From the Vein

Chocolate eyes stared blankly at cold white walls, anything to keep his gaze from drifting back towards her. Even though she wasn’t in pain and a faint smile still clung to her lips, Logan hated to see her in this place, and it made him hurt that she had to go through all of this. She didn’t deserve it.

The chill stagnant air caused the hairs to stiffen on Logan’s arm, and his fingers tugged the sleeves of his jacket downward to his wrists. Just as the black fabric rolled midway down his forearm, Logan caught a glimpse of the trail of veins beneath his milky white skin. Networks of greenish-blue and purple vessels traversed through his wrist, upwards into his forearm until they vanished from his view, hidden beneath his flesh. His eyes darted to his girlfriend in the hospital bed, her legs bent at the knee as she flipped through the songs on her phone, her foot tapping along with the beat and her lips silently forming the words.

There was an IV embedded in her arm, pumping fresh blood into her body because her own wasn’t enough. His eyes wandered to her wrists, staring at the freeway of veins beneath her fair, translucent skin, the same superhighway of vessels that flowed through his own body.

There were just so many things that could go wrong, and Logan was grateful, even guilty at times, that he was perfectly healthy, that nothing had broken down on the body that had carried him for over twenty years.

Usually when people think of health problems, the major organs are the first to come to mind: the heart, the brain, the lungs. No one ever really thinks about the blood, the tissue that carries all of the nutrients and waste throughout their bodies, but Kandi’s life seemed to revolve around the substance.

Not only had she struggled with anemia her entire life, but she was also studying to be a hematologist.

He remembered one of the many nights she’d taken up his bed as her study post, surrounded by an assortment of textbooks, notebooks, and lecture slides as she worked to piece it all together. Logan had sat on the edge of the bed as the bedside lamp cast a soft glow against the white cotton t-shirt on her back. She glanced back at him with tired, bloodshot brown eyes and offered him a soft smile.

“Sorry I’m in your way,” she spoke lowly as she began to yawn, stretching her arms upward towards the ceiling.

“You’re fine,” he replied, raking a hand through his damp espresso locks. Silence lapsed between the two: Kandi too focused on her studies to carry on a conversation, and Logan not wanting to bother her.

There was something in the way that she looked that intrigued him, the way she constantly pushed her bangs from her face, the way her expression was so worn and tired, but her eyes still stayed glued to the page, soaking everything in.

“Kandi, why do you stress yourself out so much over this?” he asked as he leaned back into the pillows.

She sighed slightly, and for a moment her brows furrowed, as if she was trying to contemplate how to word her motivation. Her response was simple. “I just want to help people. I want to provide that same support for someone else that my doctors did for me.”

And this was the payment she received, an afternoon spent in a cold dreary hospital. Logan wished it was him with the needle in his arm instead of her, even though he knew it bothered him more than it bothered her.

Her eyes met his across the sparsely furnished room, and he could tell she could pick up on his concern.

“Come here. I feel like you’re so far away,” Kandi laughed, beckoning him over with her other hand.

Logan forced a smile as he pulled his chair closer to the bed, and though acting was his livelihood, it was difficult for him to feign comfort.

He was met by her warm smile, her effort to stay positive in every situation, and it began to wear him down. She pressed one earbud into his palm, and he obliged, lodging the bud into his ear. As the easygoing melody flowed through the wires, Logan nestled his hand underneath hers, clasping her hand in his own as his fingers seeped through the spaces in hers.

Chocolate eyes watched intently as the iron flowed through the IV and into her veins, making them both whole again.