Everyone Learns Faster On Fire

He could see everything up from up here. Flocks of birds flew through the clouds and jumbo-jets soared below him. He was so high up, but he couldn’t even feel the cold atmosphere or the plunging oxygen levels. This was the tallest and most prominent mountain in the entire universe, and although he was deathly afraid of heights, Gerard felt relaxed here. It was almost like he had been living here his whole life.
He didn’t feel dead. He felt so alive.

‘I must be in heaven.’He thought as he watched the world carry on beneath him. He sighed. ‘But I would do anything to be back on Earth again.’

Earth was where he belonged. Earth was where Frank was.

Suddenly, the refreshing breeze had stopped and Gerard felt a presence by his side. He turned to be greeted with the sight of a beautiful woman dressed from head to toe in white. She seemed to have some sort of aura about her, like an outline of shimmering light illuminating her frame. It was the most phenomenal thing he had ever seen. She must have been an angel.

“Gerard?” She called softly. Hs vision seemed to be blurring, the angel was getting hazy. “Gerard? Can you hear me?”

Gerard coughed and sat bolt upright. The clouds had vanished and now he found himself lying in a small room in a hospital bed. He rubbed his eyes and began to focus on his surroundings. His mother, father and brother were sitting next to his bed, leaning over and smiling. His mother was holding his hand, and he could almost feel her bouncing pulse. The ‘angel’ was standing next to him, on the other side of the creaky bed, taking notes down on her clipboard and asking him various questions. He was not dead after all. It had all been a dream.
But how did he get here? He didn’t remember having an accident or anything. He heard the nurse distantly say something about smoke and then various events seemed to come back to him, but in a jumbled mess.
He remembered drinking a lot, then going to find a bathroom, but the next thing he could remember was Frank yelling at him to have a shower, or something. He strained to think of what happened next. The only thing he could recall was the smell of Frank’s aftershave, the sound of someone crying, and a excruciating pain in his head.
All of a sudden, the agonising pain came back to him again. He rubbed the palm of his hand against his temple, trying to soothe it, but it was only getting worse.

“Honey, are you okay?” His mother asked, leaning over the bed and glancing up at the nurse with concern.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He managed to croak, sinking back into the bed. “Just got a bit of a headache.”

“Well, I’m not surprised.” The nurse said, placing an extra pillow behind his head. “You’ve had a stressful night. You’re lucky to be alive.”

And that’s when everything flooded back to him. The party, being trapped in the fire, and Frank. Frank had saved his life. Frank had carried him out of the blaze, risking his own life in the process. Frank had told Gerard that he loved him.

Gerard sat up again quickly, causing the bed to screech. “Where’s Frank?” he scanned the room again for any signs of his friend. He couldn’t remember seeing Frank outside the house. He could have been trapped inside!

“Someone tell me where Frank is!” He demanded.

“Shhh. Calm down. He’s okay.” Gerard’s father said, trying to get him to quieten down. “He’s just along the corridor getting his leg looked at. I’m sure he’ll come along when he’s done.”

Gerard couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. He wanted to see Frank now. He wanted to thank him for being such a saviour. He sighed and shrunk back into the extra pillows the nurse had added to the growing pile of sheets and bed linen she kept on adding.

“That boy was a real knight in shining armour.” The nurse added with a smile. “He kept saying that he wasn’t going to leave you until you had woken up. We practically had to drag him away from your bedside in order to get his leg bandaged up. If he hadn’t gone in there and saved you, who knows what was to become of you.”

“Yeah.” Mikey agreed. “He stayed with you the whole way in the ambulance and everything. When I got the call, I could barely make out what he was saying because he was crying so much. He kept asking the doctors every ten seconds if you were going to be alright. Ray and Bob had to persuade him to go and get something to drink and get his leg looked at a couple of hours ago.”

“Wait, Ray and Bob are here?”

“Yeah, they just went to go and get something to eat. I suppose they‘ll be back in a minute.” Mikey said. “Dude, I’m just so glad you’re alright.”

Sure, Gerard was pleased that his family were there for him, but it didn’t seem right to wake up without Frank being there. After all, it was all because of Frank’s heroism that he was waking up in the first place.
He glanced up at the clock mounted on the wall directly in front of him. The little red hands told him that it was almost quarter past ten, which meant that he had been out for about 10 hours.
Gerard turned over and buried his head in the pillows. He was so tired. He felt as if he had been awake for days, rather than merely five minutes. He wished that he could just go back to sleep, and when he awoke Frank would be there waiting for him.
He could hear his family and the nurse muttering somewhere above him. He heard the nurse mention something about ‘needing his rest’ and then footsteps and the door creak open. He closed his eyes, trying to remember the dream he had been having before he had woken up, but it had been completely erased from his memory.
Five restless minutes had past before something distracted Gerard again.

“He woke up?!” He heard a familiar voice mumble excitedly. Gerard’s eyes flew open and he turned to face two of his good friends and band mates, Ray and Bob.

“Man, he’s alive!” Bob said jokingly. “I thought the last place I would ever see you was at that manky diner the other day! How are you feeling?

The weak man managed to force a low laugh. “I’m alright. My limbs feel like lead and it’s a bit strenuous to breathe, but apart from that everything’s good…. Is Frank okay?”

“Yeah, we’ve just been to see him.” Ray informed. “He got a piece of wood or something stuck in his leg and they’re just cleaning it and bandaging it up. He might have to go on crutches for a few days.”

“Oh. I hope he’s alright.” Gerard said quietly, it was barely above a whisper. Ray and Bob exchanged concerned glances.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Bob asked again. “You seem a little distracted.”

Gerard sighed and turned to look out of the window. Someone had pulled the blinds up now and sunlight was pouring into the room. The brightness reminded him of the luminosity of the flames he had encountered the night before. “I just want to talk to Frank… Y’know, just to see if he’s okay.”

The door creaked open again and the three of his family members entered the room again, laden with steaming paper cups of coffee and little packets of biscuits. Ray and Bob shrugged in unison and both began making their way to the open door.

“We’ll go and see if Frank is okay.” Ray informed, smiling at the new arrivals as they went. “If he’s ready, we’ll bring him down to see you.”