Second Chances, Bad Habits

I could hear people talking, I couldn’t tell who is was though, or what they were saying. Either way I thought it was better if I kept my eyes shut for the moment. I tried to remember where I was or what had happened. All I could remember was kissing Ashley, and then feeling a lot of pain. Everything else was a dark picture.

“So she’s going to be ok?” I heard a familiar voice ask. I felt like I’d been laid in the same position for days. Everything ranged from aching to hurting. Trying to figure out where I was without opening my eyes, I could hear a loud, consistent beeping. Noticing that something was taped to my hand, realisation hit me. I was hospital, and the person at the end of my bed asking if I was ok was Ashley.

“She’ll be fi…” A woman’s voice was cut off, probably the beeping of my heart monitor speeding up.

“Deli? Can you hear me?” I heard also call to me, while shaking my arm. I tried to open my eyes, but it they didn’t open straight away, which made me panic even more. As the heart rate monitor began to speed up even further, the nurse started to scuffle round.

“Deli, calm down, everything’s going to be ok.” Ashley spoke into my ear, while stroking my hair. I don’t how he did it, but just from that little motion, I instantly started to calm down, and the monitor slowed.

I heard Ashley let out deep breath, as I slowly opened my eyes. The light was extremely bright, making me squint a little while my eyes got use to the brightness. I turned to look at Ash, who was just looking at me smiling in relief.

“Hey.” His face lighting up, my face returning his smile.

“What happened?” I asked, slightly worried that my body had completely fallen apart.

“Your ribs weren’t bandaged right, they were putting too much pressure on them, so…erm….well they snapped.” He explained, looking sympathetic. I didn’t know what to say I just stared at him in disbelief.

“But….I’m going to be ok, right?” I asked, starting to panic again. The heart monitor giving away my silent screams.

“Yes, you’ll be fine, but you’ll just be in a cast for a few weeks.” Ash said quickly, his eyes darting between me and the monitor.

“They said you can go home today, IF, you can calm down and are able to walk.” He pointed out. How he knew that I wanted to go home I didn’t know, but I was glad that I could go, well hopefully.

The nurse that had been standing quietly behind my monitor, finally turned to face us.

“We could try walking now if you would like?” She smiled, looking hopeful. For what, I don’t know. I nodded eagerly in reply, making Ash chuckle under his breath.

The nurse stood to the side, while Ash helped me to sit up. This guy really is amazing, staying with me through all this, even if he only just knew my name. I stared at the bulge under my shirt from the cast.

“Are you ready?” Ash said, looking apprehensive. Making me feel so fragile. I hated it when that happened, I didn’t like being the weak one, and I wasn’t about to let some shitty cast get in the way. I nodded stubbornly, held onto his arm, and hoisted myself out of the bed. I landed firmly on my feet, and stood up straight. I didn’t lean on Ash’s arm, afraid that I’d weigh on him too much.

The nurse stood in front of me, back turned, and walked 5 steps ahead. She pivoted where she’s stopped.

“If you can walk to here with no problem, then I’ll sign your papers to go home.” She said smiling, excited. She seemed more built up about this than me.

I took a deep breath, letting go of Ash’s arm and walked to the nurse. I shocked myself that I did it without a hitch. I turned round to smile at Ash, who just quickly pecked my lips and pulled me into a hug.

The nurse jumped and clapped on the spot, and turned to leave the room, before quickly returning with a clipboard, and some pills.

“Right Miss Silvings, you can go home. I’ve signed your papers, and these are some pain-killers. Take 2 every four hours, and you’ll be fine. Any more problems come back and see me.” The nurse said, grinning from ear to ear. Handing me the pills, she waved bye and left the room.

“Don’t ever scare me like that again.” Ash said spinning me to face him. I don’t care how long I’ve known him, I love him.

“Sorry.” I said, wrapping my arms around his neck.

“C’mon, let’s get you home.” He spoke in my hair.

***************

Ash had dropped my off, and said that he would come back later, because he had some things to do. I feel like I’ve known his for a lot longer than I have. He makes me smile so much, and whenever he strokes my hair, I instantly feel safe and calm, like nothing could touch me. When I kiss him, everything disappears; it’s just me and him.

I cursed myself for acting like some love struck teenager with her first boyfriend. Heck I didn’t even know if we were actually going out. I was too scared to ask him if we were or not, mainly because I was terrified he’d say no. This is what happened with the last boy I liked, I fell head over heels for him, but after 2 weeks he turned round and said I was just a friend with benefits, even though we’d only kissed. After that I said I’d stay away from boys from now on. Ashley had completely crushed that promise.

I’d been laid on my bed just staring at the ceiling, when a soft knock came on the door.

“Hmmm?” Not looking who came through the door.

“There’s a few boys here to see you.” My mum said sticking her head round the door.

“And they have presents.” She said giving me a funny look.

I sat up, leaning against my bed-head. The jocks that had caused me all this pain, shuffled into my room. They looked worse than I did. What the hell happened to them? A thought niggled at the back of my mind, but I ignored it.

“Can I help you?” I asked, extremely confused.

“We…um….we came to apologise.” The main guy said, trying not to meet my eyes.

“Erm ok?” I said, completely lost now. After I said that, he looked up hopeful, and smiled.

“We shouldn’t have hit you, hell we shouldn’t have been rude to you. We’re really sorry, and we hope you like these.” He said, three of the five, sticking their arms out with presents in them.

“You don’t have to give me presents. I accept your apology; you don’t need to do this.” I said. I didn’t really accept, but I was too much of a pushover.

“We want to.” They laid the presents on the end of my bed, gave me quick hugs, and left, closing the door behind. Ok I love presents. Making sure they’d completely left, I began opening the presents. They weren’t anything big. They’d given me a box of chocolates, a punk Hello Kitty teddy, and a star necklace.

Maybe living here wouldn’t be so bad after all. I didn’t particularly like necklaces, maybe Ash would like it. I’ll ask him when I see him next.