Parallel Worlds

Becca sighed and tapped her fingernails tediously against the wooden arm of the big hospital chair she was sitting in, everywhere was silent except for the steady beeping of the hospital machinery. Christina was deeply asleep in the hospital bed and had been asleep for some hours, so Becca was bored. She reached over the side of the chair and rummaged in her bag to find her iPod and switched it on to listen to some Elliot Minor. She sat there bobbing her head along and miming the words as per usual, at least listening to music would pass the time. She froze as she heard a door in the hospital corridor open then close. She pulled her headphones out and listened to the faint whispering travelling along the corridor towards their room. The door pushed open just a crack and Ed popped his head around the corner smiling
“Oh hey Ed” Becca said smiling at him
“I’ve brought a present for you” Ed said quietly after looking over at Christina and realising she was asleep, still in the position of peeping his head round the door. Becca looked at him like he was an idiot
“You do know that Christina’s the one that’s ill you spanner, not me! She’s the one needing the pre-” Becca stopped as Ed came in the room properly, Alex following in behind him on his crutches
“ALEX!” Becca jumped up, her iPod flying off her lap and clattering loudly to the floor as she ran at Alex and gave him a hug. Alex giggled and wrapped an arm around her, using his other arm to balance on his crutches “erm… have you not just wrecked your iPod?” Becca waved her arm “meh, who cares? It gets bashed about enough, it’s used to it” Becca smiled, “I just wasn’t expecting you to come here, I thought you had to stay in your ward” Ed went over to Becca’s iPod and picked it up
“Well that’s actually one of the reasons we came to see you” Ed looked at Becca’s iPod “…what? ‘Gary Jr’? Is that seriously your iPod name?” He smirked, Becca flushed
“Erm…” Becca looked at Christina, so glad that she was asleep otherwise she would have confirmed the reason of this name “well you think that’s bad, Christina’s is called ‘Ed jr jr jr jr jr jr jr jr jr jr’” Ed looked at Becca with a bemused expression before nodding slowly “… ok” he put the iPod down then continued to talk
“Well anyway we came to see you because Alex has just been discharged so… we’re off home now so we’d thought we’d come and say goodbye” Becca’s smile wiped off her face
“Oh… ok” She sighed and looked at the floor. A thought came into her head and she quickly looked up “what about Christina though? She’s asleep, she’ll kill me if you don’t say bye to her. I’ll wake her up now for you if you want” Ed shook his head
“No just leave her, she needs her sleep.” Becca nodded
“Well she might wake up in a few minutes, she’s been asleep for ages” Becca knew this wasn’t for Christina’s sake, just for the fact that she wanted Alex to stay for longer. Ed looked at his watch
“Well we can afford to stay a bit longer, we’re meeting the other guys in an hour so we’ll wait and see if she wakes up” Ed smiled and sat down in the seat next to Christina’s bed. He reached out and took Christina’s limp hand that was hanging over the side of the hospital bed and stroked the back of it lightly as she stirred a little in her sleep. The sound of doors opening and closing in the corridor could be heard again. They all looked at the door as it opened and a doctor stepped in
“Time for a check up on Christina then” He smiled then looked at Ed and Alex
“I’m sorry boys but it’s not visiting time at the moment, you’ll have to leave”
“Oh, okay” Ed said getting up, he leant over Christina and kissed her lightly on the forehead and whispered ‘goodbye’ to her before heading to the door. Becca hugged Ed then Alex (fora lot a bit longer) before they left. Alex smiled at Becca
“Well it was nice meeting you two, I’ll probably see you at our next gig then”
“Yes of course! We’ll see you then” Becca waved them goodbye then closed the door and sat back down and put her headphones back in, feeling a bit downhearted that she’d never be like that with Alex again.