Bite Your Tongue

4:35 A.M.
Brian;;

“Brian, wake up.”

I ignored whoever it was and tried to go back to sleep. The person sighed and nudged me in the stomach—hard.

“What the hell?” My eyes flew open to reveal an angry-looking Stevie sitting next to me.

“Your phone has been ringing like there’s no tomorrow. Answer it before I smash it to bits,” she barked, tossing the thing into my lap.

I shot her a filthy look and took the phone, yawning. The screen showed that I had forty-eight missed calls.

“Shit, Stevie! Couldn’t you have answered it for me? I was sleeping,” I said.

“It’s not my phone,” Stevie replied. I rolled my eyes in disgust and looked to see who the calls were from. I had three from Zacky, one from Jimmy, four from my mom, and forty from Zoe. Shit.

I yawned again and tried to keep my eyes open. We had been at the hospital for longer than I could even remember. The doctors wouldn’t let us see or tell us anything about Korinne since we weren’t family, and though Stevie had called Korinne’s mom, she had been in a business meeting and wasn’t able to get away. So now we were waiting for her to show up, because there was no way I was going to call Elias.

“God,” Stevie groaned. “This is pissing me off.”

“I know.”

I glanced at me phone again and decided it was time to start calling people back. I started with my mom, telling her what had happened and that I had no idea when we’d be home. Then I called Zacky and told him pretty much the same thing so he could tell the rest of the guys, which left Zoe. To be quite honest, I was kind of scared to call her. I mean, what kind of psycho called someone forty times within a few hours?

“Who the hell are all those calls from?” Stevie asked, looking at the phone.

“Zoe,” I said. Stevie raised an eyebrow.

“No offense or anything, but that girl has got some serious issues.”

I bit back a laugh and checked to see if I had any messages. Nope, Zoe had just called and hung up. Forty times.

We sat there for a few more minutes before Stevie announced that she was going to find a vending machine.

“I need some sugar or I’m going to pass out,” she said. “Want me to get you something?”

“An industrial-sized pot of coffee would be nice,” I joked. Stevie rolled her eyes.

“It’s four-thirty in the morning, Brian. Don’t screw with me.”

“Alright, fine. I’ll have a Snickers or something. It doesn’t really matter.”

I sat up all the way and focused all of my energy on staying awake so Stevie wouldn’t kill me when she got back. I knew I needed to call Zoe, but I didn’t want to. I really didn’t. She was going to be completely pissed at me for not calling her back, and I’d just have to deal with that later. Zoe could wait.

I must have dozed off because the next thing I knew, Stevie was shaking me awake and tossing a Snickers bar in my face.

“Huh?” I mumbled sleepily.

“I think you need to run,” Stevie said quickly. I frowned, confused, and reached for the blessed chocolate bar.

“What are you talking about?”

Stevie pointed to the end of the hallway, where Zoe was standing and looking around. She looked livid.

“Fuck! How did she know I was here?” I asked, scrambling to my feet.

“Who knows? That bitch is crazy,” Stevie said.

“Brian!” Zoe shrieked, causing several of the nurses at the station near us to look at her disapprovingly. She ignored them and stormed over to Stevie and me within seconds.

“Why didn’t you call me back?” she demanded.

“Zoe, can we please not talk about this right now? I’m exhausted.”

“No, we are going to talk about this right now. Answer me,” she said, crossing her arms in a huff.

“Can’t it wait?” I asked, trying not to yawn. That would probably only piss her off more.

“NO, IT CAN’T FUCKING WAIT!” Zoe shouted.

“I’m just going to uh…go to the bathroom,” Stevie said, excusing herself. I had the sudden urge to fall to my knees and beg her not to leave, because Zoe was murderous and scaring the shit out of me. I had never seen her this angry before.

“You’ve got a lot of explaining to do, Brian.”

“Zoe--” I started, but she cut me off.

“When you didn’t answer, I called Zacky, and he told me that you were at the hospital. And when I asked why you were at the hospital, he said you and Stevie were there for KORINNE. What the fuck, BRIAN!?”

I sighed. Thanks, Zacky. “Would you just--”

“Why the hell would you ignore all of my calls? What were you doing?”

“STOP CUTTING ME OFF!” I shouted. “God, Zoe, can’t you just shut up and listen for once in your life?”

Zoe looked like I had just slapped her, but she was silent, so I continued.

“Korinne saved me from being hit by a car, okay? And she got hurt in the process, so I brought her here. Sorry for not jumping to answer my phone while I was waiting to hear if she was okay!”

“And you couldn’t have taken five minutes to call me and tell me what was going on?” Zoe yelled.

“No! I was a bit preoccupied with the fact that my friend might possibly have a CONCUSSION, or something serious like that. Forgive me for not answering what I’m sure was the most important call of my life,” I spat.

“I can’t believe you! You’ve been here all this time, doing nothing, and you haven’t called me? What’s happened to you, Brian?! I know we’re on a break, but come on! I was calling to see if you wanted to meet up so we could talk, and then I find out you’re here with Korinne? I don’t even know what to say to you anymore!”

“How about nothing? How about you just leave me the fuck alone and accept the fact that the entire world doesn’t revolve around you?”

Zoe shook her head. “I don’t know how I can ever forgive you,” she said.

I just looked at her. Why the fuck was I still putting up with this? It wasn’t healthy. And frankly, the sight of Zoe right now just made me angry. I didn’t want to be around her ever again.

“Don’t bother,” I barked. “Because you know what, Zoe?”

“What, Brian?”

I looked her dead in the eye. “We’re over, that’s what.”

Zoe scoffed. “You can’t be serious.”

I shot her the filthiest, meanest glare I could possibly come up with. “Does this look like the face of someone who’s kidding?”

We stared at each other in silence for a few seconds. Zoe’s eyes radiated hate.

“It’s because of her, isn’t it?”

“Who? Korinne, you mean? I don’t think that’s any of your business,” I snapped.

Zoe shook her head. “Fine,” she said quietly. She looked at me for a long moment, and then she turned and walked back towards the elevators.

+++

11:48 A.M.
Korinne;;

“Is mayonnaise an instrument?”

“No, Patrick, mayonnaise is not an instrument.”

“Horseradish is not an instrument, either.”

The thing that woke me up was a quiet laugh from somewhere not too far away. I could hear whiny, cartoonish voices in the background. When I opened my eyes, my gaze fell first on a pair of feet perched on the edge of the bed I was apparently lying in. The feet gave way to legs, which in turn gave way to a torso and eventually the face of Jimmy, who seemed to be trying very hard not to laugh at something on the TV across the room.

I blinked. Where am I? This definitely wasn’t my room. I looked around and took in some white walls, a small window, and a table next to the bed upon which sat what looked and smelled like a plate of covered food. I reached up to move a stray piece of hair out of my face and groaned at the sight of a bracelet around my wrist. A hospital bracelet.

Fuck. I hate hospitals.

“Korinne?” My groan must have alarmed Jimmy, because now he was sitting upright in his chair and looking at me intently.

“Hey, Jimmy,” I said. Talking felt scratchy and weird. But after clearing my throat a few times, the feeling diminished.

Jimmy’s eyes widened before he cracked a smile. “So you are talking!”

“Um…yeah, no shit.”

Jimmy laughed. “Brian said you had talked, but I didn’t really believe him until now,” he said, awestruck.

“Thanks for the support, Jimmy,” I joked.

“I-I didn’t mean-”

“Relax,” I said, laughing as he tried to correct his mistake. “I was joking.”

“Oh, okay,” Jimmy said, looking relieved. “So…how are you feeling?”

I thought about it for a moment before answering. “Tired.”

“Yeah, that’s probably to be expected. The doctors think you might have a concussion. Your mom was freaking out,” he said.

“A concussion? Are you serious?!”

“Brian said you hit your head pretty hard. But don’t worry about it; you’re awake and talking, so that must be a good thing.”

I tried to make sense of all of this but all that thinking was starting to give me a headache. Or maybe it was the supposed concussion I had. Wonderful. Then I realized what else Jimmy had said.

“Wait, my mom is here?”

“She was. She had to leave for work, though, so Brian and Stevie stayed a bit longer. But they were practically dead on their feet, so Brian called Zacky and me to come sit and wait for you to wake up. Delia’s here too, but I haven’t seen her or Zacky for about an hour. I’m beginning to think that they’re off having wild monkey sex in an elevator or something,” Jimmy explained.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the part about Zacky and Delia. It sounded exactly like something Zacky would do, and the exact opposite of something Delia would do. But I was flattered that they were here anyway. It was nice to know that so many people cared about me, which was something I certainly wasn’t used to.

Jimmy laughed again at something on the TV and I turned to see that it was one of my favorite episodes of Spongebob Squarepants.

“You like Spongebob?” I asked, smirking.

“Shut up! I don’t exactly hear you begging me to turn it off,” he said.

“True.”

We watched the show for a few minutes in silence before Jimmy stood up suddenly.

“You’ll be okay by yourself for a few minutes, right? I mean, I really have to go to the bathroom, but I didn’t want to leave you alone…”

“I’m fine, Jimmy. Go on,” I assured him.

“I can stay until someone else gets here, you know.”

“I don’t think the hospital staff would appreciate it if you peed on the floor. Go!” I said.

“Right.” Jimmy ran from the room. I had just sat back to try and find something else to watch since the show had ended when I heard familiar voices outside.

“Delia, you can’t just run off with Zacky and leave her alone!”

“She wasn’t alone! Jimmy’s here!”

Stevie poked her head in the door for a second. She reappeared a moment later, dragging Delia by the arm.

“Jimmy isn’t in here!”

“I’ll kill him,” Delia said.

“Um, you guys?” I said timidly. “Jimmy just went to the bathroom. And I’m fine by myself; I don’t know why all of you are so obsessed with keeping me company.”

Delia’s jaw dropped, and Stevie squealed before running over to the bed and practically strangling me in a hug.

“YOU’RE TALKING!”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, it appears so.”

“It’s just…wow. I didn’t think Brian was telling the truth,” Delia said.

“Why not? Jimmy said the same thing. Did you think I was just going to stay silent forever?”

Delia and Stevie exchanged a look.

“No offense or anything, but…yeah.”

Stevie nudged Delia in the ribs.

“Ouch! What was that for?” Delia exclaimed, shooting daggers at Stevie, who ignored her.

“That’s not the point. The point is…” she paused and sat down on the edge of the bed. Delia did the same on the other side.

“We have something to tell you,” Stevie finished.

“Okay…”

“It’s about Brian.”

I felt my heartbeat increase slightly but tried to remain calm.

“Really?” I asked casually.

Stevie rolled her eyes. “Don’t pretend like you don’t care. We know how much you like him.”

“I wasn’t--”

“Do you want to hear the news or not?” Delia interrupted. I shut up and looked at them expectantly.

“So…when Brian and I were here earlier this morning, Zoe showed up, and they got in this huge fight,” Stevie said.

I tried to refrain from letting out a loud whoop.

“No way,” I said.

“Wait, there’s more.” Delia glanced at Stevie, who nodded.

“He broke up with her.”

I felt my eyes almost bugging out of my head as all the oxygen seemed to leave my lungs and my heart rate increased to probably near-heart-attack proportions.

“You’re kidding, right?” I asked, not daring to believe it.

Stevie grinned. “Nope. They’re over. For good.”

“Holy fuck.”

“But wait, there’s still more.”

“Is someone throwing a parade to celebrate the occasion?”

Stevie laughed. “Nope, but this is just as good. Korinne…I think Brian likes you.”

It was a good thing I hadn’t been drinking anything at the moment, otherwise I would most likely have spit it out.

“W-What?”

“They thought I had gone to the bathroom, but I was really just around the corner, listening. Zoe was mad because she had called him a bunch of times and he hadn’t answered, and of course you can imagine how angry she was when she found out he was here. They started yelling at each other and apparently, Zoe couldn’t believe that he had been here at the hospital for you this entire time and he hadn’t called her,” Stevie explained.

“But…I don’t see how—”

“Would you let me finish?” She tossed her hair angrily. “And then, after he had told her they were over, Zoe asked Brian if it was because of ‘her’, but she was obviously referring to you, and Brian was all, ‘I don’t think that’s any of your business’,” Stevie said dramatically.

“I still don’t see how that means he likes me,” I said.

Delia scoffed. “Sure, keep living in your fantasy world. I’m going to go get a Sprite.”

“You mean you’re going to go fuck Zacky in the hallway?” Stevie joked.

“I did not have sex with him! We were just kissing!” Delia exclaimed, her cheeks reddening.

“Of course you were.”

Delia sighed irritably and left the room, mumbling something that sounded unpleasant. Stevie turned back to me.

“Anyway. I just thought you should know. As far as I know, Brian’s still at home sleeping, but he should stop by later. So…if things get a bit heated once he’s here, make sure you use a condom, okay?”

“Stevie!”

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding! Jesus,” Stevie laughed. “I’m going to go try to find Delia before she becomes another one of Zacky’s victims. But I’ll be back in a few, okay?”

“Okay.”

I sat back and let myself sink into the pillows. This was all way too confusing. Brian had broken up with Zoe, and Stevie thought it was because of me? It couldn’t be. That was just ridiculous. As much as I wanted it to be true, I didn’t want to get my hopes up only to be disappointed again. So instead of dwelling on thoughts of Brian, I focused on the TV, which was broadcasting an infomercial for some sort of cake decorating kit. And soon, I found myself drifting off to sleep.