Just a Girl

The gas station’s blinding light came into sight and I sighed in relief. It was cold, even with Zeke’s warm arm around me. We walked through the doors and the heat made me feel so much better.

We got our coffee and left the comfort of the warm building, embarking on our journey back to the hospital.

I took a sip of coffee and it scalded my tongue. I immediately spit it out.

“Careful, the coffee is hot.” Zeke jokingly warned me.

“Now you tell me.” I grumbled.

“Well, I didn’t think I had to. The cup even says ‘Warning: Hot liquids.’”

“That sounds gross.”

“Why?”

“It makes it sound like pee.” I said.

“I never thought of that.” He chuckled.

“Well I did.”

“Obviously.”

A violent shiver shook my whole body.

“I-I’m th-thinking we should h-have brought the c-c-car.”

“Well I would say the coffee would warm you up, but it’s too hot to drink.” Zeke said, concerned. I pulled my hood up over my head and another violent shiver wracked through my size 12 frame.

“Can we j-just walk fas-faster?” I asked.

“Sure.” Zeke said, grabbing my frozen hand in his warm, solid one and dragging me forward and a quick pace. I could feel my hand start to thaw already.

“Th-thanks.” I said.

We made our way back to the hospital in less time than it took us to get to the gas station. We entered the hospital and the warm air welcomed my frozen body inside and Zeke let go of my hand to place his arm around my shoulder once more. We walked into the waiting room to find Mindy still sound asleep as well as Andrew’s mom passed out on the arm chair that I once occupied.

Zeke and I took the four-coushin couch that faced the two chairs.

“Are you warming up?” Zeke asked.

“A little bit.” I said. “My teeth aren’t chattering anymore.”

“That’s good.” Zeke took off his zip up sweatshirt and handed it to me. “Take your sweatshirt off and put mine on. Mine will be warmer from my body heat and the closer to your skin it is, the better.” I nodded and did as he said, zipping his sweatshirt up halfway so it would close more heat in, but it wasn’t strangling me. As soon as the fabric touched my skin it felt like the rest of my body was starting to thaw.

“I feel a million times better, thanks.”

“No problem.”

“Now I feel kind of tired.” I admitted.

“Aw, I thought we were going to pull an all-nighter together.” Zeke pouted.

“It’s okay, I’ll just drink some coffee, I’ll be fine.”

“Yay!” Zeke whisper yelled.

I took my coffee of the table and took a sip, this time the warm liquid rushed down my throat instead of burning my tongue.

“I hope Andrew is okay.” I blurted out.

“I’m sure he is.”

“But you didn’t see him before. He had a pool of blood coming from his head.” I argued, tears developing in my eyes.

“But Andrew is a tough dude.”

“I know.” I said wiping the tears from my eyes with the sleeve of Zeke’s sweatshirt that was way too big for me.

Zeke positioned himself on the couch so his back was against the arm of it and his feet were outstretched and touching my leg on the other side of the couch. I turned to him wondering what he was doing and motioned for me to come sit in between his legs.

I tiredly slid in between them, feeling slightly awkward, until I had gone as far as I could go. Zeke wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me so my back was again his chest. This position was actually pretty comfortable. I relaxed in his arms I rested my head back on his shoulder.

“He’ll be fine.” Zeke whispered in my ear.

I felt my eyes slip shut and my body faded into the darkness, falling into a disturbed sleep.

I woke up the next morning and Zeke still had his arms wrapped around me. I sat up trying to wake Zeke up, but he didn’t budge. I got up off the couch and started to shake him, but he was completely stiff, and freezing. Zeke was always so warm. What was going on?

I turned to Andrew’s mom and Mindy to see if they were still asleep and they appeared to be, but upon closer inspection I realized that they were just as stiff and cold as Zeke.

I wandered around the hospital looking for a nurse or doctor, but the hospital was completely deserted.

Realization swept over me and I ran back to the waiting room, not wanting to believe my loved ones were dead. All the signs pointed to death though.

I sunk to the ground and pulled at my hair nervously. I was trying to hold myself together by telling myself this wasn’t happening, but my emotions took over and I cried my eyes out.

Suddenly everything started to fade away and I felt myself being shaken.

I opened my eyes again and came face to face with Zeke’s bright blue eyes.

Wait, was that all a dream? It had to have been…

“What’s wrong?” Zeke asked.

I swallowed, trying to find my voice. “Really bad dream.” I replied.

“You wanna talk about it? You were shaking hysterically in your sleep.” He said. “I didn’t think that was normal, so I woke you up.”

“I’d rather not talk about it.” I said.

“Alright, I won’t push you.” He said.

“What time is it?” I asked.

He took his phone out of his pocket and looked at it. “4 a.m.”

I groaned. “Sorry for falling asleep on you, literally.” I apologized.

“No, it’s fine. I got a little bit of sleep myself.”

I sat up for a second to take a sip of my now cold, and yet equally as delicious, coffee. And then I settled back into Zeke.

I asked an awkward question, but for some reason I felt the need to ask it.

“Is this awkward for you?” I asked.

“What?”

“Our…position.”

“No, is it to you? I’m not trying to make you uncomfortable, I was just trying to comfort you. You can tell me if you’re uncomfortable.”

“No, you’re warm.” I said.

“And you’re still cold.” He said.

“I need you’re warmth.” I concluded.

We stayed like that for another few hours chatting about random things and making up for lost time. Zeke and I snuggled, in a friendly way of course.

The sun came up, and Andrew’s mom and Mindy woke up.

Mindy sat up and stretched. When she saw us, she raised an eyebrow at our position.

“What?” I asked. “It was cold last night.”

“Yeah, sure.” Mindy said, skeptically.

“Should we try to visit Andrew now?” I asked everyone.

Everyone nodded and I pulled myself out of Zeke’s comforting, warm arms, getting up.

We walked down the hall, finding the room that had his name on it, and entered. He was up and watching television. Mindy and his mom charged at him, like fat people charge at an all you can eat buffet.

“Andrew!” Mindy squealed, throwing her arms around him.

Andrew’s mom went to his other side and attacked him as well.

“Hi.” I said, waving at him. I stayed at a distance, not wanting to overwhelm him.

“How are you doing, buddy?” Zeke asked, staying at my side, probably with my same intentions.

“I’ve been better.” Andrew said in a weak voice.

“I’m so glad you’re okay!” Andrew’s mom sobbed. “They wouldn’t let me in to see you last night.”

“So we stayed the night in the waiting room.” Mindy finished for her.

“You guys…” Andrew started.

“It was actually pretty fun.” Zeke chuckled.

“And why is that?” I questioned.

“Because, I got to hold you.” He explained.

Everyone stared at me and I blushed.

“They were cuddling when we got up this morning.” Mindy told Andrew.

Andrew wiggled his eyebrows at us.

“What?” I asked. “It was cold!” I reiterated.

“Right…” Andrew said, just like Mindy had.

“It wasn’t like that.” I said.

“Yeah, it really wasn’t, I just being my dude self.”

“Okay, you two.” Andrew’s mom said.

“Andrew, guess what.” Zeke said, changing the subject.

“What?” Andrew asked.

“Cara is coming with us on the ski trip.” Zeke smirked. What was that smirk for?

“Awesome, I hadn’t even thought to ask.” He turned to me. “Sorry.” He said.

“Well I’m going now.”

“Now Zeke will have someone to hang out with, because, well, you know, everyone else had a boyfriend or girlfriend.” Mindy jumped in.

“Yeah…” I said.

“Can you explain yesterday to us?” Andrew’s mom asked.

“Well, I was on my way to Veronica’s party, when a deer ran in front of my truck. I swerved to avoid it and went into a ditch. I tried to get myself out, which now that I think about it, was pretty stupid. But anyway that’s how I ended up flipping over. My head hit the roof of the car so hard that I passed out.”

“Wow.” Was all I could say.

“So you’re going to be okay by winter break for the ski lodge right?” Zeke asked.

“Should be.”