Stand A Little Too Tall, Say A Little Too Much

“…it’s nothing major but the knife was inserted quite deep which means that it’s going to take a few months or so to heal.”

My heart pieced itself back together a bit and I managed to choke out a few words.
“What w-was up with h-his surgery?” A tear fell down my face as I stammered out my words. One of the doctors left the figure and sat me down on the chair beside the bed.
“Alex had an allergic reaction to the anaesthetic which has caused problems with the wound on his back.”
“Is h-he going to be o-okay?”
“He’s going to be fine. There’s no need to worry. The allergic reaction has caused the wound to bleed a bit more than usual so Alex has been prescribed with some antibiotics to take for the next 2 weeks.”
“I’ll make sure he takes them. Thankyou so much.” More tears flowed down my face and I got out my seat and put my hand on Alex’s.
“He’s due to wake up any minute. We’ll leave you to it. We’ll be outside at reception, please inform us when he’s fully awake, thankyou.”
I nodded and they walked out and closed the door behind them. I heard Chloe’s alarmed voice distinctly and considered walking out the room and telling her about what the doctor’s had said but I decided to stay with Alex. He was more important right now.

I drifted back into my deep thoughts and daydreamed a scene with Alex. He held my hand whilst we walked through a beautiful park with a dazzling lake situated in the middle of it. He subtly swept me off my feet and carried me over to the lakeside and laid me down on the ground. He had a habit of doing this, not that I minded. He sat down beside me on the grass and I shuffled up into his arms. I started to shiver and he wrapped his arms around me and kissed the top of my head.
“I’d take my jumper off but I’m too cosy.” He chuckled and smiled down at me with his chocolate brown eyes.
“It’s okay. I love just being in your arms.” I looked up and he started to blush. Alex’s face made my heart melt; his cute dimples and his heart-warming smile was enough to make my legs feel like jelly. It was a good job that I was mostly in his arms when my legs felt as if they would collapse or Alex could seriously tease me for hours on end about the matter.

A shuffle from the hospital bed disturbed my thoughts and I saw that Alex was slowly awakening. He yawned and then winced as the pain kicked in. I squeezed his hand gently and his face shot towards me.
“Justine?”
“Yes?”
“Is that you?”
“Of course it is, Alex. How’re you feeling?”
“I feel so sore. My back really hurts and I feel dizzy. How long was I in theatre for?”
“I’m not sure. I went outside for a bit just after the doctors wheeled you in and then I phoned Chloe and we had a big phone call and then she came with Layna and Ellie to give me some company whilst you were in and then Chloe and I came back up to the ward and you were already in here.”
“Oh. I’m so glad I’m out. I had another crazy dream.” He shook his head as if he wanted to get rid of the memory immediately.
“I daydreamed about you, aha. We were walking through a park and you carried me to the lake. It was so vivid though, probably because of that night when we were at that lake.”
“Justine?”
“Yeah?”
“I still mean that promise. I’m going to take you out. I don’t care where.”
“Aw, you really don’t have to, Alex. It should be me taking you out right now.” I winked at him and pushed myself up onto the bed. Alex shuffled over and patted the space he’d just created.
“Come sit down, you muppet.”
“I’m not a muppet.” I refused to move and looked away playfully. I felt a shuffle and continued to stay in my position. Alex wrapped his arms around my waist and moved the upper half of my body so that I was lying down on the bottom half of the bed. He put his hands to mine and then looked at me with his puppy dog look. I couldn’t resist his perfect, sparkling eyes and finally gave in.
“You win.” I looked up to his face and he smiled. I shuffled up against him and put my head to his chest. Alex moved from his sitting position and lay down slightly on the bed. He looked me in the eyes and then moved closer towards my face. I pulled away and he rolled his eyes.
“Way to ruin a moment.” He smiled at me.
“We’ve got plenty of them to come so I’m sure one doesn’t matter.” I winked.
“Pssh, every moment counts. Including this one.” He leant forward and pressed his lips lightly onto mine. I brought my hand up to the back of his head and gently moved my fingers down from his hairline to the beginning of his spine and he shivered slightly. Alex cupped his hands under my chin and bit my lip slightly. I managed to whisper a quiet “oww” and he pulled away.
“Sorry, did that hur-”
“Shut it, Gaskarth.” I put my lips to his just as he was about to eye me up for revenge.
We ended up staying in each others arms for what seemed hours on end when a nurse walked in and interrupted us.
“Hiya. Are you Alex Gaskarth?”
“Yeah.” He replied in his husky voice. It sent me crazy.
“How are you feeling now? The doctors would like a word when you’re not too busy,” she looked at me and then focused back on Alex.
“I’m feeling a lot better. Sure, just give us a minute.”
“Okay. I’ll send the doctors in now.” She closed the door behind her and strutted off down the corridor. I locked my hand in Alex’s and he immediately started to play with my fingers. I gently moved so my knees were either side of Alex’s legs and I pretended to be a macho man.
“Ha, I’m strong than you, Gaskarth.”
“Pssh. No you’re not.”
“Erm, yes. I am.” I brought both my arms to my shoulders and pretended to pump my muscles.
“No you’re not. Look at mine!” he pumped his muscles and clearly he was the winner.
“Fine, you win but I bet you can’t beat me in a game of thumb war!” I teased.
“Bring it on!”
I leaned over on Alex and grabbed his hand and positioned it next to mine and rested my thumb on top of my fist.
“1. 2. 3. 4. I declare a thumb war.” We both chanted in unison.
I tried my hardest to stop my thumb from slipping under Alex’s and managed to successfully trap his thumb under mine.
“Gotcha. 1. 2-”
“And his thumb is out! Round 2, here he goes. Thumb goes in for attack and he slams down…” Alex narrating made everything better. Just hearing his voice made me feel immediately happy. Unfortunately, Alex caught my thumb whilst I was distracted by his voice and by the time I realised, the countdown to zero was over.
“Ha. I win. You lose.” He taunted.
“I’m going to win. Round 2!”
We did another round and I managed somehow to win.
“Must have been my brilliant tactics.” I beamed.
“Pssh. I call for a round 3.”
“Fine. We’ll see who’s the real deal.”
Just as we started to determine who was the overall winner of our thumb war, the door swung open and a doctor came flying in. I spun around, looked at the doorway and saw the doctor staring at me. I turned back to Alex and returned back to my sitting position at the end of the bed and felt my cheeks burning up.
“Hiya, Alex. We’ve come to tell you basically about your wound.”
“Okay.”
“Basically, we’ve stitched the wound up and it should heal within a few months or so. Also, there was a problem during surgery. You had an allergic reaction to the anaesthetic we gave you which has caused the wound to bleed more than normal so we’ve prescribed you with a 2 week course of antibiotics to take everyday.”
“Thankyou. Um, when am I being discharged?”
“In around 10 to 15 minutes. We just need to check your wound and you need to fill out some paperwork and then we can let you go.”
“Okay. Do you wanna check the wound now or…?”
“Yes please.” The doctor looked over at me and asked me to leave and close the door behind. I nodded, smiled at Alex and walked out. Chloe immediately jumped out of her seat and flew over to me.
“Are you okay? Is Alex alright?”
“Yeah, we’re both fine. They’re just checking over the wound now and then he’ll be released.”
“That’s good. Have you told your mum by the way?”
“No not yet, why?”
“She rang me off your house phone and I told her you’d ring her as soon as you could.”
“What exactly did she say?”
“She wondered where you were and when you were going to return home. I told her that you were busy at the moment with an issue and that you’d call her as soon as you can.”
“I may as well ring her whilst the doctors are checking Alex’s injury out. I’m just gonna pop outside for a second. If Alex comes out, tell him I’ll be back in a minute.”
“Sure. See ya in a minute.”

I walked outside into the fresh air and dialled in Mum’s number. The call connected and her voice sounded concerned.
“Justine? Where are you?”
“Hiya Mum. I’m at the hospita-”
“What’re you doing there, Justine?!”
“It’s nothing to do with me. Well, it kind of is and isn’t. Could you possibly come and pick me and Alex up from the hospital please?”
“I don’t know Justine. I have no idea if the car has any fuel…”
“Mum. I’ll explain it when you get here, but Alex was stabbed earlier and there’s no way he’s walking all the way home. Could you please do me a massive favour for once?”
“Fine. I’ll be there in 10 minutes.”
“Thankyou.” I hung up and made my way back upstairs to Alex’s room. I saw him sitting on one of the chairs beside Chloe and he smiled as soon as he noticed me walking up the stairs. Alex walked over and kissed my head.
“Hello beautiful.”
“Why hello. Fancy seeing you here.”
“Indeed! Erm, I’ve been on the phone to Mum and she’s coming to pick us up.” I moved my hands into his.
“Does she know about you and me?”
“No, not yet. I might tell her when she gets here or something though.”
“It’s fine with me. My mom kinda gathers that there’s something going on in my life, haha.”
“Aw haha. Right, we must go or she’ll throw a fit at me for being late.”
“Come on then, let’s go.”
Chloe followed closely behind Alex and once we’d gotten down to the bottom floor, Mum was outside in the car.
Chloe, Alex and I were getting closer to the exit and we all paused once we were about halfway. Alex locked his hand into mine and whispered in my ear, “you ready for this?”
I gulped, nodded and slowly we proceeded towards the hospital exit.