Stand A Little Too Tall, Say A Little Too Much

The journey in the ambulance felt like it was going on forever. I couldn’t stop checking on Alex every time I didn’t see his chest moving. This boy was everything to me and if he died now, I’d end my life just so I could be with him in heaven. The abrupt stop of the ambulance took my thoughts away and all I could think about now was Alex.

I walked along with the stretcher and held his hand tight. He squeezed occasionally and I felt like my heart was going to shatter into pieces. The doctor took us to a private room and she examined Alex’s back and then walked out the room again. I turned towards the door making sure she’d gone out. Finally, we had some time alone.

“Justine?” I spun around.
“Yes, Alex?”
“I’m so sorry for leaving yo-”
“Hey, shush. It’s okay. Don’t worry. All I care about now is you. Everything else can be dealt with later.”
“I feel so battered for saying that he only stabbed me. He didn’t even lay a finger on me.”
“You’ve lost a lot of blood. That could be why.”
“True. It hurts so much. I really hope I’m all well again soon.”
“I hope you recover quickly too but just so you know, I’m coming to stay with you until you’re all better, okay?”
“But what about your education?”
“I don’t care about that Alex. I care about you. You are my life right now.”
He blushed. “You can come live with me. My mom is leaving for her cruise trip tomorrow so it’ll be fine. Are you sure you want to put up with a cripple for a few weeks?”
“Of course! Even if you are a cripple, you’re my cripple.”
I could see his face reddening even more. He was speechless.
“Do you want me to call your mum?”
“You can do. I’m not sure how she’ll take to the news though. Maybe it’s best not to tell her just yet?”
“It’s up to you. You know her best.” I smiled.
“Leave it. She’ll be fine. It won’t be as bad when she gets back anyway.”
“Fair point there.” I paused for a few seconds. “Alex?”
“Yeah?”
“I-uhm…” I couldn’t get my words out.
“What’s up?”
“I-I. I reall-” The opening of the door interrupted our conversation.
“Nurse, could you just give us 2 minutes?” She nodded, walked out and closed the door behind.
“Come on. Tell me. Is it good or bad?”
“Good obviously… it’s just hard to put all my words together. It’s gonna sound so stupid.”
“No, come on. It won’t.” He squeezed my hand.
I couldn’t tell him. I wanted to. As stupid as it sounded I really wanted him to know how much he is to me but I couldn’t find the words to structure my sentence. I lowered my face down to his and cupped my hands on his chin. I kissed his soft lips and we ended up staying like that for what felt like eternity.
A door opened and I pulled away from him.
“Sorry about that.” She looked at me and then back over at Alex. “Alex. We need to get you into surgery now.”
“Okay.” He turned towards me and tried to sit up on the bed. He winced a little but managed to shuffle up the bed.
“Come here.” He looked into my eyes. “I love you. So much. And when I get out of here and get better, I’m going to take you out. No questioning about it.” he whispered into my ear.
“But-”
“No buts. You can’t back out now.” He winked at me. He put his hands round both sides of my face and kissed my forehead and then my lips.
“I’ll be back soon. Don’t attempt to do a runner or I’ll come and get you.” He chuckled.
“I’ll be waiting here. Don’t want a mad Gaskarth on my case!” I smiled.
He squeezed my hand one more time and gave the nurse the go-ahead nod and she came over and started to wheel him out.

Now all I had to do was wait for a few hours. I decided to ring up Chloe and Layna and tell them about what had happened. Chloe didn’t know about it unless Layna had told her, but judging by Layna’s face when I left her at Kirkland’s, she was extremely worried about the pair of us. I needed to ring my Mum and tell her about the arrangements. She probably wasn’t going to be happy but hopefully she’d understand. I noted where the private cubicle was and left the room. I walked out into the fresh air and it felt good. I pulled my phone out my pocket and dialled in Chloe’s number. The duration of this call was going to be long. I sat on the bench and waited for the call to connect.
“Hello?”
“Hiya. This is Justine…”
“Justine? Are you okay? Layna told me what happened. Where are you? How’s Alex? Where’s Josh? I’m gonna kill him…”