If Today Was Your Last Day

TOM’S POV

I parked my Audio R8 in the hospital car park, turning off the ignition and taking in a deep breath before exiting my car. I hated hospitals. The last time I was there was when I had to get stitches because Bill pushed me off a God damn sledge when we were younger. I guess that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but that’s beside the point.

I swung open the entrance doors and stepped into the hospital, goosebumps ran up and down my arms. It stunk. I don’t know what the smell is, but I don’t like it. I winced at the smell and walked to the reception desk. Several receptionists gasped as they saw me leaning against the desk. They sorted out their hair with their fingers and looked at me with a failed attempt of a seductive look. Fools. I’m taken.

“I’m here to see Megan Burnes?” The receptionist, whose nametag read Christina, quickly looked away at her computer, a slight blush on her cheek. “Yeah. Uhh. Go down the corridor, first left and you should be in the Children’s section. From there, turn left again and you should be in ward 5B” her tone had changed. She didn’t seem too bothered in telling me the directions to the ward that my daughter is in. What? Is she sad that I’m not going to fuck her senseless? Because I’m out of the faze now.

I turned the first left and came up to a large sign saying “Children’s Ward”. The sign was covered in clowns and colourful balloons. I took a deep breath and began walking into the ward, taking a left turn and looking for ward 5B, which was right in front of me.

My hands were shaking as I reached out my right hand to the door knob, slowly turning it and opening the door, wincing as it squeaked open. But it didn’t seem to bother the weeping body that sat on a chair beside a hospital bed where a more or less lifeless Megan lay.

It’s currently 11pm and I had just arrived back at the hospital with tea for Ebony and I. Whether Ebony will eat anything, I don’t know. But I’m starving. We’ve been here since 4.30pm. That’s 6 and a half hours silence. The only sounds were Megan weeping and myself drinking coffee. I sound like I don’t care about my daughter, but I do. Hell, I’ll be devastated if she doesn’t leave the hospital soon, but I know that if I put my mind on other things as well as Megan, then I won’t become an emotional wreck. It will show in my guitar riffs, and we can’t have that, can we?

“Ebony? I have tea. Chips from the chip shop down the road,” I grabbed a chair and placed it beside Ebony, pulling a table across and placing the bag of chips onto it.

“I’m not hungry,” she sniffed, keeping her eyes on Megan.

Megan. The little girl that lay in the bed before me. The car had done quite a bit of damage on her. A broken leg and she’s in a coma. But the doctors have told us that there’s a high chance that she’ll come out of it in a few days. And they best not be fucking lying about that. We don’t want our hopes up and then Megan goes and dies. Fuck no. I won’t let my baby die.

“Ebs. You’ve not eaten anything all day. What’s up with you?” Ebony jolted her head to look at me. She had tear stained cheeks with fresh tears running down her face.

“What’s wrong with me?! My daughter just fucking got run over and she’s in a fucking coma,” she hissed. “And what’s more is that her own dad acts like he doesn’t give a fuck!” I choked on a chip. I don’t care? I. Don’t. Care. Is she fucking insane?

“Ebony! I do fucking care. She’s my daughter. My first child. I love her, and I’m devastated to see her in this condition. She’s covered in wires and has a heart monitor on. It scares the living shit out of me. But I’m too afraid to show how I feel. I’ve always been afraid of showing my feelings and emotions, and that’s never going to change. I’m sorry that I’m not acting like you are, Ebony, but I’m not like you. I’d prefer to have distractions than to mope around all day,” I grabbed the bag of chips off the table, which Ebony evidently wasn’t going to help me eat and pushed my chair back out of frustration causing it to make an awful screeching noise across the tiled floor as I stood up, anger written across my face.

I turned on my heel, ready to leave the hospital room. I needed time out. I was fucking stressed and I didn’t want to take it out on Ebony, making her feel even more worse than she already is. But something stopped me from moving from my spot. An arm. Long nails gripped onto my black baggy jacket.

“I’m sorry. Pl. Please stay. I didn’t mean to come off like that. I’m just an emotional wreck at the moment. And I’m sure you are too. I. She. Oh God Tom,” I could tell she had fresh tears in her eyes, and that damn right killed me inside. I hate seeing, or hearing in this case, my girlfriend crying.

I turned around to face Ebony and took a step forward, kneeling down in front of her and cupping her face with my large hands, bringing her face forward so that our foreheads were touching. I whispered sweet nothings to her, drying away her tears with butterfly kisses until Ebony came out with, “She’s only 7 years old. She’s too young to go Tom... if she goes, I do too,” my heart stopped. I didn’t expect Ebony to come out with that. But I don’t think I was the only one to think that.

Megan’s heart monitor began beeping faster than it was meant to, followed banging on the bed echoed around the room. I pulled away from Ebony and stood up to see Megan shaking. She was having a fit. I didn’t know what the fuck to do. I stood there. Paralyzed.

“Move! Move!” Doctors came rushing into the room, pushing Ebony and I out of the way and closing yellow curtains around the bed, shutting Ebony and I out of view.

“1. 200,” was called from behind the curtain, followed by a loud zap. They were trying to restart Megan’s heart. Fuck.

“Oh Tom!” Ebony cried, flinging herself at me and crying into my oversized shirt.

“It might be best for you to leave. Visiting hours are over now, anyway,” I nodded my head and took Ebony out of the room with me, rubbing her back all the while, leaving our little girl alone, hoping that she’ll survive. Our hopes are extremely high.