Sunflowers and Tulips

James' POV

I woke up to find Daniel standing over me, yelling his head off about something I couldn’t make out just yet. Everything was fuzzy, but from what I figured, he was yelling about me. He was probably defending me, which already made me grateful for some odd reason. A little vein was popping out of his neck. It looked kind of gross, really…But that’s beside the point!

Daniel’s voice was slowly fading into my hearing, and I soon picked up, “He’s a fucking kid! I’m sorry that he’s in love with my son and all he wants to do is just see him! I can’t even see my own son and he’s not even in ICU or anything! This hospital is shit!”

“Calm down, Sir. We still need to take him into custody,” a gruff voice said.

That woke me up.

“What!? No!” I cried, sitting up.

Two stern faces looked at me along with an extremely pissed off Daniel. We were in a private examining room and apparently I was lying on the table thing. The paper crinkled underneath me as I moved and got in a better position, trying to see everything that was going on. I tried to move my bangs away from my face with one of my hands, but something stopped me, and I looked down only to find a pair of shiny, silver handcuffs gleaming in my eye.

“What the hell!? What is this for!? I’m not a criminal!”

One of the older policemen looked at me straight in the eye and said, “You disrupted a public hospital, almost injuring dozens of people only because you could not see your…boyfriend.” A grimace covered his features for a split second, but he quickly gained composure. “Harrumph…so we’re taking you into custody on charges of disturbing the peace and assault towards a police officer.”

“What? I never assaulted a police officer!” I cried, my eyes widening in shock at what he said.

Daniel looked at me apologetically and replied, “You were thrashing around when you passed out and accidentally caught a cop in the chest with your foot. They said it was ‘assault’, but I say it’s bull.” He said the last part pointedly, directing it towards the two cops and glaring at them.

I scoffed, looking at the three men surrounding me and then closed my eyes, laying my head back down. “So what do you propose we do? Obviously taking me downtown is out of the question since I will not leave this hospital under any circumstances until Marg-er…Braedon leaves on his own.”

“Son, you have no choice in that,” the younger (but still pretty damn old) one replied, lightly glaring at me.

I chuckled lightly, yet insanely, at the stupidity of the two men beside me. “Oh, that’s where you’re wrong, my good sirs.” I got up off the ‘bed’ and walked to the counters, opening and closing the cabinets with my hands still handcuffed. Then, I finally found what I was looking for and sat back down. The silver scalpel was cool in my hands and I was truly terrified, but I ignored it; this had to happen.

“What are you doing?” Daniel asked, with fear in his eyes.

I glared at all of them, not replying, and then stabbed my thigh, making a sharp pain shoot up and down my leg. All three men gasped, their eyes wide in shock as I slashed the blade up and down my thigh. Finally, they sprung into action, but it was too late by then. The blood was gushing out of the gash I created and I was already starting to feel faint.

“YOU DUMBASS!” Daniel screamed as he took the scalpel away from me.

Shrugging, I looked at him. “I just want to be with Braedon.”

The cops were talking frantically into their walkie-talkies, which made me have the urge to grab it and speak in it myself, but I didn’t do any such thing. Instead, I slowly faded into a slumber as soon as doctors and nurses bustled in, trying to control my excessive bleeding.

***

My eyes slowly opened and soon found a white ceiling in their line of sight. It was bright and annoying and I just wanted to shoot it with a random gun. But, I couldn’t do that. I tried sitting up, but when I did, I was restrained by those same damn handcuffs. Growling in frustration, I shook my wrist, seeing if I could just get them to get off of me magically.

I heard a groan and turned to see Daniel sitting in a chair, just now waking up. “Goddammit, James. Stop making so much noise. I know you’re awake.”

“Sorry,” I said, smiling sheepishly. “What’s going on? Where am I?”

He sighed, rubbing his eyes and yawning. “Well, you decided to be stupid and stab yourself with a scalpel. Why did you do that, you idiot!?”

“I…honestly don’t know. I just felt like I needed to do it in order to get what I wanted.”

“Well whoopidey-freakin’-doo. You got your wish,” he replied in a monotone.

My eyes widened in excitement as I realized what he was saying. “I’m with Braedon!?” Quickly, I looked around the large room and soon my eyes landed on him. My breath was sharply taken in as I searched over his body, only to find that his wounds were healed even more than they were last time I saw him. But…that wasn’t right. It was supposed to be only around a week after the crash! Well, that was when I flipped out on everyone the first time

Now that I think about it, I was a fucking idiot. Why the hell would I do that in a hospital? I mean, I completely overreacted. No one would act like I did, but then again…I’m supposed to be the drama king. I get so emotional over the littlest things. I guess it’s because my dad never taught me how to be a true man; he was too drunk to do a damn thing. My mom had to raise me, which is probably why I’m just a pansy off of the football field. In football, I’m the King. I rule everything

I guess the reason why I freaked out was because I was so used to being in control on the field, and now I can’t do anything to help Braedon. The only thing I could do was be strong for him, and I couldn’t even do that. It’s pathetic. I’m pathetic.

“I’m…so…sorry…” I whispered, tears trailing down my face.

Daniel looked at me curiously. “Are you okay, James?”

I shook my head in response. “No…” I choked out. “I’m…ashamed. I acted like that. I fuc-”

“LANGUAGE.”

“-freaking stabbed myself because I couldn’t be with Margherita. I should have acted more like a man and I completely failed at being a friend. Who would honestly flip out like I did twice?”

The man stood up and sighed, thinking of what to say. Finally, after of a few minutes of silence, he walked over to my sobbing form and wrapped his arms around me. “Hey…shh…you acted like I thought you would act. It’s not every day that a guy realized he’s gay and in love with his best friend. You had all this pent up anger—both at yourself and at the hospital—that just needed to be let out and you didn’t know what else to do. I admit, the stabbing thing was completely out of line. What the hell was that for? It didn’t do any of us good.”

“We got into Braedon’s room,” I pointed out, slightly grinning.

Daniel raised his hand in a movement to slap me up-side the head, but held back. “You’re pretty damn lucky you’re a patient in this damn hospital,” he grumbled.”

“Oh…that reminds me. How long have I been here and what’s happened?”

“Well…The hospital nurses that liked you came to your aid and defended you in front of the cops, telling them that you had anger management issues and couldn’t control yourself. They let you off with a warning, but said that you had to go to an anger management class.”

“WHAT!?” I yelled, fuming.

“Hold on! Geezum, boy! Anyways, it’s been a week and a half since the car crash, making it November 4th. You’ve been out for three days because of blood loss and they had to do a transfusion to keep you alive. You cut a major artery, you dumbass. A MAJOR ARTERY. Now you can’t play for the rest of the season!” he ranted, flailing his arms in the air.

I was shocked; I couldn’t be out of the season. It wasn’t possible. They needed me! “WHAT? I can’t play anymore!? It’s only halfway through the season!”

“Exactly! Not only can you not play for the season, but basketball is out of the question, too. You’re a cripple until track season, and even then you can’t work yourself too hard.”

I stayed silent for a second, thinking about everything. “Well…Braedon is all that matters, right? As long as I have him, I’ll be okay with whatever people throw at me. No one is pressing charges, right? So I have that cleared up. The leg thing is a major setback, but I have one more year after this one, so I’m just going to have to make it count, won’t I? Don’t worry, everything will be fine. I just need to work on my reactions.”

Daniel chuckled dryly at this and said, “You got that right.”

“Wait…so why do I have handcuffs on?”

“Oh yea…the cops said that you were potentially going to have another reaction like the last two and put you in cuffs for ‘your own safety.’ Screw that,” he scoffed.

I laughed at that, clutching my sides with my one free hand and said, “So how do I get ‘em off?”

“I have a key.” And sure enough, he did. He unlocked the ugly shackles around my wrists and explained further. “The cops said that as soon as you wake up I can take them off. Oh…and they said you can keep ‘em, too.”

“Why?”

“So that you and Braedon can have a little fun,” he replied, winking.

My face paled and I coughed, trying to find words. “Uh…erm…great!...I guess.”

He laughed, throwing his head back and opening his mouth. “Yeah! I know! I told them that you surely would need them. Braedon likes being tied up.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I’ve walked in in the morning most times and coughed him with some slut. He was tied up, of course. Apparently, he’s into bondage.”

Okay. I had to admit, that was hot. Just thinking about him being tied up, wriggling in the bed as my hand trailed all over his body….Wait. Wait. Not in a hospital, James. Think of your grandma in a thong. Grandma in a thong. Thank god. “Well,” I replied a few seconds later, getting off of my bed and hopping over to Braedon because of my stupid leg, “I’ll have to keep that in mind.”

My fingers ran across his jaw line, admiring his smooth complexion and his soft, plump lips. It took all my strength to not lean over and kiss him. However, I allowed myself to do one thing.

I leaned over and lightly placed my lips on his cheek, letting them linger there for a few seconds. Then, I felt a movement and broke apart, confused.

“G-girasole?” a weak voice faintly whispered.

It was Braedon, and he was awake.