Rocket To The Moon.

I stayed the night at the hospital again. This was becoming a bit of a regular thing, and maybe I would remember to bring a sleeping bag and some pillows next time. Tom went home at about midnight. He did offer to stay with me, but I told him that it wasn’t necessary. After a very rough night’s sleep, I was woken by the sound of my cell phone ringing in my pocket.
“Hello?”
“Hero! Is everything okay!? How is he?” it was Gracie, and I knew immediately that she was talking about Rocket.
“He has some pretty nasty burns, but he’ll be fine.” I replied.
“Oh, that’s such a relief.” she said “I tried to call your house phone last night, but Trevor said that you’d spent the night at the hospital again?”
“Yep.”
“Wow, you’re so dedicated. That’s admirable.” she stated.
“Not really…just stupid.” I replied. I shrugged, even though she couldn’t see me. I felt that the shrug was beneficial for my own clarity for some reason.
“No wonder everyone loves you so much. You’re so loyal, and then you’re always really modest about it. I really missed having you around when you moved.” she admitted.
“How long are you staying here for anyway?” I asked.
“I don’t know…” she replied “I mean, I’ve become really good friends with Sean and his family seem to like me a lot too, they said I can stay for as long as I want. I doubt my parents have even noticed I’ve gone.”
“That’s awesome, maybe you can secretly move here without anyone realising.” I suggested as a joke.
“Yeah.” she laughed “I could gradually start bringing my belongings one by one to Sean’s house.”
“Good luck with that. Hopefully he won‘t notice.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
The young nurse from yesterday walked into the waiting room and beckoned me over to where Rocket was. I told Gracie that I had to go, and walked over to her.
“You can visit him again now.” she said.
“Thanks.” I replied.
“I hope you don’t mind me asking…” she began “But are the two of you, like, an item?”
“Umm…I’m not sure. I don’t think so.” I muttered, scratching my head.
She gave me a puzzling look, and I responded with:
“It’s complicated.”

She then allowed me into the ward and I found Rocket as he was a lot of the time, laying on his back and staring at the ceiling. He looked tired.
“Hey.” I said as I walked over to him. He sat up, and acknowledged me with a faint nod of his head.
“You look tired.” I stated.
“So do you.” he replied.
“Hospital couches aren’t exactly the comfiest.” I shrugged.
“You stayed the night here?”
“Of course.”
He rolled his eyes “That really wasn’t necessary. You’ve known since yesterday that I’m fine, so why not just go home?”
“I don’t know…I guess I just didn’t want to.” I said truthfully.
He sighed “Be at home tonight, please.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want you spending your life here!”
Now it was my turn to sigh “Fine, I’ll go home later.”
He nodded, satisfied “Oh, and, Hero…”
“Yes?”
“I’m sorry about last night. It was…awkward…”
He was referring to the kiss. I knew this right away. He looked down and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly with his hand.
“Don’t worry about it.” I muttered.
He nodded.
There was a momentary awkwardness between the two of us. I didn’t like it, therefore I decided to break it.
“So, Rocket, I was talking to Tom last night…” I said, intentionally changing the subject “Apparently you had quite an interesting childhood.”
Rocket furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
“He told me about Disney World.”
His expression warmed slightly.
“And Sea World. And about how you almost got thrown out for screaming at the animals.” I said with a smirk extending across my mouth.
“Nothing but the truth…” he shrugged, also smirking slightly.
“He also told me about a certain werewolf costume one Halloween…”
“Oh no, he didn’t!” Rocket’s smirk vanished and his expression changed to one of an amusing type of angered shock.
I started to laugh “Oh yes, he did.”
“I’ll fucking kill that guy one day…” he muttered.
“Easy, Voldemort!” I warned.
“Don’t even start…”
“Tom also told me about the time you saved that baby bird.” I said quietly, watching his facial expression. It softened a lot and the anger disappeared, however, that lingering sadness crept back into his azure eyes. The one that I had noticed the first time I had ever come into contact with him. It pained me to see it. In truth, it was always the first thing I noticed every time I looked at him.
“That proves that you still haven’t changed entirely.” I continued “Even if you do have a totally different personality, that one thing is still there. Your determination to always help others.”
He didn’t reply, though he looked as though he was deep in thought.
“I really admire you, you know.” I said “I’ve only just realised that though. Before, I was convinced that I hated you.”
“But you kept trying.” he added “Even I thought I was a lost cause. Your patience is incredible.”
“Thanks.” once again, I could feel the blood rushing to my cheeks. But this time, I knew why.
“You’re blushing.” he stated.
“Shit. I thought you wouldn’t notice…” I muttered, trying to conceal my scarlet complexion with my hands.
“It’s cute.” he said.
“Huh?” I wondered what he meant by that.
“Come here.” he beckoned me closer to him, and nervously, I did as I was told. He motioned as if he wanted to whisper something to me. He leant in closer, and when his lips brushed my ear I felt a jolt of excitement and apprehension rush through me. My spine tingled with nervousness.
“Last night.” he whispered “It wasn’t a fluke. That kiss, I meant it. It was genuine…but I’m scared to get close to you because I think…I know something bad will happen. So I’m asking if you’ll let me kiss you one last time now, and then we must never talk about this again. Understood?”
I gave a feeble nod, and the corner of his mouth twitched into a weak smile.
“That’s my girl.” he said, and then once again, his lips were on mine. It lasted longer this time. We lingered there, afraid of breaking apart, as if the entire world would implode on itself if we did. But it felt right.
I just didn’t want it to be the last time.
Eventually, with a lot of reluctance from myself, we pulled away from each other.
“That never happened, right?” he said.
“Right…” I replied, with a disappointed sigh. I couldn’t understand what his problem was, and I didn’t see how he could be so certain that something bad was going to happen. No one can see into the future, but his certainty scared me nonetheless. He seemed pretty convinced.
“You should go home now and get some rest.” he said.
“N-no, I think I’ll stay here a little longer…” I said slowly.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re crying.”
“What?” I gently touched my cheek with my hand to find that there were in fact tears there. I hadn’t noticed this.
“Why are you crying?” he asked.
“I…I don’t know actually…” I replied. Though I did have a vague idea.
“Is it my fault?” he asked.
“No, of course not!” I replied.
“It’s my fault, isn’t it? Shit.”
“It’s not your fault, Rocket!” I insisted.
“Well who’s fault is it then?” he asked.
“I’d tell you if I knew.” I shrugged.
“You should get some sleep.” he said.
“I got plenty of sleep.” I replied “You, on the other hand, didn’t. You look so tired.”
“I had a rough night…” he shrugged.
“Wanna talk about it?”
“Nope.”
“Well it was worth a try…” I glanced around the room searching for a distraction, for something that would allow me to change the subject. Unfortunately, the room was annoyingly empty, with only a bed and a table occupying the vast floor space. It made it seem creepily vacant and isolated. I didn’t like it at all. Luckily, something did pop up that allowed me to divert the conversation to something else, which was the sound of my cell phone ringing.
“Hello?”
I recognised the voice on the other end of the line as Madison’s, “Hero, are you at the hospital?”
“Yes, I’m with Rocket.” I replied.
“We heard about everything. How is he?”
“He’s fine. Are you coming to visit?”
“Yes. We’re just about to leave, all of us. So don’t go anywhere.”
“Alright.” I agreed.
“Can I talk to him please?” she asked.
“Sure” I passed my phone to Rocket and told him who it was. He rolled his eyes distastefully before pressing the phone to his ear.
“Hello?…Yeah…No…Yeah…I’m fine…Yeah…Yeah…Mmhmm…No, really, I’m fine…Sure, whatever…Yeah…No…Whatever…Bye” he hung up and threw my phone back at me. I only just managed to catch it.
“That sounded like a riveting conversation.” I commented, and he shot me a quick glare.
“Wow, you’re scary, Voldemort.” I said, before bursting into hysterical laughter once again.
“I really don’t see why this Voldemort thing is so funny…” he muttered.
“It just is.” I replied.
“Now you’re laughing and crying. You look like a madwoman.” he commented.
“I may be mad…but apparently I’m one of just two people on this planet who can get away with laughing at you.” I winked.
“Who’s the other person?” he asked.
“Tom, of course.”
“He can only get away with it half of the time…” Rocket stated.
“Fine then…one and a half people.” I corrected myself.
“You can’t have half a person!” Rocket scoffed.
“Pass me a huge knife and I’ll prove you wrong!” I threatened.
“Wooooah! Now you’re getting kind of intimidating.”
“ME intimidating YOU? What is this, some kind of parallel dimension?”
“Maybe. Am I even the real Rocket? Or some kind of impostor? Who knows…”
“Oh, shut up.” I giggled.
“Tell me to shut up again and I’ll destroy this planet.” he warned.
“No sweat, I’ll just move to Mars.” I shrugged.
“That’s impossible.”
“Everything is possible when you’re sitting next to an evil wizard…” I stated.
“Right, that’s it…”
Before I knew what was happening, Rocket shot up out of bed and moved towards me. I shrieked and dodged out of his way, grabbing a pencil from the table which I then waved around in front of me as if it were a wand. He started to chase me around the room, despite his injury, and I ended up cowering underneath the bed after just a couple of seconds of trying to escape him. He rolled under the bed with me and snatched the pencil from my hand, tossing it elsewhere.
“Gotcha.” he whispered. He rolled over onto his side so that he was facing me. Our noses were almost touching. I wanted to kiss him again. The urge to touch his lips with mine was almost overpowering. So much so, that I had to turn away from him.
“What are you doing? Am I too ugly to look at or something?” he joked.
“No!” quite the opposite actually…
“Hero…”
“Yes?”
“Why the fuck are we laying underneath a bed in a public hospital?” I detected quite a lot of amusement in his voice.
“Why not?” I replied “You chased me under here anyway.”
“I kinda like it.” he said “It’s cosy.”
I rolled over onto my back, and the bottom of the bed was just millimetres away from the tip of my nose, “More like claustrophobic.” I remarked.
“Things always seem more interesting when you’re here…” he said thoughtfully.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I wouldn’t be underneath a bed if you weren’t.”
“How can you be so sure?”
Rocket’s amazingly beautiful smile appeared on his face, causing the butterflies in my stomach to have panic attacks, as he pulled me into a tight embrace. It was just a hug though, purely friendly. Nothing more.
“I gotta admit, you’re fun.” he said
“Umm…thanks?” I replied with a weak smile “So, umm…I think I’m going to get out from under the bed now..” I said, sliding out from between his arms before I did anything stupid. His gaze was so overpowering, and I didn’t know how much longer I would be able to have control over my conscious actions before I randomly kissed him without realising. That would have been a disaster. He emerged from underneath the bed a few seconds after myself, and winced as he stood up straight.
“You’re injured. Why the hell are you chasing me around hospital wards and rolling under beds?” I asked.
He shrugged, “I think it was kinda dusty under there. I immediately regret my decision.”
“You’re such a goof sometimes!” I laughed.
“Am not!” he retorted.
“Yeah, you’re right, sorry. There’s nothing funny about you…”

“Dare I make another Voldemort joke? This could end badly…but I absolutely can’t resist!”

“…there’s nothing funny about you at all - you killed Harry Potter’s parents!”
“Fuck off!” he lunged at me again, just as the door swung open.

The young looking Nurse from before rushed over to Rocket looking utterly frustrated.
“How many times!? Stay. In. Bed! You’re never going to heal if you keep running around like this!” she sighed, and attempted to direct him back to the bed.
“He’s not being a bother is he?” Trevor asked as he entered the room with Madison at his side.
“Is there any way you could get him to just stay put!?” asked the Nurse, running a hand through her hair, and looking totally aggravated with him.
“Chains?” I suggested “Padlocks?”
“Shut your fucking mouth, Hero!” Rocket growled.
“Language!” Madison scolded him.
“Are you okay, Hero?” Trevor asked me.
“I’m fine.” I replied.
“Do you have any idea what happened there, sweetie? At the club?” Madison asked. Her question had made me realise that I hadn’t even thought about this. I had no idea what had caused the building to catch on fire, nor what caused the roof to cave in, nor what made those sudden loud noises. I shook my head.
“Apparently it was a bomb.” Trevor said.
“What!? A bomb!? Who the hell wants to bomb some insignificant Battle of the Bands contest!?” I asked with disbelief.
“Apparently one of the owners of the venue got caught up in some drug related issues…” Madison explained.
“So they decided to put hundred’s of lives at risk just for some money?” I asked.
“Some people are like that, Hero. They have no regard for other humans.” Madison said sadly “But anyway, your parents are coming shortly and they’re going to take you home. We’re going to stay with Rocket whilst he’s being treated and come home tonight.”
“But what if I want to stay?” I questioned.
“We don’t want you spending any more time here, honey.” Trevor said “We’re very worried about you.”
I sighed. A warm bath in my own home did sound appealing at that moment. And I was pretty sure that Rocket wouldn’t spontaneously combust the moment I walked out of the hospital.
“Okay, I’ll go home.” I sighed. I looked over at Rocket, who appeared to be closely studying a crack in the wall without paying the slightest bit of attention to our conversation. His perfect face was expressionless. His blue eyes were brighter than ever.
“Your friends kept calling by the way.” Trevor said “Gracie called…and also someone called Christa…and a boy called Adam.”
“Okay, thanks for letting me know.” I said.
“Maybe you could all get together and go swimming or something?” Madison suggested “I would propose you go to the beach, but it’s supposed to rain later.”
“That’s a good idea. I’ll give them a call when I get home.” I replied, rather unenthusiastically. Trevor pulled back his shirt sleeve and examined his watch.
“Helen should be getting here any minute now. Do you want me to wait outside with you, Hero?” he asked.
“No, it’s okay, I’ll wait by myself. You stay here with Rocket and Madison.” I replied.
“Alright. Be safe. See you tonight.” Trevor gave me a quick hug.
“See you later, Hero.” Madison did the same.
I looked over at the beautiful boy in the corner of the room, whose eyes were no longer on the crack in the wall, but on me.
“Bye, Rocket.” I said quietly, not quite knowing what to expect as a reaction from him. Our eyes locked, and we stared into each other for a few seconds, until eventually, he broke his gaze and looked away.
“Bye, Hero…” he mumbled. My gaze lingered on him for a little while longer, before I turned and left the room.