumped the park fence last night to get to you and landed on my hip," I explained.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he said.

"You apologize an awful lot, it's not your fault my clumsy ass can't climb a six foot fence."

He laughed and stared down at the ground. I'd heard him chuckle and nervously laugh, but his real, genuine laugh sounded like music. Beautiful, instrumental, music that they blare through grand organs in old churches. Music that isn't exactly everyones cup of tea, but everyone can whole-heartedly admit is indescribably beautiful, and will happily listen to everytime they happen to hear it.

"So," I began. "How 'bout those questions and a big breakfast?"

He nodded and followed me down to the kitchen. I opened up the windows above the sink and flipped on a couple of light switches that didn't really need to be on. The ridiculous amount of windows and natural lighting was enough to brighten the room. "Coffee?" I asked, already digging around in the kitchen for the ingredients. He had taken a seat at the island in one of our woven swiveling chairs and had his hands folded together on the cold, marble countertop. He nodded and stared around the kitchen. "Sure, thanks."

I got everything measured and poured into the pot, then began digging around for more ingredients to actually begin cooking. All we had were eggs and bacon, and I figured that was good enough. Not a five-star hotel meal, but I still knew how to make wicked pan of bacon. It was my hidden talent.

"First question," I said, staring down at the pan. "And let me know if I'm getting too personal, I have a slight habit of that."

"I'll answer anything you wanna know."

"What was it like?"

"What was what like?"

That was a good question, a lot better than mine. I guess I was just winded, and finally coming to terms with the fact that this was real. I just needed to know how, why, when, the basics. There was so much I wanted to know but now that I was able to ask about it, I couldn't think of a single question other than that one.