No More What Ifs (DreamNotFound)

15. In Sickness And In Health

TW: Mild mentions of past injury and mentions/responsible use of painkillers. 

I woke up at 6 AM in excruciating pain. If it was this bad, I'm surprised I managed to sleep even for that long. I groaned, trying to get the cold side of the pillow, but neither side was cold enough. I gave up and got out of bed, switching out my clothes for some cozy pajamas. I felt that my phone was still in my pocket and, upon further inspection, out of charge, so I put it on my bedside table and plugged it in.

On my way to the stairwell, I looked in the bathroom mirror, examining the damage done to my face. There was a small scab on my lip from where it was bleeding yesterday, but it had healed quite fast and was barely noticeable by now. There were a few bruises scattered across my pale skin, the worst of it surrounding my eye. The black eye didn't really function any different than my good eye, and I was hardly squinting through it. Though none of this hurt, I still had a general headache.

I was careful on my way down the stairs, nervously gripping the railing as I stepped slowly down. Patches darted past the base of the stairs as I approached while my dad was on the couch, watching the news like he always did in the mornings. He quickly turned his attention to me when the bottom stair creaked under my weight.

"Clay!" he greeted happily. "What are you doing up so early?"

"I guess the painkiller wore off."

"Probably. Anyway, how are you feeling?" He turned down the volume on the TV to hear me better.

"Pretty bad. My head still hurts."

"Yeah, about that..." He shifted guiltily. "I need to go out to the store because we really don't have any more painkillers or anything. Cassie used the last of the Advil earlier this month and forgot to ask me to get more, and I'm obviously not giving you another Tylenol PM because it's 6 AM."

"Oh."

"I mean, I was imagining you'd wake up later so I'd have time, but I better go now that you're up," he reasoned. He stood up, turned off the TV, and moved to grab everything he needed to go out. "I'll be back soon. Don't do anything stupid while I'm out, okay?"

"Gotcha."

He placed a hat on his head and left out the garage door. Since my phone was still upstairs and I didn't have the motivation to go back up the stairs, I busied myself with looking for Patches so I could cuddle up with her on the couch. I checked her usual corners, but the place I finally found her was on one of the stairs. Chuckling slightly, I scooped her up and brought her over to the couch, laying down slowly and gently placing her close to my chest. She could have left if she wanted to, but she seemed content and curled up there. We lay like that for a good while, Patches relishing in the scritches I was giving her every so often. My dad was going to be gone for at least 20 minutes, so there was plenty of time to sit with her and distract myself from the pain.

As the minutes ticked by, though, I found myself longing for something more. Or, more specifically, someone more. I hadn't seen George since I was pulled away to go to the nurse's office yesterday. I didn't know how bad of a condition he was in or if he'd be willing to make up so quickly. I was more than willing - after all, he took all of that beating for me. If that's not true remorse, I don't know what is.

I reached for my phone to text him, but then I remembered it was upstairs. Sighing sadly, I asked, "What should I do, Patches?"

She meowed when I said her name, but otherwise stood still. Well, that didn't give me any ideas. Although I would normally take a nap in a situation like this, I don't think I could sleep because of the pain I was in. So I instead just gave up, settling for giving Patches lots of pets in the meantime.